“Visionary” Restaurateur Michael Hebberoy Lands in Seattle
It never fails, as soon as I post news items, I get a few more:
La Vanguardia calls it quits! Byron Beck over at Willamette Week reports that they will close their doors for good this Saturday Night. Too bad; last time I went, they were pretty darn good. People seem to think they can open a lousy restaurant, and when that doesn’t work, hire a new chef and the crowds will come running back. It takes a long time to recover from a bad opening. Even better, the owner now wants to bring “Portland food to Los Angeles”. Entertaining reading. Story in Willamette Week .
Someone shoot me now. Local writer Nino Marchetti, who will soon be contributing here, has posted a “Wendy’s Training Video”, all done in rap. It has to be one of the most appalling things I’ve seen in some time. Check it out: here [note: link no longer valid]
The Wall Street Journal has an article today titled Kitchen No So Confidential: Underground restaurants go public, lose cachet; too many drunk diners. Interesting article if you get the WSJ, though I couldn’t find it on their web site. If you are near a newsstand, it is interesting reading. Of course they had to quote he-who-must-not-be-named: [The Ripe] email invite list grew to 15,000 people and the operation known as Family Supper, received what Mr. Hebberoy calls a “disgusting amount of press.” Local authorities shut it down.
Huh? Let me quote that again. “Local Authorities shut it down”. By “disgusting amount of press” (this quote given in a promotional interview with the press). I think he just means me, for making fun of his never-ending pursuit of press. By the way, the website is now up for One Pot, his new Seattle venture. http://www.onepot.org. Check out the wiz-bang graphics, and this quote about an upcoming dinner:
this event will be held at sitka and spruce, seattle washington. easily the most vital eatplace in this town, matt dillon, chef/owner has converted a strip mall slot into a haven for the food discouraged, stunning pure thoughtful food, completely void of pretense, and it has that missing little click of adventure that food-in-america tends to lack. this dinner is not for the feint of heart, all matt dillon will tell you about the dinner is that it will contain heads in pots, seriously.
This is like shooting fish in a barrel, so I’m just gonna leave the comments to you folks (except, could his English be even worse than mine? Sigh. Now I have to go update my food dictionary with “eatplace” ) Another update: Willamette Week reported this story too, but printed more details. You can see it here.
From an article in The Seattle Stranger:
Things come and go; nothing in the world is stable. Whatever the case, Michael Hebberoy—an indefatigable spirit, a dreamer, an idealist, a Platonist who wants to revolutionize public and private dining—has found the way out of Portland and made Seattle the point from which he will launch future projects…
“There are all these rumors about why Ripe didn’t work, like I was doing this and that with a young waitress, but it’s all not true,”
Actually, I heard the waitress was at Gotham, so I believe him. Badum
What? Albina Press doubling in size! You heard it here first, but it is a big secret, so don’t tell anyone. My sources tell me that Albina Press is opening a new space in the SE Portland AudioCinema Building on Hawthorne. Albina Press located their first venture just off the busy (and more expensive) Mississippi Ave area. This one pushes the envelope farther by locating it all the way down in the industrial area at 226 SE Madison St. It’s an eclectic mix of tenants, so they should fit right in, but hmm. I’ll go by, snoop around, and report back. Perhaps they are taking the old cafe space. I’m going to have to dig for details. Either way, this is great news for Portland coffeenatics. We’ll see how it all plays out.
I could walk a few blocks, across the bridge, and I’d be there.
Restaurants across the continent are banning together to protest the Canadian seal harvest… or whatever you call it when people kill seals. The list is quite impressive, with many pledging to boycott “some or all Canadian seafood until the unt is finally ended”. Um, some or all? What is this… “I’m not buying another damn Canadian snow crab until they quit clubbing seals!… Oh, that seafood looks great! But no crab!” Even more interesting, is the list on the front page of “Vegetarian restaurants that support the seal campaign and seafood boycott”. Well duh! Anyway, it seems all of this means nothing, but if you want to see the HUGE list of PDX restaurants supporting the boycott, click [note: link no longer valid]
For the record, Food Dude only supports the wanton killing of unattractive animals such as monkfish.
Salon.com has been running some terrific food/restaurant articles lately. This week, they ran excerpts from a book by Gabrielle Hamilton called Trial by Fryer.
“Some cooks think that because they throw a mean dinner party, they can run a restaurant. Until I tried to manage an overworked kitchen, an angry staff and an untested menu, I was one of them.”
Words of great wisdom. You can read the whole essay here. If you don’t have an account, you have to watch a 15 second commercial (worth it).
We’ve got some great new writers coming on board (a few of our previous writers have gotten snapped up by paying publications). You’ll start seeing their writing in the next few weeks. I’m sure you’ve noticed, Nancy Rommelmann has finished her latest venture, and will be joining us on a more regular basis.
In case you missed the press release, Bo Kline, the mother of the Typhoon restaurant chain, is launching a new restaurant.
After years of research and tweaking, Bo is about to launch her newest concept, “Bo,” a Restobar, Friday, November 24, at the corner of the Hotel Lucia (400 S.W. Broadway).
“She’s been working on this concept forever,” her husband and partner, Steve said. “But until the first tasting, none of us could appreciate how different it is.”
“I’ve been wanting to try a concept like this since before we started Typhoon!,” Bo said, “but we didn’t think the time was ripe.”
Secret tasting sessions continue to allow Bo to tweak the recipes and presentations as she trains her new staff for the launch. Her new digs across the lobby of the Hotel Lucia from Typhoon! on Broadway may be among the most elegant new venues in town, with casual seating, a waterfall wall sculpture and 18th Century Thai and Burmese wagon wheels featured in the decor.
Open for lunch and dinner, the menu offers pan-Asian dishes with traditional, nouvelle and fusion dishes.
“For lack of a better term,” Steve said, “we call it Bo’s NewAsian Cuisine.”
“The heartbeat of the menu is the Small Plates section,” Bo said. She plans to rotate 28 different Small Plate offerings, such as Three Flavor Chicken Wings, Thai Sashimi, Almond Duck Spring Roll and Shrimp Bite-Back Cocktail. Signature specialty drinks include Samui Sunset and a Lychee Martini.
aren’t we supposed to boycott typhoon because of the way they treat immigrant employees? please bring us up to date re this issue.
thanx
With this new project it seems Michael Hebberoy fancies himself as a sort of culinary Tyler Durden…
I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.
With this new project it seems Michael Hebberoy fancies himself as a sort of culinary Tyler Durden…
I’d say a culinary Jay Gatsby.
And he’s STILL planning to write “Kill the Restaurant.” No doubt this is going to be the culinary world’s version of the Beach Boys “Smile” album–the legendary “lost” work of art to which all future works will awkardly genuflect, no matter that none of them have actually heard/seen it.
And he’s STILL planning to write “Kill the Restaurant.” No doubt this is going to be the culinary world’s version of the Beach Boys “Smile” album–the legendary “lost” work of art to which all future works will awkardly genuflect, no matter that none of them have actually heard/seen it.
Except that “Smile” was released and is brilliant–neither of which characteristics Hebb’s self-indulgent work will ever share.
–mcz
Ann: Off the top of my head, I think the lawsuit was resolved, and Typhoon won. I vaguely remember some sort of scandal regarding the employees that brought the suit, but I could be wrong. I’m sure someone here will know the details.
I have nothing against nailing waitresses…hell on the marriage tho.
Hebberoy seems fairly limited in his abilities and staying power…he should be highly successful.
As to the Hebberoy update:
hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah(breath)hahahahahahahahahahahah!
I know this is supposed to be about food but.
Naomi (the woman) ends up with the kids (clarklewis).
Michael (the man?) is out chasing some new tail (my anti restaurant restaurant and my anti restaurant restaurant book).
Did he get a new red convertible and hair plugs too?
Have you checked out his website (www.onepot.org)? Would it be possible to be more verbally ostentatious while visually bland? It reminds me of a rebellious teenager trying to be cool by being uncool…
Will somebody please make another Family Supper that works? (I am Jack’s grumbling tummy)
While I admire food and scenster blogs greatly, the amount of negative attention that you focus on Michael Hebberoy is a little sad. Don’t you have someone else to focus on, or is the food scene in Portland really that small and pathetic that the antics of one ex-restaurateur are blog fodder for months? Maybe you got personally burned by Hebberoy and that’s where the vendetta comes from, but the name-calling and childish “nyah-nyah”-ing really detract from the credibility of what is otherwise a decent blog.
I dunno. This blog in particular focuses on Portland restaurants. Michael Hebberoy aimed to “kill the restaurant” by helping to organize a gastronomic speakeasy. He then opened two Portland restaurants, killed one (and abandoned another on life support), and subsequently split town leaving a wake of burnt bridges and burnt creditors. Now he compares his own career arc to “Chris Cornell” and, presumably, “Audioslave”, and threatens to rewind and press play just a couple hundred miles away.
If exploring the preposterousness of the “Music Man” isn’t fodder for at least a dozen (or more) posts, then what’s the point of even running a restaurant blog and paying attention.
Okay, point taken. I guess I don’t know enough about the Portland food scene to be ragging on you guys for harping on one man. Could the swath of destruction he left really be *that* bad??? I met the guy and really found him to be a food-revolutionary.
Restaurant Girl – Let’s put it this way. He started a restaurant and went around telling people things like he was far better than Alice Waters (little known story: shortly after he said that, someone through a rock through the window at GBT. He went around telling people that she had flown up here and done it hereself
Here is a link to the WSJ article-
http://glida.org/Kitchen.html
I guess I don’t know enough about the Portland food scene to be ragging on you guys for harping on one man. Could the swath of destruction he left really be *that* bad???
Yes, Restaurant Girl, it could. In addition to the those named by Food Dude (I don’t know about the affair part, but the flight to Mexico is documented), there were a boat load of employees and a couple of business partners who were least able to afford the gutless egomaniac’s sudden departure.
Furthermore, Hebb failed to take any responsibility for his restaurants’ failure or his part in it, and failed to express any regret, and his reemergence, with barely a nod to his dubious past, is galling.
If you still want to think of him as a “food revolutionary,” that’s your call.
–mcz
For those of you who are interested, Restaurant Girl has her own food blog about food in NYC. Not sure if it’s the same person, but interesting all the same.
http://www.restaurantgirl.com
Um Emily,
I think the restaurant girl you are refering to (the one posting here), is based in San Francisco. There is a link to her blog on her name:
Restaurant Girl
Just glanced at SF Restaurant Girl’s blog. One hates to judge based on a quick read, but her “Bourbon and Branch” entry, celebrating an obnoxiously exclusive bar (camera at door to screen potential entrants on top of reservations required policy) mixing obnoxiously exclusive drinks (including a “salad-flavored martini”) helps me understand why she would conclude that Michael Hebb is a food revolutionary.
–mcz
mcz,
This is one thing we can agree on. What a ridiculous ‘review’, what a ridiculous place.
Aha…thanks for the technical support, CBF. I need it! Thought the NYC version of Restaurant Girl was interesting as well.
Ay, yay, yay…
The pepto-bismol pink website nearly made me lose my lunch – and that’s before I read the bar review. I’ll definitely be checking that site before I head to SF. Why would I trust a review from someone who admittedly has “friends in high places?”
Ya’ll missed an important link, which explains the source of her angst. She’s a Hebb fan! You owe it to yourself to click on the link and read her piece.
MCZ, you are just jealous cause they’d never let you pass the door ;)
BTW, salad flavored martinis are the new thing. You should try the celery juice kamikaze at PK. Really good.
Why you gotta do this to me FD? Why? I get off of work, nice night all in all. Good business for a Tuesday. Looking to relax over a little bourbon, and catch up with the foodies on the local blogs, I of course pull your site up. And damn it. There’s the only thing worse than direct Hebb quotes, Hebb apologists and sycophants! Social elitists under the guise of food happening wannabes. Soulless searchers who can’t actually create or enjoy life without some scene. Damn! What a valuable maven to bay area gourmands.
“The impressive guest list includes well-known literary and musical figures; not the type you see in (my beloved) Us Weekly, but the type who are quietly doing what they love and believe in and have gained recognition for their work along the way. The guy who started the Sex Pistols is going to be there, as is Madonna’s sister.”
‘The guy who started the Sex Pistols’?! ‘The guy who started the Sex Pistols’?!!!! Who the hell are you talking about! Steve Jones? Paul Cook? The original two band members from the Strand. Or are you refering to Malcom Mclaren the Punk equivalent of Colonel Tom Parker?! Brilliant research. ‘As Rotten observed: “Malcolm (Mclaren) and Vivienne were really a pair of shysters: they would sell anything to any trend that they could grab onto.”‘ Sounds like fitting company for the Hebb. At least, once again, the attendace of Madonna’s sister has been confrimed and therein legitamizes the integrity and true revolutionary nature of said dinner party.
Now I’m going to go listen to the Clash, or the Damned, or the Ramones, or maybe even the Dead Boys, anything but the overhyped snarling boy band that was Mclarens’ Sex Pistols (my apologies to Sex Pistol fans, I’ll take you over Hebb fans anyday) and read my Christmas issue of Saveur and try and relax.