Nosh Pit

Ethan and Angela Stowell Launch Eat. Run. Hope.

Lace up your shoes and loosen your belt: The new 5K and food fest will benefit the Fetal Hope Foundation.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Feb 08, 2012 at 03:00PM 2 Comments

Chef Ethan Stowell and wife and business partner Angela have organized a new 5K run April 1 to benefit the Fetal Hope Foundation. And because this is Ethan and Angela Stowell we’re talking about, the run also happens to be a food event, complete with a beer and wine garden, all in Seward Park.

No surprise, the food tent will be packed with culinary heavy hitters. Brace yourself for a ridiculously long list of great chefs, including Canlis’s Jason Franey, Renee Erickson of Walrus and the Carpenter, La Bête’s Tyler Moritz (a Stowell alum), Rachel Yang of Joule and Revel, Maria Hines of Tilth and Golden Beetle, Daisley Gordon of Marché, Terra Plata chef Tamara Murphy, Bastille’s Jason Stoneburner (also a Stowell alum), Miles James of Dot’s Delicatessen (yep, him too), Taste chef Craig Hetherington, Ericka Burke of Volunteer Park Cafe, and pizza from Via Tribunali.

Last summer the Stowells lost their unborn twin sons to Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, a rare and deadly disease that occurs only in identical twins. This event is the couple’s way to effect change in memory of their sons—and the Seattle restaurant community’s way to express support for one of its most visible members.

On a lighter note, the participating restaurants will be running a bacon relay, a prospect that sounds both entertaining and kind of greasy. Angela Stowell will be crafting bacon batons for this less athletic follow-up to the actual 5k which apparently arose from Maria Hines throwing down a challenge to her fellow chef participants.

Registering for the run costs $35, and the food tent is $70. Interested in both? That’s $95. Register for Eat. Run. Hope. right over here.

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Tags: Good Cause, Ethan Stowell, Seattle Food Events, Angela Stowell

Of Dining and Design

Come hear the restaurateurs behind some of the city’s hippest spaces talk shop.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Feb 03, 2012 at 11:45AM 0 Comments

Does the food at Poquitos taste better because you’re eating it in an awesome space? I plan to ask the owners. Photo by Geoffrey Smith.

I’m hardly a design expert, but I do know that a good meal takes on added layers of enjoyment when you eat in a well-conceived space. We ostensibly go out to eat for the victuals, but dining is its own form of theater…even food trucks. I’ll admit it: I enjoy a good meal or cocktail all the more in a beautiful setting.

Hence I was flattered to be asked to moderate the Seattle Architecture Foundation panel Restaurateurs and Their Spaces on Tuesday, February 7 at 7pm at Town Hall. Organizers somehow managed to get four very busy guys to in the same room on the same night to answer questions about the dozen-plus restaurants, bars, and coffee shops they have opened and owned around Seattle.

Those guys would be chef-of-many restaurants Ethan Stowell; James Weimann and Deming Maclise of Poquitos, Bastille, and Macleod’s; and partner-in-many-restaurants Chad Dale, who is involved with Staple and Fancy, Walrus and the Carpenter, and Revel. Maybe you’ve heard of them?

Honestly, one of those bobble-necked drinking bird dolls could facilitate an entertaining conversation among these gentlemen. I’m guessing they have some memorable tales of design triumphs and the crazy things that happen when you tear out walls in old buildings. Also, can someone please share details about the secret spot where all these restaurants find incredible salvaged fixtures and furniture?

I’m told the key to being a good moderator is drinking wine (in moderation) before said moderating occurs. Grab your $20 ticket right over here and please do say hello.

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Tags: Ethan Stowell, Seattle Food Events, Deming Maclise, James Weimann, Chad Dale

Montreal Winter Festival Imports Six Seattle Chefs

A seriously gastronomic Canadian crowd gets a chance to sample our local fare.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Jan 19, 2012 at 02:55PM 0 Comments

Montreal chef Guillaume Sparks-Beaule is letting Matt Dillon take over his restaurant Pullman for two nights. And hopefully sharing a few tips on posing awesomely with ingredients.

Every year, the Montreal en Lumiere winter festival showcases the culture and cuisine of both a region and a particular city. This time around, Seattle is in the spotlight, along with Brussels. The festival, known to Anglophones as Montreal High Lights, runs February 16 to 26. Organizers are importing six of our city’s most notable chefs: Jason Franey (Canlis), Jason Stratton (Spinasse and Artusi), Thierry Rautureau (Luc and Rover’s), Jason Wilson (Crush), Matt Dillon (Sitka and Spruce and the Corson Building), and Ethan Stowell (lots of things).

Each chef takes over one of Montreal’s top kitchens for two nights, essentially putting on an upscale pop-up restaurant. As the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Glenn Drosendahl noted recently, Franey’s duo of dinners at Montreal restaurant Les 400 Coups are already sold out (reportedly within a day).

What does this mean for Seattle? Well, our city will be rather bereft of award-winning chefs named Jason for the duration of the festival. But it’s also a chance for some of our culinary talents to share this region’s cuisine with a new and broader audience.

Washington’s wine will also get some love. The festival will showcase Bergevin Lane, Gordon Brothers Family Vineyards, Hedges Family Estate, L’Ecole No. 41, Long Shadows, Milbrandt Vineyards, Precept Wine, and Rotie Cellars.

Montreal chefs are also doing a few Seattle-centric events, like a lunch exploring our local street food (prepared for eat-in or takeout). There’s also a grunge night that celebrates the music, wine, and food of 1991 for $65. Or $95 with wine.

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Tags: Ethan Stowell, Thierry Rautureau, Jason Stratton, Jason Wilson, Jason Franey, Matt Dillon

Tavolàta Dispenses Free Rigatoni January 22

Ethan Stowell’s longest-standing restaurant is turning five. He’s celebrating by giving you pasta with sausage.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Jan 11, 2012 at 03:40PM 0 Comments

Tavolata is turning 5. And here’s a reason to celebrate.

Most of our free food alerts center on tacos, fries or other more walkable items. So here’s a new one: free rigatoni. According to a recent press release, prolific chef Ethan Stowell will celebrate the fifth anniversary of Tavolàta (now his most senior establishment) by handing out gratis bowls of rigatoni with spicy Italian sausage on Sunday, January 22 to “everyone who walks in the door.”

Really? Everyone? I sent his rep a note to confirm that the release meant “everyone who walks in and drops cash on a full dinner.”

She confirmed that Stowell actually meant everyone. Obviously it’s classy to actually order food. But if you have the chutzpah to come in, order an iced tea at the bar and suck down free rigatoni, your bowl will be dispensed with a smile (but at least leave a decent tip, cheapskate). However you will actually have to be seated somewhere; there are no to-go bowls.

You will probably want to stay for a full dinner anyway, since Stowell will be joining Tavolàta’s excellent chef Brandon Kirksey on the line for the night’s dinner service. Reservations = a very good idea.

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Tags: Free Food, Ethan Stowell, Tavolata, Brandon Kirksey

Portlander Jake Martin New Chef at How to Cook a Wolf

He replaces Matt Fortner, now at Blind Pig Bistro.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jan 05, 2012 at 01:52PM 0 Comments

Photo: Amos Morgan

Jake Martin is the new chef at Queen Anne restaurant How to Cook a Wolf.

Willamette Week dropped an interesting tidbit this AM Wednesday: Portland toque Jake Martin, most recently at small plates destination Central, has taken the reins at How to Cook a Wolf.

A rep for the Ethan Stowell restaurant confirmed the move, saying “He is just starting to get his feet wet and get familiar with the restaurant, food, staff, and such. The menu will basically stay the same but with Jake’s input and creativity.”

According to the rep Martin, also an alum of Stumptown restaurants Carlyle and Fenouil, had been looking to move to Seattle, and used to work with Stowell at the now-shuttered Union. Since relocating Martin and Stowell have been cooking together on and off in the Wolf kitchen, and will continue to buddy up through the end of the month.

Martin replaces Matt Fortner, you’ll now find him at Blind Pig Bistro, opened by another Stowell vet, Charles Walpole. With Fortner there the already lauded newcomer is shaping up to be quite the powerhouse.

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Tags: Ethan Stowell, Shift Change, How to Cook a Wolf

Five Openings I’m Awaiting in 2012

We’ve celebrated the newcomers and mourned the shuttered. Now let’s look ahead.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Dec 28, 2011 at 01:15PM 0 Comments

This year: hair salon. Next year: majorly anticipated bakery Crumble and Flake.

The Internet masses will be slogging through a few more days of “year in review” posts/articles/tweets before 2011 makes its grand exit. Hence I’d like to take a minute to cast an eye toward the future and point out a few restaurants that have me counting the minutes until next year arrives.

Ethan Stowell’s fast casual undertaking
One of Seattle’s most accomplished (and delightfully sardonic) chefs is still working on a series of fast casual establishments under the name Grubb Brothers (along with wife Angela Stowell and business partner Chad Dale). The first joint to open its doors is likely to be Ballard Pizza Co. some time this spring. But the group’s restaurant plans also include steak frites, fried chicken, sandwiches, and more. Hence whatever spot becomes a reality first, chances are I’ll be waiting outside the front window, chanting “o-pen, o-pen, o-pen!” like the ladies in those ghastly old Mervyn’s ads. Hey, nobody accused me of having an active social life. Estimated open: Majorly TBD.

The return of Restaurant Zoe
There is some fast and furious buildout happening over at the former La Panzanella bakery, now home to Oola Distillery and soon Restaurant Zoe (also, Chinese restaurant Lucky 8). Scott Staples’s first restaurant is planning to reopen mid-January in its new Capitol Hill digs. It shouldn’t take a relocation to get diners excited about an enduring favorite. But, nonetheless…excitement. Estimated open: January.

Skelly and the Bean
Zephyr Paquette’s forthcoming Capitol Hill restaurant is many things: an incubator. A community space. An ambitious experiment in membership-based funding. So it’s easy to get sidetracked from the fact that Paquette is a pretty badass cook. And said badassery will be in effect Wednesday through Saturday, when Paquette will be in the kitchen and her multi-faceted space is a restaurant, plain and simple. Estimated opening: Late January or early February.

Crumble and Flake
Pastry chef Neil Robertson garnered a loyal following at Canlis, cemented it at MistralKitchen, and now he’s adding to the roster of great food and drink spots creeping down Olive Way. What’s currently a hair salon will soon become Crumble and Flake, a tiny shop that Robertson will fill with a takeout counter and whatever cream puffs, cookies, and croissaints he feels like conjuring up in the tiny shop’s kitchen. Estimated open: April-ish.

Queen of Ballard
Don’t get me wrong, I’m plenty interested in Manhattan Drugs, the Capitol Hill spot from Laura Olson and Chris Pardo, that’s probably opening in the very first days of 2012 (in other words, late next week). But the small plate Scandinavian restaurant the couple is planning over in Ballard puts an interesting spin on the neighborhood’s heritage and will be unlike any other place I can think of in town. Estimated open: January or February.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Restaurant Zoe, Ethan Stowell, Queen of Norway, Skelly and the Bean, Ballard Pizza Co, Crumble and Flake, Zephyr Paquette, Neil Robertson

Zach Chambers New Chef at Anchovies and Olives

He’s introducing a revamped menu.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jul 20, 2011 at 12:33PM 1 Comments

Zach Chambers is the new man in the kitchen at Ethan Stowell’s Anchovies and Olives.

A rep for Capitol Hill restaurant Anchovies and Olives sends word that Zach Chambers has been tapped to take over the Ethan Stowell kitchen. The news comes about a month and half after Charles Walpole left his post as head chef.

Chambers, a Tavolata alum who also put in time at Spinasse and Olivar and Gramercy Tavern in New York, plans to rework the menu. Expect “more traditional” entree sizes, an intense focus on Northwest seafood, and expanded offerings—each section of his four-part bill will option between five and a dozen plates.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Ethan Stowell, Seattle Chefs

Nosh Pit’s Top Food Tweets of the Week: James Beard Edition

José Andrés retweets too hard, props for Rachel Yang, and the best photo snapped at this year’s #JBFA.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 13, 2011 at 03:47PM 0 Comments

The Feast NY’s sentiments exactly.

This week brought us the James Beard Awards, and it was a pretty dismal year for Seattle.

Tom Douglas, the Canlis family, Ethan Stowell, and Matt Dillon were all up for awards but didn’t win. Our one victor was quite a worthy one, however. Farestart was awarded Humanitarian of the Year.

And despite the disappointments, there was much #JBFA-related entertainment to be enjoyed on Twitter.

Coming in at number 5 is the adorable Iberian José Andrés. He walked away with this year’s Outstanding Chef award, an awesome honor. His tweeting skills, however, could use some sharpening.

Twitter lit up with accolades for the DC-based chef after his award was announced, and Andrés retweeted them all. For this breach of Twitter etiquette, he received many virtual spanks. But it wasn’t until after Andrés retweeted the following, from someone called Web Barr, that he realized his mistake. An apology followed.

Now that @chefjoseandres has won the James Beard Award for Excellence, can we anoint him King of @Humblebrag? #lotsofretweets

4. Seattlest’s Lorraine Goldberg, responding to the announcement that Best Chef Northwest was Portland’s Andy Ricker—and not, as we’d all assumed it would be, Ethan Stowell—tweeted:

Portland-1 Seattle-0. Bummer

3. The ever-mysterious Ruth Bourdain had some funny things to say about the Beard awards (and won one!), but this is our favorite tweet of hers this week.

I hate the way men look at me when I walk down the street eating a geoduck clam.

Okay, that wasn’t a James Beard tweet at all. Hmm. Moving on.

2. Revel and Joule chef Rachel Yang cooked at the James Beard Awards this year and received high praise from the always lovely Marcus Samuelsson.

Best food tonight from revel[’s] rachel yang. http://yfrog.com/gyspkknjj

1. But the best James Beard Award tweet by far came from The Feast New York, who snapped the photo you see above, with the following caption.

Our sentiments exactly.

Better luck next year, Seattle chefs! And happy weekend.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Ethan Stowell, Farestart, James Beard Awards, Food Tweets of the Week, Geoduck

Ethan Stowell Food Comes to Safeco Field

Buy me some authentic Parisian crepes and Cracker Jack…

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jan 31, 2011 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Ethan Stowell: Part of the M’s starting lineup

Centerplate, the food service provider to Safeco Field, announced last week it will partner with three headliner chefs to provide Mariners fans with delicacies like coal-fired thin crust pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, Mexican tortas, hamburg with frites, and authentic Parisian crepes.

The last two will be the work of Seattle’s own Ethan Stowell, impresario of Tavolata, How to Cook a Wolf, Anchovies and Olives, and impresario/chef at Staple and Fancy Mercantile. “Our mission was to create a restaurant-style hospitality experience—the anti-fast food— in a concession environment,” said John Sergi, of Centerplate. “We approached it the way a restaurateur would by bringing in Ethan as our consulting chef for the building in order to help us make the food ‘restaurant-real.’”

In addition to a chef in the starting lineup, look for a more open Bullpen Market. And, uh… go M’s.

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Tags: Ethan Stowell, Ethan Stowell, Mariners

Tavolàta’s Family-Style Supper Series Begins

First up: lamb.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Nov 05, 2010 at 03:33PM 0 Comments

Aw. Tavolàta’s nose-to-tail monthly feasts take advantage of every part of the animal. For vegetarians and the cute-sensitive, there’s a spring vegetable dinner in May.

Ethan Stowell-owned, Brandon Kirksey-cheffed Tavolàta is getting in on the Sunday supper action with a once-a-month, family-style feast to be served at the restaurant’s communal table.

The dinners are held on the first Sunday of each lunar cycle—this Sunday, November 7 the star ingredient is lamb. Dishes shall include lamb’s tongue bruschetta; rigatoni with lamb sausage, mint and tomato; gnocchi with braised lamb’s neck; and whole-roasted leg of lamb with rapini and polenta.

Call 206-838-8008 to reserve. If there are no more seats, sign up for future feasts featuring lobster (December 5), suckling pig (January 9), seafood (February 6), whole roasted goat (March 6), wild fowl and eggs (April 3), and—hello vegetarians, did you make it through that thing about lamb’s tongue?—spring vegetables (May 1).

Dinners range from $45 to $60 per person.

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Tags: Belltown, Sunday Suppers, Ethan Stowell

What You Missed When You Missed Last Night’s Cookbook Author Roundtable

Aphrodisiacs, doughnuts, and the saddest oyster tale ever.

Posted by: James Ross Gardner on Oct 21, 2010 at 02:15PM 1 Comments

Non-chef Raymond Carver

An event that takes its name from a short story in which a fatal car crash sends a steering wheel into the sternum of a drunk teenager sets the drama bar pretty high. Based on premise alone, though, the bi-annual Kim Ricketts Book Events panel discussion with local cookbook authors, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Food,” doesn’t seem likely to plunge any deeper than a nick from a potato peeler.

Not so. Last spring’s iteration had nearly the entire audience salting its chardonnay with tears after an author read a tribute to her ailing father. Time before that, the crowd went fetal laughing at a writer’s description of a bodily fluid that, as a man, I didn’t even know existed.

The events have something else in common with Raymond Carver’s gorgeous, gin-soaked story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love:” People sitting around a table, drinking and recounting tales.

Last night, the impossible-not-to-like Amy Pennington (author of Urban Pantry) led a discussion with five cookbook scribes: Shauna Ahern (co-author of Gluten Free Girl and the Chef), chef/author Ethan Stowell (Ethan Stowell’s New Italian Kitchen), Greg Atkinson (Northwest Essentials), Kim O’Donnel (The Meatlover’s Meatless Cookbook), and Lara Ferroni ( Doughnuts ).

The highlights: Stowell’s secret seduction recipe (it involves a sea urchin); the origin of Ferroni’s lifelong love affair with doughnuts (family road trip, cramped VW Karmann Ghia, Dunkin Donuts pit stop, bliss); Ahern’s burnt-garlic-as-metaphor; the O’Donnel clan’s flirt with fate via high cholesterol and steak.

But it was the author of Northwest Essentials—which first hit shelves a decade ago and has re-emerged for a new audience to devour—who lifted the evening to literary heights worthy of the event’s name. In a chapter ostensibly about oysters, Greg Atkinson recounted the moment he learned that his brother had died. The prose sent the audience on Atkinson’s grief-stricken walk along a Bainbridge Island beach and back to a table where tears and oysters and memory melted into one.

And that, after the panel disassembled and disappeared into the mingling crowd—and we all shouldered out onto the sidewalk and pointed our cars home—is what we talked about.

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Tags: Cookbooks, Review, Food Events and Festivals, Ethan Stowell, Kim Ricketts

Three Things I Learned at Madison Market Last Night

Cheese by the half-wheel, Ethan Stowell pasta, and losing perspective on customer service standards.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 09, 2010 at 11:47AM 1 Comments

Madison Market, school of life.

I stopped into Madison Market last night to pick up some groceries. In the process I managed to learn three things. Those things are these:

1. You can get Dinah’s cheese by the half wheel: Madison Market now cuts the circle of Camembert-style cheese into two half-moons and sells each separately. I asked cheesemaker Kurt Timmermeister why, and he said it was the store that repacked the cheese that way, not Kurtwood Farms.

But it’s a convenient thing to know if you’re planning a cheese plate that will include—but not be limited to—Dinah’s.

2. Madison Market sells Ethan Stowell’s pasta line, Lagana, and it’s excellent. I bought the radiatore and had to eat it practically plain (I threw in a little pesto but not much) due to a sad stomach. It was plumped-up, freshity fresh perfection. Seriously, this is your new dinner-party secret.

3. People cause scenes at co-ops. Usually the worst thing that happens at Madison Market is that you have to wait in line forever because someone forgot to label the twisty on his organic farro. But last night the worst (slash best!) thing that happened was that a middle-aged woman went “all banshee”—as my Australian relatives like to say—and started yelling at this cashier about how rude he was, and about how she always tries to avoid his line because he’s so freaking rude.

And the funny thing about that is that said cashier is like the nicest person ever. Even by the high, happy-hippie niceness standards of Madison Market employees he is nice. Irate lady: If you think Madison Market employees mistreat you, you might try shopping anywhere else in the world besides an upscale organic market in Seattle. Not five minutes before, I saw a store worker, upon noticing a customer with too many items in her arms, run across the shop to get her a cart. And that employee who got the cart? He’s not even as nice as the guy at whom the banshee was shrieking.

Still, I have to admit, I appreciated the show. “Who needs TV?” asked the guy in front of me, clutching his pointy bike helmet and employing a bit of a British accent. Certainly no one at the co-op needs TV! I thought. And then I shoved my groceries into my purse, so as to avoid the shame of a plastic bag (or “devil sac” as we call them at the co-op), and went home to eat plain Ethan Stowell pasta in front of the boob tube.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Cheese, Grocery Shopping, Ethan Stowell