Another Alki closure: Marée Bistro announces it’ll close at month’s end

After a little over two years, Marée Bistro and Bar (2820 Alki SW) says it’s closing in eight days. Thanks to Travis, a patron who is saddened by the news, for forwarding the restaurant’s e-mail announcement:

With heavy hearts, we are announcing the closure of Marée Bistro. Our last night of service will be March 31st. We want to thank everyone for all their support over the last 2+ years. West Seattle is truly an amazing community!! Please come in and see us off in the next week. Enjoy some food and libations and say goodbye to Marée with all of us!

As a few of you know, we cook all our dishes on induction and do not have a hood. Through growth of the business, we feel that we cannot sustain, expand or elevate the quality of Chef Andy’s cuisine. We hope to serve and see all of you again in another venture.

Andy & Megan

Marée opened in February 2016 in the space that had been vacated two months earlier by Cassis, where Marée co-proprietor Andy Dekle had been executive chef. Before the two restaurants, the space had housed the Alki Arts gallery/event venue for three years.

KD March 23, 2018 (1:48 pm)

Noooooooo!! Wonderful place and people. Not replicated very much and was a joy to go to a Resteraunt like theirs. Please stay if you can?? (Wasn’t there enough foot traffic and business?) 😥

M March 23, 2018 (3:11 pm)

Would love to see a white table cloth Plant Based restaurant go in there.

square eyes March 23, 2018 (3:15 pm)

First Blackboard and now Maree? Just ate at Maree last night and woke up to the announcement. There went our #1 and #2 in less than a year. There is no #3 in WS. I guess L’Oursin is going to see a little bit more of us.

Marcus March 23, 2018 (5:37 pm)

Alki doesnt do Fancy

dunnkld March 23, 2018 (5:52 pm)

3rd French restaurant to fail in Alki since I’ve lived here. I forgot the name of the one in the current Pegasus space. None of them lasted very long. If I were looking for French dining I would be more attracted to the real deal, not bistro food. To me they had bistro food at formal French cuisine prices. Also kind of bummed that they wouldn’t accept my $100 Cassis gift card I received a few days before Cassis closed. They said I waited too long (6 months). I guess that was legal?

Blackboard Bistro was a different story, they had a much more interesting menu (not French) and though expensive, worth it. They are definitely missed.

WSB March 23, 2018 (6:13 pm)

Chez Million.
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/grand-mre-goes-to-alki-old-school-french-revisited/
Gc March 23, 2018 (10:24 pm)

Why would they accept a gift card for a different restaurant? I thought it was pretty cool and good faith of them that they accepted cassis gift cards at all!
- Seabruce March 24, 2018 (1:38 am)
  
  I believe they used to run Cassis, and that Maree was mostly a menu/concept change.
  - WSB March 24, 2018 (1:57 am)
    
    While they had previous involvement with Cassis, they were not its owners/operators.

BRob March 23, 2018 (8:48 pm)

So sad to hear this! Maree was delicious!

Jeanne Sponsel March 23, 2018 (9:24 pm)

This is disappointing…

Mark March 24, 2018 (8:06 am)

Truly disappointing to hear. We just discovered Maree a few months ago and it was an immediate favorite.

JanS March 24, 2018 (10:56 am)

Interesting. I knew it was there, but it just wasn’t on my radar.According to them, they only cooked via induction. I think it simply wasn’t working for them to expand the way they cook in the kitchen. Induction cooking can be limiting.

JanS March 24, 2018 (10:58 am)

Square eyes..do you mean there are no other restaurants in West Seattle that you will give your business to? No #3? I find that surprising, if that’s what you meant.

square eyes March 24, 2018 (2:04 pm)

Oh, we give WS the lion’s share of our dining out dollars. I meant that Blackboard was the most creative, consistently fabulous dining I’ve experienced. And Maree was pretty consistently good French fare. There’s really nothing else locally that falls into either realm. We’re still going to Jaks, Maha, Lodge, Bang Bar, Supreme, Ephesus, 22, and many more, but I couldn’t say any would be my fave over another like I would with Blackboard or Maree.

Citizen Sane March 24, 2018 (5:15 pm)

French cuisine is just a hard sell in Seattle. This is not as sophisticated a burg as its residents like to think they are.

RayWest March 24, 2018 (7:58 pm)

I love French food, but most places are expensive, and for most people it’s a “special occasion” event, not a, “let’s go out for a quick bite.”

jpg March 25, 2018 (8:28 am)

No! I love this place! Quality food is tough to find in WS. Too many chains these days.

SuperAwesome March 25, 2018 (2:56 pm)

Very sad. One of our favorite haunts.

Best of luck to chef Andy and the rest of the crew.

Helen March 25, 2018 (4:18 pm)

Totally CRUSHED. Maree was my ‘Stamm Tisch” which means my go to place. So SAD!!!!

Wanda March 26, 2018 (2:23 pm)

We too just discovered this little jewel. Sooooo sorry.

DumpTrump March 26, 2018 (3:47 pm)

Well, while the food was good most of the time we went, it was simply too expensive for what it was. Not spectacular enough for the price to turn us into regulars. The menu was just a bit too limited – French Cuisine has so much more to offer. Also, let’s not forget about the location. Alki / West Seattle is not home to the connoisseurs a restaurant like this requires. And the pot smoking kids polluting Alki in summer are certainly not a target audience either.

dawsonct April 1, 2018 (1:03 pm)

Tough restaurant location. BARELY 180 degrees of potential customers, in a relatively out-of-the-way location (most “Seattleites,” who are of course from somewhere else, still believe W. Seattle to be somewhat more remote than Nome), on a strip where your most prosperous months in the Summer are overwhelmed by folks not looking for a quiet dinner in a nice restaurant, and lack of parking.
The only nicer restaurant that seems capable of surviving is Phoenicia, which probably is an indication of their longevity in the community (and the delightful Kazal women, of course!).

dawsonct April 1, 2018 (2:05 pm)

Good luck finding a true “French” restaurant anywhere in this country, or even France. I know that sounds odd, but French cuisine is more about technique, seasonality, and quality of ingredients, rather than specific classic dishes. Arguably, most quality restaurants in Seattle as well as the rest of the world are “French” restaurants because they follow that philosophy.
The French cuisine of Escoffier and Careme is nearly impossible to find anywhere; they’re museum pieces.
If you are looking for coquille St. Jacques or coq au vin, you might have to make it yourself. Pressed duck may require a passport.

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