Tom Douglas

Nancy Leson cooks Bacon Explosion with Rub with Love

Take a look at Nancy Leson’s Seattle Times blog, “All You Can Eat,” for her story about cooking up the “Bacon Explosion,” a sort of bacon stuffed and bacon wrapped sausage meatloaf bomb that became an internet sensation.  Nancy adapts the recipe by adding Rub with Love Pork Rub, so it must have turned out extra delicious! Great step by step photos show you how to make this thing, but Nancy does include a photo of her cardiologist warning of the health hazards of eating this over the top creation of pig-stuffed-pig!

February 11th, 2009 | No Comments »

Tom and Thierry’s Radio Show Anniversary at Palace Ballroom

Last Saturday was the 5 year Anniversary Celebration of the Kiro radio show, “In the Kitchen with Tom and Thierry.” Tom and Thierry broadcast the show live from Palace Ballroom with 150 guests and some wild festivities. There was a radio listeners’ contest for Best Dish, and tastes of the finalists’  Best Dishes were served to the guests. There was also a rollicking “Iron Chef” type competition where Tom Douglas Restaurant Chefs were paired with KIRO radio personalities and given a limited amount of time to prepare two dishes from a secret-until-the-last-moment “black box” of ingredients.  The secret list included: raw chicken, raw prawns, dandelion greens, local honey, and a bottle of bourbon along with several other ingredients.  Congratulations go to the team of Lola Chef, Brock Johnson, and Kiro personality, Gregg Hersholt (of Kiro’s “Morning Show with Gregg and Jane.”) Brock and Gregg (see photo of the two of them) won the competition with these two dishes:

Roast chicken breast and stuffed chicken thigh with pancetta, brussels sprouts, and pecorino

Shrimp soup and shrimp dumplings with mandarin, ginger, and red chili

February 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

The State of the American Farm by Shelley Lance

Seattle’s 4th Annual Farmer-Chef Connection, sponsored by, among others, Seattle Chefs Collaborative, featured Tom Douglas and Luke Woodward of Oxbow Farm in a “Conversation between a Chef and a Farmer,” moderated by Chef Seth Caswell.  Luke made the point that restaurant chefs need to be patient and flexible with small organic farmers as the farmers try to juggle demands of restaurants, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and Farmer’s Markets all at the same time with limited staffing.  A couple of Tom’s points: If you want to learn how to feed a lot of people with little money and learn about how food systems work in Western Washington, volunteer with Food Lifeline/Northwest Harvest.  He also said, though Tom Douglas Restaurants love supporting small organic farmers and are willing to pay more to do so, in the big picture, our company also chooses to pay our staff a living wage and provide healthcare (sustainable issues too, no?) which contributes to price pressure.  Also, our company’s dollars also go to support much that is local in addition to local farmers, such as Washington’s dairy, wine, and shellfish industries.  (And, dear reader, don’t forget to support your local restaurants.  Local restaurants put their money back into the local food economy to a far greater degree than the national chains.) Read the rest of this entry »

February 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

Eat Tacos at Ettas

Chef Ron Anderson is now serving tacos at Etta’s every Monday through Friday at lunch and daily in the bar during Happy Hour from 4 to 6 pm.

Handmade corn tortillas are wrapped around either chile braised pork or fried Alaskan cod and served with a roster of Mexican salsas and sauces like guacamole, pico de gallo, chipotle tomato, and roasted tomatillo. (Editor’s note: I tasted the beauties pictured in the photo, left, and they were delicious and very authentic tasting.)

Tacos at lunch are $3.50 each or three tacos for $10. Tacos at Happy Hour in the bar are a steal at $2 each.

You can wet your whistle with the appropriate beverage such as horchata, a blood orange margarita, an icy Pacifica beer, or make believe you’re really in Mexico and order a shot of tequila with a sangrita chaser!

February 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

Dahlia Lounge Reviewed in Seattle PI Feb 5, 2009

We’re pleased by this great review, especially by the phrase, “Dahlia Lounge is better than ever.”  Of course it takes a team of people working their hardest day and night, seven days a week, to keep a 20-year old restaurant “fresh as the day it blossomed.”  That’s why we we’re especially delighted that the reviewer gave kudos to Dahlia Chef, Brian Walczyk, as well as Bread/Pizza Chef Gwen LeBlanc and Pastry Chef Garrett Melkonian.  Also mentioned in the article, Executive Chef Eric Tanaka and, of course, Tom Douglas and Jackie Cross.  It’s not possible for a newspaper article to mention everyone by name,  but when the reviewer writes about “sinking into the warm embrace of a classic,” much of the credit for that experience goes to our indomitable and tirelessly gracious General Manager, Patty Jacklin.

February 6th, 2009 | No Comments »

Unplug the fridge to be green?

What’s next after switching to energy efficient light bulbs, biking to work, and starting a compost pile? A few environmentally conscious households are experimenting with the no-fridge life in an attempt to reduce their cabon footprint even further, according to this article in the New York Times. For those who find the idea a bit too extreme, or think it doesn’t really make sense (ie. are you saving enough to justify all those extra trips to the store?), the article includes several tips on how to save energy and money with a refrigerator in the house.  Best of all, you won’t have to give up that cold beer after work!

February 5th, 2009 | No Comments »

Susie Snyder’s West Texas Spaghetti Sauce by Susanne Rankin, Palace Kitchen

I grew up in Colorado.  It was from that green outpost that my Texan father watched in horror as I changed from a little girl who ate meat at every meal into a teenager who decided to be a vegetarian.  To eschew meat was to shun my very heritage, he explained, reminding me of his family’s multi-generational ties to cattle ranching.  He lamented his decision to take me duck hunting when I was two, an experience I found traumatic, and declared that had he waited until I was a little older, I would not have turned out to be such a heretic.

But heretic I was and heretic I still am.  I have consumed very little flesh in the past seventeen years.  Fish I will eat on occasion and I am not one to fuss about stock.  I have even been known to eat the rare contraband chicken.  But I am a vegetarian at heart, despite these transgressions, and the meatless state is one to which I always return.

I went to quite a different state when I visited Texas for the holidays four or five years ago.  Meat was everywhere.  I always demurred when my relatives urged me to sample whatever variety of roast beast was gracing the table.  But then one night my aunt greeted me at the doorway to her kitchen and said, “I made your grandma’s spaghetti for dinner tonight.”

Grandma’s spaghetti was a recipe concocted by my father’s mother, a no-nonsense sort of woman who died when I was fifteen.  My own mother had often made it herself and as a child it was my favorite thing to have for dinner.  But that child was far away from the Seattle vegetarian eyeing with alarm the ground beef and ketchup bubbling away in my aunt’s crock-pot.   The idea of eating it filled me with disdain.  I was in the land of the lost, that was for sure, and I foresaw my dinner as a plate of plain noodles over which I would sprinkle salt and maybe a pinch of the shredded Velveeta my aunt had laid on the table.

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February 4th, 2009 | No Comments »

Garden Blogs by Shelley Lance

This year, Tom Douglas Restaurants will be at the Flower and Garden Show serving tastes of Rub with Love Smoky BBQ Rubbed Pork Butt with Ancho and Molasses BBQ Sauce. Since many of us in the company are gardening fiends, we’re excited about the chance to hang out at the garden show all 5 days.

Every February, the Flower and Garden Show is my signal that it’s time to dust off the seed catalogs and start thinking seriously about getting out in the dirt to work in my vegetable garden, so this seems like a good moment to share a few vegetable gardening blogs.

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February 3rd, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Chicken Wing Shortage?

As if we didn’t have enough problems in this country, a chicken wing shortage across the nation cast a pallor on Super Bowl Sunday according to articles like these.  Fortunately, chicken wings are still in good supply at Palace Kitchen, so if you had to make do with guacamole and chips while watching the big game yesterday, come on by for a spicy plateful of Palace Kitchen Wood Grilled Chicken Wings!

February 2nd, 2009 | No Comments »

Txori Dining Review by Shelley Lance

Looking for a quick bite before a concert at Benaroya, my husband and I thought of Txori in Belltown.  Though we were smitten with their tiny urban patio last summer, we hadn’t been back to Txori since the weather turned chilly.  The long, narrow tapas joint turned out to be the perfect place for a quick sophisticated supper.  Some faves: a small savory pork sandwich or bocadillo, just 3 or 4 delicious bites/ a plate of beautifully browned roasted cauliflower florets dressed with flavorful olive oil/  a moist, fresh tasting tortilla Espanola (potato onion omelet) on a slice of baguette which brought back memories from a trip to Barcelona of the Boqueria Market where we sometimes started the day with an espresso and a potato omelet sandwich.  A friendly server and a few glasses of Spanish wine put us in fine fiddle for the Symphony!

February 2nd, 2009 | No Comments »