Food & Entertaining
Lucky Number Seven
Being bad never tasted so good at Seven, a hip, new downtown restaurant, where deadly sins are drinkable and Italian cuisine is created by taste.
BY
Brooke Pearl
PHOTOGRAPHY
Alistair Tutton

My first experience with Seven, the trendy Italian restaurant at 6th and Walnut, was for happy hour with a couple of my girlfriends.

In the mass chaos of one-way streets, we finally found Seven, with its rotating banner of colors, leading us to the front doors. After walking in, I felt as though I had left Kansas City and entered an upscale, contemporary restaurant in New York. Seven’s happy hour, from 2-7 p.m., offers half-price drinks and certain appetizers, so we dined on the bruschetta with seasonal accoutrements and Italian sausage pizza, which I’ll go back for, along with a couple (maybe several) glasses of wine. The full bar, with an extensive liquor selection, is quite impressive, too. It’s a great place for an evening out on the town, especially after dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, when tables are moved to make room for the dance floor.

The second trip to Seven was just as worth it. The modern space, which started shuffling in guests last May and seats approximately 100 people, showcases sleek, straight lines, and exposed beams and piping. The gathered fabric on the walls shields its second rotating color palette, and the loft seating, offering bottle service on the weekends and catching dinner overflow, has a skyline view. With the upbeat house music playing in the background, my dinner partner, Kevin, and I took our seats in the armless leather chairs, noticing that even the silverware matches the venue’s chic backdrop. From the look of it, you’d never guess this location housed a printing press and then remained vacant for years. After taking it all in, you’ll notice the classiness of the restaurant, except for maybe the employee’s brown shirt/black pants and shoes ensemble, but that’s easily overlooked by the drinks and food that follow.

To start the night off, I decided to try a martini from Seven’s popular line of Seven Deadly Sins. Gluttony was my first drink of choice. It was chocolaty and full of liquor — seven to be exact. The other deadly sins include pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed and lust. I also tasted pride, made with orange Stoli; envy, with Hanger One Kaffir lime vodka; and lust, containing tropical fruit juices and champagne. I’ll just have to go back to try the other three (Most are $9 each). While enjoying gluttony, Jon, our server who’s been in the industry since the early ‘80s, brought out the pan-seared prosciutto-wrapped shrimp with grilled vegetables, roasted red pepper sauce and drizzled in aioli ($12), which he says has a “hint of spice.” A choice of salad comes with each entrée, so we tried the spinach with red onions, peppers and Pecorino Romano tossed in a bacon vinaigrette dressing with cherry tomatoes and mandarin oranges for garnish ($10). To describe the appetizer selections in one word, yum.

Seven’s Northern Italian cuisine includes a variety of entrée choices, some of which you won’t find on the daily menu. The overwhelmingly tender 16-ounce rib-eye magnolia ($32) is marinated in molasses with balsamic vinegar, roasted for 20 minutes and served with crusted red pepper, fresh garlic, ginger and has a “savory sweetness to it,” says Charles Perkins, the restaurant’s chef. It’s accompanied by mouth-watering mashed potatoes and asparagus, and although it has a strong molasses flavor, the more I ate, the more I liked it. The chicken breast and capers ($19) comes with a white wine sauce and lemon flavor (easily detected), garlic, linguini and asparagus. I recommend mixing it all together (except for the asparagus). The third entrée, and my absolute favorite, is the 8-ounce cold water main lobster tail ($37), which, along with the rib-eye steak, isn’t on the list, but it should be. Unlike many other lobster dishes, this one’s charbroiled and seared out of the shell and encrusted with Italian bread crumbs. No matter what entrée they bought out, concern for presentation was at the top of the list. Each was eye-pleasing and delicious, a great combination for anyone dining out.

As if that wasn’t enough, Jon brought out two desserts: chocolate oblivion and a chocolate mousse cake ($6 each), both Charles’ recipes. The chocolate oblivion is a flourless chocolate truffle cake, while the chocolate mousse crouton cake consists of a moist and fluffy white cake layered with chocolate mousse and topped with cake crumbles and fudge. Each dessert came with whipped cream and raspberries. Again, an A+ for presentation.

After my two dining experiences, it’s evident that Seven is all about flavor — not only with ambiance but also within its menu selection. “Everything [here] is done to taste,” Charles says. “There isn’t a written recipe in this whole kitchen.”