The Bainbridge Island Downtown Association has established a relief fund for the employees and families of The 122 Bar and Restaurant.
The bar was gutted by fire on Monday morning.
Relief fund contributions can be made at the Winslow branch of Columbia Bank.
Funds will be collected until the end of August and then distributed in September.
Despite the economy and the
upheaval caused by the Winslow Way
reconstruction project, at least one Winslow restaurant is
doing well enough to expand.
Hitchcock, a local foods fine-dining restaurant that opened on Winslow Way last year, is in talks to expand into the next-door space recently occupied by a bath supply boutique.
“I’ve got some big plans for a business that would be an extension of Hitchcock, philosophically, but deliver the products we’ve worked so hard to procure over the last year to consumers in a different way,” said owner/chef Brendan McGill.
He said he’ll divulge specifics once a deal for the space is finalized.
McGill is also expanding Hitchcock’s hours to include lunchtime service. The focus will be on traditional Neopolitan pizzas made in the restaurant’s wood-fired oven.
“Lunch is a good excuse to crank the oven up for pizzas – good, fast lunch food,” he said.
Lunch service is offered now on weekends. Once the reconstruction project is done this fall, Hitchcock will begin serving lunch during weekdays.
I profiled Hitchcock last year when three restaurants specializing in local foods opened at the same time in Winslow. One of the restaurants closed a few months after opening. Its space will soon open as a wine bar. Local Harvest is still going strong in the Pavilion. You can read about the little boom in local food restaurants here.
In other Winslow food news, Greg Atkinson (chef, author, regular NPR guest) is opening a French restaurant on Madrone Lane, near Mora ice cream. Read more in Rachel Pritchett’s recent story.
Despite the shaky economy and the challenges the Winslow Way reconstruction poses for businesses, five new downtown leases were signed last week, including three for new eating establishments.
Blackbird Bakery’s customers have long wished the nearly-always-crowded coffee and lunch hangout would expand. That wish will come true by mid-April with the opening of Fork and Spoon, a new restaurant that borrows from Blackbird’s menu while expanding it to include meat dishes, salads, beer and wine.
“This started as a way to grow our lunch business, which was held back by seating capacity,” Blackbird co-owner Jeff Shepard said.
Fork and Spoon will take over the nearby Madrone Lane space formerly occupied by Victor Alexander winery.
There will be no indoor connection to Blackbird’s Winslow Way space, although the new restaurant will make use of Blackbird’s kitchen.
The new location will have outdoor seating in an enclosed courtyard.
Shepard said Fork and Spoon will use many local ingredients, including Bainbridge eggs and vegetables.
Also set to open soon is Radish, a high-end restaurant run by the former owners of Real Foods, which closed closed a few months ago.
A new sandwich shop is set to open soon in Winslow Mall, but I have little more detail than that.
Restaurants specializing in local foods are booming on Bainbridge. Two opened last month and a third is set to open this month.
While writing THIS story about the three restaurants, I checked in with chef Jeffrey McClelland, who cooks for the Harbour Public House and Pegasus Coffee. While both Waite family-owned dining spots don’t market themselves as local food specialists, the pub and Pegasus have had a growing commitment to meat and produce sourced close to home.
McClelland is planning a monthly showcase of local food he calls the “Locavore’s Dinner.” Hosted at Pegasus, the multi-course meal will be served family style and come at a base price of $60 or $85 with wine.
“I think a major reason we’re doing this is that it helps the local economy,” McClelland said.
Reality TV chef Marcel Vigneron credited the Streamliner Diner for sparking his interest in cooking.
Here’s a bit from an interview LA Weekly did with him:
“What happened was that I was going to high school, and my parents were like [in old folks accent], You need to go out and get a job and start making some money. So I was like, Okay. And I started working at a little diner, it was called Streamliner Diner on Bainbridge as a dishwasher. And realized that dishwashing was kind of like grunt work and it wasn’t really for me. And I saw these prep cooks working with like vegetables and stuff and I was like, Oooh, that looks like a glamour job.”
Vigneron was on season two of Top Chef, a reality TV competition show that airs on the cable network Bravo.
He’s now a chef at Bar210, “a posh lounge” near the Beverly Hills Hillton, according to the Weekly.
Read the rest of the interview HERE.
Sound Food’s Carolyn Goodwin uncovered some exciting culinary news about a new “farm-to-table” restaurant opening in Winslow next month.
“My curiosity was piqued today by a new sign on the papered-over Winslow Way windows of what was Gibilaro’s, then Isabella’s, now closed. Mysteries always intrigue me, so I dashed home to do some sleuthing” Goodwin wrote in a recent Sound Food blog post.
She learned it’s name is Hitchock and its owner is chef Brendan McGill, who has worked in several high-end Seattle restaurants and studied the foody arts in Spain, Italy and France.
Goodwin also tracked down Hitchcock’s “help wanted” ad for some more info:
“So what does McGill have in mind for Bainbridge Island? His help-wanted ad on Craigslist (he’s looking for a cook, a bartender, and a server) offers some hints about his farm-to-table concept: ‘The centerpiece of the kitchen is an applewood-fired oven that we’ll use to roast fish, vegetables & meats to order. We’ll be making fresh pasta daily, working an in-house charcuterie program, butchering small animals procured from local farms and using them to their fullest extent. All desserts are made in-house.'”
Hitchcock already has a website, hitchcockrestaurant.com, where you can read more about the chef/owner and see a preliminary menu.
The recent closing of Madoka, that pan-Asian fine dining establishment on the west end of Winslow Way, was “a sad blow for Bainbridge gastronomy,” writes Kitsap Sun food critic Bernard Jacobson in his most recent review.
Fortunately, the island has at least one other place on par with Madoka. Four Swallows, a restaurant combining Italian methods with Northwest ingredients, serves up dishes that are “superbly cooked and quite delicious” Jacobson writes. He also likes the setting, a 120-year-old house built by one of Winslow’s founders.
For Jacobson’s full Four Swallows review, click here.
