Sky ExtrasFood & DiningThe Power of Food

Stowell’s love for food started at a young age, despite his family’s primary focus. “My parents ran a ballet company,” he says. “It was a nice way to grow up, being close to the arts. Food is [an extension of the arts], and my family had an appreciation for gathering at dinner. Food was just always a big part of my upbringing.”

Stowell didn’t set foot in a professional kitchen until after high school. “I wasn’t getting what I wanted out of college, so I did exactly what my parents freaked out about: I dropped out and started cooking,” he says. “From the first day I was in the kitchen, I realized I was going to do it for the rest of my life.”

For the next seven years, Stowell worked his way through many of Seattle’s kitchens and, at 28, decided to open his own restaurant, Union. “Back then, I was definitely more opinionated than I should’ve been,” he says. “I had very strong ideas about what I wanted food to be.” Though Union remained open for seven years, sales plummeted in 2008 when the Washington Mutual bank was seized by the government and thousands of the restaurant’s neighbors lost their jobs. “The thing about opening your first restaurant when you’re 28 is that you don’t really know that much. [We’d] built something that wasn’t sustainable.”

That experience taught Stowell exactly what it takes to own and operate a successful restaurant. “It’s knowing business structure,” he says, “knowing how many seats you should have and how many square feet . . . what you should pay for rent, all the numbers stuff.” However, the “numbers stuff” isn’t nearly as important as developing a concept that people will enjoy. “There are so many restaurants that people go to once,” says Stowell. “I think [running a successful restaurant] is being humble enough to know that you’re not cooking for you, you’re cooking for guests.”

These days, Stowell certainly isn’t short on guests. He operates a whopping 13 restaurants in the Seattle area. He’s earned six James Beard award nominations and was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s 10 Best New Chefs. While each of his restaurant concepts is unique, they all have some commonality. The first is a similar feel to the space. Stowell is drawn to buildings with lots of original character—think old brick structures with open-joist wood ceilings and original painted signage. These are often existing spaces that simply need to be cleaned up and finished with a few fun design elements. You’ll also never see a white tablecloth; it’s all about natural wood.

The other common denominator is the food. From Staple & Fancy (an elegant but casual spot serving simple Italian fare) to Bar Cotto (a Parma-style salumeria and cocktail bar with pizza, Italian vegetables and bruschetta), all of his concepts showcase superfresh Northwest ingredients with Italian or French flair. The combination of a casual, inviting atmosphere and simple but delicious dishes speaks to his customer base. “I want to have restaurants that people come back to 30 times,” he says. “I want to get to know our customers. It goes back to how I grew up, where the most important thing about dinner was the getting-together part.”

Though each menu certainly offers dishes that allow Stowell and his team to challenge themselves creatively, they always include items so beloved that they’ll never leave the menu. Take the rigatoni served with spicy sausage, tomato, marjoram and Parmesan at Tavolàta, Stowell’s pasta-focused restaurant in Belltown. “That’s our best-selling dish in our entire company’s history,” he says. Goldfinch Tavern, his restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel near Seattle’s waterfront, does a crab-beet salad with tarragon dressing that sells like crazy. At Mkt., an intimate restaurant in Seattle’s Tangletown neighborhood, the wood-fired green beans spritzed with lemon juice and olive oil keep customers coming back.

With so many concepts to oversee, you’re probably thinking that the likelihood of Stowell actually cooking your dinner at any of them is a long shot. However, his latest concept, Marine Hardware, is purposefully designed with that in mind. At this 25-seat spot nestled next to Staple & Fancy in the maritime- centric Ballard neighborhood, Stowell works the line. “This is the first one in several years where I’ve actually planned on [cooking regularly],” he says. “It’s also our smallest restaurant, so I have time to talk to customers.” Marine Hardware specializes in prix fixe, family-style dining (though you may order à la carte). The menu changes regularly, but expect playful riffs on American and Italian dishes, such as crispy pumpernickel served with a smoked foie gras terrine, porcini agnolotti with brown butter and nettles and herbed brioche-crusted lamb loin with celery root purée, asparagus, spring onion and a thyme jus.

For a guy who believes that the power of gathering around food is as important as the food itself, Marine Hardware is the pinnacle of Stowell’s culinary vision. Not only does he get to cook, but he gets to know the diners who enjoy his food—a group of people he holds in high esteem. “We have a really highly engaged customer base that’s super into food,” he says. “Seattle diners are educated, chill and appreciative. Food in Seattle is such a hot thing right now and people really enjoy it. That makes us jazzed about doing what we do.”