Nosh Pit

What’s With All the Grandma Restaurants?

Some of our hippest new establishments are ancestrally named.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Nov 29, 2011 at 12:40PM 4 Comments

Awww. Dot’s Delicatessen owner Miles James’s grandma Dot outside his Fremont meatery. Photo via Facebook.

In Seattle we’ve seen our fair share of restaurants named after kids (Quinn’s, Restaurant Zoe, Cafe de Lion), moms (Marjorie), and a whole heap of establishments named after the old buildings that house them (Auto Battery, Uneeda Burger, Staple and Fancy).

This year, however, it’s grandma’s turn. Seattle Magazine’s Allison Scheff said today that unstoppable hospitality duo Laura Olson and Chris Pardo are planning a Scandinavian small plate destination in Ballard dubbed Queen of Norway. It’s an homage to Pardo’s grandmother, who won that title in a Ballard parade in the 1930s.

Elsewhere in Ballard, Corson Building veteran David Sanford is readying his restaurant, Belle Clementine, which also happens to be the name of his father’s mother. Her photo (she’s a sharp dresser) even graces the restaurant’s website. Earlier this year, Miles James opened his divine temple of meatery, Dot’s Delicatessen, named for his grandmother.

Even grandfathers got a bit of love this fall. Chef-owner Sam Crannell’s new Queen Anne restaurant, LloydMartin, combines the surnames of his maternal and paternal grandfathers, both entrepreneurs.

As far as naming trends go, this one is far dearer and more personal than our restaurant community’s never-ending love of ampersands. And now I feel especially guilty that the most lasting tributes I ever created for my grandparents involved misshapen clay objects and third-grade art class.

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Tags: Restaurant Trends, Trending, LloydMartin, Queen of Norway, Belle Clementine

Trending: Bread and Pastries

Carb-free? Not around these parts. Local bakeries say Seattleites are buying up baguettes like crazy.

Posted by: Tiffany Ran on Apr 12, 2011 at 02:33PM 2 Comments

Whatever, Hollywood. Seattle still loves bread.

In the Trending series, Nosh Pit talks to local food providers, shop owners, chefs, servers—whoever’s appropriate, really—about those consumables Seattle can’t get enough of right now. This week: bread and pastries.

1. At Columbia City Bakery, breakfast staples like the cardamom coffee cake sell out quickly in the mornings while grab-and-go sandwiches are grabbed and gone by the afternoon.

Operations manager Andrew Cleary has noticed his customers returning to old favorites that were less popular in recent years. “Bread in general is way up this year, and there is a return to classics like baguettes.”

2. Macrina Bakery’s seasonal raspberry rhubarb tartlets are a big seller in spring. Like Columbia City, Macrina is selling a lot of baguettes these days too, said wholesale manager Rebecca Early.

Local restaurants, meanwhile, have been stocking up on the bakery’s olive bread, mixing it in with wheat and white breads to lend a little diversity to their baskets.

3. At gluten-free bakery Flying Apron, customers tend to gravitate towards heartier, rustic breads like the buckwheat seed bread.

“I’ve noticed that our customers prefer [pastries] to be less sweet, so we tend to add less sugar,” said general manager Benjamin Lesperance. Pecan cinnamon rolls are the bakery’s most popular sweet sell.

4. Fruit tarts, eclairs, and lemon and peanut bars are choice grab-and-go desserts at Hoffman’s in Kirkland, according to manager and part-owner Eugenia Velez. But the classic Princess Torte, a sponge cake paired with Bavarian cream, raspberry jam, and marzipan remains Seattle’s signature special occasion cake.

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Tags: Bread, Pastry, Trending,

Trending: Spices

Seattleites are cooking globally at home, and buying up blends at the spice shops.

Posted by: Tiffany Ran on Mar 30, 2011 at 03:50PM 3 Comments

At Seattle spice shops, it’s all about the blends.

In the trending series, Nosh Pit talks to local food providers, shop owners, chefs, servers—whoever’s appropriate, really—about the consumables Seattle can’t get enough of right now. This week: spices.

1. At Pike Place Market spice shop MarketSpice, assistant manager Angela DeWitt has noticed a global theme to what her customers are cooking. “What I’ve seen in the last two to three years are people interested in cooking exotic foods like African or Thai,” said DeWitt.

They’re particularly attracted to blends like ras el hanout, commonly used in Moroccan cuisine, and the housemade harissa blend, a dry stand-in for the Tunisian chili paste.

And the tourists? “Smoked paprika is the number one request because customers have a harder time finding it in other parts of the country,” said the spice seller.

2. It’s a pretty diverse crowd that’s wandering into the newly opened SugarPill Apothecary on Capitol Hill, where owner Karyn Schwartz takes a culinary and medicinal approach to the stock she carries.

“A lot of things that go into spice blends are good for your digestion. In every blend, you can take it apart and get the particular quality of each ingredient. That’s what I like to teach people,” said Schwartz. She’s been turning customers onto Miracle Spice, a braising blend of Mediterranean herbs, juniper, black pepper, and additional “secret ingredients that add a cinnamon-y edge”.

3. Customers at Big John’s Pacific Food Importers stock up on paprika, coriander seeds, and chipotle pepper in the bulk section. Assistant manager Dan Klempner said the store also moves large quantities of Za’atar and sumac.

Good tip: Buying bulk means you can buy as much, but also as little, as you desire. Bring your own containers or bags to fill but when you do, don’t forget to deduct the weight of your container from the overall weight, unless you want to give Big John a little something extra.

4. World Spice Merchants caters to hankerings for the hard-to-finds: bright, citrusy Indian coriander, wild-harvested Tasmanian pepper berries.

Meanwhile the Piment d’Espelette, Espelette pepper, which has its own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) in the Espelette region in France, has Seattleites hot for chilis.

“It has been a tremendous sale for us,” said operations manager Holly Morris. She suspects that the heightened interest is part of a larger culinary trend: a new focus on varietal chilis.

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Tags: Food Trends in Seattle, Spices, Trending

Trending: Cheese

Seattle loves the stinky stuff. Here are the cheeses we’re choosing right now.

Posted by: Tiffany Ran on Mar 23, 2011 at 11:00AM 1 Comments

What cheeses kept you warm this winter?

Photo: Stuart Mullenberg

In the Trending series, Nosh Pit talks to local food providers, shop owners, chefs, servers—whoever’s appropriate, really—about those consumables Seattle can’t get enough of right now. This week: cheese.

1. DeLaurenti ’monger Connie Rizzo told us customers have been buying hearty Alpine cheeses to get them through the winter months—gruyere, comte, Beaufort. Also popular at DeLaurenti: the soft and smelly Winnimere from Jasper Hill Farm.

As the weather warms, Rizzo predicts customers will gravitate towards softer, fresher cheeses like Camembert and brie. And since now is the time fresh goat cheeses are becoming available, she’ll be stocking those. Try the version from Tieton Farm and Creamery in Yakima.

2. Local cheeses like Camembert-style Dinah’s from Kurtwood Farms on Vashon Island, are popular at Melrose Market’s The Calf & Kid, said owner Sheri LaVigne. She said many people ask for Dinah’s after feasting on it at Sitka and Spruce next door. LaVigne anticipates that Camembert-like Nonna Capra goat cheese from Yarmuth Farm—which has a limited season “from late spring to early fall” —will be a hit during the summer.

3. Dinah’s Cheese is also a favorite at Picnic in Phinney Ridge. Owner Anson Klock noted too that customers request harder, sharper cheeses in the winter months, such as the sharp and tangy aged cheddar from Fiscalini Farm in Modesto, California.

4. Fondue is popular in the winter, so Paris Grocery has kept the shelves at its Western Avenue shop stocked with Swiss and Alpine cheeses like gruyere and comte, according to social media manager Rachel Eggers. Lately, she’s seen a heightened interest in washed-rind cheeses like Abbaye Sainte Mere from the Normandy region of France.

Good tip: Eggers said people often opt for grab-and-go cheese because they think they have to buy the precut slabs behind the glass counter. But vendors are almost always willing to cut you a smaller piece—that’s true at supermarkets as well as specialty shops.

5. Cheesemongers across the board have seen a persistent interest in raw milk cheeses. Spanish Table cheesemonger George Calvo says all three of the Iberico raw milk cheeses he sells (cow, goat, and sheep) are well-loved by his customers.

Come summer, Spanish Table will offer soft-ripened goat cheese along with specialties like Argentinean provoleta, which is delicious when grilled, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with oregano. Yum. Can we have that right now?

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Tags: Downtown, Capitol Hill, Cheese, Phinney Ridge, Food Trends in Seattle, Trending