Benson family serves up its individual specialties

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Food

Benson family serves up its individual specialties

Saturday, March 11, 2000

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER RESTAURANT CRITIC

About two years ago her husband, Stephen, came home from his job as sous chef and pastry chef at Palisade in Seattle, and she told him, "Honey, it's time to open our own restaurant."

After all, Stephen Benson had cooked in restaurants up and down the West Coast for 30 years. So the couple recruited Stephen's brother, Jeff, who quit his engineering job in San Diego to join them in the venture. In February 1999, they opened Benson's Restaurant at one end of Poulsbo's boutique row along Front Street.

"Whenever we were coming down into Poulsbo, we just loved the feeling of the small town," Kelly Benson said. She and Stephen had passed through often en route to visit his parents near Sequim. "We loved the shops and galleries."

Kelly Benson is an artist, and her vivid paintings of oversized flowers add splashes of color to the off-white walls in the carpeted dining room. It's a soft-pedaled space where indirect lighting supplements the candlelight on white linen, and bluesy jazz on the sound system adds a soothing effect. Jeff Benson greets dinner guests at the door and oversees the front of the house.

Stephen Benson, of course, runs the kitchen. He skillfully executes a dinner menu that's modest in scope and short on fussiness, balancing grilled steaks, chops and seafood with a few pasta and risotto dishes.

NEIGHBORHOOD DINING
Benson's Restaurant. 18820 Front St., Poulsbo; 360-697-3449. Lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, dinner 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, brunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday. Beer and wine. All major credit cards. No smoking. Entrance requires navigating steps, but ramp to be installed.

But before those main courses come the appetizers, including a seafood chowder ($4.75) that ranks with the best on either side of Puget Sound. The broth is lush and creamy but not gloppy, and it teems with little shrimp, bits of crab and clam, skin-on potato chunks, corn and other veggies, all making for a wonderfully rewarding bowlful.

Benson's crab cakes ($8.95) also hold their own and then some in the crowded local field. Sauteed till gently crisp, they're liberally threaded with meat and jazzed up with a bracing Cajun remoulade. And his starter of portabella mushrooms ($7.95) is a standout, the earthy slices of fungi sauteed to a juicy turn in olive oil, then drizzled with a winey, herby, buttery, balsamic-vinegary sauce; lightly grilled crescents of polenta play the foil.

Black tiger prawns, mushrooms and angel hair pasta shimmer in a well-tuned garlic cream sauce as a main course ($16.50) that steers clear of overkill. For the requisite salmon entree ($15.95), Benson deftly grills a fresh fillet and bastes it with a harmonious lime butter laced with cilantro. The nightly specials might include a roast cornish game hen with a honey-mustard-sage sauce, leek mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables ($15.95).

The moderately sized wine list shows some care in the selection of the bottles, most of them from West Coast producers. Only a couple bottles break the $40 barrier.

Stephen Benson brings his pastry-chef experience into play with the desserts. Maple infuses the creme brulee ($4.25), while the white-chocolate cheesecake ($5.50) comes with a tart lingonberry sauce that pays homage to Poulsbo's Norwegian heritage. The chocolate caramel walnut torte ($5.50) tastes as good as it sounds and gets rich reinforcement from its sauce of melted vanilla ice cream, cinnamon, brandy and fresh egg yolk.

P-I restaurant critic Gregory Roberts can be reached at 206-448-8356 or gregoryroberts@seattle-pi.com