Upgrading the landmark's culinary performance is a major goal of the restaurant makeover, Space Needle spokesman Dan Miller said. A new head chef, Dan Thiessen, was hired several months ago to oversee the transition and run the kitchen at SkyCity. Thiessen, a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York, has worked as a local restaurant consultant and an instructor in the culinary arts program at the Art Institute of Seattle. Thiessen's menus for SkyCity will focus on regional ingredients from the Pacific Northwest, with Asian influences adding flavor accents. The restaurant is opening for lunch and dinner daily and for weekend brunch, with weekday breakfast service envisioned in the future.
Prices rank among the highest in town.
The monument opened in 1962 for the Seattle World's Fair. Bartalameo's Ristorante in Pioneer Square went out of business last month, less than a year after it opened in the below-ground space long occupied by Umberto's Ristorante.