Eat All About It

New restaurants almost inevitably have kinks to work out when they first open. That’s why the guidelines for professional restaurant critics say to wait at least a few weeks before visiting. The experience diners have that first week is probably not the same one they’ll have later.

But people want to eat at new restaurants regardless in those exciting first days. A few years ago, curious food-lovers would rely on writeups on forums like eGullet and MouthfulsFood to get an early look at what was working and what was not. And now, for better or worse, those first glances are being broadcast to a larger, viral audience, able to follow the meals even as they’re happening. Like anything else involving social media, it’s a work in progress.

Last night, for instance, was the eagerly-awaited opening of Bastille, a restaurant I haven’t stopped thinking about since a recent tour. Backed by an all-star cast, the Ballard restaurant has the most impressive interior I’ve seen in a Seattle restaurant in years. There are endless careful details — a 45-foot zinc bar, a Parisian metro clock — a lovely rooftop garden designed by Seattle Urban Farm, and a menu from chef Shannon Galusha that fits a big niche of dinnertime cravings, from a French rotisserie (with chickens specially raised for Bastille by an Eastside farm) to a takeout window for felafel.

I wanted to storm the place on opening night — even knowing that neither the food nor the service were likely to be as good as they would be in weeks to come — but when I (anonymously, not that I necessarily have to be these days) called, I was told the place was too packed. So we indulged in Chicky Pub for our date night, but saw a stream of updates through my Twitter feed from people who had scored Bastille tables. And the results? A mix of ups and downs, from various visitors who know the city’s restaurant scene well. A few edited excerpts: “one hour later, no food yet.” “Lamb burger and mussels best at bastille. Fries barely browned.” “French 75 at Bastille out on the patio, v. tasty.” “It was a so-so experience.” “Agree w/you re: chicken (dry) and frites (undercooked/has potential). Peanut butter ice cream was good” ”Loved @bastilleseattle’s octopus salad so far.” (more…)

The “Chef in Residence” program kicks off Saturday (June 27) at the University District Farmers Market with an appearance by the fine folks at Canlis — chef Jason Franey, and managing owners Mark and Brian Canlis. I’m a big fan of this summer market feature, where chefs and food aficionados hang out from 10 a.m. to noon in a designated booth, answering a steady stream of questions from shoppers wondering what to cook with the fresh ingredients of the week. Yours truly (that would be me) will be on the hot seat on Aug. 8, and I hope you’ll visit. As I told the organizers, I may not be able to provide novel recipes for every ingredient, but I’ll do my best — and heck, I can at least help you write about what you cook. 

The market is located at Northeast 50th and University Avenue NE. Here’s the full schedule: (more…)

Two Seattle spots made Conde Nast Traveler’s 2009 list of “the world’s most exciting new restaurants.” Poppy and Spur were on the “hot list” of 50 restaurants in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. I was glad to see the selections were made, in true critic style, “traveling anonymously and paying for every last bite of foie gras.” 

Spur got marks for being “playful and ambitious,” Poppy for the “lilliputian creations” on its thalis and for inventive cocktails. Coincidentally, I’ve been meaning to mention Poppy for the last few days. I had visited months ago, the first week it was open, gloating that I no longer had to follow the critic’s rules of letting a new restaurant work out its inevitable kinks before testing it out.

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Tall Skinny Bitter/images by Chris Munson

Here’s a different kind of coffee talk: Dani Cone, owner of Fuel Coffee, has teamed up with graphic designer Chris Munson for a book that takes “a visual tour” of the Northwest’s independent coffeehouses. The publication party for “Tall Skinny Bitter: Notes from the Center of Coffee Culture” will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday (June 20) at Bailey Coy Books, 414 E. Broadway. (Yes, liquid caffeine will be served, along with Cone’s High 5 Pies.)

In the book,  Cone interviews baristas and coffee shop owners from throughout Seattle and Portland, providing 112 pages of browsable — or maybe, given the context, I should call them sippable — stories. There are brief profiles, bites of information, guest essays, quotes, and lists.

(Sample: Top 5 Things Customers Say That Make Baristas Want to Punch Them In The Face. Surprise: “Can I have a caramel macchiato?” only comes in at #4.)

Some of the features are formal, e.g. a look at the geographic differences between Caffe Vita’s different blends, some are casual, as with the comic strip look at Kapow Coffee in South Lake Union. The whole look and feel of the book, actually, reminded me of a graphic novel; the layout and artwork are as integral as the words.

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I still remember the wistful e-mails I got way back, asking where chef Charlie Durham had gone after the closure of Cassis. Then, it turned out he was at the Sand Point Grill, adding new life and spark to the menu of a neighborhood favorite. I’m glad now that I can pre-emptively announce that I know where Durham is landing after leaving Sand Point (the new owners will now helm that kitchen.) Judy Neldam, owner of the Grange Cafe in Duvall, housed in a 1926 Grange Hall, wrote to alert me that Durham will take over as the cafe’s executive chef when he returns from a trip to Paris. The cafe’s menu is similar to Sand Point’s, she wrote, it has a close connection to local farms and dairies, and “I am sure Charlie will take what we have done and add his own signature to it.” Look for him there in about two weeks.

Meadowbrook farmers market

 
Traditionally, farmers markets in Seattle have belonged to one of two market associations: The Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, which runs the granddaddy U-District market and six others, and Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets, best known for the Ballard Farmers Market. This year, though, we’re seeing a change. At least four new markets have sprung up: Two are complete standalones, at least for now. Two others are backed by a city institution, Pike Place Market. 

What’s the reason for the change? There’s a bit of happenstance — backers of the Queen Anne farmers market, opening Thursday (June 18), organized an independent market when another group bowed out of the market that originated in 2006. Organizers of the Meadowbrook farmers market didn’t realize they might have the option of joining up with a coalition — and their goals are different enough that they might have gone out on their own regardless. But there’s general agreement that a big serving of city support for farmers markets this year, including grants to help kick-start some and a move to make processes like their street closures less complex and expensive,  made a big difference. ”We are so grateful to the city…” said James Haydu of Pike Place Market, which is spearheading new “Pike Place Express” markets at downtown’s City Hall Plaza and in South Lake Union. “They streamlined and helped decrease the cost of doing business for a neighborhood farmers market, which is a boon to everybody.” 

We’re always personally happy to see a new market, but a new USDA study questions whether farmers markets are growing at an unsustainable rate. Chris Curtis of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance is thinking that there are too many, saying in this post that she’d like to see Seattle study how many the city can support and where to put them. She also notes the growing national issue of “how do we get the ‘farmer’ back into farmers markets,” eliminating the crafts, kettle korn, massage therapists, etc. who are a staple of some. 

“We need more markets that are organized solely for the purpose of supporting local farmers,” Curtis wrote.  ”Many (markets) are organized because a neighborhood wants a revitalization event or a community wants a weekly food fair.  Those are great events, just don’t call them a “Farmers Market”. 

Meadowbrook farmers market

 

Here’s what’s new this year (and one extra: I learned today that there will also be an occasional summer South Park “Market On Wheels” with some great neighborhood vendors):
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No, I will not show you what this looks like yet. 

I know how it goes. I talk about my favorite recipes, and I hear “Not photogenic!” “Not attractive!”

Funny, in an industry where people so freely use the term “food porn,” I keep hearing that there’s nothing pretty about a piece of meat. 

So for this stew, (you’ll find the official recipe in Joan Nathan’s classic Jewish Holiday Kitchen), we’re trying something more seductive. 

Cut two pounds of chuck meat into 1- or 2-inch chunks. (At most — ahem — meat markets, they will do this for you. Just make sure it’s chuck; the precut stew meat is sometimes a leaner cut.)  Slice three onions. Sprinkle the meat with salt, and brown it along with the onions in a large stew pot. Brown it in margarine if you keep kosher; butter if you don’t. I use butter. (Sorry, dad, but you know you should have stopped reading at the headline.) Add water to cover the meat, and simmer, uncovered, one hour.

Take a few sweet potatoes. Really sweet potatoes.

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The number of farmers markets in the U.S. is growing fast, but sales aren’t keeping pace with that growth, according to a new study from the U.S.D.A.

Nearly 30 percent of all seasonal markets in the U.S. are less than five years old, and “most still appear to be establishing themselves economically,” with fewer vendors, fewer customers, and monthly sales that total only half the national average. The disparity raises questions “as to whether current levels of industry growth can be sustained over time,” the study said.

The study is based on data collected in 2006, focusing on the 2005 season. In farmers market years, that already feels like a long way back — I’d be curious to see more up-to-date data. Certainly, in our area, the number of markets has risen sharply even since 2005.

Coincidentally, I had been talking with Chris Curtis of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance for an unrelated story I’m doing on the city’s new 2009 farmers markets (watch for that next week), and she suggested that the saturation point, at some level, is here.

“Some markets cannibalize each other.  They need to be sited so that they serve a specific population, which isn’t easy.  I’d love to see Seattle do what Portland has done – which is a city funded study of farmers markets; how many can the city support, where should they be sited; what food dollars can realistically go through a farmers market, how many farmers need to be involved, etc.,” she wrote.

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Writing about cheese is as tough as writing about wine. Try describing five of your favorite cheeses, and see: Once you get past past the basics of nutty, tangy, creamy, and all, it’s surprisingly difficult to explain to a reader just what you’re eating. That’s why I’ve  always been impressed by Tami Parr and her Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, which stood out from its 2004 start with its descriptive tasting notes. In my look here at Parr’s new book, Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest: A Discovery Guide,  I wrote that Parr is one of the rare writers capable of translating cheese’s flavors into words. (The blog, actually, goes more into the tastes; the book concentrates more on the cheesemakers.)

We had an e-mail exchange on blogs, books, and Northwest cheese, and only a fraction of Parr’s comments could fit in my review. I’ve included much more of her lengthy, thoughtful replies below. And if anyone wants to take a stab at cheese description in the comments, write in your favorites!
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We’re still no Portland, with its 400 or so street food vendors, but here’s further evidence that we’re at least allowed to folllow the word “Seattle” with “street food” and keep a straight face: The folks behind a 3-month-old webcast devoted entirely to street food around the nation decided to pay us a visit. VendrTV just broadcast its look at Maximus/Minimus (which I like to call “The Pigstream” despite it not being an Airstream), focusing on artist Colin Reedy’s urban pig design (they were here too early to actually taste the pulled pork). Here’s the video, and, after the jump, my chat with the site’s Daniel Delaney, who currently lives in Brooklyn. He’s filming this week in San Francisco.

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