SEAReview
San Fermo
Included In
Sometimes, friends just know what you require in the moment. They make up an “emergency” to rescue you from a bad date, they laugh at your jokes when they know you need a win, and take the reins planning your birthday party—cake and all. Sure, maybe they accidentally leave the cake in their car for two hours, which happens to be made of ice cream. The cake, not the car.
San Fermo is exactly like that pal who anticipates your needs and just acts on them. Only in this case, what you need is a reliable venue for a date night. And hopefully not a situation where you’d need that pal to text you about a rare fossil they found in your backyard that requires you to skip dinner and report to the Burke Museum post-haste.
Ambience is (almost) everything with this Italian restaurant on Ballard Ave. It’s located inside the rickety shell of a historic home, preserved since the 1800s and sandwiched on the main drag among the art galleries, boutiques, and Patagonia store. Like any good old colonial home, there’s a vine-covered, tree-shaded wraparound porch—and it’s exactly where you should be eating appetizers and drinking wine. On the inside, it has a dimly-lit, shiplap-enveloped swagger that’s perfect for a romantic outing over smoky brown liquor cocktails and big bowls of pasta.
photo credit: Chona Kasinger
Speaking of, the homemade pastas are all worthy of your time and stomach real estate, from the spaghetti bolognese to a guanciale-studded carbonara that’s easily one of the best we’ve ever had. The farinata is another of our favorite things here—it’s a grilled chickpea flatbread served with cold tomato confit, olive oil, and spreadable cheese that tastes like burrata and sunshine.
The only drawback is, just like your buddy who always means well, some of the dishes occasionally need adjustments. The spaghetti in the bolognese is typically overcooked, the caesar salad could use less cheese and more black pepper, and when it’s on the menu, the creamy, bacony bucatini alla gricia has to be consumed at warp speed to avoid the fat separating from the rest of the sauce. That said, it tastes so good that you’re probably going to want to eat it quickly anyway.
On a night when the restaurant-experience gods are smiling down upon you, San Fermo easily is one of the best date night spots in Seattle. The setting—in the thick of the Ballard Ave. hustle on the outside while serene on the inside—is perfect, and the upscale Italian food is meant for matchmaking. The sum of San Fermo’s parts is so great that we easily forgive the minor mistakes.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Suzi Pratt
Farinata
photo credit: Suzi Pratt
Caesar Salad
photo credit: Suzi Pratt