Reviews
July, 2004 - Sunset Magazine"One of the Ten Best Barbeque Restaurants in the West"
Having made the transition from First Avenue honky-tonk to first-rate barbecue restaurant, this downtown rib mecca has lost none of it's authenticity or charm. And the bar at the back hops. Pork, beef brisket and chicken come from the pit; dry rubbed and slow-smoked with applewood and hickory and served with all the fixin's; Texas-style beans, slaw, cornbread and even hush puppies.
May, 2004 - Evalu8
What to expect? Well, it's a boisterous see-and-be-seen, hang-out-with-the-gang environment, crowded, noisy, surprisingly not-smoky (although smoking is allowed in the bar area). Chilies in vinegar add to the table-top atmosphere; but watch out, because they are fiery hot! Décor is like a pair of well worn-in, but well-tended comfy old pair of tan leather boots. Tables have acid-washed steel tops meant to look like zinc, but they're actually a clever, healthier version, designed to wipe up easily and still retain their funky, mildly distressed look. There are wonderful murals on the wall (frontier theme, giant bulls), and a great mix of country-rock and country-and-western piped in all around you.
January, 2003 - Bon Appetit
BEST BARBECUE: In the hot 'hood of Belltown, Frontier Room stands out as a mod-yet-home-style barbecue joint that serves outstanding ribs-as well as (surprise!) a dynamite martini.
November, 2002 - InStyle
The bar at this institution, a barbecue joint that is enjoying a recent Western-chic facelift, is the smokin' place for trendsters. Despite it's white-hot status, it remains a relaxed alternative to the more uptight spots in the yuppified Belltown neighborhood.
August, 2002 - Seattle PI
Imagine, if you can: spurs, brandings, piercings, chaps, rawhide -- no, wait, that's Capitol Hill! Actually, today's patrons of the Frontier Room look pretty much like the rest of this hip neighborhood's clientele.
Which still makes them seriously different from most Frontier Room patrons of yore. That was a group generally accustomed to cheap food, and committed to cheap drink -- and plenty of it.
June, 2002 - Seattle Times / Northwest Living
SAY WHAT YOU will about American food. Say it's a mishmash of other cuisines from other times and places. It's a hodgepodge of regional styles &mdash Southern, Southwest, Northwest &mdash a jarring juxtaposition of Down Home Country and Big City Swank. Say, as some others have said with conviction, that there is no such thing as American food.
I say hogwash. Consider cornbread, hickory-smoked bacon, sliced tomatoes and biscuits with white gravy. Reflect on grilled salmon or boiled crab, corn on the cob or strawberry shortcake. If none of that convinces you, I say barbecue.
When longtime Seattle restaurateur Robert Eickhof and Chef Paul Michael set out to reinvent the grungy Frontier Room in Seattle's restaurant-ridden Belltown this spring, they wanted to serve real American food, and barbecue was the theme.