The servers include poets and other bohemian eccentrics, and the clientele often overlaps with the clientele at nearby Jazz Alley. You can walk in at midnight and eat like a king. Often late at night downtown, it's the only place open. The cooks all wear mechanics' jumpsuits-and they include, sometimes, Tom Douglas himself, the man with three James Beard awards. The whole idea of Palace Kitchen is that this is where palace servants gather to feast and play, which explains that giant oil painting of a palace kitchen. The bar is in the center of the room, with seating on either side. A golden glow pervades the place, emanating from the kitchen. The list of restaurants temporarily closing is much longer, and it includes little sandwich spots like HoneyHole, one of my go-to lunch spots on Capitol Hill, and bigger restaurants like Palace Kitchen, which is my favorite restaurant in the city.Įveryone who's been to Palace Kitchen knows how great it is. Restaurants that have already closed permanently include The Brooklyn steakhouse and oyster bar downtown, Local 360 in Belltown, Arriba Cantina in Wallingford, and Drive Thru Boba in Bellevue, according to Eater. "I’ve seen the dot-com crash, I’ve seen 9/11, I’ve been through two recessions I have not ever seen anything quite like this," Murphy said in an interview with Kiro's Rachel Belle. She oversaw the opening of Cafe Campagne in 1993, and in 1995 won a James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Pacific Northwest. "The hemorrhaging is so deep and so fast, that’s what’s truly terrifying," said Terra Plata owner Tamara Murphy this week. That's the whole life of the city changing overnight, permanently. Imagine them losing so much money during the time (rent is still due, after all) that they are not able to reopen when this is over. Imagine if your 10 favorite restaurants closed for a month or two. And Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan's small-business grants of "up to $10,000" hardly seem like they could help any restaurant bigger than a taco truck.Ī month or two without customers could change everything for a restaurant, I said to my colleagues. Tax deferrals, which have been announced both locally and federally, don't help significantly, because those taxes are still due soon. Labor costs are higher here than in other places in the country. Small businesses on average pay $9k a month in rent, my colleague Nathalie Graham pointed out, citing a number from the Office of Economic Development. ("Then why would anyone do it?" someone once asked, incredulously, of a friend who owns restaurants, and who sometimes wonders the same thing.) The margin in the restaurant business is about 3 percent, which is much lower than most people realize. Christopher FrizzelleĪ week ago, on the day the death toll locally reached 15, I was talking to some colleagues in the newsroom about what restaurants are up against now that people are being encouraged to stay home. Other restaurants are closing permanently. Palace Kitchen, the jewel in Tom Douglas's restaurant empire, is temporarily closed.
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