Dining: Jerry Traunfeld turns up the heat with Lionheads menu.

Jerry Traunfeld has always loved Chinese food. The James Beard Award-winning chef first learned Chinese cookery in the 1980s from master chef Ken Hom at the California Culinary Academy. He continued honing his skills at home while he was chef at The Herbfarm and, later, when he opened Capitol Hills Poppy, poring over Chinese cookbooks with his longtime partner (now husband), Stephen. But a 2013 trip to China with British cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop cemented Traunfelds desire to open a Sichuan-style restaurant next to Poppy.

Unlike Poppy, Lionhead is not centered on fusion cuisine. Where Poppy explores the creative interplay between Northwest ingredients and Indian thalis, Lionhead celebrates classic dishes of the southwestern Chinese province using funky, hot bean pastes and fiery, numbing chiles. Even the restaurants decor red-lacquered bar, Asian art auction finds suggests Traunfeld takes this seriously.

The dishes, mostly meant for sharing, are as traditional as one can imagine: dan dan mein ($7/$14), Chinese sausage bao ($4), and cold brisket and tripe slices ($11), known as husband-and-wife lung slices (Traunfeld calls them man-and-husband beef slices, which made me smile). Service is included in the menu prices; prices for take-out are lower.

Traunfeld does add a pinch of Northwest here and there: A soft-boiled egg tops sesame-sauced buckwheat noodles ($14), and clams adorn iron pot pork meatballs ($20), even though Sichuan is landlocked. I loved the flavors, freshness and, most of all, the heat in everything I tasted.

The team Traunfeld has assembled keeps the food true to Sichuan while still original. Chef de cuisine Kenneth Lee has commanded wok ranges for 30 years, most recently down the street at Zhu Dang. And executive chef Kyle Noyce, who also runs the show at Poppy, has a serious gift for ethnic flavors. Finally, theres Traunfeld himself, a visionary who can make hairy tofu sound appetizing.

Traunfeld recently returned from another trip to China, this time to Yunnan province, which is famous for its stinky soy. Were curious to see how that inspiration plays out. Also, he says a takeout window, nightly specials and brunch are coming soon.