Our own hot! hot! hot! Brave Horse Chef Brian Walczyk has been chosen as Seattle’s Hottest Chef in the Eater contest.
Before becoming chef of Brave Horse, Brian spent time as chef of Dahlia, Lola, AND Palace. The man can COOK!!!!
(Editor’s note: photo courtesy of Bruce Miyahara)
I just wanted to send out another thank you for donating money to the Polar Bear Plunge on Saturday. I did my best to represent all you donors out there on the lake!
Big special thanks to Diane for actually coming out to cheer us on.
Here’s a photo where you can see my makeshift homage to you all.
(Editor’s Note- Katie took photos of everyone who donated to her plunge, laminated the pictures, and hung them around her waist!)
Valentines dessert at Serious Pie: Italian hot chocolate, nonna’s biscotti, honey tangerine gelato
Keep love in your heart for V-day!!
I really like the tap handle for the 3.14 beer we developed for Serious Pie. The beer is available at both Pies, Westlake and Virginia.
Brent Murray, Assistant Manager, wrote this description of the 3.14 beer for our Serious Pie menu: “a collaborative effort between Elliott Bay Brewing Co. and Serious Pie, this is a ‘session style’ ale brewed using only organic ingredients.”
(Editor’s note: I tried this beer at Serious Pie Westlake just last week, and I can attest this is perfect pizza beer!)
The aged beer project came out of the 3.14 beer project (the number for pi, or in our case Pie- meaning a beer we developed for Serious Pie- more on that later.)
We were at Elliott Bay Brewing Co in Burien, and I noticed that they had some beer aging in barrels. I asked if they would be interested in working on an aged beer with us if I provided the barrel, and Doug, the EBB brew master was into the idea.
I called Kay and Clay from Chinook to see if they could let us use one of their Cab Franc barrels that they were done using. They brought me a barrel, and I brought it to Elliott Bay Brewing Co (or EBB). EBB filled the barrel with a delicious Imperial Porter on December 27, and we tasted it for the first time on January 27 with great results. The soft fruit aromas from the red wine barrel accented the coffee and cocoa notes from the porter, and the wine even lent a touch of acid to the fairly hearty rich beer.
Doug at EBB tends to blend his aged beers by taking a few gallons at a time off the beer when he likes the flavor profiles. He stores them and continues to age the beer until he has all the pieces to put together for a balanced aged beer.
What’s cool is that our relationships with Chinook and EBB are part of this process.
There will be a holiday release for this aged beer in 2012.
(Note: in photo above, Doug the EBB brew master is on the left and Warren Peterson, Brave Horse sous chef and TDR beer tzar, is on the right)
Continuing with my vegan adventure, Dahlia Lounge was next on the list. Of course, Shelley and I started with wonderfully chewy, scrumptious (and VEGAN!!!) Dahlia Bakery breads, served with virgin olive oil and young balsamic vinegar. This is a delicious start to a meal served at many of the Tom Douglas restaurants. My first course was a bright and beautiful beet salad (photo above) paired with big, green, juicy, floral Castelvatrano olives. The dressing was light and perfectly complimented the earthiness of the dish. (Note: we asked the chef to omit a small dollop of creamy cheese to make this dish vegan.)
Next I had the chicken chop salad- without the chicken of course! Crunchy lettuces, watercress, dates, chickpeas, grapefruit segments and pomegranate- oh my! At the server’s recommendation, I added a healthy portion of avocado to give the salad more heft. The combination of sweetness from the citrus, crunch from the pomegranate seeds and greens, and fatty creaminess from the avocado made the salad a veritable party in my mouth. Thank you! We finished our lunch with a touch of sweet and tangy tropical pineapple sorbet- a perfect finish to our ladies’ lunch.
January for most people is a time for New Year’s resolutions. This may include joining a gym, meditating, or even going to an extreme dietary change, eating only vegan. When I was first challenged by my friend to “go vegan” for a month, I thought she was out of her mind. An entire month without creamy cheeses, crispy bacon,melted butter on toast and so many other tantalizing foods!! Well I took her up on the challenge. I also decided to eat at as many of the Tom Douglas Restaurants as I could and discover what they had to offer vegan dieters.
Shelley Lance, our fabulous cookbook editor in chief joined me for the first two restaurants that I took on a vegan trial run. We started at Seatown. At first glance the menu seemed as if it might be difficult to navigate with a restricted diet, but upon speaking with the very knowledgeable server we were able to put together a very delicious lunch that did not stray far from the original menu items.
We started with an absolutely mouth watering-ly delicious vegan soup. Roasted pumpkin and butternut squash with cilantro and coconut milk garnished with pickled honey crisp apples. The creaminess from the coconut milk and the crunchy apple made the soup seem as if it wasn’t vegan at all. For my main dish I had the chop salad (omitting the chicken and cheese of course) with hazelnuts and delicata squash that had been rubbed with the Bengal Masala Rub with Love spice rub. MMMMMMMMM!!!!!! As a side, one of the cooks also sent out a heavenly bowl of shredded brussels sprouts with more of the tasty Rub with Love rubbed delicata squash. I left Seatown feeling very satisfied. Next time I will be sure to try the Seatown Vegan Mary made with Mischief vodka!
The next Vegan Challenge- lunch at the Dahlia Lounge!
Here’s a few pics of some new desserts that one of my girls took on her fancy phone!
Pineapple upside down cake- Palace
Shaker Meyer lemon pie- Palace
Lemon meringue- Dahlia
Dahlia’s Valentine Day dessert- Sneak Peek!! peanut butter and banana!
Have you ever grabbed a bag of our house made breadsticks from the Dahlia Bakery?
They are the perfect addition to cheese trays and salads for parties and dinners at home.
Devon is our adorable Workshop bread lead who has the fun task of making around 400 a week in his zen-like manner!
After cutting the dough in the pasta machine, he places them symmetrically on baking sheets and lightly sprinkles poppy, sesame, and fennel seeds, along with a little salt before he bakes them to the perfect crispness in our big French bakery ovens.
We also serve them with our Sea Bar at the Dahlia Lounge in case you want a tasty little snack before your next dinner at Dahlia, of just pop in and enjoy them at Happy Hour with one of our specialty cocktails!
Alright, folks, we want to hear from you! You may have heard that the Dahlia Bakery Cookbook is due out in Fall 2012, and guess who we would like to feature? That’s right: YOU, our loyal customers! (and that includes our loyal staff!)
Do you have a favorite memory of the coconut cream pie? Maybe the first time you laid eyes on it? The 10th time you gave it to your mom for her birthday? Bringing it to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving? Or maybe just sneaking a pie bite at the bakery every Friday? We want to know what place the coco pie holds in your heart… please add your pie story as a comment here.
Thank you for sharing twenty years of coconutty indulgence with us!!
(Photo courtesy of Jerad Knudson)
RSS SubscribeWelcome to Family Meal, a blog that examines all things new and noteworthy in the world of food, wine, and dining.
At family meal, otherwise known as staff meal, there’s no hierarchy; you’re breaking bread with your friends. For those 30 minutes, everyone is equal- and hungry. Family meal is our version of the water cooler- but with better food.
I’ll be sharing my thoughts, tips, and observations, and, in the spirit of family meal, I’ve invited our creative, energetic staff- everyone from line cook to bartender to bookkeeper- to have a say. I hope you’ll add your own comments and join in the conversation.
-Tom Douglas
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