It’s a mixed blessing for a restaurant to be as hotly awaited as Ballard newcomer Delancey. Expectations are pitched high, just when all the kitchen edges are at their roughest. And Delancey comes with a whole level of anticipation that goes beyond its pizza. As I wrote here in the Christian Science Monitor, it’s hard not to feel as though you’re walking into the pages of a book when you enter the front door, a favorite story come to life. 

What I wound up thinking after a “soft opening” dinner last week, though, transcended what I knew about the restaurant walking in. I wound up wishing I was part of the real neighborhood, not the storybook one, wanting to look forward to a standing reservation at my window table at the end of a long week, like the people walking dogs and pushing baby strollers by, looking inside and saying this is just what they hoped to find.

Here’s a little peek at the inside, with final commentary from the peanut gallery:

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