Archive for February, 2010

(Wedgwood/U-District) The Wedgwood Broiler

Friday, February 26th, 2010

By Stevi Costa

The Wedgwood Broiler has been a neighborhood institution since the area’s developer, Albert Balch, designed the restaurant building in 1965. What today is the lounge area of the Broiler was originally the limits of the restaurant – then called Sir Wedgwood. Changes were afoot for the Broiler only a few years later as the owners consulted with Balch to expand their steakhouse. They brought on Glen Jensen, owner of the Blazes Broiler, and his business partner James R. Anderson, who took over the newly renamed Wedgwood Broiler and ran the restaurant together until 1996, when the restaurant was purchased by long-time employee Derek Cockbain.

Cockbain began working at the Broiler straight out of high school, taking a kitchen position that eventually turned into a regular stint as the weekend chef. He was then quickly promoted to a weekday chef position and worked as the kitchen manager at the Broiler for 12 years. When the owners began to talk about selling the restaurant in the mid 90s, Cockbain thought that the restaurant should remain in the hands of those who knew it best. “I felt like I knew the restaurant well,” he said. “It seemed like a good thing at the time.”

Cockbain upheld the integrity of the restaurant when he took over, forgoing any major remodels, menu changes, or employee reshuffling. “We’ve got a few [employees] here who have been here over 20 plus years. Most have been here over 10,” he said, noting also that he takes care to include his employees in any decisions that will make a change to the Broiler they’ve all come to know and love, whether that’s changing a uniform or adding a menu item.

The biggest menu change the Wedgwood Broiler has seen in its 45 years in business was the addition of a burger menu in the late 2000s. When the restaurant opened in the 1960s, it was conceived of as a surf and turf joint, making its bread and butter off steaks and seafood – the fine dining staples of the mid-century era. And though the Broiler has kept those standards like broiled salmon, prime rib and sirloin, other items have popped up along the way, including the Broiler’s signature burgers, which Cockbain added in response to the growing popularity of gourmet hamburgers.

The addition has proven successful, and today the Wedgwood Broiler’s burgers are some of the best selling items on the menu. Cockbain said that the weekend-only prime rib special is also one of the restaurant’s best selling items, along with the London broil. Red meat may be a mainstay, but the most unique thing on the Wedgwood Broiler’s menu is a certain, unexpected addition to the house salads: Cheese Nips.

Cockbain explains that the Cheese Nip-laden salads are another long-standing tradition at the Wedgwood Broiler, and are likely a combination former owner Glen Jensen borrowed from one of his other restaurants. In this case, the Broiler’s commitment to its traditions has been something of a hindrance – not in the sense that the Cheese Nip salads are unpopular with the customers, but simply in terms of the scarcity of the Kraft-manufactured cheese crackers. “You can’t believe how hard it is to find Cheese Nips nowadays. Sometimes my suppliers don’t even have them,” Cockbain said.

Maintaining tradition is clearly a hallmark of the staff at the Wedgwood Broiler. But for as long as certain members of the staff have been employed at the Wedgwood Broiler, they are outlasted by some of their customers. “We have a ton of customers who have been eating here longer than I’ve owned it,” Cockbain said. “And that’s really what keeps us going is our neighborhood, and the people here.”

Nonetheless, the Wedgwood Broiler is trying to reach out to a new generation of clients, creating a Facebook fan page to draw members of the internet generation out to this mid-century gem and establishing a Web presence. Cockbain says that the Broiler has been drawing in a few Facebook fans and that the campaign has made it easier to invite customers to events, like Sunday night trivia games held in the lounge, which usually draw anywhere from 20 to 60 patrons each night.

He hopes that the Web campaigns will do the same to promote the Broiler’s weekend breakfast, which offers steak, eggs, omelettes, pancakes and other treats served from 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

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(U-District) Samir’s Mediterranean Grill

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

By Stevi Costa

Samir Alawar has been a fixture on the U-District’s 43rd Street for 31 years. At 18, he emigrated from Lebanon to go into business with his older brother. The two owned and operated Cedars Restaurant for 29 years and then Samir decided to start something new . . . right across the street.

Samir’s Mediterranean Grill has not, however, forgotten about family. Many of the recipes Alawar uses were inherited from is mother. Others were perfected in his own family and brought to the table to share with his customers. “I don’t feed my customers better than I feed my kids,” Alawar said, “which is to say that I feed my customers as well as I feed my kids.”

Speaking of children, the inventive way in which Alawar wraps his signature falafel sandwiches keeps customers from looking like they should have used a bib when they leave the restaurant. Most falafel sandwiches are served semi-open, leaving escape hatches for rogue lettuce, hummus and falafel bits to fall away. Alawar’s falafels are wrapped fully, reducing the possibility for messes.

The fully-wrapped falafel also gives the option for portability, which comes in handy on sunny Seattle days when citizens would rather enjoy their food in the open air. To that end, Alawar has added a to-go window on the street-facing side of his shop so that patrons can enjoy fair weather while waiting for their wares.

Samir’s Mediterranean Grill offers cuisine that is commonly found throughout the Mediterranean, but with an emphasis on Lebanese flavors. “Lebanese is my specialty,” Alawar said. “I don’t try to make Indian food because I don’t know how.”

Along with standard Mediterranean fare such has hummus, babaganoush, dolma, falafel, schwarma and kebabs, Samir’s also serves ful medames (a dish of stewed, spiced fava beans served with tomatoes, parsley and pita that originated in Egypt as a breakfast meal), gyros and a kibbey plate, which Alawar says is his most popular meat entrée. The kibbey plate is ground beef spiced with Samir’s special seasonings and bulgar wheat, served over salatah, rice, garlic sauce and a side of pita bread.

For the amount of food Alawar puts forth in a plate such as the kibbey plate, the price is more than reasonable. The most expensive entrée on the menu is the lamb kebab plate ($9.75), while the average vegetarian plate, such as the vegetarian combination plate (with falafels, dolmas, hummus, sautéed vegetables, salatah and pita bread), runs $7.75.

The real deal at Samir’s Mediterranean Grill, however, are the sandwiches and wraps, all of which are less than $4.50, which fits comfortably into the average University of Washington student’s budget.

Alawar is big on making his cuisine friendly and affordable, which he believes are the cornerstones of his business practice. The restaurant’s giant catering platters are very popular for conferences at UW’s Medical Center. (Pictured is Samir’s Mediterranean Delight which contains rice, Mediterranean salad, hummus, babaganoush, meats, sautéed vegetables and dessert.) Samir’s usually produces one large catering order a week, netting the restaurant about $2,500, according to Alawar’s estimate. That figure only applies to non-University catering orders, however, as Samir’s Mediterranean Grill often provides catering for UW functions are reduced cost, which earned him a Booster Award that he proudly hangs in his restaurant. “I’m not here only to make money,” Alawar said. “I’m here to make money and friends.”

Alawar is indeed a fixture on 43rd St. He is at his restaurant for about 15 hours a day, arriving with his wife in the mornings after dropping their children off at a school. Locals who pass by greet him and converse as he unloads supplies from his van and starts preparing business for the day. His hospitality begins before he’s even open for business. “Our hospitality and our friendship goes with the service and the food,” Alawar said.

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Helmet Head: Riding Hard and Styling Hair in Georgetown

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

By Stevi Costa

It’s not every day that you see a hair salon decorated with motorcycles and flames, but that’s the theme of Sammy Mar’s Helmet Head salon in Georgetown. Mar was tired of working cookie-cutter corporate jobs and went to beauty school, after which she grew disappointed with the kind of salons she found herself working in and decided to strike out on her own.

Luckily, Mar found a kindred spirit in Heather Tubbs, whom she met while working at a salon downtown in 2002. Tubbs told Mar that she would follow her if she opened her own salon, and that’s exactly what she did. At first, Tubbs would work at Helmet Head on weekends and then, after about a year, she bought into the business as Mar’s partner. On Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010, Helmet Head salon celebrated its 8th year in business.

As for the hard-riding style of the salon, Mar cites her passion for motorcycles as her inspiration. “Riding your motorcycle is nice because you can really think about things and it’s kind of meditative,” she said. While that might not be everyone’s picture of relaxation, Mar wanted to create an atmosphere that was completely antithetical to the pretension that she feels riddles some high-end salons. She wanted to create a salon “where you can still get good service, but have a lot of fun.”

As for the Georgetown location, Mar was inspired by a custom motorcycle shop she frequented. She noticed that Georgetown housed a small, funky art community and felt it would be the best place for her to open up a salon. Georgetown has been good to Helmet Head. In 2007, the salon moved from a 750 sq. ft. retail space to its current 3,300 sq. ft. space at 5527 Airport Way South.

The business has expanded in other ways, as well. When the salon first opened, Helmet Head only offered basic cut and color services, but has since added manicure and pedicure services, skin care (including peels and waxes) and massage. The salon employs a total of 5 stylists, a nail technician, a skin technician and two massage practitioners.

Overall, though, its still hair that brings in the most business at Helmet Head. “Cut and color are our big mainstays,” Mar said. “Some of the other stuff has kind of fallen down a bit because of the economy, but everybody needs to get their hair done.”

To make looking good something that everyone can afford, Helmet Head uses salon products that come at a variety of price points. “Loma is the most affordable of our products,” Mar said of the Monroe, Wash. hair care brand. Any Helmet Head customer who purchases a Loma product from the salon can bring the empty bottles back for a refill at 25 percent off the original price.

Helmet Head will soon add another brand to its gallery of products, which currently includes Davines, Kevin Murphy and Paul Mitchell Men’s. On Feb. 25, the salon will be hosting a launch party from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to celebrate the addition of Moroccan Oil to its salon menu. “It’s a wonderful hair care line for people who have curly hair,” Mar said. The launch event will feature product samples and demonstrations from a Moroccan Oil representative, food, beverages and belly dancers. In addition, Helmet Head will feature Moroccan Oil products in all of its services for the following month in order to get customers excited about the new product line.

Despite its tough-gal image, furthered by an appearance Mar made on the Style Network’s stylist-swapping show Split Ends which made it seem as though Helmet Head does “nothing but red Mohawks all day,” Mar says that the salon is a place for anyone who wants to get their hair done in a no-pretension atmosphere. The shop sees a wide range of clients looking for an even wider range of hairstyles, from mild to wild. After all, some of the salon’s clients do happen to be members of local roller derby squad the Rat City Rollergirls, thanks to the presence of stylist Carly Jo, who is a derby girl herself.

Overall, Mar likes to think of her salon as having a comfortable, homey atmosphere, with a little bit of Sammy Mar’s special brand of sass. “We like to offer uptown skills, but we have a very down home attitude,” she said.

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A Bit of El Salvador in Seattle: Guanaco’s Tacos Pupuseria

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

By Stevi Costa

Guanaco’s Tacos Pupuseria is one of only a handful of restaurants featuring El Salvadoran cuisine in the Seattle area. Doubly unique, it’s the only one of these rare dining establishments with plans for expansion. After two and a half years in business at Guanaco’s U-District location at 4106 Brooklyn Ave. NE, Ste. 102A, owner Eduardo Revelo has plans to open a second location in Capitol Hill by April 2010.

Revelo, an El Salvadoran native, wanted to bring the food he grew up with to the people of Seattle to give them “more variety . . . and have them taste something different,” he said. When looking for a location for his first restaurant venture, he settled on the U-District, knowing it would be a good market for Salvadoran treats because of the open minds and adventurous palates of the nearby students at the University of Washington.

The restaurant takes it name “Guanaco” from a Salvadoran slang term for the Salvadoran people, drawn from the native word for llama. According to Revelo, Salvadoran cuisine is different from other Latin American cuisines in a variety of ways. “We use a lot of corn,” Revelo said, noting that many other food cultures will use plain flour, while Salvadoran cuisine primarily uses a combination of corn and rice flours. Traditionally, Salvadoran people “use whatever is local – local flowers, cheese from cows and goats, pork staples. Items available from local farms,” Revelo said.

The emphasis on local ingredients Revelo describes is reflected in the specialties offered at Guanaco’s Tacos Pupuseria. Though Guanaco’s does indeed serve tacos, burritos and tamales, the real draw are the pupusas. Pupusas are corn or rice flour tortillas filled with jalapenos, spinach, zucchini, chicken, refried beans, pork or cheese, which you can order with or without a tropical herb called loroco. Though this may sound similar to a quesadilla, pupusas are more similar in appearance to filled pancakes in which the dough incases the filling.

Pupusas are the most traditional food of El Salvador, so it’s no wonder why Revelo would choose to make them the central part of his menu and his quest to bring authentic Salvadoran food to Seattleites. In addition, Guanaco’s offers a few more traditional specialties that have become very popular with its clientele. Plantains, traditionally served fried, and yucca, served boiled or deep fried, are two of the restaurants most popular appetizers. Another house specialty is the pastelitos, flash fried corn pockets stuffed with potato, carrot, onion and beef.

Although the Brooklyn Ave. location is slightly off the beaten path for U-District denizens, Guanaco’s has steadily built up a following since its opening in 2007, drawing in regular and sizeable lunch crowds. “It’s taken awhile or people to get to know us, but know it’s doing really well,” Revelo said, citing the restaurant’s 40 plus reviews on Yelp.com with a rating of four or more stars and a rating of 92% on UrbanSpoon.com.

A recent tuition drawing also recently helped curry favor with the student community. Last fall, Guanaco’s gave one lucky patron $500 toward tuition payments. Revelo said that he plans to do another tuition drawing in the future, after things get going at the Capitol Hill location.

In the meantime, Guanaco’s is also working on building up the catering branch of its business. At present, the catering menu consists of a pupusa platter, a pastelito platter with homemade salsa, a 3 lb yucca platter (boiled, fried or 50-50), a tamale platter, a sweet corn tamale platter, a burrito platter and a build-your-own-tacos platter. Each platter serves about 10 people for, at most, $34.95. According to Revelo, the catering offerings have so far proven popular with the University.

He hopes to soon be able to develop delivery for Guanaco’s so that patrons can get their fill of pupusas and pastelitos in their very own homes.

Guanaco’s Tacos Pupuseria is located in the U-District at 4106 Brooklyn Ave. NE, Ste. 102A. The menu is available online at: guanacostacos.webs.com/menu.htm.

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Po Dog Days on Capitol Hill

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

By Stevi Costa

Capitol Hill’s resident gourmet hot dog joint, Po Dogs, opened its doors on Nov. 14, 2009. Since the restaurant broke ground in the reclaimed auto shop it calls home at 1009 E. Union St., owner Laura Olson has been working non-stop.

From preparing the space, to picking out the kitschy-cool dueling guns wallpaper that adorns the restaurant, to sampling myriad varieties of dogs, buns and French fries, Olson has put a lot of work into making her hot dog dreams come true. And the workload hasn’t let up since Po Dogs began serving customers. “I work over 100 hours a week in the restaurant,” said Olson, “and then I go home and I do all the financials at home.”

Olson, who left behind a corporate job after realizing that she’s simply “not a desk job type of person,” actually enjoys the amount of hours she spends on Po Dogs. “I love what I do,” she said. “But the most challenging part is trying to add more hours to my day.” Nevertheless, Olson says that even though she works like a dog, she doesn’t feel like she actually puts in 100 hours each week. “I love my employees, I love my product and I love my location. All that combined, I’m really excited. There’s nothing I hate about my job,” she said.

When Olson says she enjoys her product, she means it. Regarding her hot dog-heavy menu, Olson saw a need to share her love of tubed meats with the rest of Seattle. “I love hot dogs,” she said. “I feel like hot dogs are not as appreciated as they should be. People are doing crazy things with hamburgers, but nobody has really done it with hot dogs.”

Olson and the rest of the Po Dogs crew are indeed doing crazy things with hot dogs. With Hebrew National all-beef kosher franks as the base, the eclectic menu features inventive dogs like the PB Dog (topped with peanut butter and sliced bananas), the Wasabi Egg Roll Dog (wrapped in an egg roll, deep fried and served with wasabi aioli) and the Morning Glory Dog (topped with scrambled eggs, Tillamook cheddar and pepper bacon).

Each month, Po Dogs offers a specialty dog in order to keep pushing the noble hot dog to the borders of tastiness. In December, the specialty dog was a Chili Dog. January’s offering is a Mac-n-Cheese Dog, which requires a 3-hour macaroni and cheese recipe, made fresh daily, smothered on top of a frankfurter. Vegetarians can substitute a locally-sourced veggie dog at anytime to indulge their tubed (faux) meat cravings.

In deciding what outlandish hot dog toppings would find their way onto the Po Dogs menu, Olson and her friends held numerous tasting parties leading up to the opening of the store. “It took a lot of trial and error,” Olson said. She also did copious amounts of research into regional hot dog specialties (reflected in the Texas, Seattle and Chicago Dogs) as well as global cuisines that might translate into hot dog toppings.

“We tried to find what would work best and what was edible and not too crazy,” Olson said. Some of those globally-inspired tastings led to the creation of the aforementioned Wasabi Egg Roll Dog, the South of the Border Dog (guacamole, pico de gallo and sour cream) as well as a former Thai-inspired Dog of the Month. Olson has also featured Indian-inspired dogs with fruit chutneys.

But chutney, peanut butter and bananas seem to be the limit for sweetness on hot dogs. “I can tell you right now that chocolate does not go well on a hot dog,” adding that, eventually, Po Dogs may try topping a dog with chocolate-based mole sauce to take the chocolate-covered hot dog idea and make it potentially palatable.

In the spirit of trying new things, Olson said that Po Dogs will be hosting a Sausage Fest in February to give patrons a chance to try other tubed meats than the standard all-beef hot dog. During Sausage Fest, the restaurant plans to offer Polish Kielbasa and other sausage varieties. If customers like the new dogs, Olson says that Po Dogs will consider adding those meats to the menu permanently.

In addition to out-of-the-box hot dogs, Po Dogs also offers house-made potato chips cut from Red Argentine potatoes, which Olson likes because of the unique color and taste. “For some reason, I love the color of the red Argentine potato chips after we cook them. And the taste is kind of crisp and clean, and not Lay’s potato chip-like,” she said. The restaurant also serves natural-cut French fries, beers (both bottled and on tap) and Mexican Coca-Cola in glass bottles.

Po’Dogs is located at 1009 E. Union St. in Capitol Hill. The menu is available online at www.podogs.com.

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