Ten years ago this month, I quit my chef's job at Café Sport, hoping that someone would make me a lucrative offer to do something new and exciting. Offers started to not pour in. Jackie got pregnant, credit cards got max'd, and George Bush admitted there was a recession on the horizon. Wow, let's open a restaurant!With the help of Jackie's uncle Clarence, we purchased the 1904 Restaurant from Paul Schell, now Mayor of Seattle.
In the basement of the restaurant, we discovered a dusty box of 1904 posters. I really liked them and framed the few that were still in relatively good shape; I still have one hanging in my wine cellar at home. This November, we'll be celebrating our tenth year in business and we've designed our own poster to commemorate the occasion. Inside this newsletter you'll find a post card-sized version of the finished poster. We are giving the full size (18" x 24") posters away to our loyal and supportive customers who have helped propel the Dahlia through ten years of food and friendship. Please call us before June 1st at (206) 448-2001 or e-mail
office@tomdouglas.com if you would like to receive a free poster!
Some of the grand perks of being a chef is that you get asked to do really glamorous things. Sometimes you are asked to endorse a product or have your name associated with a celebrity, politician or a sports star to raise money for a cause. I've been invited to events from San Francisco to New York. And much to the amusement of my family and co-workers, I was recently nominated "Man of the Year" in the April edition of GQ. (I don't understand why they think this is funny - I always make sure my t-shirts and tennis shoes are color coordinated.)
But I knew I'd reached the zenith of my career, the "top of the heap", so to speak, when the Interbay P-Patch asked me to be one of their celebrity composters. Now, I know I'm full of ____, (fill in your own blank) , but I never thought I'd be publicly recognized for it. For those of you who have not yet seen the new P-Patch gardens at Interbay, join us on Wednesday, May 26th at 5:00 PM when we turn our bin for the first time. I will lead a chef's tour of the gardens and we'll toast the arrival of Spring with a wienie roast.
Even though we haven't tried many of the restaurants that have cropped up like spring peas, what we have tried looks very promising. A few highlights:
* Brasa: Tamara Murphy and Brian Hill's new place - try the roasted rabbit. * Harvest Vine in Madison Valley: Just tell chef Joseph to "cook 'till I cry 'uncle'!" ... and sample his terrific Spanish wine selection.
* Roxy's Deli: At the corner of First and Stewart - wash down that delicious smoky pastrami on rye with a celery soda.
* 24th Street Bistro, at the intersection of NW 80th and 24th NW in Ballard. It's not completely new, but still undiscovered. The menu is a little old fashioned but that's exactly what I like about it. Good schnitzel.
Certainly the biggest loss in the restaurant scene came with the closing of Labuznik. Peter Cipra had a way with roast pork and dumplings like nobody else. If he had to retire, the least he could have done was give me the recipe, don't you think? But happily there is more to look forward to; in June, Kerry Sear opens Cascadia which will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood.
Put the re-newed Cinerama theater on your list of must-do things when you are downtown. Jackie and and I saw "Entrapment", the new Sean Connery thriller (sort of) on the theater's opening night. What the movie lacked in story line, the theater more then made up for in technological wizardry. I can't wait for Star Wars!
Thanks a million (1.2 million to be exact - the amount raised in Seattle since 1988) to all of you who helped make this year's Taste of the Nation a successful one. It's amazing to think about how many children have received hot breakfast and lunch at neighborhood schools, how many infants have received formula, how many adults have received training in the food services industry, and how many tons (literally tons) of food has been distributed to hungry people as the result of this event.
- Tom & Jackie
