Burke-Gilman Brewing Company Opening In March

Burke-Gilman Brewing Company
under construction

Burke-Gilman Brewing Company is scheduled to open on March 1st, in the previous Ciao Bella restaurant space, vacated several years ago, part of the Laurelhurst Professional Center (3626 NE 45th Street).  

The building owner, Ron Sher, also owns the buildings where St. Helens and Great State Burger restaurants are located, as well as the building where Rudy's Barbershop is located.

Ron,  owner of Third Place Books in Bryant and Lake Forest Park, is also the founder and majority owner of Third Place Company, the parent company of Third Place Books and the Honey Bear Bakery, with several locations.

Ron is also the founder and CEO of Sher Partners, a family real estate development, management and investment firm. He was involved in revitalizing the Lake Forest Park Shopping Center and Bellevue's Crossroads Mall in the late 1980's. 

Ron told the Laurelhurst Blog about the upcoming opening of the brewery: "We're very excited about their being a tenant."

Kenneth, one of the owners of the brewery, told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff:

Two of the four owners are experienced homebrewers who got into it as a fun hobby. I initially assumed it was a cheaper way to get beer.  I soon found out that wasn't true, but it sure was a more fun way to get beer.    

I had always toyed with the idea of scaling up, but it was the opening of Ravenna Brewing down the street that taught us that this really is possible. We've since become good friends with the owners at Ravenna, and they've mentored us through a lot of this stuff.

Myself and another of the owners, look forward to brewing on a full sized system and will definitely be brewing some portion of our output. But, we're also hiring a full time brewer .  We're hoping to post that position on various brewing job listings very soon.

We, owners, are all big fans of the renaissance in locally brewed beer that Seattle is a center of. We thought it would be very interesting to open a small neighborhood brewery. Since we live in the neighborhood, we wanted a place we could go ourselves, and figured the rest of the neighborhood likely would also be interested.  

While we of course want to make beer so good that the whole city makes a pilgrimage for it, our real target is people who can walk or bike in, since it's so close to their house. We're family and dog friendly, so we really want the whole family to think about a night out.  

All beer will be brewed on site, with a few guest taps.  We will have as many beers as  we can brew. We have ordered a 7 bbl gas-fired brewhouse, and quite a few fermenters, to allow a nice variety. We are trying to fit a modest barrel aging program in the space as well. We'll have an emphasis on local ingredients, sourcing malt and hops from Washington growers to the extent we can. We hope to develop a nice line of sessionable (lower alcohol) beers, with several stronger beers to balance them. We're big fans of historical styles and Belgian styles as well. So, we hope to have something new on tap every time someone comes in. We will have some guest taps for some favorites of ours and our customers, and we also plan on a variety of ciders. 

None of the four owners are restauranteurs.  We will not have a kitchen. We will have some light snacks, but the beauty of this location is that there are six restaurants on the block or right across the street. Pick your favorite restaurant from the neighborhood, sit down at one of our tables and pick out the perfect beer to accompany it. We'll have games for the kids, as well as some healthy snacks and drinks (milk, juice, etc.) for them. And as we mentioned above, we'll have cider for the non-beer drinkers. The license we'll be opening under unfortunately only allows for beer and cider, so no wine. 

We're happy for people to bring whatever they want in - our neighbor businesses, delivery from somewhere else, even a picnic to eat on the patio with a fresh beer to accompany it. We have thought about hosting a food truck, but if this happens, it would likely come in a later phase. We do think there's a great variety of cuisines in the neighborhood already, so we'll see how well this works before organizing a truck.  

The brewery will be accessible to bikers. And several of us are dedicated bike commuters, and we're making sure we have tons of bike parking, including for family bikes. Since the brewery space is on the bottom floor of the building, it's not directly accessible from the trail, but it's a pretty easy route around the corner of the building and down the sidewalk to the bike racks. Being on the trail also helps so much with bike-ability, which is important to us.

We're targeting spring of 2018. We've got March 1st pencilled in, but we're still early in the planning and permitting phase, so we're sure this will change. We'll definitely update people when we know more. 

We're so excited to be joining our neighborhood's little business district and we look forward to helping draw business to the district.  We think there's a lot of potential for synergy here. And we look forward to learning what the neighborhood wants to drink, building up a great beer list, and having the room to have some fun experimenting. 

The Facebook page says: 

Our license only allows us to manufacture beer, but we are allowed to have as many ciders as we want on tap, so long as they are WA State ciders. We'll have a nice variety for non-beer-drinkers.

For the beer nerds, we'll have a 7bbl brewhouse, and enough fermenters to have a wide variety on tap. We're hoping to sell nearly all of our production in the taproom, with very little sold in kegs. We're also happy to sell growlers and crowlers for takeaway.  

We're beer geeks, of course, so we want the basics (a good IPA, a good stout, a good saison, etc.), but on top of that we want to make as wide a variety as we can. Historical styles, rare styles - we're even figuring out... some room for some barrel sours.  

None of us wants to quit our day jobs yet, so we'll be hiring a brewer, who we hope won't mind if we brew occasionally ourselves. We'll be staffing the taproom ourselves as much as possible, but also hiring staff.  

We're hoping to be open by March 1st. We can't wait to pour you a pint.

For more information go to Facebook, Twitter or the website. 

Two New Restaurants, Saint Helens And Great State Burger, Opening Next Month

 

Saint Helens and Great State Burger

under construction

(brown and blue building behind brown tarp)

 

 

Construction has been steady for the last year for the two new restaurants at the previous site of the 2-story wood frame building that housed Bill the Butcher and the 1-story wood frame buildings next door, formerly housing Coffee Crew, Bakker Dry Cleaning, and Chelsea Estate Services.  

The property is owned by Seattle and Bellevue developer Ron Sher, an avid cyclist and owner of Third Place Books in Bryant and Lake Forest Park.

He was also involved in revitalizing the Lake Forest Park Shopping Center and Bellevue's Crossroads Mall in the late 1980's and is involved with Cascade Bicycle Club.
   
Last April, Ron announced to the Laurelhurst Blog Staff that he signed a deal with restaurateur Josh Henderson, founder of Skillet Street Foods and owner of Huxley Wallace Collective.

Lesa Linster, Director of Marketing, with Huxley Wallace Collective, recently announced to the Blog Staff the names and menus of the new restaurants opening next month at 3600 NE 45th Street.

The first is called Saint Helens, an American style brasserie, which will open on February 15.

The menu is not posted, but in its place pictures of various foods to be offered.

Lesa said about the restaurant:

It will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with brunch on the weekends. Expect a number of sharable and family style menu items.  

It will be a place to gather, to eat, and to come together in a casual cafe setting.  It will have a full dining room with a cafe counter, an expansive outdoor area complete with fire pit, and a private event space for intimate gatherings. 

 

The second restaurant is called Great State Burger, opening on February 22, and is "our take on the classic burger joint," Lesa said.

The menu offers three types of hamburgers, as well as a kids hamburger.  Shakes, beer and soda are also on the menu. 

The description on the website says:

We continue the tradition of providing an amazing burger, a rich milkshake and fast service for the 21st century customer.  

We offer the highest quality ingredients, serving grass-fed organic beef, organic milk shakes, Yukon Gold crinkle cut fries, fresh American cheese, lettuce and tomato. We use all compostable packaging, and offer online and mobile ordering.

 

Chef Josh Henderson, owner of the restaurant group, Huxley Wallace Collective, told the Blog Staff that the idea came about to have the two types of restaurants in the neighborhood as the "building kind of lent itself to two separate spaces so we felt like it was natural to do it that way rather than to break up one concept. We had been looking to add another Great State Burger, so this was a perfect opportunity to do that as well as an all-day brasserie."

He said that he chose this area of Seattle for his new restaurants as he is familiar with and has lived in the vicinity  for many years.

Lesa told the Blog Staff that Josh "thought this area could use something like this, and that people would be supportive of the new additions.

She added:

Josh had spent a fair amount of time in Ron’s place and knew the neighborhood would welcome a place with good intentions and solid food. We’re excited to bring both and connect with the community.

 

The new space will also have bike parking for an easy stop off the Burke Gilman trail and Lesa said that down the line they are looking at doing a trail side walk up window for espresso.

Ron also owns the buildings directly to the North including the Laurelhurst Professional Center, which used to house Ciao Bella. 

The Blog staff asked Ron if more changes are coming to those buildings and he said:

You are right to perceive that more will be happening. Our intent is to remodel all of buildings including the Laurelhurst Professional Center.  

We plan to extend the depth of the single story building ,remodel the store fronts and to add a partial second story. We are also planning to remodel the Professional Center replace the restaurant and remodel the patio.

Ron cancelled his original plan last May, for a small European style bike hotel, which was to be called the Country Inn.  

Ron's goal "was to create a bicycle oriented community hub to stimulate cycling tourism, provide an amenity for all users of the Burke Gilman Trail, encourage greater use of bicycles as a mode of urban transport, provide a prototype example of cycle-oriented development and create a sustainable neighborhood commercial project."

Michael Whalen, an architectural consultant, told the Blog Staff in November that a number of improvements were being made to bring the buildings into conformance with current building codes, so the look would be changed, but the basic building massing would be much the same as it was.

The Huxley Wallace Collective also owns other restaurants and spaces in the Seattle area, including Little Gull Grocery, Quality Athletics and Westward. Most restaurants offer catering for small and large groups.

Josh published his first cookbook in July 2012 called The Skillet Cookbook – A Streetfood Manifesto.

The website says the restaurant group is "dedicated to supporting nonprofits locally and nationwide through financial contributions, product donations, volunteer hours, and chef appearances. To date we have given more than $35,000 to more than 100 organizations."

Ron recently told the Blog Staff: "We are very excited about the project and feel it will be a great addition to the neighborhood."

 

Chef Josh Henderson
Huxley-Wallace Collective
(courtesy of Huxley website)

 

Update On Ciao Bella Restaurant Inspection And Owner Input

Thanks to our readers for your comments on yesterday's post on Ciao! Bella's recent restaurant inspection. We value the comments and have followed up on some.


One reader asked us to put this inspection into context, as it may seem confusing hearing the rating and understanding what exactly the ratings mean andhow that fits into other restaurant ratings and specifically in the neighborhood.

Regarding the point system - 35 or more red critical violation points(those with the highest risk of causing food borne disease) require a re-inspection within 14 days, 90 or more red critical violation points require that the food establishment be closed. 120 or more points, combination of red and blue, also requires that the establishment be closed. Blue violations relate to the maintenance of the establishment and cleanliness.

From looking at other restaurants nearby, Marlai and Varlamos Restaurants and Chloe Bistrot received 30, 20 and 8 points respectively in their most recent inspection.

Another comment from a reader said "At the Public Health site, you can search by 98105 to see a complete list of restaurants and grocery stores in our area. You'll be surprised to see that many popular places, including local grocery stores have had similar violations."

This information is easily accessible to the public here.

Another reader asks for ratings for Blue C Sushi in the UVillage. This restaurant received a perfect score in the "return inspection" after having received 98 in the previous one in Janaury.

The same reader asked about Zao Noodle, also in the UVillage, and this one received a score of 8 in an inspection 2 weeks ago and 15 points in the previous inspection in March.

Another comment received said "Every restaurant probably has some degree of these (violations)."

We phoned Ciao Bella today and spoke with Gino, the owner. We let him know about the post and that we welcomed his input so that our readers were able to see the big picture.

He said he was aware of the inpsection and was not there at the time and was not made aware of anything critical to take care of either by the Health Department or by his employees. He said he is well aware of how the inspections work and said that you never want to get a $500 fine or be shut down for 2 weeks.

Gino said the Health Department "changes the law whenever they want , sometimes every couple of months."

He said whatever he is made aware of he will fix immediately. He said "I am a professional and know how things are run. I know the rules and the proper way."

He said anyone is welcome in the kitchen anytime to look around and take a look at how his employees handle food and prepare meals. And he said often people do as they mistake the kitchen for the bathroom which are right next to eachother. He said "so there is nothing we can hide."

"If my refridgerator breaks, food is thrown away," he said."

Gino went on to say "I'm really on top of things. And I've never had any problem in my life." And he said he has owned several restaurants in his long restauranteuring career and has never had "any problems with the Health Department." He said he was going to call the Health Department as soon as we got off the phone to follow-up.

Another email received from a reader who used to own a food establishment in the neighborhood wrote "I know from previously owning (a food establishment) that a different inspector can be the difference between a good report and an awful one. We always did well, but it can be tough."

And finally here is a list of other neighborhood blogs in Seattle that have also done posts on restaurant inspections on restaurants in their respective neighborhoods:

Ballard:
http://www.myballard.com/2008/10/09/zestos-passes-latest-health-inspection/

Phinneywood:
http://www.phinneywood.com/2010/07/23/restaurant-inspection-roundup/
http://www.phinneywood.com/2010/07/12/restaurants-receive-poor-health-inspections/
http://www.phinneywood.com/2009/05/04/food-health-inspection-violations-in-neighborhood/

Maple Leaf:
http://www.mapleleaflife.com/2010/05/24/how-did-your-favorite-restaurant-fare-at-inspection/

Magnolia:
http://www.magnoliavoice.com/2009/01/21/local-restaurant-cited-by-health-department/

Capitol Hill:
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2008/08/19/7-11-hand-washing-exposed-everyblock

Beacon Hill:
http://beaconhill.seattle.wa.us/2010/05/02/beacon-bits-cuisine-census-and-constituent-voices/
http://beaconhill.seattle.wa.us/2009/10/20/beacon-bits-health-inspections-parking-spaces-and-bridge-rehab/

Thanks again to our readers for your comments. We always appreciate everyone's time in sending in email and always value every reader's input. And thank you to Ciao Bella for their contribution.

Results of Recent Restaurant Inspection at Ciao Bella Restaurant

One of our staffers came across a routine restaurant inspection completed last Thursday, June 29th, at Ciao! Bella Restaurant at the bottom of NE 45th Street and Sand Point Way.

The inspection is a scored review performed by Seattle Public Health based on the food handling practices, equipment, and facility at a specific restaurant that assures food safety for patrons. One or two routine inspections is performed every year depending on the type of facility.

Ciao Bella received a score of 57 points, which is their highest score of violations in the last 2 years of inspections.

The higher the points the more violations are incurred. Lower points corresponds to fewer violations.

Violations are in two categories - red and blue.

Red-critical violations are those that have the "highest risk of causing food borne disease. One red critical violation equals an unsatisfactory inspection. Environmental Health Specialists work with operators to make sure that red critical violations are corrected before they leave the establishment," the website says.

Blue violations are related to the maintenance and cleanliness of the restaurant.

Here are the violations at Ciao Bella from the July 29th inspection with violations noted in the appropriate colors:

 -Improper cold holding temperatures (between 42° F to 45° F)

-Inadequate hand washing facilities
-Thermometers not available or used as required to evaluate temperature of potentially hazardous foods
-Food worker card not available or current, new food workers not trained
-Proper Consumer Advisory not posted for raw or undercooked foods
-Physical facilities not properly installed, maintained, clean; unnecessary persons not excluded from establishment
-Room temperature storage, improper use of time as a control, procedures not available

On April 8th the restaurant received a score of 35: 

-Food contact surfaces not maintained, clean, sanitized
-Improper cold holding temperatures (between 42° F to 45° F)
-Food worker card not available or current, new food workers not trained
-Improper shellfish identification; improper parasite destruction procedures for fish
-Thermometers not available or used as required to evaluate temperature of potentially hazardous foods
-Proper Consumer Advisory not posted for raw or undercooked foods
-Food not protected from potential contamination during preparation, storage, display


Please also see updated post on August 5th:
http://thelaurelhurstblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-ciao-bella-restaurant.html