Dining Perfection At The Herbfarm Leaves ‘No Room For Error’
Never mind an invitation to Bill Gates’ housewarming party or a view from the president’s box at a University of Washington football game. The true test of status in this part of the world is the ability to secure one of only 32 seats in a suburban Seattle restaurant that serves no more than three meals a week and requires most of its guests to make reservations during two annual call-in days.
The Herbfarm, 30 minutes east of Seattle in Fall City, doesn’t make itself easy to experience. But if you believe that a restaurant dinner can be worth $150 a person, The Herbfarm - which celebrates all that is delicious about the Pacific Northwest - is a required experience.
Its origins are humble. Lola and Bill Zimmerman thought they were easing into retirement in 1973 when the couple bought this former dairy farm, planted a garden and began to sell an overflow of chives from a wheelbarrow on the roadside the next year.
Fortunately, they didn’t stop there. Lola started to plant extra herbs on purpose, and Bill built a greenhouse to show off her bounty. In time, the farm’s tractor barn was transformed into an herb shop.
Ten years ago, the couple invited their son, Ron, and his wife, Carrie Van Dyck, to join the family enterprise. With a fresh infusion of energy, The Herbfarm school was born, followed by a mail-order catalog and a restaurant surrounded by 17 manicured herbal theme gardens. Initially, Ron served as chef, a position he handed over six years ago with the arrival of Jerry Traunfeld, an alumnus of The Painted Table in Seattle and Stars and the late Ernie’s in San Francisco.
“I can’t think of a better job,” says Traunfeld, as careful a shopper and soulful a cook as a restaurant could wish for. His well-tended “pantry” is every cook’s dream: 2 acres of herbs and vegetables, only steps away from the kitchen.
Not content to grow only the usual, Traunfeld also cultivates the likes of heirloom potatoes, asparagus peas that resemble miniature okra, tuberous nasturtiums with a distinct radish-y flavor. It’s an inventory rounded out with whatever is seasonal from the water, field or forest - white truffles from Oregon, fresh sea urchin from the Washington coast, handcrafted cheeses, wild nettles in springtime.
Several days before the first of three weekend seatings, Traunfeld and his small kitchen staff begin to shop, make stocks, whip up candies, bake bread and butcher any meat they plan to serve for their set menu. And then they start to cook, in an intimate open kitchen that allows diners to watch a little magic unfold but claims only a single oven and a six-burner stove.
“There is no room for error,” Traunfeld said.
Dining at The Herbfarm is more than luscious cooking accompanied by terrific wines in a dreamy, candle-lit setting that evokes a Northwestern version of “Babette’s Feast.” It’s as entertaining and educational a meal as you are likely to find, anywhere.
Beginning with an introduction from the hosts in the herb shop (in winter) or gardens (in spring, summer and early fall), The Herbfarm experience is paced at a leisurely five hours, though time passes quickly in this seductive environment.
It doesn’t look the part of a 4-star restaurant. But the slightly rough-hewn elements - an unfinished ceiling and uncomfortable director’s chairs - are countered with windows framed with lacy white curtains, silver bowls filled with coins of rosemary and nasturtium butter, soothing classical guitar music played throughout dinner. The Herbfarm offers a storybook setting for its fabled food.
Each meal highlights a theme: “The Great Basil Banquet” in early September, for instance, or “The Spring Forager’s Dinner” in April. And each course is fueled with a select wine that reminds us how impressive a viticultural region we live in. To start, a welcoming glass of 1989 Argyle Brut is poured; its fragrance blossoms with the addition of a choice of fresh herbs, which diners are invited to crush into their flutes. To end, there’s invariably some rare fortified wine, perhaps a 1918 Palmella Madeira.
There’s not much practical value in recounting dishes, because they change by the season and from week to week.
Consider instead their poetic appeal. Succulent Dungeness crab - brought in live, boiled and picked just hours before dinner - is teamed with black trumpet mushrooms and paddlefish caviar, accented with chive oil and served with tiny crisp artichoke chips that are everything a potato chip aspires to be. Delicately nutty skate, that delicious kite-shaped fish, shares its plate with sweet ringlets of Delicata squash and a drizzle of apple-chervil sauce. A bouquet of pristine seafood - spot prawns, mussels and manila clams - comes skewered with fried sage and sits on a pool of a gently frothy sabayon that whispers of white truffles.
Meat courses such as venison medallions and herb-crusted Ellensburg lamb have been very good, though I find myself concentrating more on their perfectly executed vegetable accompaniments. In the hands of The Herbfarm kitchen, such ordinary ingredients as sweet baby carrots, mashed Yellow Finn potatoes, braised leeks, glazed beets and caramelized Brussels sprouts become the stuff of adoration.
This is food that impresses us more with its clean, clear and true flavors and intriguing pairings than with any visual flights of fancy, though the cooking is always attractively presented. Better than most, Traunfeld knows how to coax forward the personality of each ingredient and harmonize divergent voices on a plate. His is highly personal cooking. And watching him work - easily, gracefully, lovingly - from his post in the exposed kitchen is to observe a master of his craft. He’s a Fred Astaire of the kitchen.
And desserts are a sheer delight. Late October brought a hazelnut mousse and a pear poached in bay leaf; January saw a caramelized pear souffle gilded with an herb-infused custard sauce, as well as ginger-pear ice cream tucked in a fluted gingersnap.
The creation of an enchanted evening takes more than fabulous food, and for the most part, The Herbfarm lavishes its guests with thoughtful details. Framed, personalized name cards and individual salt and pepper cellars enhance the beautiful table settings, which include a souvenir menu for each guest. Ice is doled into your goblets from a silver bucket. Candlelight makes everyone look good. And the service is smooth and smart and cordial, anticipating our needs but never hovering or fawning.
xxxx IF YOU GO The Herbfarm. 32804 Issaquah-Fall City Road, Fall City. (206) 784-2222. Prix fixe nine-course dinner is $99-$125 a person (plus tax and gratuity) with five wines; six-course lunch is $60 (plus tax and gratuity) without wine. The restaurant, which closes for a month in March, offers one seating, usually on Fridays and Saturdays and occasionally on Thursdays and Sundays. Reservations can be made only on one of two call-in days a year - the next date is April 10, at which time 75 percent of all seating is booked. Remaining seats may be reserved Fridays at 1 p.m. for the following weekend. A 50 percent deposit or credit card number is required for a confirmed reservation.