Nosh Pit

Where I Hope My Adoring Family Will Take Me on Mother’s Day

Three joints you probably aren’t expecting.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on May 07, 2012 at 08:30AM 0 Comments

The mouthwatering Two Bells Tavern burger.

Not that I’m out to control this or anything—but family: Do you know yet where you’ll be celebrating my exceptional mothering skills next Sunday?

If not, perhaps I can be of assistance.

Because where I really want to go may be different from where you think I want to go. Sometimes families go all big-bucks-buffet-line-water-view fancy for Mom, when a place whose food springs from a simpler authenticity is more satisfying. Not to mention cheaper, which will leave you more to spend on my presents.

Here are three suggestions.

Pan Africa Grill is the latest toast of West Seattle, serving up monster portions of carefully cooked African plates like groundnut stew with yams, moist mustard-olive chicken, and curried goat. It’s extraordinary, and served in quarters decorative enough to make me feel pampered. Plus what could be more fun than African beer?

Actually Proletariat Pizza might be just a scoch more fun. That large-hearted pizzeria in the heart of White Center is filled with young families chowing down on pies like The Favorite: Mondo’s Italian sausage, Mama L’il’s peppers, mozzarella, and plenty of fresh garlic—on toothsome hand-crafted crusts blistered just so. Followed by some seriously insane tiramisu.

Finally, Two Bells Tavern on the northeast edge of Belltown feels like time travel back to my misspent youth and tastes like…well, it tastes like a fat burger on a sourdough baguette, truth be told, in an exceptionally delectable way. The vibe is laid-back and arty, the beer selection various and local, and it’s open til 2am.

Oh oops…darn, it’s a tavern. No kids. I would never suggest that that might be the best Mother’s Day present of all. Never.

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Tags: Critic's Notebook, Pan Africa, Mother's Day 2012, Mother's Day Brunch 2012, Two Bells Tavern, Proletariat Pizza

What Cuisine Is Suddenly All Over Seattle Restaurants?

We’ve never been known for this kind of food. That’s about to change.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Apr 30, 2012 at 09:45AM 2 Comments

Cuisines hit cities in waves. Seattle saw neighborhood Italian joints surge in the ‘80s, farm-to-table restaurants just after the New Millennium, Asian mom and pops—particularly Korean—in recent years.

Ready for the Next Big Thing? Middle Eastern.

Seattle’s had spotty representation for awhile—treasures like Phoenecia Restaurant on Alki—but didn’t start seeing a swell until the latter part of the teens, mostly in neighborhoody falafel shops like Zaina in Pioneer Square, Aladdin Falafel Corner on the Ave, Mr. Gyros Greenwood and Ballard, and Mawadda Café in the Rainier Valley.

A tipping point approached. High-end restaurateurs who’d made their names on Northwest cuisine, like Matt Dillon at Sitka and Spruce began to slip Middle Eastern flavors like harissa and muhammara into their dishes. A mobile food truck in Fremont Georgetown, Hallava Falafel, achieved cultlike status. An award-winning restaurateur, Maria Hines of Tilth, devoted her new Golden Beetle in Ballard to the extraordinary cuisines of the Eastern Mediterranean. Another award-winner, MistralKitchen, established the Monday-night pop up Arabesque, in which one of its chefs takes on a different Arab region every four weeks.

An explosion was born.

Cafe Munir, a neighborhood Lebanese restaurant in Crown Hill, opened earlier this year. A few weeks ago saw the opening of Med Mix at the corner of 23rd and Union, a troubled spot whose good early notices on its gyros are raising the neighborhood’s hopes that this time they’ve got a keeper.

And two high-profile Middle Eastern places are on the horizon, to launch in the fall at the earliest: Mamnoon, a high-end looker across from Melrose Market; and a project from none other than trend-spotter Tom Douglas, who floated the idea recently on his radio show that it would be great to have a falafel house next to the Paramount Theater.

Why yes it would, Tom.

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Tags: Critic's Notebook

The Waiter Who Assumed I Didn’t Want My Leftovers

Reality check, please: Should he have asked first?

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Apr 23, 2012 at 08:30AM 30 Comments

I was enjoying dinner with an old friend at a high-end spot last night—and by “enjoying” I mean “jawing incessantly”—so to be fair, I don’t know how our terrific waiter slipped in long enough to take our order.

I only finished half of my gnocchi, but had designs on taking the rest home for the next day. (I understand that some disapprove of requesting doggie bags in high-end places, thinking that it’s tacky and makes the diner look cheap. Me, I disapprove of waste and inflated portions, and think that caring so much what onlookers think is tacky and cheap. Maybe that’s just me.)

At some point while we were yammering—my gnocchi disappeared. Our waiter rightly assumed I was finished; I had set the plate slightly off to the side. Was he wrong to assume I didn’t want it?

In his defense, he would have had to interrupt a ridiculously lively conversation to ask. Many waiters are coached—rightly, I’d argue—that interruptions at table should only be a last resort. Is inquiring about the fate of a half-eaten plate of gnocchi a worthy intrusion?

Or is taking the plate away a waiter’s default position; a doggie-bag request the diner’s proactive responsibility?

I genuinely want your input. Actually what I really want is the rest of my gnocchi.

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Tags: Critic's Notebook

It’s Official: Global Warming Is Killing Oysters

What it means for connoisseurs. What it means for the planet.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Apr 16, 2012 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Consider the oyster. And the ocean.

Last week came definitive word from scientists at NOAA and Oregon State University: The decreasing pH content of our oceans is one of the factors responsible for the alarming oyster die-offs in Northwest waters over the past seven years.

Decreased pH—higher acid levels—results from the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers have suspected for years that the increased acidity of the ocean is killing its inhabitants. This is the first North American proof.

I called Jon Rowley—who does marketing and promotions for Taylor Shellfish Farms, but whose long history with every aspect of Northwest seafood makes him more like Oyster Czar—and he told me it’s only getting worse. “We’re looking at 150 years of CO2 emissions getting absorbed by the oceans, and it looks like we’re reaching a tipping point,” he said. “It shows up first in the shellfish because if the pH isn’t right they can’t form a shell. So it’s rather serious.”

To find out how serious, he put me on to Taylor Shellfish’s production manager and resident oyster-growing expert, Benoit Eudeline. Because of ocean upwellings that happen at estimated 50 year cycles, Benoit explained, the acidic water now lapping onto Northwest shores was created from air that was high in CO2, but nowhere near high as it is today. When today’s air rolls in on the waves of 2062—it will be much more acidic. “We’re sending ourselves a poison gift in the mail, and it’s going to come whatever we do,” Benoit said.

Many of the Northwest’s most prolific oyster beds haven’t seen natural spawning of oyster larvae in years; Willapa Bay’s going on eight. Oyster hatcheries provide the overwhelming majority of oysters to restaurants and bars, and since many hatcheries have had success mitigating the problematic pH conditions, restaurant patrons have not been denied their bivalves. Still, even big successful hatcheries like Taylor Farms have suffered due to changing conditions, losing a large percentage of their oyster larvae a few years back. Both Rowley and Eudeline predict that availability of oysters will almost certainly decline, with prices increasing in turn.

And a decrease in the availability of happy hour half-shells isn’t even the scariest prospect.

“My concerns go beyond the oysters,” confessed Rowley. “The main food sources for a lot of the fish in the ocean are tiny shellfish. If they can’t make shells, then you’re looking at an impact on the entire food chain of the open ocean.”

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Tags: Oysters, Critic's Notebook, Taylor Shellfish

Fun With Health Department Warnings

Seattle Met would like to inform you that reading menu warnings may make you laugh.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Apr 09, 2012 at 09:00AM 4 Comments

Warning: spontaneous combustion ahead. From Blind Pig Bistro.

Was it Matt Dillon who wrote the first smartassy one at the original Sitka and Spruce? That just seems right, though the proof has long since been erased from those old blackboard menus.

They’re all over the place now, of course: sarcastic tweaks of the Health Department–mandated warning that in its straight-faced form goes something like this: The King County Department of Health would like to inform you that consuming raw or undercooked foods may contribute to your risk of foodborne illness.

At first it was funny just to have the ante upped, as in this warning from Staple and Fancy: The King County Department of Health would like to inform you that consuming raw or undercooked foods may indeed kill you.

I noticed that soon after Madison Park Conservatory opened, death was likewise invoked. By midsummer, the Gothic tone had subsided to this: Check yourself: Eating raw or undercooked foods may make one sick.

My colleague Allecia Vermillion last year reported on one from Anchovies and Olives: The King County Department of Health would like to inform you that consuming raw or undercooked foods may contribute to your risk of foodborne illness. The chef would like to inform you that overcooking fresh seafood is a crying shame.

Take that, Health Department: You’re not only alarmist, you’re the enemy of fine cuisine. In a similar vein from Altura, penned with admirable brevity: Food not overcooked may be hazardous.

The Health Department has even been cast as the enemy of health. Recently spied at the soon-to-open Juice Box in Capitol Hill’s Farmer’s Market: The Health Department would like you to know that fresh vegetables might kill you.

These days we seem to be trending away from the dire and/or political, with sprightly bits of madcap nonsense. Recently spied at Blind Pig Bistro: King County says these items may cause spontaneous combustion. Fun!

Or this from Manhattan Drugs, which may be my all-time favorite: Eating raw or uncooked foods may kill you…as could an M–16 wielding ram.

You’ll get it the minute you walk in the door.

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Tags: Ethan Stowell, Juice Box, Anchovies and Olives, Matt Dillon, Manhattan Drugs, Altura, Sitka and Spruce, Blind Pig Bistro, Critic's Notebook, Madison Park Conservatory

Huge Portions

Where to go when size matters.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Apr 02, 2012 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Gordito’s, home of gigantic burritos. Photo via HubPages.

Of course you’re not a glutton.

But every once in awhile a girl’s gotta eat a burrito as big as a baby.

“Ew, yuck,” my daughter winced on walking into Gordito’s Healthy Mexican Food in Greenwood last week. All over the entryway are photos quantifying Gordito’s favorite “big as a baby” descriptor for its burritos grandes. Turns out two large flour tortillas crammed with meat, beans, rice, lettuce, sour cream, guac, and chunky salsa is just a scoch smaller than a newborn human. Just look at the (sort of disturbing) pictures.

We had the regular, thank you. It was fine with smoky pork and healthy tasting vegetables.

I’m always writing about quality. Gordito’s got me thinking about restaurants known for their quantity. Huge portions were a big novelty deal in the ‘70s—who remembers the size of the burgers and desserts at the Great American Food & Beverage Company on Eastlake?—and remain in fashion in certain sorts of places.

Like steakhouses. Metropolitan Grill and Morton’s are two with extreme-sized side dishes. A Morton’s baked potato is about the size of a nuclear submarine.

As for pizza, there’s Northlake Tavern’s notorious cheese-loaded heavyweights; for burgers, Burger Madness’ 5-, 10-, or 12-patty monsters (which earn you prizes if you finish one in under 30 minutes); for anytime breakfast, Beth’s Café’s 12-egg omelets.

Then you can head to North Capitol Hill’s Kingfish Café for one of its plate-sized slices of red velvet layer cake—and repent tomorrow.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Pizza, Metropolitan Grill, Burgers, Mexican Cuisine, Critic's Notebook, Steakhouse, Beth's Cafe, Kingfish Cafe

New on Menus: Buy the Cooks a Beer

How do you feel about the latest trend in tipping? I know how I feel about it.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Mar 26, 2012 at 09:00AM 12 Comments

Kitchen booze? Photo via Seattle Food Geek.

“What’s ‘Kitchen Booze’?” my husband mused the other night, over dinner at the Blind Pig Bistro. I looked up and saw it scrawled on the chalkboard above the menu items. “Oh, that just means that for five bucks you can buy the kitchen staff beers,” explained our server. “You know, as appreciation if you liked your meal.”

Hmmm.

We’d seen a similar item last year on the menu at The Coterie Room —“A six-pack of beer for the crew, $10”—which provoked a rather vivid reaction at our table. “So now a salary and a tip aren’t enough…they need to get hammered too?” said…uh, one of us.

Coterie Room’s owner-chefs, Dana Tough and Brian McCracken, hastened to clarify—letting us know first-off that the beer was for after-hours, from a supply of Olympia they have piled in their walk-in. Then a few months later (apparently ours wasn’t the only opinionated table) they changed the wording from “crew” to “kitchen”—a constituency that isn’t always rewarded with the tips the front-house workers get.

“We didn’t do this to make the customer feel sorry for the kitchen,” Tough and McCracken told me last week by phone. “We just thought it was quirky and fun, providing a way for the customer to be able to communicate directly with the kitchen.”

Inspired by a similar menu offering at The Publican in Chicago, the Coterie gents liked the casual, just-folks tone it lends the fancy, white-on-white comfort food house. Asked how many folks order it, they answered simply, “quite a few.” At Blind Pig our server said they get between one and five orders a night.

And yes—it’s legal, confirms Justin Nordhorn, enforcement chief for the state Liquor Control Board. Provided cooks don’t imbibe on the job or after close. If you’re wondering when exactly that leaves, Nordhorn allows there’s that fuzzy period after the last guest has been served but before the joint is formally closed. (He also admits that policing this might not be the LCB’s very highest priority.)

A lot of folks aren’t bothered by this at all. Many restaurants provide staff with shift drinks—a little tipple for after they’ve clocked out; why not allow a grateful patron to subsidize that? After all, it’s not mandatory. Sure, Coterie Room charges that patron the mark-up cost to do so (as you may surmise, a sixer of Oly does not cost a restaurant $10)—but Tough and McCracken split the remainder among the kitchen staff.

Add to this the red-haired-stepchild status the back-of-the-house has traditionally experienced, compensation-wise. Though often paid a higher hourly wage, the kitchen staff hasn’t typically been offered a share of the tips the minimum-wage-paid front-of-the-house staff collects. That’s the big dough—and the norm until recently hasn’t been to share it with kitchens.

That’s changing, agree chefs, as diners get “foodier” and more interested in the folks making the magic happen. The owners at Coterie Room report that their servers voluntarily put one percent of their food sales into a pot at the end of the night to distribute among the kitchen staff.

Still: It’s one percent. And not the good kind of one percent.

I guess that’s what gets under my skin: Buy-the-kitchen-booze feels like one more way the diner’s asked to put out. If the kitchen staff’s doing a great job—shouldn’t their bosses be paying them more? Famously fair restaurateurs like Tom Douglas already do—something to think about when criticizing Douglas’ pricepoints. It’d be nice if we rewarded our city’s stunning kitchens with something better than a few cans of watery beer. Something they could really use, like, I don’t know— more money.

Snarky? Guilty as charged. It’s just that when I add up the restaurant industry trends over the last half-dozen years (communal tables, no reservations, prix-fixe set meals) I see a pattern: restaurants increasingly serving their own interests over those of their customers.
In the end, that’s the nerve the whole kitchen booze thing hits for me. Pretty soon we’ll be going to restaurants only to stand in a line, get seated with strangers, eat what they tell us to eat, pay for the privilege—then get hit up for a beer.

Oh wait—we already are.

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Tags: Chefs, Tipping, Critic's Notebook, Blind Pig Bistro, Coterie Room

Which Am I More Willing to Give Up: One Year of My Life or a Well-Marbled Rib Eye?

What last week’s red meat buzzkill from Harvard means for meat lovers.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Mar 19, 2012 at 09:45AM 2 Comments

Proceed with caution? Steak at John Howie.

Last week came the bombshell that consumption of red meat is associated with a higher risk of early death.

It was a 20-year study, of more than 120,000 people, done by the reputable Harvard School of Public Health. Very persuasive. Dispiriting for avid carnivores. News to no one.

I got the word—I’m not kidding—over a heaping plate of prime rib eye at Manhattan Drugs. (Way to harsh a girl’s mellow, tablemates.) Increased risk of fatal heart disease and terminal cancer, I learned between bites. Nicely marbled bites.

“But don’t worry,” they consoled. “Steak isn’t as bad as hot dogs.” Processed meats, full of sodium and nitrites, indeed weighed in higher on the heartstopper index. Maybe soon wiener joints will be compelled to post those cheery fine-print snippets on their menus, about how the food you’re now consuming could be the fast-track to the morgue. Enjoy!

None of this is a surprise, of course; we beef-lovers have long known that our habit isn’t so healthy. The wisest among us have tempered our consumption of red meat while tweaking our other habits: upping good carbs (vegetables, legumes, soy products) and reducing bad ones (refined flours, high-fructose corn syrup); upping good fats (omega-3s) and reducing bad ones (trans and saturated, to name two).

Indeed, one criticism of the study was that it may have been measuring the results of correlating factors as much as the results of red-meat intake. The study pointed out that a higher red-meat intake was associated with lower intakes of whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.

I eat whole grains, vegetables, and fruits! Plenty of ‘em!

As ever, it comes down to moderation—and a sense of proportion. According to a Cambridge biostatistician, the Harvard study’s most quoted claim—that red meat-eaters have a 13 percent extra risk of dying—actually amounts to one year of life. The difference between living to 79 and living to 80.

Now I don’t mean to be glib about a very real health risk, I don’t. But after much thought I’ve concluded that the occasional L’il Woody’s Pendleton burger, Cuoco bistecca, and Canlis steak tartare accords me more life-giving joy than my 80th birthday will likely bring.

I’m just sayin’.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Canlis, Critic's Notebook, Manhattan Drugs, Steakhouse

The Names They Are A-Changin’

When it comes to restaurant names, a rose by any other name may taste as sweet. Or not.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Mar 12, 2012 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Aqua’s bright new dining room. Photo courtesy of the Aqua by El Gaucho website.

What’s going on when a restaurant changes its name? Because it’s happening all over town lately.

Lots of times a name change signals a change in concept. In recent months Seattle has seen Campagne become the more affordable Marche, Spring Hill become the more Hawaiian Ma’Ono Fried Chicken and Whisky, Earth and Ocean become the more generic Trace (the name of W Hotel restaurants in Texas and California).

Other times, as my esteemed colleague Allecia Vermillion reported last week in Sauced, name changes are legally compelled. That happened just three months into the life of The Publican, the Wallingford beer bar/chicken-and-waffles nirvana that ran into trouble from a Chicago joint of the same name. Voila Burgundian Tavern —nevermind that Burgundy connotes wine, not beer. Owner Matt Bonney has an explanation for that.

Unquestionably the king of restaurant name-shifting in this town is Tom Douglas, Seattle’s most famous restaurant titan who nevertheless describes himself as stupid when it comes to naming his properties.

To wit, the sign just went up last week on the north-of-Pike Place Market takeout space he opened in summer of 2010, Tommy D’s Rub Shack. When it opened it was Seatown To Go, the takeout adjunct to Seatown Snack Bar—which itself proved a misleading name. “I was going for a beachy thing, like the snack bars you see all up and down the Eastern Seaboard,” Douglas explains. “Nobody got it. They didn’t know we served dinner.” Hence was born Seatown Seabar and Rotisserie.

More recently Douglas’ unbelievably delish biscuit bar Dahlia Workshop became Serious Biscuit to clarify its purpose a little better. “I do this thing where I don’t want another bar and grill or another café, so I go for a word like ‘Workshop,’” Douglas says. “Nobody knew what a workshop was! I did the same thing with Serious Pie, which people thought was a bakery, and Dahlia Lounge, which everyone thought was a bar.”

Sometimes a name change marks a marketing shift so subtle it’s all but invisible to the naked eye. I dined at Aqua the other night (nee Waterfront Seafood Grill) and noted the new carpet, the brightened wall colors, the teensy lettering beneath the Aqua logo that says “by El Gaucho .” Waterfront was every bit as much “by El Gaucho”— the famous local steakhouse chain—but the name change (along with the addition of a few El Gaucho menu classics, like the Tenderloin Diablo) was designed to brand it to the steakhouse. Perhaps establishing the connection to a fancy steakhouse sets a diner’s price expectations a little higher? Because as we discovered the other night…Aqua is one pricy fishhouse.

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Tags: Tom Douglas, Seatown Snack Bar, Critic's Notebook, The Publican, Trace, Restaurant Marche, Ma'Ono Fried Chicken and Whisky, Dahlia Lounge

Mystery Menus

Would it kill restaurants to, I don’t know…use their menus to describe dishes? Apparently yes.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Mar 05, 2012 at 10:30AM 5 Comments

Sitka and Spruce’s menu, up for interpretation.

The fashion now in dining rooms is menu minimalism: Descriptions that may (or may not) list ingredients, but coyly withhold the preparation details diners might reasonably deem critical to their selection—or leave undefined arcane terms even diehard foodies might not know.

Yes readers, I have pointed this out before. The way La Bete offered Manila clams with gnocchi and aromatics without specifying that it was a stew, not a bowl of clams-in-shell. Tilth does it every time it lists its citrus brulee on its brunch card, amplifying that meaningless description only with “arugula, tarragon, Holmquist hazelnut.” (FYI, it’s caramelized orange slices with herbed greens, and if it’s on the menu you should order it: it’s really stunning.) Sitka and Spruce is an old hand at the cryptic treatment, peddling such mysteries as lamb manti and ful madams without a whisper of explanation. And LloydMartin: Shouldn’t a diner be granted the intelligence that “rabbit, sweet potato veloute, chestnut, Italian porcini” is a pasta dish?

I figured these Hemingwaylike descriptions might be a pendulum-swing from the days when menus were lampooned for a level of detail so Faulknerian, they read pretentious. Some chefs might be humbly keeping preparation descriptors low so as to forefront the primacy of the ingredient. Or maybe, to the contrary, they’re a chef’s not-so-humble way of suggesting that he should be trusted to wrest greatness from these ingredients—nevermind the details.
Now this just in from LloydMartin chef and owner, Sam Crannell: “We definitely list the main product in each dish, but we don’t want the descriptions to be too long,” he told me last week. “The way we do it opens up the ability to have a friendly conversation with the waitstaff. We don’t want to toy with guests, but we do want to encourage those conversations.”

Nothing personal, Sam, but to this guest’s mind, ordering already presents enough of a challenge. Sure, it’s not brain surgery. But between the demands of a table’s dietary restrictions and desire for variety—not to mention an individual’s cravings—diners work to come up with the orders they’ll be paying for. Seizing a waiter’s undivided attention to get the simple descriptive basics in the thick of the dinner hour so that waiter can properly “sell” us a dish should not be a diner’s responsibility—and, unless restaurants get staffed up with considerably more waiters, should not be the only way a diner can find out that there’s pasta in that thar rabbit plate.

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Tags: Menus, Menu Descriptions, Critic's Notebook, Sitka and Spruce, La Bete

Rising Trend in Seattle Restaurants: “Only 30 Chickens a Night!”

Scarcity marketing comes to the dining room.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 27, 2012 at 09:00AM 1 Comments

Ma’Ono Chickens: Get ‘em while they’re hot. (And before they’re all gone.)

We’ve all been to restaurants that run out of stuff—barbecue joints that close when the meat goes, sushi bars that nimbly switch specials according to what disappears, taco trucks that fold up earlier and earlier the more popular they become, bakeries that run out of their special brioche or—hey Nook !—freakishly delectable biscuits, a certain Cuban sandwich joint that routinely stabs its fans in the heart by hanging what might be the world’s saddest sign: No Bread.

(“I will buy them some bread,” muttered my devastated companion last time this happened. You want his number, Paseo?)

We all know why this happens: freshness demands it, and sometimes the best demographic demand prediction models—ie. guesses—are off.

So why not turn it into a marketing strategy?

Last week we were informed by our warm and welcoming waiter at Marjorie that its signature, The True Burger—a big freakin’ ball of beef with Worcestershire onions, harissa ketchup, bone marrow aioli, all the fixin’s, and a strip of bacon thick as a blade steak, on one strained-to-the-limit bakery bun—is only available to 10 lucky customers a night. “If you want one, you might want to tell me now,” our waiter confided when taking our drink orders. The place was starting to fill up.

Whew…we got ours! (It was fine, by the way…though insanely messy.)

Spring Hill did the same thing when it transformed itself a couple of weeks ago into the Hawaiian-tweaked Ma’Ono. The savvy joint knew how popular its fried chicken dinners were—periodic chicken-dinner-night test drives at Spring Hill had made that manifestly clear—so announcing that they’d be frying just 30 chickens per night and pricing them at $38 per couple seemed not just a safe strategy, but a savvy one.

Indeed, when I called for a table last week they were not only out of tables for the night—they were already out of chickens.

We will see more of this; from a restaurant’s standpoint what’s not to love? It sends the message that the kitchen cares about freshness. It (artificially) vaults a dish to star status. It has the potential to sell those tough-to-fill early tables. It grabs attention, of the sort I am bestowing right now.

And if it’s annoying for a customer to be told her favorite dish is already sold out for the night—it is, in equal measure, human nature being what it is, alluring. Indeed, call scarcity marketing the back-of-the-house’s version of a dining room’s no-reservations policy: A restaurant’s way of making itself look as popular as it possibly can.

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Tags: Marjorie, Restaurant Trends, Food Trends in Seattle, Critic's Notebook, Critic's Notebook, Ma'Ono Fried Chicken and Whisky, Nook

The Herbfarm Brings Back its Tree Feast

The Woodinville culinary legend goes all forest-to-table.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 20, 2012 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Doug Fir…it’s what’s for dinner.

Readers of a certain age will remember Euell Gibbons’ immortal phrase, “Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible!” from a TV ad for Grape Nuts. For years I wondered which “food” was meant to benefit from that comparison, Grape Nuts or pine trees; to this day I’ve ingested plenty of one and none of the other. Thanks to The Herbfarm, however, I have eaten fir tree, in a Doug Fir sorbet memorable for its bracing resiny vapors. It was like swallowing a Northwest breeze.

That was back in the days of the charming original Herbfarm, an only-slightly-upgraded shed alongside a mom-n-pop garden business in Woodinville. Now again in Woodinville but considerably more than a garden shed, the Herbfarm jumps back into the tree-gnawing game with a nine-course feast (through March 4, Fridays through Sundays) built around our woody friends and their derivatives.

Applewood-smoked wild steelhead with acacia, ash, cherry, oak, and chestnut balsamico-mustard. Virginica oysters in pine-smoked sea weater gelee. An Oregon sparkling wine with your choice of tree elixirs: fir or juniper.

(Choose the fir! Isn’t juniper elixir just…gin?)

And that’s only the first course, off a menu that unspools across intrigues like sumac-crusted Pacific albacore, acorn-fed pork with chestnut spaetzle, Bartlett pear ravioli with Douglas Fir consommé—and all manner of other Northwest winter fare cooked, smoked, or seasoned with wood, then flavored with fruits, seeds, nuts, flowers, leaves, needles, berries, sap, and bark from regional trees.

Foodies will be dazzled; Northwest foodies beside themselves.

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Tags: The Herbfarm, Critic's Notebook