Nosh Pit

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.

Add a Comment »

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

Belle Epicurean in Madison Park Opens Provisions

The pantry is stocked with condiments, cheeses, wine, and other such stuff.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jan 10, 2012 at 01:39PM 0 Comments

It’s now open. Photo courtesy belleepicurean.com..

Pantries and mercantiles were a hot-and-heavy trend of 2011 (some successful, some sadly not), but we’ve yet to see the last of them.

Today the Madison Park Belle Epicurean opens Provisions, an auxiliary shop amply stocked with on-the-go wares. Types of things you’ll find: books on food and wine, condiments, rotating cheeses, take-and-bake items, cake mix, and “other ingredients we use,” says owner (and pastry extraordinaire) Carolyn Ferguson. Her oenophile husband Howard will stock plenty of bottles as well.

Oh, and Ferguson added wine tastings are lined up for every Thursday this month from 5–8. Do stop by.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Food Trends in Seattle, Belle Epicurean, Pantries and Mercantiles

Full Tilt’s New Flavor: Cornflakes

Consider it an ice cream homage to New York City’s Milk Bar.

Posted by: Stephanie Rubesh on Jan 10, 2012 at 11:45AM 0 Comments

Tastes like sweet milk, smells like sweet milk—it is sweet milk. Just in frozen form.

Full Tilt Ice Cream is taking a page from Milk Bar, Christina Tosi’s much-loved dessert offshoot of David Chang’s restaurant empire. Owner Justin Cline, already known for his unconventionally awesome flavors, has been finalizing a new addition. Behold, cornflakes ice cream: the taste of sugary bottom-of-the-bowl cereal milk now in dessert form. Cline says the flavor, a play on Milk Bar’s famed cereal milk and its attendant ice cream, has been a hit thus far.

The ice creamery’s initial batch—complete with caramelized cornflakes—is going fast. But we’re in luck. Another batch is being churned and will be available at all Full Tilt locations this weekend (including the new Ballard shop). “From the small test batches we’ve done, I think this is going to be a summer favorite,” says Cline. Black sesame and chocolate tarragon are also in the works.

“But it’s January,” whines my practical side. Hush. This flavor promises to be as exciting in the 40-degree present as it will be in the theoretical 75-degree future.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Ice Cream, Special Menus, Food Trends in Seattle, Full Tilt, Justin Cline, On the Menu

Restaurants Co-Opt the Macaron Trend

Find the delicacies at more than just bakeries.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Dec 02, 2011 at 09:55AM 0 Comments

Ba Bar’s pastry chef Karen Krol. Photo courtesy Ba Bar

Yep, macarons are definitely having a moment. Not only are the French pastries coming out of bakeries left and right, they’re also popping up at restaurants.

Ba Bar has been dropping like mad Facebook pics of new pastry chef Karen Krol fashioning all sorts of intriguing flavors, chocolate nutella and banana chocolate being two examples.

The recently opened Hitchcock deli on Bainbridge brought on Tamas Ronyai to oversee a panoply of pastries, macarons included. Odds are they’re excellent—Ronyai trained at Parisian patisserie Laduree, the famed birthplace of the meringue cakes. Right now two flavors are in rotation, with a couple more to come soon, according to a Hitchcock baker.

Art in the Four Seasons just added several (wee) varieties to the menu. The pistachio is particularly delicious (and pretty, with its artful streaks of sparkle).

Where else?

Add a Comment »

Tags: Food Trends in Seattle, Macarons

Trend Report: What Chefs Really Think of Foam, Food Trucks, and Foodies

For our Best Restaurants issue we asked the chefs and they answered. Boy did they answer.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Oct 31, 2011 at 09:08AM 1 Comments

The food photos in our Best Restaurants issue will make you salivate—but our feature entitled Chefs Bite Back may be even more delish.

We asked the city’s finest chefs for their uncensored, anonymous opinions of their competitors, their customers (that’s you, bub), the critics (uh—that would be me), and more—including the biggest culinary trends afoot this moment.

What they like? Farm-to-table dining. Shared plates/small plates. Molecular cuisine (er…in a telling tie with moving away from molecular cuisine." Ha.) What they loathe? Let’s just take their comments straight-up, shall we?

• “I think Happy Hour is the worst thing for our industry.”
• “Cocktails with bacon.”
• “The food truck thing.”
• “Anything to do with foam.”
• “Cheap-at-all-costs: It limits how we can treat our employees.”
• “Communal tables. I will never eat at one.”
•“The absolute worst trend is Groupon-style vouchers: They train people to expect something for nothing.”
• “Chefs who open so many restaurants they can’t focus on one in particular.”
• “Deification of chefs.”
• “‘I’m a foodie’ has to be one of the most annoying things I’ve ever heard in my life.”
• “Pork belly is played out. I mean, I have it on my menu right now but I think it’s definitely past its prime.”

Add a Comment »

Tags: Restaurant Trends, Food Trends in Seattle, Critic's Notebook

Poutine at the Coterie Room: Best in the City?

So we hear.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Oct 14, 2011 at 10:25AM 7 Comments

The poutine in question. Thanks to the generous Seattle Food Geek for the pic.

Poutine, it’s right up there with brunch as far as Seattle obsessions go.

Word from a trusty source says the kitchen at The Coterie Room is whipping up the best, most precise plate this city’s seen for some time. Curious, I called owner-chefs Brian McCracken and Dana Tough to learn more about it. Here, they break down their newfangled approach.

The fries They’re of the steak variety (larger, they allow optimal mopping of gravy without losing heft). They’re blanched and cooked a bit longer so as to stay crisper, then tossed in chives, salt, rosemary, and oil—lending “an herbaceous note to the potato.”

The gravy This, say McT, is the clincher. The sauce is rich with pork trotter and braised pork shoulder, and reduced to a consistency so exact it took them a week to perfect. (They wanted to ensure it coated the fries evenly rather than just sit on top.) “It’s almost like a demi-glace.”

The cheese Beecher’s. Breaded then fried and lightly salted. The result: a crispy outside, gooey inside.

The dressing An assortment of herbs and spices, lemon juice, oil, and salt and pepper makes for an herby and fragrant finish. They say the freshness helps nullify that uh-oh gut bomb sensation one often experiences post-poutine.

There you have it. Thoughts? Sound like the stuff of poutine legend? Think you’ve tasted Seattle’s best plate elsewhere?

Add a Comment »

Tags: Food Finds, Food Trends in Seattle, Poutine

Seattle’s Slider Population Still Intact

Despite reports of the end of the little burger trend, small sandwiches remain on local menus.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 30, 2011 at 12:18PM 0 Comments

Hey, baby. Seattle still loves its sliders.

Photo: Veggie slider at 22, by Jessica Voelker

It was with open arms that I greeted the news that the Seattle Times’s Tan Vinh had chosen the slider as his most recent subject.

I am a huge fan of mini sandwiches of all sorts. Because here’s the thing: sometimes you don’t want to commit to a full burger or filet mignon sandwich. Sometimes you just want a little taste of one. But I have been dismayed, in recent times, after hearing assertions from an array of sources that sliders were over. Done. Out like molten chocolate cake and cosmopolitans. And I have noticed that many of my favorite local slider destinations have discontinued them in recent times.

Vinh’s article, however, in which he lists top 10 Seattle spots for baby burgs, shows that while the slider population in Seattle may be in decline, mini sandwiches are nowhere near extinct.

I would add to this list of tasty local sliders the little white-cheddar biscuit sandwiches at Frank’s Oyster House and Champagne Bar in Ravenna. Oh and I’d also point out that steamed buns—another form of mini-meatwich—seems to still be on the rise around these parts. Pork belly steam buns are a crux of the food menu at Canon, for instance. And traditional gua bao will be featured prominently at new street-eats spot Chino’s, which opens this October.

Long live the small sandwich.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Food Trends in Seattle, Tan Vinh, The Seattle Times

More Froyo! Another Three Yogurtlands Planned for Seattle Area

The U District, Bellevue, and Wallingford are each getting one.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Sep 08, 2011 at 02:41PM 1 Comments

Blame this guy: Yogurtland founder Phillip Chang. Photo courtesy yogurt-land.com.

Seattle, not unlike the rest of the planet, has gone totally bananas for self-serve froyo. So much so that pay-per-ounce pioneer Yogurtland considers the city one of its more lucrative sectors, says Alexis Eldridge, vice president of marketing.

The Cali company’s first Washington outpost opened this spring on Broadway and Pine, and, confirms Eldridge, three more stores are in the works: at 2320 N 45th Street in Wallingford; 4334 University Way NE; and across the lake, in the 200 block of Bellevue Way NE. Eldridge says they’ll all open before the end of the year. As for further expansion plans, they’re definitely happening. Where? “TBD.”

Meanwhile, dueling megabrand Menchies, which currently claims four regional branches, is due soon at U Village and in Puyallup and West Seattle.

Squeal away, high ponytailed teens, squeal away.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Food Trends in Seattle, Froyo, Yogurtland

Smelt Good

The little fishy is all over menus right now, fried up crisp and delish.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Aug 29, 2011 at 08:29AM 2 Comments

The summer smelt run is in full flash right now along Washington surf, and the evidence is all over Seattle restaurants. Sushi bars like Sushi Kappo Tamura and Shiro’s make dependable seasonal use of the best of our ocean smelt, as do the getting-nicer-all-the-time folks over at Pike Street Fish Fry.

Say what you will about the virtues of grilling and roasting; the really sublime way to treat smelt is to fry a mess of ‘em up in a light breading. This is how I enjoyed them two weeks ago as an appetizer at the new Ba Bar across from Seattle U, Eric Banh’s (Monsoon, Baguette Box) loving tribute to the street eats of Saigon. Four or five of the silvery creatures lolled across a buoyant toss of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.

Then the next night, across town at Beacon Hill’s new pizza sensation Bar del Corso, there they were again, fried up in an herby cloak and addictively munchable.

Indeed, not for nothing are smelt known as the French fries of the sea—often not much bigger (ours were 6ish to 8ish inches long) and delectably salty and crunchy. Some of the crunch comes from the bones, which are most often served right along with the flesh but are handily dispatched by our teeth.

Same goes for…the head. Glassy lifeless eyes and all. Last week I’m afraid I grossed out a lot of 103.7 The Mountain listeners in my weekly report on Seattle dining—I’m on every Thursday morning at 8am— when I mentioned that since head-and-guts-and-tail-and-all is the way fried smelt are often served, it’s a fine way to eat them. The flavor is gently briny and light; the texture crisp and lovely.

Puts the bone in bon appetit. Ha.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Food Trends in Seattle, Critic's Notebook

Get Your Goat

Trendy protein alert: Goat is the new…trendy protein. Here’s where to eat it.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 03, 2011 at 01:23PM 0 Comments

Spinasse’s goat-stuffed pasta parcels.

Photo: Spinasse

Goat, the world’s most consumed meat, has a lot going for it. It is low in fat, for instance, and high in protein. And it is gamey in a winning way.

But until recent times, goat has been considered fairly exotic among many Americans. Particularly, let’s just tell it how it is, among white Americans. But here in Seattle, it’s starting to pop up more and more on menus.

You should eat some. Here are some places where you can.

“Our tortelli with tails is a little sheet of pasta wrapped around a filling made of very slowly roasted kid,” says Jason Stratton, chef at Spinasse. “There’s also a healthy amount of new summer greens in the mix—chard, lacinato kale, etc.” Stratton says the shape of the pasta parcels reminds him of a “little stegosaurus.”

New Mexican eatery Poquitos buys its goat from Quilceda Farm in Marysville (also sold at the Ballard Farmers Market) and braises it with guajillo chilies and tomato, then serves it with tortillas and fingerling potatoes. The dish is called goat birria—a birria being a spicy stew.

At Cuoco, Tom Douglas’s new Northern Italian restaurant in Amazonia, you can eat bucatini marinara with young goat meatballs.

If this is your first dip into the world of goat, you might try Island Soul on Rainier Avenue South. Its “Bowls of Soul” sampler includes curried goat but also oxtail stew and jerk chicken, so you’ve still got good stuff to eat if it turns out gamey goat is not your bag.

Also good to know: While there is no goat on Sitka and Spruce’s August menu, chef and owner Matt Dillon is definitely a fan, so watch out for goat on future menus or call his other restaurant, the Corson Building, to learn whether he’ll be using it in any upcoming dinners. Also, Indian and Mexican restaurants have a tendency to serve goat but not necessarily list it on the menu. Always worth an ask.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Food Trends in Seattle, Goat , Restaurant Round-Ups

Is Capitol Hill Too Laden with Comfort Food?

Specifically, the area around 14th and Union? A reader suggests as much.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 21, 2011 at 11:20AM 4 Comments

The corner of 14th and Union on Capitol Hill, pre Skillet Diner and Marjorie.

Last week Nosh shared news of Lucky 8, a 25-seat Chinese restaurant set to open in October a stone’s throw from the new Skillet Diner, to which one commenter posted the reply (or rather, request):

Pleeease have some healthier options (vegetables, whole grains, not fried, vegetarian/vegan). This corner of Capitol Hill is overflowing with restaurants serving novelty [sic] ridiculous amounts of meat and cream and grease. You’ll do well and corner the market with actual fresh food.

As a point of reference, that neck of the woods is home to a diverse spread of eateries: Spinasse, Meza, the aforementioned Skillet Diner, Lark, Cafe Presse, Marjorie, and High 5 Pie, to name some.

Are they meaty? Sure. Besotted with down-home dining? Maybe. But lacking in fresh fare?

What say you? Does this commenter have a point?

Add a Comment »

Tags: Capitol Hill, Food Trends in Seattle

Hey, It’s Tako Truk!

A street food favorite from the summer of ’09 pops up at Madison Park Conservatory.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 17, 2011 at 04:58PM 0 Comments

Photo: Nick Feldman

Mahoney (left) and Jarr in front of Tako Truk in the summer of ’09.

More pop-ups!

The long dormant Tako Truk, the food stall Cormac Mahoney and Bryan Jarr used to operate outside Eastlake Zoo Tavern in the warmer months of 2009, is due to resurface during Summer Sunday Socials at Mahoney’s new restaurant, Madison Park Conservatory.

The first one happens June 26 and gets underway at 4. Tako’s signature “green drink” is now spiked (booze was a no-no before, remember?), and on the food front the Conservatory’s website lists guiso and tacos, plus “fried things,” “raw things,” and popcorn (naturally).

Follow @takotruk for updates.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Special Dinners, Street Food, Food Trends in Seattle