Tom Douglas: Godfather of Seattle Culinary

The office has changed a lot in the last few days. Three new people have come on board since my arrival. This means that I am a defacto authority-- which is humorous beyond belief-- and that I am acutely aware of my role changing. Needless to say, last night I went to my second dinner with the team and this time around I was not the newest member, which felt good.

After many hours of meetings we decided to get dinner at Tom Douglas' new endeavor Serious Pie. Tom Douglas is like the big deal chef in Seattle. Everyone cares about this man. I should probably learn something about him, other than his name, but I haven't yet. I have often wondered why successful cooks often venture into the pizza realm. In San Francisco we got Nicky's Pizza, from Nick of Nick's Crispy Tacos, and although he sold it to New York Pizza it was the same intention I'm sure. Pizza is fantastic in its most basic and simple form. With a good crust, most pizza is magical. Which is why I find it so irritating that Chefs (with a capital 'C') feel compelled to "raise the bar" with white truffle oil. P.S. White truffle oil-- kind of 2006 but I'm not sure Seattle has gotten the memo. Serious Pie is THAT kind of spot.

Anyway, like Nicky's Pizza, Little Star and other well known, well loved pie spots, Serious Pie is small and can really only fits 20ish people. Our party of seven was given a wait time of one and a half hours. This wouldn't have been a big deal necessarily but came as a particularly big blow because we had all just sat in an hour of Mariners traffic to get across town. We were kind of spent, and while not really hungry (because we'd been in eating meetings all day) ready to sit down and eat.

Around the corner was Dahlia Lounge-- also a Tom Douglas venture. The folks in our party knew it by experience and reputation. I got to the restaurant before the others (after driving through three stadium parking lots and, at certain points in the gridlock, in the opposite direction I was trying to go just so I could feel like I was moving) and was charged with relocating our group. Bottom line, and long story short, we ended up at Palace Kitchen-- also a Tom Douglas venture-- after calling Lola and Etta's, all located within a few blocks, and all...Tom Douglas ventures. You see the theme here; the man is the Seattle restaurant scene.

If I talked in depth about the dishes we ordered you'd be blind from looking at your screen and my fingers would be bleeding from typing. So I'll do a little list with minimal commentary.

Starters:
1) Goat Cheese and Lavender Fondue accompanied by char grilled bread chunks, and sliced apple. The lavender was subtle. The char grilled bread was out of this world.
2) A wedge of Humboldt Fog sharing a plate with blanched almonds, sliced apples, and a few artisan crackers. Can't go wrong with Humboldt.
3) White asparagus cooked with Wala Wala onions, truffle oil, and covered in crispy golden shoestring potato frites. White asparagus is always delicious, as long as it isn't deviously overcooked, which this wasn't.
4) "Plin" ravioli with roasted pork and chard. Adorned with shaved Parmesan, likely traces of truffle oil though I'm not 100% sure about that. "Plin" refers to the particular cut of the ravioli. Rather than the traditional large squares, the plate was filled with small rectangles, maybe 3/8" by 1", stuffed ever-so-carefully. I actually tasted one because they were so damn cute. I dissected it to take the pork out but there was so little there and it was so well internalized by the pasta that it was a bit of a lost cause. Tasty bite.

Salads:
1) Caesar. Effectively a romaine heart slathered in their tangy dressing, and sprinkled with angel-fine shredded Parmesan. A truly respectable take on this salad.
2) Arugula. It was great to see an arugula salad made with something other than its baby self. I'd almost forgotten just how peppery mature arugula is. This particularly green was so mature in fact, it was flowering and its little blossoms studded the salad. It was dressed classically with lemon juice and more angel-fine Parm. Nice.

Entrees:
1) Trout. Cooked in lemon and more truffle oil. Served whole, with its skin and eyes, on its own plate. Accompanied by an additional split dish of Yukon gold mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. Radical. The trout was succulent and flaky. If you screw up mash potatoes you should be taken out back and punched in the eye socket, they did it right. No complaints.
2) House-made papardelle with rapini and black cod "meatballs" (quotations as appeared on menu), in a Wala Wala onion broth. The meatballs were more of a crab cake consistancy. The papardelle was excellent. I could have eaten this to excess. I rarely eat pasta so when I eat good pasta it always seems even better than it should.
3) Falafal plate. Five falafal, below-average pita, below-average tzatziki, unremarkable hummous, a forgettable cucumber and onion salad. I'm not sure why this was on their menu. Tom, if you are such an ace, you should know better, my man.

Dessert:
1) Coconut creme pie with white chocolate shavings. The amazing thing is that while I got to enjoy some of this fantastic slice of pie last night, there are actually 10 miniature versions of the same one in my kitchen as we speak. Chris just came home from a photography awards event, catered by the ever intrepid TD, and managed to nab a boxful of the pint size beauties. The real winning element was the flakiness of the pie crust combined with the ethereal lightness of the creme, the toasted coconut wasn't half bad either (though I'll never love white chocolate. It's a bit like white truffle oil-- over played, under whelming).
2) (Which should actually be noted as 2-4 because we got the shrunken versions of Palace's remaining desserts, though they did arrive on a single plate).
A) Rhubarb Float. This was really interesting, though I am undecided as to whether or not I actually "liked" it. It was a leeeetle scoop of rhubarb ice cream, which I am a fan of, in a leeetle glass filled with hibiscus infused muscato, which was interesting and so floral that I couldn't decided if I wanted to dunk my nose in it, or put it in my mouth. But the scent did transport me to Hawaii and that was a plus.
B) Cherry ice cream sundae. Two cold, pitted cherries covered in slightly tart cherry ice cream under an upside down dark chocolate cone. A good take on something I would never have ordered.
C) Chocolate toffee something. I know the menu said toffee. But I'm still confused about this. Four connected squares of chocolate which the waitress promised were studded with pretzel crumbs. Errrr...toffee? Couldn't find the pretzels, wasn't sad to have missed them, definitely tasted like espresso beans. Felt pretty ambivalent.

All this was washed down by a tasty Tempranillo, which I think is my favorite wine of the moment.

I'll admit, this Tom Douglas probably knows what he is doing. Palace Kitchen was respectable. I have a feeling I'll be under the roof of many other ventures of his, even without trying, even when trying not to. The man is the Godfather of Seattle Culinary. Hey, that's cool Tom, knock yourself out: just not with falafel plates.