Green is the Word

“The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.” – Harriet Ann Jacobs

It never ceases to amaze us just how spectacularly green Seattle is this time of year. I guess that’s one of the upsides of living in such a rainy place. The garden at the restaurant is overflowing with an abundance of dreamy, cascading flora; it seems as if something new blossoms each day. Our West Woodland neighborhood looks lush and renewed, and more and more of our neighbors cruise by us on their bicycles and with many a happy dog in tow.  

We love this magical time of year and the bounty of fresh ingredients it brings to us to experiment with and taste. Once again our menu mirrors the emerald-hued city just beyond our front door, a thing we’ve come to love about the emergence of spring. Fresh herbs, along with foraged and found goodies from Washington’s literal backyard and our own garden, have truly brought our seasonally-inspired menu to life. As American author Harriet Ann Jacobs observes, we are indeed beginning to feel revived after such a long winter.

Creamed nettles with miso, glass noodles, and green garlic. 

Our spring salad features fiddlehead ferns, peas, pickled ramps, mustard seeds, and opal basil, among other green goodies. 

It makes us so happy when the dishes we serve are able to surprise our guests in some way. Many people don’t know that nettles, which have a somewhat short season here in Washington, are actually edible and not just pesky, prickly wild greens. Similarly, the gorgeous fiddlehead ferns we’ve been adding to our daily-changing spring salad have brought many a smile to the faces of people who never considered noshing on these tasty plants.

Our delicious prawn salad. 

Our prawn salad, prepared with herb oil, pickled chiles, pistachios, and green Szechuan peppercorn, is one of our menu standouts right now. This dish is unbelievably fresh, bright, and contains a multitude of textures that absolutely sing when enjoyed together.

Perhaps one of the things that makes springtime so beloved is the fact that it’s a fleeting time. Ingredients like our foraged nettles, ramps, and fiddleheads won’t be around for too much longer; come in soon and let them revive you.

Author: Caitlyn Edson

Images: Will Foster Photography

On Finding Refuge in a Restaurant

Friends and neighbors, this is no ordinary winter. Our social media feeds and newspaper headlines continue to lend themselves to a palpable sense of futility that seems to hang around us like this season’s relentless chill. Despite how cozy and warm and protected we feel on our quiet corner in Ballard, even we can admit that the last few weeks have felt a little bit heavy – to say the least.

Many of you, and a good number of us, have spent the better part of this month and last marching, organizing, and raising our voices to various instances of injustice and oppression. The Womxn’s March. Standing Rock. The Muslim Ban. Myriad troubling Executive Orders. All of these things and more have been resting heavily in our hearts and minds; we know they’ve been on your mind too.

The Brimmer & Heeltap brunch crew holding it down at the restaurant during the Womxn's March last month. 

We’re reminded, now more than ever, that a restaurant can provide a much-needed sense of whimsy and comfort when the “real world” just beyond our front door feels anything but. With the sip of a cocktail, the first bite of a delicious plate of food, a friendly greeting from a server you’ve come to know by name - all of the world’s troubles seem to dissolve, if only for that fleeting moment. We are so glad to offer our space as a refuge to you when you are feeling frustrated, angry, or sad. Since the very first day Brimmer & Heeltap opened we have aspired to be the kind of place that you look forward to escaping to at day’s end, a place you can stop in to and always feel welcomed and comforted.

We can't wait to share Chef's latest creations with you. 

To that end, we are looking to springtime and the beautiful sense of renewal it evokes for inspiration at the restaurant these days. Chef Mike Whisenhunt is playing with fresh, vibrant flavors in the kitchen; you should see the way his eyes light up when he talks about nettle season! Proprietress Jen Doak happily arranged fresh flowers – the first of the season – throughout the dining room earlier this month, marking a dreamy transition to the warmer, sunnier days that lie ahead. Our wonderful bar manager Brian Hibbard is playing with flavors that are bright and playful; the Salt Bae is a new-to-the-list cocktail made with bourbon, mescal, Genepy des Alpes, apple shrub and salt that sings on the palate. Brimmer & Heeltap's exceptional lead server Heather Padella Dziedzic is helping our team select thoughtful wines to complement the changing menu, many of which are new to our list.

We can't get enough of the drinks bartender Brian Hibbard has been concocting lately! 

Brimmer & Heeltap lead server Heather Padella Dziedzic provides exceptional hospitality and guidance to our team.

We have delighted in your visits to the restaurant during this strange, dark season. Serving you – our neighbors and friends – and offering our space as a safe haven is our sincerest pleasure; it cannot be overstated that a huge part of why we love what we do is because of the exceptional people we get to interact with so intimately and so often. We look forward to sharing more flavors, libations, laughs and warm embraces with you soon.

Blog Author: Caitlyn Edson

Images: Will Foster Photography 

Menu Ch-ch-ch-changes

At Brimmer & Heeltap, we love change. We embrace it. Change isn’t scary – it’s rad! For us, change means new menu items, beers we’ve never tried before, and the uncorking of unfamiliar wines. There are so many uncertainties that come with being inspired by the Pacific Northwest’s seasons and its whims that we think it’s best to just have fun with it. Here’s some ch-ch-ch-changes to our menu that you might not have had the chance to try just yet.

There are two words that best describe our current menu: creativity and comfort. Chef Mike Whisenhunt and the culinary team have been getting seriously creative with everything from the ingredients they’re using to the plating of our many delicious dishes. Not one to ever play it safe with his flavors, Chef Whisenhunt has been blowing our minds with recent additions to the menu.

Smoked ahi tuna with koji pimento broth, black sesame, and charred scallions. 

The smoked ahi tuna served with koji pimento broth, black sesame, and charred scallions is a perfect example of this. Subtly smoky, and with deep flavors that play off of one another incredibly, this is easily one of our new favorites at the restaurant. We recommend kicking off your meal with this beautiful dish as a way to awaken your palate and ready yourself for more bold tastes to come.

Chef Whisenhunt's delicious lamb shoulder fried rice. 

Another phenomenal new menu item is the lamb shoulder fried rice. Rich and comforting, this play on a banh mi features warm spices, pickled chiles, carrots, daikon and mint. It’s everything you want to eat when it’s cold outside.

The kitchen isn’t the only place whipping up all kinds of new treats to get excited about. Our fantastic bar manager Brian Hibbard and the rest of our super talented bar team are embracing all kinds of new, unexpected ingredients to make drinks that will knock your socks off. The “Scandinavian Mustache” is a great example of this. Made with Krogstad Aquavit – a flavorful spirit mainly produced in Scandinavia – Cynar, lemon, egg whites, and lavender bitters, this cocktail offers a flavor profile that many of us were unfamiliar with (and instantly gushing over).

Brian prepares the Scandinavian Mustache, a phenomenal new cocktail on the list. 

If you’re more into beer and wine than cocktails, our ever-changing offerings definitely won’t let you down. Brian has been doing his part to keep a rotating list of fantastic locally-made brews on tap, so if you love beer from Holy Mountain, Stoup, Avery, E9, Georgetown Brewing Co. and many other amazing local breweries, you will definitely not be disappointed.

We L-O-V-E beer at B&H! Come in soon to try something local and tasty!

Our wine list is also thoughtfully curated, and boasts a beautiful selection of old world wines and bottles from the Pacific Northwest. Proprietress Jen Doak is particularly excited about the 2014 Occhipinti SP68, a super-limited vintage produced by badass female winemaker Arianna Occhipinti. Bold and elegant, this bottle is just one of many that can be enjoyed on its own or paired with much of Chef Whisenhunt’s menu.

The 2014 Occhipinti SP68 is just one of many beautiful wines we're offering by the bottle right now. 

Another exciting addition to the beverage menu is our just-in-time-for-the-holidays homemade 5-month aged eggnog! Since the early summer months we’ve been excitedly awaiting the release of this seasonal treat, and now that it’s here, we’re all feeling a little more prepared for the cold, damp winter weather we’ve been awaiting. Supplies of this excellent batch are limited, so be sure to cozy up to the bar soon to try it for yourself!

Combine eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg, tequila, scotch, and sherry, wait five months, shake and serve on ice with bourbon and an orange twist and...voila! We give you our over-the-top delicious homemade aged eggnog.

This is just a small sampling of what’s new and exciting on the menu right now. Because our food and beverage offerings change often, what we’re serving now might not be here for long. So, come in soon to try something new! We promise that this change is a good one.

Blog Author: Caitlyn Edson

Images: Will Foster Photography

Embracing the Seasonal Shift: Fall Cocktail Edition

Brimmer & Heeltap Bar Manager Brian Hibbard muses on Autumn, nostalgia, and his brand new cocktail list. 

You know those times you feel memories being formed in an exact moment? Driving down the coast with your windows down, salty air blowing your hair around while you listen to dream-pop music (okay maybe that’s just one of my recurring fondest) becomes an imprint in your mind, and you feel it. Or the time you experience a newness in life: maybe a newborn, a new job, a new love, or a move that allows new breath and feelings you haven’t felt in the longest time prevail throughout your body. Or maybe it’s smaller: an inspiring conversation, a plate of food that you can’t stop thinking about, a reunion where your nearest and dearest are all in the same room with you.

Seasonal change offers these natural twists and turns; we can feel the vibrational shift and choose to embrace it. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it’s magic, sometimes it's energy that allows for us to create new ritual and new experiences. Fall is an important time for me. I was born and raised here in the Pacific Northwest, and Fall meant rain finally, post-season baseball, wearing layers, last minute camping trips, and foolish road trips to god knows where because hell we’re young and why not?

I recently put out a new cocktail menu to represent and embrace this seasonal shift. Part of the beauty is the we-ness of it all. We all have different tastes, interests, triggers of happiness, and the question remains: how can we create this tangibly in our food and drinks? A few weeks ago we sat around the bar and tasted through these new cocktails. Listening and observing my lovely crew’s reactions and feedback to these drinks is one of the many reasons why Brimmer & Heeltap is a special place. We all have a certain piece, an insight, a suggestion, a thought that makes up these recipes.

Cardamom, rosemary, lavender, sage, allspice, nutmeg, apple…these are all elements of the new menu. While not all of these are specifically Fall flavors and aromatics, for myself and the B&H team, these represent something that we love about the fall and carry a sort of nostalgia. It represents staying cozy, drinking boozy cider with friends, leaves changing color and falling, seasonal beer and planning Halloween costumes. Incorporating these flavors and smells, for example, means more to us than presenting something that is simply delicious. It’s presenting the opportunity for reflecting on good memories and creating new ones.

My mom has a quince tree in her yard, so I’ve been experiencing the delicious, unique flavor and recipes of quince for quite some time. Lucky me, Brimmer & Heeltap has two quince trees right out front that were full of this thick and intense fruit. You’ll find the Lucky Quince-idence on the menu featuring a homemade quince shrub from those trees along with some rye whiskey, white rum, elderflower, and bitters. Another one of my personal favorites is the Market Drop Kick. Combining Brandy, Ramazzotti, Campari and Curacao, this is a big drink - hence Drop Kick - that lingers in a way that will bring up several different flavors while you enjoy it. Allspice hits your nose right from the get go, and serving the cocktail over a large ice cube allows the flavors to meld and come through more and more as the ice slowly melts.

There are many more fantastic new cocktails to try, so come hangout! Ask your kind and knowledgeable server or bartender to share their excitement about the menu with you and let’s choose to drink well and be cozy together. 

Blog Author: Brian Hibbard 

Our Bread and Butter

It’s not unusual for dinner guests to walk into our open kitchen at the end of a meal, happy and full, to thank the culinary team for preparing such special plates of food for them. We love it when this happens, and when new patrons give us superlatives like, “Chef, that was the BEST bread I have ever tasted. No, I mean it - the BEST.” Mike Whisenhunt, Brimmer & Heeltap’s head chef, always smiles and thanks these guests before getting back to work; it never ceases to amaze him, or any of us really, how something as simple and familiar as bread can be such a powerful part of one’s dining experience.

One of the things that defines us as a restaurant is our refusal to take shortcuts. It would be really easy (and probably still tasty) to serve sliced, room-temperature bread and butter to our guests. But for our Chef and his team, opting for the easy route takes the fun out of it completely. Instead, we ask ourselves questions like How can we make something as comforting and delicious as bread taste even better?

The answer to this question is actually pretty simple. By using the best ingredients available to us and putting just as much love into the preparation of this fantastic snack as we do everything else, the bread we serve becomes an instant favorite of new guests and regular diners alike. If you’ve ever noshed on our bread – thick cut, buttered, toasted to order, and garnished with a sprinkling of salt and pepper – you know that it doesn’t really get any better than this. After Seattle Met’s Senior Writer Kathryn Robinson tried it for the first time, she wrote that “if it’s not the wickedest thing you’ve put in your mouth all day, then you’re living the dream.” We’ll cheers to that.

To prepare the bread for our guests, the culinary team first cuts a 1 ½-inch-thick slice from the Como loaves we source from Grand Central Bakery. Next, the slice is slathered with Plugra, a slow-churned, deliciously creamy European-style butter, before being placed under the broiler. The thick slice takes about ten minutes to toast. Once ready, the hot, crisp piece is dusted with fresh cracked black pepper and salt – finishing touches that help elevate this bread experience.

During brunch, guests are given not one, but three different ways to experience our bread: the classic buttered version, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, or slathered with our homemade peanut butter frosting and seasonal jam. Chef Mike gets this incredible glimmer in his eye whenever guests order his take on PB&J; he knows they are in for a serious treat.

To eat the bread, one must use a steak knife to cut into its thick, crispy crust. Doing so reveals the butter-soaked layers of soft bread underneath, warmed beautifully and seasoned to perfection. It’s a massive slice, so it really is best shared among friends.

At Brimmer & Heeltap, breaking bread both symbolically and literally embodies a ritual that is deeply important to us. We like the notion that sharing a meal with your dearest friends, or partner, or parent can start with a simple slice of bread and become something so much more significant than that. We like how comforting and transportive food can be. We’re thankful for the feedback we receive from our guests, and we’re proud that for some of them, our thoughtfully prepared bread is the most comforting, superlative-worthy thing they’ve tried in a while.

We can’t wait to break bread with you soon.

Author: Caitlyn Edson

Images: Will Foster Photography

Crew Spotlight: A Dynamic Duo

Phenomenally talented husband-wife duo Heather Padella Dziedzic and Dallas Dziedzic.

The hospitality industry attracts all kinds of intelligent, passionate, eccentric people. We’re artists, musicians, yoga instructors, parents, students and stylists that also happen to work in restaurants. At Brimmer & Heeltap, we’re proud to be a team comprised of professional and deeply multifaceted individuals, including Dallas Dziedzic and Heather Padella Dziedzic, a husband-wife duo that uses their incredible skillsets to elevate service in our kitchen and front of house, respectively.

Heather and Dallas, Midwest transplants that have lived in Seattle on and off since 2008, have both worked in the hospitality industry since they were kids in their hometown, a bustling summertime tourist destination on the coast of Lake Michigan. Dallas got his start in kitchens working as a dishwasher at a local bar, and Heather’s first industry gig was scooping ice cream at a candy store. Their first entries into the restaurant industry are a far cry from what these two do today; Dallas leads the kitchen as Brimmer & Heeltap’s Chef de Cuisine, and Heather provides excellent hospitality in the dining room as the restaurant’s Lead Server.

“One of my favorite parts of the industry is helping people discover something they didn’t know about,” says Heather, “also the team who you get to work with - it always brings people from all walks of life at all stages.” With extensive wine knowledge and time spent working at the celebrated Purple Café and Wine Bar here in Seattle and Gemini Bistro in Chicago, Heather’s attention to detail, powerful leadership, and gracefulness during service is a nod to her years of experience in acclaimed restaurants.

With years of experience cooking in professional kitchens at Chicago's The Pump Room and the W Hotel's now-closed Earth and Ocean, Dallas moves at a rapid pace during service, plating each dish with expert precision and care. His high energy level, passion for food, and creative approach to ingredients local to the Northwest make him a vital part of our team at the restaurant. Since he came on board in May, 2015, the kitchen has invigorated its approach to harnessing umami flavors, elevated its dessert offerings, and even launched a brand new brunch program. The techniques he uses coupled with his innovative approach to cuisine make him an invaluable member of the culinary team.

Outside of work, you’ll find Heather and Dallas spending time with family, getting inspired by local fare at Seattle’s many fantastic eateries, and sipping on white wine, cheap beer, and whiskey. These two also have plans to open their own restaurant one day, using their remarkable talents to create a place that offers truly delicious food and drinks in a relaxed environment. “I think our ultimate goal is to own a restaurant where we can work and raise a family and become part of a community,” says Heather.

We’re so glad to have Heather and Dallas as part of our community at Brimmer & Heeltap. Their enthusiasm for food and hospitality and wonderful personalities make them both fun and inspiring to work alongside every day.  

Be sure to say hello to these two on your next visit!

Author: Caitlyn Edson

Images: Will Foster Photography

Saving the Best for Last

“Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will be the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over the table.” – William Powell

Summer is a magical time to work in a restaurant. The kitchen is hotter than ever, and the dining room is brighter. Our guests visit us more regularly and tend to stay later, their conversations around the fire pit dissolving into the warm night air as their glasses hold the final sips of wine. It’s a time when Seattle’s weather is volatile, and our seasonally-inspired menu changes constantly based on what ingredients we can get fresh. Unpredictable and ever-busy, Brimmer & Heeltap’s crew adapts to this lively season with great care.

With so many random seasonal elements creating a deeply energetic atmosphere each night, there is one consistent thing we can all take comfort in: dessert. I love peering out into the dining room to see guests delight in the final sweet bites of their meal, eyes closed as they slowly savor each bite. If you haven’t ended your meal with us on a sweet note lately, you’ve got to come in and try the bold, inspired desserts we’re serving this summer. Here’s a taste of what you can look forward to on your next visit:

Nick’s Slate Coffee-infused scotch

If you prefer to drink your dessert, you are in for a wonderful treat from behind the bar. Inspired by the idea of an after dinner espresso, Brimmer & Heeltap bartender Nick Barkalow has been infusing scotch with the high-quality coffee beans we’ve come to love from our neighbors over at Slate Coffee. The 24-hour infusion results in a soft, subtly smoky and flavorful finish to one’s meal. Served with a side of soda water, this after-dinner drink option is one that is not to be missed.

Koji Rice Sorbet

Chef Mike Whisenhunt’s koji rice sorbet served with toasted rice powder is a light, refreshing way to end any meal, or to enjoy as a wonderful intermezzo. Koji is a cooked rice that has been infused with a naturally occurring fermentation culture, and can be found in many ingredients and even beverages including sake, miso, and rice vinegar. This sorbet is a perfect example of Chef’s love of playful flavors and unexpected twists on more traditional recipes.

Spiced Chocolate Cake

Served with a luscious chocolate buttercream frosting and spiced cocoa crumble, this chocolate cake is the stuff that chocolate-lovers’ dreams are made of. Rich and comforting with a surprising, subtle use of savory spices, this cake is a fantastic way to end a meal. Enjoy it with a glass of the Cocchi Barolo Chinato for a truly balanced, phenomenal dessert experience.

Almond Panna Cotta

Sous Chef Dallas Dziedzic’s almond panna cotta is the pièce de résistance of our summer dessert menu. With elements that alone are crunchy, creamy, tart, and sweet, the sum of its parts is a whimsical, dynamic dish that is as beautiful to look at as it is to eat. A perfectly executed almond panna cotta sits beneath layers of blueberry caramel sauce and rice crisps rendered purple from beet powder. A candied egg yolk sits atop these violet layers and is meant to be broken over the other components as a way to marry the unique, powerful ingredients. Creating something classic like panna cotta and innovating it by adding unexpected, fantastic elements is one of the things we love to do most.

We can’t wait for you to indulge in our playful, delicious desserts on your next visit. Even if you’ve already had a cookout at home, there’s no better way to end a summer evening than with something sweet paired with a cocktail or glass of wine at the bar. It’s okay to save the best for last, after all.

Blog Author: Caitlyn Edson

Images: Will Foster Photography

Meet Us in the Garden

Everyone says that summer in Seattle doesn’t actually start until July 5th, but that sure doesn’t stop us from trying to get outside as much as possible before then.

At Brimmer & Heeltap, we L-O-V-E al fresco dining and we’re kind of obsessed with our garden patio – a charming, beautiful space that feels like a precious secret shared between friends. During their first visit to the restaurant, many guests admit that they never realized our patio existed. Even some of our neighbors and regular diners were surprised to find such a unique outdoor dining area tucked away behind the main part of building. Its secretive nature lends itself to a wonderfully intimate atmosphere, and is one of the things we love most about it. 

Perhaps one of the reasons why so few people know about our garden patio is because it actually hasn’t been there for very long. When Brimmer & Heeltap proprietress Jen Doak first stepped into the newly cleared out Le Gourmand, the restaurant that inhabited the space before it became B&H, she immediately recognized how much more impactful the space could be with some renovations. “Standing inside the vacant walls, I felt an instant connection,” she explains in this blog post. “I could see the potential unfolding before my eyes.”

“Standing inside the vacant walls, I felt an instant connection,” explains Brimmer & Heeltap's proprietress Jen Doak, of the old studio space. 

One part of the property that held significant potential was a one hundred-year-old 400 square foot studio that sits to the rear of the garden. Formerly used for dry storage by Le Gourmand, this studio space has since been refurbished and transformed into a gorgeous dining room that anchors an expanded outdoor dining area. It’s a stunning space that we use for private events throughout the year, as well as additional seating when the weather is warm. 

Seattle Met Magazine’s Kathryn Robinson describes this section of the restaurant, and the small seating area that leads to it, as an “enchanting hidden courtyard,” adding that it’s “a sun-dappled must on the romance tour.” Eater’s Megan Hill also sings the praises of our patio, calling it “straight up dreamy.” Ever since the expansion of the garden, Brimmer & Heeltap has been included on various lists of the best outdoor dining destinations in Seattle, a nod to the truly special feeling one gets when dining in this beautiful space. Eater mentions B&H in its roundup of great spots for outdoor dining and drinking in Seattle, as does the Seattle Met and Seattle Weekly, to name a few.

In addition to the dreamy annual flora that blooms there, the garden patio and back studio are dotted with special touches that really make this part of the restaurant come to life: One wall of the studio is actually a retractable garage door that helps provide privacy for private dining and special events in the studio, while still allowing guests to peer out into the garden beyond. A fire pit adjacent to the studio serves as a gathering place for friends who want to share snacks and stories in a casually intimate setting. Ceramic sculptures created by local artist Larry Halvorsen blend effortlessly into the garden where they are displayed; these fantastic custom pieces create depth in a way that feels organic. 

If you haven’t yet dined outside in the garden patio, we invite you to join us on the next sunny day. We love seeing our friends, neighbors, and guests breaking bread together outside in the summer air, and with new dishes and cocktails gracing the menu, as well as a brand new brunch menu to enjoy on the weekend, now has never been a better time to come by and dine al fresco at Brimmer & Heeltap.

Author: Caitlyn Edson

Images: Will Foster Photography

Art Meets Charity at Brimmer & Heeltap

When one thinks of Brimmer & Heeltap, many things may come to mind: Chef Mike Whisenhunt’s bold, playful food, proprietress Jen Doak’s big smile and vast wine knowledge, our craft cocktail offerings, the locally crafted beers we love to serve, the warm and friendly service, the neighborhood feel of the place, our tucked-away garden patio…the list goes on and on (and on).

One thing that people don’t often think of when they think of B&H is its commitment to philanthropy. From the very first day that B&H opened, Jen has been dedicated to not only feeding our community, but also bringing people together, raising awareness about vital charity work being done on a local level, and raising funds for Seattle-based nonprofits.

In addition to encouraging her team to volunteer their time to neighboring organizations, Jen also works to support the community through the creation of commemorative prints to benefit charity. Each year, Brimmer & Heeltap collaborates with a local artist to create an anniversary poster for the restaurant; net proceeds from sales of the print go towards a deserving charity. “I wanted B&H to have some tangible, creative, and philanthropic placeholder for celebrating each year,” says Jen, of the vision behind the commemorative prints. “The goal is to work with a local artist and charity to celebrate each of their talents and causes.”

Jen explains that the inspiration for the Brimmer & Heeltap anniversary poster came from an old bar she visited in Paris called Willi’s Wine Bar. For years, the wine bar has created and sold “bottle art posters” to commemorate a moment in time, and to recreate the visual emotion of the wine that the bar serves its guests. Moved by this simple, powerful idea, Jen decided to take the tradition a step further by using B&H’s anniversary posters to support local charities and artists.

Artist Kristen Winn's design for the 2016 anniversary print to benefit Big Table. 

In 2015, Brimmer & Heeltap partnered with local artist Mike Klay, a graphic designer, musician and outdoorsman who designed an inaugural poster in honor of the restaurant’s one-year anniversary. Sales of this poster continue to benefit the Ballard Food Bank, an important local organization that strives to feed its neighbors in need. According to its website, the Ballard Food Bank distributes food to over 1,200 individuals on a weekly basis. Its commitment to providing nourishment and resources to those most underserved in our community is something that Brimmer & Heeltap is glad to support.

This year, Brimmer & Heeltap selected Big Table as the beneficiary of proceeds from our anniversary poster. Big Table is a fantastic local organization that advocates for cooks, servers, and other members of the restaurant industry. Its mission is to “see the lives of those working in the restaurant and hospitality industry transformed by building community around shared meals and caring for those who are in crisis, transition, or falling through the cracks.” Big Table’s mission is one that hits close to home, and one that we believe in so much.

The artist behind Brimmer & Heeltap’s 2016 poster is friend and neighbor Kristen Winn. Her hand-drawn poster design is inspired by food, art, and community – three important elements that work together in harmony at Brimmer & Heeltap. The pen and ink drawings on the poster are a lovely representation of the restaurant’s spirit, and some of the lines found within it even mimic those found in our beautiful garden. Keeping with tradition, net proceeds from the poster will benefit Big Table.

Moving forward, Brimmer & Heeltap is excited to continue partnering with local artists as part of a larger effort to support our community. A restaurant has the power to exist as a space where art, ideas, philanthropy, community, and food intersect, and we are thrilled to be a hub for all of these things and more.

You can check out our commemorative prints and find more information about the artists that created them here.

Author: Caitlyn Edson 

The Intricacies of Beef

Brimmer & Heeltap's Sous Chef Dallas Dziedzic writes about the many complicated facets of the cattle industry. 

Mark Twain once noted “Sacred cows make the best hamburger,” referencing the belief that how well you treat your beef is going to determine its quality.  This outlook has recently gained in popularity in the US.  From “Prime” to the “grass fed” and even the “dry aged” there are a lot of ways to add value to beef. What do all of these terms mean, and why do they matter? 

Do you think you could visibly assess the quality of beef just by looking at it? The USDA meat graders think that you should. They rate quality based on “Prime,” “Choice,” or “Select.”  By the USDA standards “Prime” beef is from well-fed young cattle, and has abundant marbling. “Choice” is considered high quality but has less marbling than Prime. “Select” is uniform in quality but leaner than Prime or Choice. To detect these differences, the USDA will take a core section from the cow between the 12th and 13th rib, which allows them to see if the meat is speckled with white bits of fat throughout (Prime) or consisting of only red muscle (Choice).

While marbling found in the steak is prized for its flavor and ability to retain moisture, it’s not everything.  There is also the technique of “dry aging,” a process that enhances an already established flavor. The meat will mature in a controlled setting, pulling away moisture and concentrating flavor.  The fat will become buttery and taste of blue cheese; the meat will become increasingly tender and its beefy flavor will intensify. Together these characteristics create harmony within the beef like a fine salumi.

At Brimmer & Heeltap we love serving thoughtfully prepared, high quality cuts of grass-finished beef. 

“Grass feeding” is another popular topic in the cattle industry. There are in fact some grey areas and complicated details to pay attention to.  “Grass-fed” beef in the US only has to be accessible to a pasture of grass, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the cows will eat it. They may receive supplemental nutrition in the form of corn, grain, or hay. I believe what most people are thinking when they hear “grass fed” beef is something that is referred to as “grass-finished,” which means that the beef’s diet is not subjected to these supplemental grains. It will be tough to find a truly “grass finished” steak packaged in your super market. You have to get out to small town farmers that pride themselves on the quality of their beef – the kind of farmers that treat the cow like one of their own family members.

This practice is becoming more and more rare, and if it is being implemented, it tends to be a watered-down version. Commercial farms have found ways to increase their beef marketing without really increasing value. Not to mention the cattle industry creates more greenhouse gas than all of transportation combined (yes that means planes, trains and automobiles). In addition to the environmental damage greenhouse gasses cause, the commercial cattle industry uses an astounding 34 trillion gallons of water in a single year (about 2500 gallons of water per 1 pound of beef), compared to the hundred billion used for the oil industry. The cattle industry is booming, but with a booming economy comes serious environmental side effects.

If you’re passionate about cooking and eating beef at home, it’s important to know where the product comes from, and to be aware of some of the intricacies of the cattle industry. When possible, supporting the small-time, local farmer that grass finishes their beef will yield the best product.

For some information on how we approach beef and animal butchery at Brimmer & Heeltap, you can read Chef Mike Whisenhunt’s thoughts on the topic here.

Author: Dallas Dziedzic

Images: Will Foster Photography