My dear old mum recently decided she'll be retiring on Vashon Island, assuring me a future of ferrying over to change lightbulbs and clean gutters when her belabored knees finally give. The first thing I noticed about Vashon, after a few Sunday house-hunting trips with mom, was that it really needs a good neighborhood bistro. It has Bramble House, which covers haute cuisine, and the Hardware Store, which serves as something of a community center (albeit one with a mad decent bowl of clams), but nothing that fits that "fancy but not too fancy for a Wednesday night" slot that does so well in Seattle's single-family enclaves. Gravy, which opened in April, looked to be exactly that. It's got a ludicrously affordable and approachable French-heavy wine list (everything is available by the glass), a menu stacked with Southern favorites but by no means limited to them, and that unquantifiable homey feel that is so crucial to a neighborhood bistro's welcoming appeal. Read more by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue.