The Mark

Where: 407 Columbia St., S.W., Olympia, 360.754.4414, www.themarkolympia.com
Hours: Thursday through Saturday 5-10 p.m., dinner only, cocktail lounge, private dining, event space.
Cuisine: Simple, mostly organic Northwest cuisine
Scene: Urban chic, mid-scale restaurant
Drinkies: Full bar, creative cocktails, good wine selection, inventive nonalcoholic drinks
Damage:  $4-$24

ANNOUNCER: Organic is a word that gets bandied about as a sales tool all too frequently. Just what does it take to legally claim to be organic? Lisa Owen, owner of and executive chef at The Mark restaurant in Olympia, isn’t new and hasn’t just jumped on the trend. She’s been serving organic products since 2001, has knowledge of what it takes to be a certified organic restaurant in Washington state and seems to take it very seriously.

The Mark achieved this enviable certification earlier this spring, adding one more item to the list of things that make it hard to remember the space the restaurant is housed in was once a tire shop. Dark, lustrous wood walls and tables, red curtains, soft lighting over black booths — the setting begs for a clandestine rendezvous and couples surreptitiously talking and enjoying handmade cocktails.

The Mark is a restaurant, an art gallery and an event space — all melding healthy food, thought-inspiring art and musical provocateurs into a joyous fete for the senses.

JASON: Whoa, I feel like a secret agent meeting my handler in this joint. After being seated in the front lounge across from the 20-foot long bar, I looked over the cocktail menu and noticed there were nonalcoholic drinks — a chilled espresso number with cream and chocolate cheekily named The Twelve Step, and the Detox, a fresh, tart organic citrus juice blend — mixed in with the handcrafted cocktails. It’s hard to believe, but I’m not always in the fast lane to Booze City, and soda gets mighty boring. I opted for the Detox thinking the citrus would go nicely with a cheese appetizer. I was a bit bummed that there were only two breadcrumb-encrusted chunks of baked goat cheese on a huge pile of mixed greens. Granted they were the size of 50-cent pieces, or 50 Cent’s brain, but it seemed that there should have been more.

JAKE: You liked the smoky grilled bread brushed with olive oil though, right? I know I did. Hey, you know where there’s plenty of cheese? In your jokes, that’s where. Our other appetizer ruled. Tangy Mirablue blue cheese and walnuts drizzled with honey. Wow. I never tire of this one. And soft bread, that’s the real high point for me. I have never understood places that serve hard crostini with everything. Since the goat cheese appetizer was basically a gigantic salad, we skipped ordering any, leaving plenty of time to studiously peruse the menus we’d kept while waiting for our entrees. I was surprised at how many items had asterisks denoting organic ingredients — even in the cocktails. Seeing that there was a whole baked organic chicken for two made me wish I’d brought my wife instead of idiot boy for once.

JASON: That’s idiot man to you. It was hard to decide on entrees as evidenced by the comfort food pasta dishes we both ordered. Again, I felt a little ripped off when my entree arrived. Paying $22 for scallops and fettuccine is fine as long as the number of scallops cannot be counted on one hand. The little sea discs were seared nicely; however, I’d be willing to bet they’d been plumper when they were delivered prior to being cut horizontally to make it look like there were more of them. This makes me grumble because I really enjoyed the taste, and I really liked The Mark.

JAKE: My proscuitto and fettuccine dish was cooked perfectly. I’m used to proscuitto being thin ribbons of salty goodness and was taken aback to see this lovely Italian ham cut into tiny stiff squares. The flavor was there, but the texture wasn’t right for me. Entree portion sizes were right on. Our server came by the table at the appropriate times and didn’t bother us pointlessly otherwise, which was nice. Checking out the other tables, the common denominator among fellow dinner guests was their relaxed smiles and easy manner. I felt I was in a tension-free zone. That prompted the ordering of The Twelve Step after-dinner chilled espresso drink and the handmade blueberry sorbet melon-balled into three sweet, frozen ping-pong spheres served in a clear glass with teeny silver spoons. The spheres couldn’t have been more than three-quarters of a cup of sorbet. Hmm, a theme has surfaced.

JASON: The flourless ganache style chocolate torte won the race by a mile. Sugar crystal dusted the top, adding to the richness, and for once I was glad the wedge was the conservative size it was. I am not a glutton.