Sante serves up seasonal food, community involvement

Some people dream of opening a cool coffee house with a little bookstore attached. Others see wood-fired ovens and pizzas galore as their food digs. Maybe a vegan barbeque joint is someone else’s dream. One Spokane restaurateur had duck, pig, pate and high-end nine-course meals as his particular pipe dream. The dreaming worked, and Jeremy Hansen, head chef and owner of Spokane’s Sante Restaurant & Charcuterie, has transformed another dreamer’s coffee shop (the former Liberty Café next to Uncle’s in Auntie’s Bookstore) into one of the Inland Northwest’s more daring and Euro-influenced restaurants. He’s in such demand that even the greenie community has enlisted his services at the Sept. 1 Sustainable September kick-off luncheon, Futurewise’s Sept. 15 Feast with Friends banquet and a few other upcoming events. “I’m about giving customers the total experience, something they normally would never get at home or in other restaurants,” he said Hansen may like creating gastronomical wonders utilizing the precision moves of a watchmaker, but he still enjoys meeting people and having his food front and center for big events. Jeremy and his wife Kate first tangled with me when I curried their favor and asked for some benevolent help hosting dinners for visiting dignitaries like Winona LaDuke and David Suzuki. Jeremy’s always been a keen listener, and his big agenda is following a sustainable menu, sustainable practices. We hit it off well those first few times, and both of us churned out one big idea after another. Some propositions ended up on the backburner, but others turned into full-fledged meals, or big events. We worked together on several movie nights, showing “Food Inc.” at Sante with a family-style meal and plenty of dialogue. Jeremy has always lent a hand to various green and sustainability causes, showing up at several events I organized tied to sustainable agriculture. Wine dinners we organized last year brought in high-paying customers who got to taste seven to nine courses matched with wines from specific wineries like Townshend, Mary Hill, Whitestone and Lone Canary. He and Kate donated some of the profits to various causes, including the American Red Cross, Second Harvest, and the Women’s and Children’s Free Restaurant. “Localism and all this talk about going green has to be done at all levels, especially if restaurants and farmers are going to make a living in this community,” Hansen said a while back. Working at Sante’s is like preparing for a Mixed Martial Arts event – all the coaches and actors have roles to get the chef – Jeremy – into the ring with all the right moves. Mustard is made fresh. No pre-sliced veggies are hanging around. All food is cooked and plated in the efficient but small kitchen. It’s like a preparation for a queen’s meal. Every customer is that king and queen for just a few hours at Sante’s. It’s the crème deluxe at Sante’s, yet flavors are complex and ingredients simple. Jeremy expects perfection out of himself, many times working 80 hours in a week to get everything done. He butchers his own pigs, smokes the meat, makes the fontina cheese and pastrami that might end up on a bresaola charcuterie plate. Expect to find Jeremy and his kitchen staff preparing duck liver, chicken liver and Berskshire liver, as well as foie gras. What’s compelling about his story is he has working class rootsl. He’s spent time working in Mexican restaurants in Spokane while going to high school, he picked up restaurant sense from a tough-willed Greek in her restaurant in Portland, and he’s open to learning recipes and flavors from the greats. He still wants to do good, looking to maximize the sustainability angle in his restaurant. He wants the food culture in this country to change. He’s worried about factory-farmed food, obesity and farmers and small business owners like himself just being outdone by lesser products coming from huge chains or conglomerates. These ideas and products are all at our beckon call. He also knows the local restaurant scene, and he’s always quick to give a two-minute thumbs-up or thumbs-down review of other chefs’ moves and other restaurants’ fare. He hates cutting corners, and while his staff has to suck it up during intense wine dinners or special events, he wants what he’s learned in Portland and New York to end up in the DNA of his staff, many of whom sought out Jeremy to get the maestro’s insight and moves into their repertoire. While Sante has evolved over the past two years, and the menu changes all the time, there is a certain charm and foundation to the eating experience that many have come to appreciate and demand. He’s got big plans in the making, looking or other locations to expand, and maybe opening up a specialty meat and cheese store where his creations might end up sold to both the retail and wholesale markets. A brewery, a restaurant garden co-op, out in the wilderness themed dinners, and much more come to Jeremy’s tongue when he gets into his food reverie. But key to his success is his wife’s support and sweat equity getting the restaurant up and running; his daughter’s inquisitive mind; and weekend football matches with buddies who might not realize that the mate on the field they are about to cream is the culinary champion of the Inland Northwest.