The Art of Eating Well

For a quarter century, Francia Russell and Kent Stowell, artistic directors of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, stood at the summit of Seattles cultural elite. Russell had made the companys ballet school one of the finest in the country; Stowell among his many achievements, choreographed Seattles holiday favorite, Nutcracker. They had three sons. The youngest, Ethan, went to work at 16 making shakes at Dalys on Eastlake. At The Ruins supper club, he started by taking out the trash and cleaning the garage. His first restaurant, Union, which opened in 2003 when he was 28, failed when its downtown customer base fell victim to the Great Recession.

Early success, early failure, followed by a relatively swift and steady recovery. In Unions wake, Stowell created new spaces, 10 of them, all deep within Seattles rich tapestry of residential neighborhoods: Capitol Hill, Belltown, Queen Anne, Green Lake, Ballard, Madrona. He had no over-arching marketing strategy, like tourism. Not that he turns away tourists, but theyre not his focus. Theres no shame in courting hotel concierges, or in courting the media, or in siting all your restaurants within walking distance of one another, as Tom Douglas has done with his bustling, big-city brasseries. Stowells restaurants are designed to be cozy neighborhood bistros. They offer a menu thats neither fussy nor expensive, service thats courteous, ambiance thats warm and welcoming.

Stowell recognizes hell always be compared with Douglas, but hes really in a different world.

Restaurants come in three or four body types. Corporate, where everything from the number of pine nuts atop the salad to the knot on the waiters bow tie is in a book and menu concepts are determined almost entirely by cost. At best, well-manicured; at worst, industrial. Then theres a slew of modern, chef-driven establishments, where the comings and goings of celebrity cooks are faithfully chronicled by a press corps as slavishly attentive as Hollywoods fan mags. Finally, the grab bag of family-run neighborhood joints (some on the fairway, some in the rough), often serving ethnic cuisine, where Mamas in the kitchen and Dads at the door. Plus, of course, fast food (mostly in the sand trap).

Oversimplification, sure. Unfair, without a doubt. But lets say you make a car. Whos your market? The guy whos wealthy enough to have a chauffeur? The building contractor who needs a pickup? The working mom who just wants to get to her office? Now lets say you have a restaurant. Who are your clients? Visitors to Seattle with an interest in sophisticated gourmet food? People who share your ethnic background (German, Italian, Mexican)? Or people who live in the neighborhood?

Stowell admits he used to focus on the top 2 percent of Seattle diners. Thats a very small slice of the folks who eat in restaurants, and a hugely competitive sector of the market. Almost everything you read about restaurants in Seattle (blogs, magazines, newspapers) is aimed at that top 2 percent. And Stowell wasnt doing badly. Far from it. But when he was offered the chance to consult for Centerplate, the concessionaire managing food service at 250 venues nationwide, including Safeco Field, he didnt pooh-pooh it as a chore beneath his abilities; he welcomed it.

By Opening Day of 2010, Stowell had come up with an expanded menu for baseball fans. Tacos filled with chicken, beef, pork and tongue. A new chicken torta with a Milanese dressing. The following year, even more innovation, with a new space dubbed Sound Seafood. In any event, food for a really big neighborhood.

Stowell is known as a voracious consumer of cookbooks. He owns a couple thousand, reads constantly, not for recipes but for cultural context. If youre going to do a French dish, know where it comes from in France, he advises. If youre doing an Italian dish, know its origins in Italy.

Like all chefs past their first restaurant hurdles, Stowell was ready to write a cookbook of his own. He wanted to call it Anchovies & Olives, but the publisher hed lined up, Ten Speed Press, balked. Too fishy, they said. Too weird. Fine, said Stowell, who used the name for his next restaurant instead (honored as one of Americas 10 best new places of 2010 by Bon Appetit). His cookbook ended up with the title Ethan Stowells New Italian Kitchen. Stowells wife, Angela, who serves as CFO of their company, ESR, says, All it takes to open a restaurant is money. Almost anybody can do it. A cookbook, on the other hand, is a two-year investment.

Published in 2010, its not meant as a course outline, and not just a collection of recipes. This isnt nonnas Italian, Stowell wants you to know, but a more time-tested philosophy of how we eat: the joy and abundance inherent in thoughtful food done right.

Stowell cooked for President Obama when Air Force One touched down briefly in Seattle last summer. He and his chefs provided hors doeuvres for a lakefront reception in Madrona. Sixteen items, from crabcakes to foie gras, for 35 guests. Frogmen in the water. Easier to do private parties in the event space he carved out in the basement of Ballards Kolstrand Building.

Stowell has the wherewithal, technically, to recreate the experience of dining in Rome (Rione XIII), to make his own pasta (Lagana Foods), to engage his fans with special events and Sunday Suppers. At Safeco Field, he broke out of the self-imposed box that limits the appeal of celebrity chefs to the followers of celebrity chefs. Hes not on the Guy Fieri low road (thank goodness), but hes making a connection, at the ballpark, with a heck of a lot more diners than could ever squeeze into Bar Cotto or How to Cook a Wolf.

Ethan is a terrific chef and a lifelong Mariners fan, says Mariners EVP Bob Aylward. He can put a ballpark twist on the locally sourced concepts that have made his restaurants so successful. Hes a major reason why the food at Safeco Field has been recognized as some of the best in the game.
There are indeed moments of greatness from Stowells kitchens, such as a breathtaking ricotta gnocchi with beef tongue sugo at Tavolata. The gnocchi are cloud-like, the tongue flavorful and meltingly tender. The dish has an evocative power, suggesting a childhood of steaming kitchens, grandmothers and noisy family dinners. Mortadella and prosciutto di Parma at Bar Cotto, washed down with a glass of slightly fizzy lambrusco. Puntarelle (winter chicory) at Rione XIII. Noo-Yawk-style pizza pies, 20 inches across, baked on the hearth of a Bakers Pride double-stack SuperDeck oven at Ballard Pizza Company.

Its getting harder to find parking along Ballard Avenues Restaurant Row, where Stowell already has Staple & Fancy Mercantile and Chippys Fish and Drink in the Kolstrand Building (sharing the space with Renee Ericksons The Walrus and the Carpenter oyster bar). He also teamed with Kolstrands owner, Chad Dale, to form a new venture, Grubb Brothers Productions, that intends to bring better quality to classic American comfort food: sandwiches, fried chicken, burgers. Though Stowells favorite cut of meat is the bone-in rib eye, its not an item for a restaurant menu. (You dont want to show your Henry VIII side to other diners, he says.) Skillet-roasted rabbit, on the other hand, makes sense for the four-course, fixed-price menu at Staple & Fancy.

When he closed union in the wake of the collapse of Washington Mutual, Stowell was acutely aware of check averages, how much diners were spending per person in his restaurants. Now he pays more attention to cover counts: how many people come in. Theres no pressure to spend more, he says. Bar Cotto and Chippy are doing just fine with $20 average checks.

How does it all get paid for, these careful buildouts? Different ways, Stowell says. Investors, partners, loans, self-funding. Theres no single angel writing blank checks. More often than not, the landlord who wants a hip, trendy restaurant in his building makes Stowell an offer he cant refuse.

The employee count these days at Stowells ESR (for Ethan Stowell Restaurants), including 10 restaurants, an event space, a wine storage facility and the pasta business, is more than 200, the annual gross between $10 million and $15 million. Not nearly the size of rival restaurateur Tom Douglass outfit, and besides, theyre not rivals. Stowell has far fewer total seats, and his market is locals, not tourists. You could put all of Stowells seats inside Douglass Dahlia Lounge.

Its a business and needs a business plan, both Stowells acknowledge. An art, a craft and a small business.

Peter Levy and his business partner, Jeremy Hardy, built up a stable of eight neighborhood restaurants under the Chow Foods umbrella. They were never celebrities themselves, but they understand how the business of a neighborhood restaurant works: You go to work every day, you take your turn at bat, you keep your eye on the ball. Says Levy of Stowell, He and his wife strike me as savvy operators that understand how to build a brand.

That brand, of course, is Ethan Stowell. And that brand draws praise from no less an industry luminary than Mark Canlis, owner of Canlis Restaurant. Ethan is a natural businessman, Canlis says. Its instinctual for him, and I dont think he could escape it if he wanted to. Hes going to invent, going to lead, going to inspire. Hes got the guts to follow all his good ideas, and hes a lot of fun to watch.

MISTER STOWELL’S NEIGHBORHOODS
The 10 restaurants operated by Ethan Stowell Restaurants

Anchovies & Olives, Capitol Hill (opened in 2009)
Ballard Pizza Company, Ballard (2012)
Bar Cotto Salumeria & Bar, Capitol Hill (2013)
Chippy’s Fish and Drink, Ballard (2014)
How to Cook a Wolf, Queen Anne (2007)
MKT., Green Lake (2013)
Red Cow, Madrona (2013)
Rione XIII, Capitol Hill (2012)
Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Ballard (2010)
Tavolata, Belltown (2007)

New Contributor | Ronald Holden is the author of six books about food, wine, travel and culture. His most recent book, published by Amazon, is Home Grown Seattle: 101 True Tales of Local Food & Drink. He also has worked at KING-TV and Seattle Weekly.