Eddie Murphy... Raw I think. Anyhow, congrats. Its great to hear husbands being supportive with their wives
when you said she won the James Beard award, does this translate to the MVP award if we were to speak about basketball? What connection does your wife have with James "The Beard" Harden? Where is Cafe Juanita, and if I do eat here. Will I get to meet your wife? Thanks,
As someone who lives in Seattle and works in Redmond, congratulations! The restaurant is way different than ones I typically go to, but if I have a date with someone who enjoys food, I will definitely go there. Congrats!
My wife didn't win that award. Restaurants she worked at did though. The James Beard Awards are the Oscars of the culinary world. They hand them out to outstanding chefs by region each year. You can only with that award once. My wife has worked at two of those restaurants when they won (Lark in 2007 and Cafe Juanita in 2008 for the Northwest). They also give out awards for cookbooks, restauranteurs, etc. There's also a very prestigious award for the best restaurant in the nation. You have to be open 10 years before you're eligible, and it's highly competitive to get listed in the top 20 semifinalists before they narrow it down to the top 5 and then eventually select the winner. Cafe Juanita was on the top 20 list while my wife was Chef de Cuisine. That is largely due to the enormous talent of Holly Smith, the chef\owner of Cafe Juanita, their outstanding front of the house, and their sommelier and wine list. But my wife was running that restaurant many nights of the week, enforcing very high standards for the dishes they sent out and creating some of those dishes too. I miss her working there. We got a free meal there each month, and that was not a bad perk at all! Cafe Juanita is in Kirkland, which is on the East Side of Lake Washington from Seattle. But if you go eat at Lark and tell them you were recommended through ClutchFans, I imagine she would come out and say hello (if they're not too busy). She'll be at the front of the kitchen expiditing.
You work in Redmond? We may be co-workers (I'm in TX though) Congrats Scribo to your wife! I love the Seattle area and will definitely check it out next time my work takes me up that way.