WildWood Oak Fired Kitchen, the Bellevue dining destination intended as the prototype for a proposed chain of locally focused restaurants, has closed its doors. According to former co-owner and co-founder Dave Wachtel III, the restaurant called a halt to operations last Saturday night.
"The economy's been tough," Wachtel said. He declined to discuss any other aspects of the closing, explaining that the restaurant's current and former owners are "involved in sensitive legal issues."
When it opened in mid-2007, WildWood immediately lifted Bellevue's limited dining options with relocated Seattle chef John David Crow's menu of creatively tweaked staples, such as pork chop with chestnut spaetzle. No sooner did the Scene's Carrington Fox give it a glowing review, though, than Crow parted ways with then-owners Wachtel and Justin D. Tatum.
Another Wachtel-Tatum venture, Barfield's All-American Grille in Hendersonville, shuttered its doors in January.
