The opening of this restaurant on Capitol Hill in Seattle is very exciting for me. A lot of my friends in the Seattle culinary scene are now working at this restaurant which opens today, but before I introduce you to them let’s take a step back.

Two years ago I checked out Skillet Street Food’s airstream trailer (click) and I was high fiving my tongue with their duck confit.  I loved their trail blazing street food movement which two years later it seems that everyone is opening a street food truck for all the wrong reasons, “it would be cool, I like to cook, and I hate my job now so why not invest a bunch of money in the hopes of making money, being my own boss, and getting into this whole food thing” (I have more money than brains!).  Problem is is that most people don’t realize how much hard work goes into running a street food truck, making it successful, then being able to save money and open a restaurant.   Josh Henderson figured it out and made some damn fine food along the way (shout out to the Marination Mobile, another mobile food trucker to open their own brick & mortar).

Chef Henderson in his new digs.

To open his restaurant chef Henderson scouted some heavy hitters to come work for him. One of them being my former chef de cuisine at Blueacre, chef Brian O’ Connor.

Chef Brian is one of the people that has been instrumental in my career in learning how to cook.  He taught me how to fire food properly and always pushed me to do more with myself even when I thought I was pushing myself as hard as I could.  He’s always been supportive of my weird food and can always bring me back down to earth when I get too confident with my abilities.  He’s amazing and is a major reason that I’ll be dining at Skillet as much as I can.

A little video of the kitchen and dining area.

(Chef Seth Richardson wearing his “Eye of the Tiger” bandana, you know it’s gonna be a good day when you see that)

Next up in the chefstravaganza at Skillet is Seth Richardson, the sous chef and comfort food master.   I always had a blast at Blueacre when Seth would make family meal.  He would take something classic and traditional then give it his comfort food twist, we’ll get to that in a minute.

Mindy and I had a chance to check out Skillet a few days before it opened.  Here is a video of the view from where we sat, because I do things like that.

First up, we decided to split the kale caesar salad.

It’s served with boquerones, buttered croutons, parmesan, and creamy dressing.  The boquerones are amazing when paired with just about anything but in this salad they make it explode and it will probably be the first time you’re ever excited about eating an all kale salad.  So good.

Next up, their ultimate grilled cheese

Three cheese (brie, cheddar, and American) with bacon jam, on brioche, with fries.  Cheesy goodness and definitely appropriate for an appetizer because why the hell not??? You deserve it.

For entrees Mindy ordered Chef Brian’s own meatloaf.

Made with duroc pork, local beef, bacon, onions, special seasonings, and glazed with ketchup-demi (Seth’s genius addition), mashed potatoes, and vegetables (which happened to be delicious grilled asparagus).  Mindy made it about half way before surrendering to the awesomeness but the best thing about meatloaf is it tastes even better when it’s heated up again so it was her lunch the next day (2 days of being awesome with meatloaf in your belly!).

I chose chef Seth’s pot roast special for my entree.

Braised local beef, potatoes, celery and carrots, served with rustic grilled bread for dipping.  So damn good I wanted to jump back behind the line and give Seth a hug……I did anyway but you might want to do that too once you eat this.  It’s the Wednesday night special on the menu so definitely make plans to visit this pot roast.

While we were eating a secret dish showed up to our table.  A little bit of our worlds crashing together and a tribute to our times working together but with that Skillet sensation flair.

I’m not even going to tell you what this is.  What you should do is just print out the picture, take it to Skillet, and ask chef Brian to make it for you.  Trust me on this one.

Get out to Skillet as soon as you can.  The prices on their menu will definitely make sure this place is busy all the time and the quality of food they’re putting out will definitely make you come back.  Check out their site (click).

Eric