FareStart isn’t perfect, but it’s virtuous: the restaurant is a school that teaches culinary skills to the homeless. Weekday lunches are handled by regular staff and students; weekly dinners are handled by guest chefs (with students assisting) who donate both their time and the ingredients for the menus they’ve created.

The quality of the food can vary from overcooked to careful, delicious to underseasoned, but in general, by the time students are cooking for the masses, they know their basics, and the dishes are pretty well executed and very well presented. The lunch menu changes every few months but always includes salads, sandwiches, burgers, and several vegetarian options.

Rest assured that FareStart is not preparing its students for a life at McDonald’s. When we say sandwiches, we mean apple-braised pork shoulder on potato bread or pan-seared ahi with pickled cucumber and chipotle-honey aïoli. The wait staff is a mix of students and volunteers, so service is generally earnest and reliable, but not polished. The Thursday guest-chef dinner is a great way to sample this chef’s food at a more reasonable price than at his own restaurant.

The attractive bi-level loft space defies you to remember that this restaurant is a little different than most—the exposed duct work and concrete are the extra-credit lesson in how to create the quintessential Seattle restaurant.