Week Two
Here's my second module, this one a two-part essay—the first section covers the history, philosophy and vision of the restaurant, while the second focuses on the chefs and the food. While this essay doesn't include anything about my externship, I think it's just as interesting, if not more so, than the first essay, given Canlis' long history and how seriously they take being the very best in everything they do. Enjoy.
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Nicolas Peter Canlis opened Canlis Restaurant in Seattle in 1950 in its present location, on a hillside three miles north of downtown and overlooking Lake Union. Canlis was his second restaurant, opened three years after The Broiler in Waikiki, Hawaii, and immediately became famous in the city for charging an outlandish fifty cents for a baked potato. Until 1954, Canlis and his daughter Gloria lived in an apartment above the restaurant’s main floor, which was eventually remodeled into what is today the Penthouse Room, a large private dining room accommodating up to 90 guests. Four years later, two smaller rooms—the Executive Room and Caché—were added, giving Canlis roughly its current layout.
Canlis opened restaurants in Portland and San Francisco in 1959 and 1965, respectively, the former a joint venture with Barron Hilton. Following his death in 1977, his son Chris moved to Seattle to run the restaurant along with Chris’ wife, Alice. Two years later the Portland location was turned over to Hilton at the expiration of a 20-year lease, and in 1985 Chris Canlis sold the San Francisco location in order to focus on business in Seattle. With the restaurant beginning to show its age in 1996, Chris and Alice Canlis embarked on a two million dollar project which updated every facet of Canlis.
In 2005, Chris and Alice’s second son, Mark, became managing owner of Canlis, leading the restaurant in its third generation of family ownership, known as “Canlis 3.0”. The restaurant is truly a family affair—Chris and Alice remain involved in its day-to-day operations, and Mark’s younger brother Brian recently joined the management team as well.
Despite being over 55 years old, Canlis has actually changed very little since opening, and what changes have occurred are primarily physical changes to the restaurant itself. The Canlis vision, while not easily obtained, is simply stated—to create the best dining experience in the country. This vision begins with an extreme focus on service. Canlis believes that guests are bringing their most treasured possessions—their time, their privacy, their wealth, and their relationships—to the restaurant, and that it is of the utmost importance to guard these possessions. This is achieved by a list of priorities: hard work, high standards, knowledge and skills, personal attention to individual taste, comfort and elegance, and gracious service.
When Nicolas Peter Canlis opened the restaurant in 1950, he decided to go against the norm by not using traditional French service and the “captain system,” which he found stuffy and self-serving. Instead, he is credited with developing a team style of service which today is used around the world, as well as one of the earliest tip and profit sharing systems. The team style of service continues at Canlis today, as well as a “secret” valet parking system which uses no claim tickets but always has cars waiting for customers instead of the other way around.
Perhaps the best example of both how Canlis hasn’t changed and how much it values its customers is that many food items, despite no longer being listed on the menu, are still produced without hesitation if asked for. This may seem like an inconvenience, but when you have regular customers who have been dining with you for over 40 years, any inconvenience is easily justified by being able to provide treasured guests with their favorite dishes. Still other items, such as Peter Canlis Prawns, The Canlis Salad, and Steak Tartare, have been on the menu virtually unchanged in 50 years.
The Canlis philosophy on food is to serve the very best products prepared to their very best, with a focus on local, seasonal, and heirloom produce. The menu itself changes seasonally, in order to offer the very best and freshest at any given time of the year. The cuisine would generally be described as New American, though the restaurant is credited with giving birth to Northwest Cuisine, and as a result much of the menu features local and regional seafood such as Alaskan salmon and local oysters. In fact, the vast majority of the food received at Canlis, from produce to beef to seafood, can be described as coming from local producers—Misty Isle Farms (beef), Taylor Family Shellfish, Full Circle Farm, and Olsen Farm Potatoes to name four.
Because Canlis believes they’re utilizing the highest quality ingredients, many dishes appear simpler than you might expect from such an upscale establishment. This is particularly true of the primary proteins—steaks, lamb chops, salmon, and the daily fish special—which receive top billing on their respective plates without being covered in sauces. The plates still contain sauces, of course, along with vegetables and starches, but it’s clear that the protein is the featured item. When you’re paying $70 for a Wagyu beef (Kobe-style) tenderloin you want to taste the steak itself, not an overly rich demi-glace based sauce, so steaks are given a small swipe of Canlis’ steak butter and nothing more.
The restaurant’s chef team, made up of Co-Executive Chefs Jeff Taton and Aaron Wright, is best described as a blend of new and old. Taton, who began at Canlis after high school as a dishwasher and worked his way up through the ranks despite no formal training, will celebrate his 25th anniversary at the restaurant this summer. He brings the experience of having worked under previous chefs Rocky Toguchi and Greg Atkinson, and is considered the kitchen’s stalwart leader.
Wright has only been at Canlis since 2000, and in his current position since 2002, but brings balance to the team as a relative outsider. He is also considered the creative visionary, introducing new dishes, updating existing Canlis classics and writing the chef’s tasting menu. After ten years as an illustrator and graphic designer, Wright changed direction, beginning his new career in California before coming to Seattle and working at local restaurants Andaluca and Earth & Ocean.
Specials—the only true special currently is a daily fish preparation, soon to be a daily mixed grill with the launch of a new menu in late January—and menu changes are a collaborative effort of Wright, Taton, and Sous Chef Norman Owens, with some input from the rest of the kitchen. These changes are driven primarily by seasonality, what’s fresh and what’s on hand.
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Nicolas Peter Canlis opened Canlis Restaurant in Seattle in 1950 in its present location, on a hillside three miles north of downtown and overlooking Lake Union. Canlis was his second restaurant, opened three years after The Broiler in Waikiki, Hawaii, and immediately became famous in the city for charging an outlandish fifty cents for a baked potato. Until 1954, Canlis and his daughter Gloria lived in an apartment above the restaurant’s main floor, which was eventually remodeled into what is today the Penthouse Room, a large private dining room accommodating up to 90 guests. Four years later, two smaller rooms—the Executive Room and Caché—were added, giving Canlis roughly its current layout.
Canlis opened restaurants in Portland and San Francisco in 1959 and 1965, respectively, the former a joint venture with Barron Hilton. Following his death in 1977, his son Chris moved to Seattle to run the restaurant along with Chris’ wife, Alice. Two years later the Portland location was turned over to Hilton at the expiration of a 20-year lease, and in 1985 Chris Canlis sold the San Francisco location in order to focus on business in Seattle. With the restaurant beginning to show its age in 1996, Chris and Alice Canlis embarked on a two million dollar project which updated every facet of Canlis.
In 2005, Chris and Alice’s second son, Mark, became managing owner of Canlis, leading the restaurant in its third generation of family ownership, known as “Canlis 3.0”. The restaurant is truly a family affair—Chris and Alice remain involved in its day-to-day operations, and Mark’s younger brother Brian recently joined the management team as well.
Despite being over 55 years old, Canlis has actually changed very little since opening, and what changes have occurred are primarily physical changes to the restaurant itself. The Canlis vision, while not easily obtained, is simply stated—to create the best dining experience in the country. This vision begins with an extreme focus on service. Canlis believes that guests are bringing their most treasured possessions—their time, their privacy, their wealth, and their relationships—to the restaurant, and that it is of the utmost importance to guard these possessions. This is achieved by a list of priorities: hard work, high standards, knowledge and skills, personal attention to individual taste, comfort and elegance, and gracious service.
When Nicolas Peter Canlis opened the restaurant in 1950, he decided to go against the norm by not using traditional French service and the “captain system,” which he found stuffy and self-serving. Instead, he is credited with developing a team style of service which today is used around the world, as well as one of the earliest tip and profit sharing systems. The team style of service continues at Canlis today, as well as a “secret” valet parking system which uses no claim tickets but always has cars waiting for customers instead of the other way around.
Perhaps the best example of both how Canlis hasn’t changed and how much it values its customers is that many food items, despite no longer being listed on the menu, are still produced without hesitation if asked for. This may seem like an inconvenience, but when you have regular customers who have been dining with you for over 40 years, any inconvenience is easily justified by being able to provide treasured guests with their favorite dishes. Still other items, such as Peter Canlis Prawns, The Canlis Salad, and Steak Tartare, have been on the menu virtually unchanged in 50 years.
The Canlis philosophy on food is to serve the very best products prepared to their very best, with a focus on local, seasonal, and heirloom produce. The menu itself changes seasonally, in order to offer the very best and freshest at any given time of the year. The cuisine would generally be described as New American, though the restaurant is credited with giving birth to Northwest Cuisine, and as a result much of the menu features local and regional seafood such as Alaskan salmon and local oysters. In fact, the vast majority of the food received at Canlis, from produce to beef to seafood, can be described as coming from local producers—Misty Isle Farms (beef), Taylor Family Shellfish, Full Circle Farm, and Olsen Farm Potatoes to name four.
Because Canlis believes they’re utilizing the highest quality ingredients, many dishes appear simpler than you might expect from such an upscale establishment. This is particularly true of the primary proteins—steaks, lamb chops, salmon, and the daily fish special—which receive top billing on their respective plates without being covered in sauces. The plates still contain sauces, of course, along with vegetables and starches, but it’s clear that the protein is the featured item. When you’re paying $70 for a Wagyu beef (Kobe-style) tenderloin you want to taste the steak itself, not an overly rich demi-glace based sauce, so steaks are given a small swipe of Canlis’ steak butter and nothing more.
The restaurant’s chef team, made up of Co-Executive Chefs Jeff Taton and Aaron Wright, is best described as a blend of new and old. Taton, who began at Canlis after high school as a dishwasher and worked his way up through the ranks despite no formal training, will celebrate his 25th anniversary at the restaurant this summer. He brings the experience of having worked under previous chefs Rocky Toguchi and Greg Atkinson, and is considered the kitchen’s stalwart leader.
Wright has only been at Canlis since 2000, and in his current position since 2002, but brings balance to the team as a relative outsider. He is also considered the creative visionary, introducing new dishes, updating existing Canlis classics and writing the chef’s tasting menu. After ten years as an illustrator and graphic designer, Wright changed direction, beginning his new career in California before coming to Seattle and working at local restaurants Andaluca and Earth & Ocean.
Specials—the only true special currently is a daily fish preparation, soon to be a daily mixed grill with the launch of a new menu in late January—and menu changes are a collaborative effort of Wright, Taton, and Sous Chef Norman Owens, with some input from the rest of the kitchen. These changes are driven primarily by seasonality, what’s fresh and what’s on hand.
posted by JMB at
1:10 AM
1 Comments:
Kudos to you, Mr. A-student, for being up to date on your extern modules. Very impressive - I keep meaning to flip through the book and figure out exactly what I need to do for those, but hey - it's only week four - no hurry, right?!
The restaurant sounds awesome - I am going to recommend to a friend of mine out there that she go try it out, so that I may live vicariously through her!
Aubrae
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Anonymous, at 2:37 PM
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