Some restaurants chase trends. Carmine’s has never needed to. Forty-one years after Carmine Smeraldo opened the original Pioneer Square location in 1984, the institution he built is still drawing loyal regulars and first-time visitors alike, now from a new downtown address inside the US Bank Center on 5th Avenue.
We sat down with General Manager Joel at Carmine’s on 5th to talk through one of the restaurant’s most enduring dishes, the rigatoni Bolognese. Made with a combination of veal, pork, and beef, finished with a touch of wine and fresh grated Parmesan, it is the kind of dish that explains why people keep coming back. Simple in concept, exacting in execution, and deeply satisfying in the way that only a long-practised recipe can be.
The new downtown location has been open for about six months and has already developed its own character. Ask about the Chandelier Room while you are there. It has quietly become a guest favourite, the kind of private space that turns a dinner into something more memorable.
From Pioneer Square to Bellevue to now the heart of downtown Seattle, Carmine’s has expanded without losing the identity that made it worth expanding. In a dining scene that reinvents itself constantly, there is something reassuring about a restaurant that simply keeps doing what it has always done well.
Carmine’s on 5th is located in the US Bank Center in downtown Seattle.
