An upscale American diner was just what Bend’s NorthWest Crossing neighborhood needed to expand its dining options.

Washington Dining & Cocktails opened with little fanfare at the end of August, but business has barely slowed since opening day.

Launched by Ted Swigert, owner of Drake restaurant in downtown Bend, and executive chef John Gurnee, Washington combines Drake’s urban elegance with patio dining, a genteel bar scene, an open kitchen and outstanding service.

“We’ve worked hard at employing people who love what they’re doing. I’m very passionate about that,” said Swigert, whose food-and-hospitality career has included stops at major hotels and restaurants in Portland and Washington, D.C. “Our servers have got to have that big-city personality, where they can read a table and have fun with the diners.”

The food might be described as gourmet American diner cuisine, ranging from burgers and pasta plates to meatloaf, steelhead trout and crab Louie. Gurnee and his culinary staff work in full view of anyone who cares to focus on the white-tiled kitchen. “John has a great grasp of our gourmet-but-approachable food style,” Swigert said.

Dinnertime

My dining companion and I have visited three times in recent weeks — for dinner, lunch and weekend brunch. We sat in a booth for each meal. All were outstanding.

We began our dinner by sharing a frisee and arugula salad. The endive and peppery greens were mixed with small cubes of roasted butternut squash, hazelnuts and dried figs, and tossed in a champagne-honey vinaigrette.

Barbecue sauce locked in the moisture of my partner’s bacon-crusted bison meatloaf. Crispy Brussels sprouts and a baked potato with “the works” were finished with cheese sauce.

I opted for a blackboard special, a French-style duck cassoulet on heirloom white beans with carrots and radishes.

The bird’s thigh and leg were cooked so tender, the bones fell right out. Two wedges of homemade duck sausage with pistachio were an added bonus.

With both entrees, we shared a serving of broccoli, steamed and grilled in cast iron. Topped with black garlic aioli and bread crumbs, the vegetable was served on a bed of onion purée with a golden raisin pesto.

For dessert, with cups of coffee, pumpkin coffee cake was moist and flavorful. It had a brown-sugar crust with a toffee glaze, sprinkled with chocolate-covered, candied pecans.

Lunch and brunch

For lunch, we shared a soup, a burger and a pasta dish. The scratch soup of the day was sweet potato with cinnamon-crusted croutons. It was like a warm pumpkin pie in a bowl.

The double cheeseburger (on a Big Ed’s bakery bun) hardly had enough cheddar on it to be considered a cheeseburger. But the two ground-chuck patties were perfectly cooked. A traditional garnish of lettuce, tomato and house-made pickles, and an added topping of avocado slices and a fried egg, over medium, made this a nice sandwich.

Mushroom carbonara, a vegetarian entrée, featured a generous portion of savory oyster mushrooms. This rich fettuccine dish had a creamy sauce made with white wine, Parmesan cheese and black pepper, but no bacon, as is often found in carbonara.

At brunch, I had a Peruvian “lomo saltado,” a hangar steak prepared in traditional South American style with roasted onions, tomatoes and fennel, served on fried potatoes and topped with an egg, sunny-side up.

My companion, in the mood for breakfast, had an omelet filled with mild, creamy goat cheese, halved cherry tomatoes and avocado slices, served on a bed of baby arugula with fingerling potatoes. She paid an extra $8 for crab meat, but was disappointed that she got only about a tablespoon of that delicious seafood.

Since this was breakfast, she also ordered a bloody mary from the bar. When she found it too spicy on her first taste, the drink was immediately replaced without question. Green beans, a carrot, onion, mushroom and wedges of lemon and lime gave it a garden-fresh flavor.

Heated patio

The first of December may not be an ideal time to employ the patio, but Swigert is convinced it will soon be attracting skiers and other winter-sports enthusiasts. Fire pits have been installed to warm folks who already have spent a day outdoors, and a garage door that splits the cocktail bar in two may be raised to serve beverages to the patio crowd.

“The joke is that we’re kind of a 10 Barrel for yuppies,” Swigert said, referring to the patio area at the popular Galveston Avenue brewpub. “Washington doubles in size to 140 when the outdoors is going,” he said.

That outdoor area, at the northeast corner of Mount Washington and NorthWest Crossing drives, makes Washington hard to miss when it’s busy. But in dreary weather, the hostess stand faces an inner corridor of the Trend Building, with an entrance off a parking lot on the rear side of the office structure.

There’s no sign here identifying Washington. A simple circled “W,” the restaurant’s logo, would be a helpful addition to the outer door.

But NorthWest Crossing locals don’t seem to have much trouble finding Washington. “It’s very much a neighborhood restaurant,” Swigert said. “We get very little tourist business, but lots of west-siders.”

— John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.