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Hot spots for a business lunch: there are many restaurants in Alaska; try someplace new to take a client.

Article Excerpt
You're a businessman in Alaska and you want to take a new client and the marketing director out to lunch and discuss their new project. So you call your favorite eatery to make a reservation only to discover that it is booked until 3 p.m. and your client has a flight at 2:20 p.m.

ABM did some research and compiled a list of business-friendly restaurants in Alaska. The ones written about in this article are in Anchorage, and I personally had lunch at each of them and will provide first-hand information. Friends and associates suggested the other restaurants to me.

(All pertinent information for the restaurants in this article can be found in the accompanying sidebar.)

The Bridge

The Bridge is located under the A Street Bridge that spans Ship Creek. The restaurant, which opened last August, is definitely unique when it comes to cuisine and location.

Reservations are accepted, and according to Ashi Samarasingher, vice president of operations, The Bridge can manage groups of up to 100 people. Samarasingher emphasizes the point that larger groups (12 or more) do require reservations.

What makes The Bridge special is its cuisine and location. In the winter, patrons will see the iced-up creek and snow-covered mountains in the background, and in the summer the creek hosts a large number of sports fishermen. Watching them, especially when one hooks into a large king salmon, is exciting.

Cuisine

As for the cuisine, Samarasingher says the contemporary word for it is "fusion." But he also says, "Actually our food can best be described as a combination of cuisines including Continental, Polynesian, Asian and Hawaiian. We have created all of our recipes, and yes, I'd say they are pretty unique."

One of Samarasingher's favorites is The Bridge burger. For $9, you get a third-of-a-pound of hamburger, flavored with cracked black pepper, garlic and rosemary, served on a Kaiser sesame bun.

Non-Meat Eaters

For the vegetarian there is fettuccini, a tofu roasted-vegetable terrine, a grilled asparagus and tomato salad, and an Asian Caesar salad.

Besides alcohol beverages and the traditional coffees, teas and sodas, there are also non-alcoholic drinks that include a very refreshing mango spritzer and strawberry lemonade at $3 each.

The lunch menu prices range between the $9 burger and a $14 pan-seared halibut filet.

"I don't think there is another restaurant like the Bridge in Alaska," said Samarasingher. "It's the flavors of our food that make us special; it's a whole awakening of flavors for your taste buds.

"Take, for example,...