Rock and Rye offers daily elegance in historic Herald building

The people behind Rock and Rye Oyster House wanted a place that highlighted craft cocktails and meals that had more elegance and thought put into the presentation, along the lines of what you’d find in Seattle or Portland.

So they opened their restaurant, which includes a bar, to offer a finer dining experience — with a nod toward prices that are more affordable than in a big-city eating.

“We love what we’re doing. The drinks are amazing. The food is amazing,” says Jacob Grisham, Rock and Rye’s chef de cuisine.

Stop in to enjoy the hardier fares of fall and winter. There’s gnocchi made with squash and cooked up with pioppino mushrooms, oloroso sherry and goat cheese. There’s a nod to Asian flavors with five spice-cured duck confit and orange gastrique.

Head to the bar for poutine, topped with duck gravy and Beecher’s cheese curds, or oyster chowder with shiitake mushrooms and pork belly. The chowder’s Pacific oysters come from Taylor Shellfish Farm, which is essentially in our back yard.

If you prefer your flavors from the sea to be unadorned except by Mother Nature, indulge yourself with a selection of raw Washington oysters.

Don’t know what drinks to have with your oysters? Ask the staff. There are plenty that pair well with the bivalves, says bar manager Dennis Schafer.

As for those craft cocktails, Schafer says Rock and Rye focuses on the stories behind the drinks, and on making things in-house, including their ginger beer.

Favorites include the chesterfield (bourbon, honey ginger syrup and, intriguingly, a balsamic fig reduction), and the velvet sharpie (rye, orange bitters, Lustau Pedro Ximenez sherry and cedar smoke inside a cup).

“People like fire,” Grisham says.

Rock and Rye opened on the ground floor of The Herald Building in June 2014. You can see pictures of The Herald from a bygone era, fitting since the restaurant is in the space that once housed its presses. (The newspaper has moved its office operations upstairs and is now printed in Skagit County.)

The restaurant is at 1145 N. State St. near East Chestnut Street in downtown Bellingham. It is open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday. There’s a happy hour menu, and brunch is served weekends.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 2:02 AM with the headline "Rock and Rye offers daily elegance in historic Herald building."