‘That’s why you go out’ — L’Oursin marks a decade as an island of food and drink independence at 14th and Jefferson

L’Oursin, the little French seafood spot at 14th and Jefferson in the intertidal zone between Capitol Hill and the Central District, turns 10 this November. Its owners are celebrating the same way they’ve run the place from day one — their way.

A decade, a pandemic, and one bar next door later, they’re still at it, and still clearly having fun.

“There were just so many unknowns for us,” said co-owner and bar manager Zac Overman. “We’d never done this before. We were kind of rolling the dice on this neighborhood.”

L’Oursin opened in November 2016 after eight years of planning and a community fundraiser backed by 183 supporters. In 2023, Overman and chef and co-owner JJ Proville added Bar Bayonne next door. Together, they make up a small independent island in a dining scene increasingly dominated by multi-location restaurant groups.

“We’re craftspeople,” Proville said. Running a business on top of cooking and bartending is the hard part. “If you’re going to be around for 10 years or 15 years, you need to pace yourself.”

Some of their best moments weren’t planned. On opening night a decade ago, nobody had stocked empty bottles for juices behind the bar, so L’Oursin’s wine director ran home to grab some. One carried the label of a small Olympic Peninsula wine producer. A friend of the producer happened to be dining that night, spotted it, and made an introduction that eventually led to a liqueur collaboration now several years on the market.

“It’s how small this town is,” Overman said, “and how little things weave themselves together.”

When L’Oursin opened, E Jefferson looked ready to take off with multiple food and drink ventures from an eclectic mix of owners.

“It didn’t exactly happen,” Overman said.

Still, there are bright spots: Peloton is going strong with its own 10-year anniversary marked earlier this year, a vintage shop and coffee shop recently opened nearby, and a five-over-two development is planned next door replacing the building where one of the neighborhood restaurants failed.

“The more there is, the better off the neighborhood is,” Overman said.

It’s a short walk from the heart of Capitol Hill, Proville points out, and you can actually park.

Staying independent, Overman said, is largely about quality of life. “I couldn’t imagine driving across town to check in on another business and seeing how that’s being managed.”

The owners still do the unglamorous work, too. Just recently, Proville said, the two were stocking toilet paper together. “We’re still kind of a mom and pop shop.”

L’Oursin has grown from within, promoting line cooks to chefs along the way. “I’d love to have more money to play around with,” Overman said. “But I do love that it’s still kind of scrappy and bootstrappy.”

Bar Bayonne grew out of the pandemic, when L’Oursin kept the lights on as a market. Long after dining rooms reopened, people kept stopping by during the day looking for wine and sandwiches.

The vacant space next door was the answer: a daytime spot in a neighborhood short on lunch options, and a new home for the wine shop that had been squeezed into L’Oursin’s dining room.

The two share bread, a walk-in, spirits, and cross-trained staff, but run separate wine programs, with Bayonne’s shop leaning toward affordable weeknight bottles.

“The edges are blurry in a really friendly way,” Overman said.

L’Oursin once ran a tasting menu alongside its à la carte offerings, something Overman now calls insane. After the pandemic, diners wanted comfort.

“We can’t go back from a smash burger fried chicken pop-up into a tasting menu again,” Overman said. “Let’s meet in the middle somewhere.” Today, the menu is a hybrid: steak frites, but still exciting seafood.

Costs have climbed in sneaky ways. The recycling bill alone went from about $500 to $800 a month. “People don’t talk about the utilities,” Proville said.

The steaks now use local Washington beef instead of 21-day dry-aged cuts, but Proville still shops Uwajimaya for less-loved fish like yellow-eye rockfish collars, and the restaurant buys from 20 to 30 vendors, including farmers and foragers.

The owners figure business splits about 50-50 between regulars, some coming in for all 10 years, and destination diners. The Monday burger, $16 with fries, is designed to bring people to the bar. “Don’t be intimidated,” Proville said.

Proville’s advice for anyone opening a place: skip the brand new build-out and find a space with infrastructure already in place, the way Bar Bayonne inherited a working bar.

Overman’s tip for neighborhood diners: Watch the pop-ups, where some of the most exciting food in town is happening.

For anniversary week, the owners plan to bring back a few favorite dishes from the first decade. Overman’s pitch to the neighbors around E Jefferson? Come sit at the bar.

“Meat and potatoes,” Proville said. “That’s French food.”

With a lot of butter. “That’s why you go out,” he said.

L’Oursin and Bar Bayonne are located at 1315 E Jefferson. Learn more at loursinseattle.com.

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