The Northwest is renowned for its seafood, but local diners also crave a fine cut of steak now and again. In the next year, even as a recession looms, three new steakhouses are opening up, their owners confident our hunger for high-end red meat won't fall victim to belt-tightening.

El Gaucho owner Paul Mackay isn't just confident -- he's wildly enthusiastic about the new $4 million El Gaucho steakhouse coming to Bellevue in August. A nationwide rollout of El Gaucho was being planned when developer Wright Runstad & Co. approached Paul and his son, Chad, about a site in City Center Plaza, the curved tower now under construction.

Mackay says he canceled lease options on planned locations in Vancouver, B.C., and Palm Springs to take the Bellevue offer. With new skyscrapers going up and the restaurant scene burgeoning on the east side of Lake Washington, he says downtown Bellevue's growth and demographics made it more attractive.

If that weren't enough for Bellevue, chef John Howie of the hit eatery Seastar also plans to open a steakhouse next year, barely more than a stone's throw away in The Bravern, the Schnitzer West development that will wrap around Meydenbauer Center.

John Howie Steak is the restaurant's working title. Howie is partly drawn to the steakhouse genre by contractual obligation -- his lease for Seastar forbids him to open another seafood eatery east of the lake. But he also sees an open niche for operating the Seattle area's first chef-owned steakhouse.

"I'll be the only one with complete control," he notes.

Howie is still mulling over menu details, but he may specialize in wet-aged steak, the process he uses for meats at Seastar.

Which brings us to the first horse out of the blocks in this new steakhouse derby, the Capital Grille in downtown Seattle. Opened in February in the renovated Cobb Building, this swanky dark-wood and stained-glasschandelier eatery is the first West Coast location of a national chain based in Atlanta, itself in turn owned by dining giant Darden Restaurants, of Olive Garden and Red Lobster fame.

Now, we love our steak in Puget Sound, but especially at local institutions such as the Metropolitan Grill, Daniel's Broiler and Canlis. National steakhouse chains haven't always succeeded here, though our nine-year-old Morton's location has its devotees.

Two chains that didn't fare as well are Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Ruth's Chris Steak House. Fleming's, owned by Outback Steakhouse, lasted about three years in downtown Seattle before closing in 2003. The 10-year-old concept had major cred -- it's from the creator of P.F. Chang's -- and has since gone on to nationwide success, but it was a bust here.

Then there's Ruth's Chris Steak House. The famed New Orleans-based steak brand's local owners sold their three Northwest eateries back to corporate a year ago, for a total of $13.25 million. In a statement at the time, Ruth's Chris chairman, president and CEO Craig Miller indicated the restaurants were underperforming compared with the company's corporate-owned units. Ruth's Chris didn't respond to calls requesting an update.

How will Capital Grille avoid getting the cold shoulder here? Let chef and part-owner Michael Hillyer -- who came to the Grille after more than a decade at Daniel's -- count the ways. First off, rather than the usual nonpareil steakhouse fare, the cuisine and even the décor at our Capital Grille has a distinctly seasonal Northwest flavor. Portraits of local heroes from John Nordstrom to Jimi Hendrix line the walls.

How will all these steakhouses distinguish themselves from each other? It turns out everybody's got their own take on what makes great steak. At Capital Grille, for instance, added flavors are big -- there's Kona coffee-crusted sirloin that's dry-aged on the premises and Delmonico steak rubbed with porcini mushrooms.