Another Duke's
DUKE! DUKE! DUKE! Duke of all, Duke, Duke?
Duke Moscrip, Seattle's most nontraditional restaurateur, is on the move. He is also on the lake. Make that two lakes.
There are now five Duke's restaurants in the Seattle area. The original Duke's Bar and Grill prospers at 236 First Ave. W., a couple of blocks from the Seattle Center, which brought him his first rush of trade in 1972.
Moscrip had just broken away from the partnership that had formed what would become the almost legendary Ray's Boathouse at Shilshole Bay.
``I wanted to do something on my own,'' he said. ``Something that was markedly different from what Russ (Wohlers, Ray's managing partner) had in mind. I wanted something less formal, a hangout, but a hangout with distinctive food. We started with what was definitely a tavern menu, but a tavern menu with quality.''
The first Duke's opening was about as informal as the restaurant business (or any other business, for that matter) could get.
``We didn't even have a cash register,'' he recalled. ``We paid off the employees every night. No weekly pay checks. The money was kept in cigar boxes. Really, in cigar boxes.''
The element of trust that odd piece of bookkeeping implied kept his help coming back night after night. Ditto the customers. The sense of freewheeling party that the monetary informality suggested kept Duke's packed.
Duke's Bar and Grill in Bellevue (1016 N.E. 8th) had more of a sit-down feel, walls less festooned with tongue-in-cheek references to assorted Dukes (Wayne, Moscrip, Wales, York, etc.). It, too, did well.
There was one flop, the Downtown Duke's that went into the subterranean space vacated by the Goose Restaurant, which laid several eggs, but none golden.
Then, following a series of three successful examples set by the Schwartz Brothers, John and Bill, Duke arrived on the south shore of Lake Union with Duke's Chowder House a year and a half ago.
The tavern feel was back. Along with it was an old family recipe for clam chowder that had been cooked up by Moscrip's grandfather in New England. It was a recipe with a track record, having won three annual chowder cookoffs in a row (and threatening to retire the cup - or the bowl - for years thereafter) until he was asked to stop entering and begin judging the chowders.
(``I never tasted so much bad food in my life,'' he muttered in regretful retrospect of his term in the culinary judiciary.)
The Chowder House began drawing crowds. ``We looked around at our competition, decided to try to be a little less formal and a little less expensive, while trying to maintain food quality.''
Was that possible?
``It is if you have genuine talent in the kitchen,'' he said. ``And we had Jack Jones as our executive chef.''
With the acquisition of two more restaurants in recent months - Duke's Yacht Club, also on Lake Union, and another Duke's Chowder House at Green Lake - Moscrip became a local conglomerate.
The Yacht Club moved in where the California-based Rusty Pelican had failed; the Green Lake Chowder House took over from Karl Beckley's defunct Greenlake Grill. The deal to acquire Beckley's place took a mere six hours to close.
But it was the Yacht Club that posed the most serious challenge to Moscrip's rising reputation. It wasn't just another ``hangout.'' There is no such thing as a 14,000-square-foot hangout.
``It was going to become our flagship operation, and we understood that.
``We might end up serving the same people, but in different moods. This is a very comfortable, semi-elegant place. It has convention and hotel business written all over it.
``The first thing I did was call all of my chefs and line cooks together and tell them:
``Whatever you have done before, it isn't going to be good enough.''
The Yacht Club menu that was finally arrived at probably had a stronger resemblance to the Ray's Boathouse concept than it did to any of the preceding Duke's. The designation ``Yacht Club,'' however, was an intentional social (or nautical) overstatement.
``Anything that smacks of pretension and excessive formality is a little bit dangerous in this city. It puts people off. Even the idea of valet parking, while it's certainly a valid service, can turn some people off. They find it intimidating. In the future, we are going to offer valet parking to those who want it, but make it optional.''
Nevertheless, the Yacht Club has the look and feel of a special-occasion restaurant. Polished slate floors, subdued slate-blue carpeting, gleaming dark mahogany wood accents, along with the flowers and white linen, do not suggest a dock-side beer joint.
The menu is decidedly nautical. A recent nightly fresh sheet, for example, offered a half-dozen seafood specialties (in addition to 10 seafood choices on the standing menu).
Some recommended starters: Port Chatham Smoked Salmon and Artichoke Crowns ($5.75) is hardly new to the Seattle market, but this presentation is particularly pretty. Strips of
mildly smoked salmon are wrapped in a cone around a whipped and seasoned cream-cheese filling, placed atop an artichoke heart, and dotted across the tops with alternating dollops of brilliant red and black caviar.
Crisp, warm wedges of herbed Italian flat bread add munch to the crunch. The menu suggests a shot of frozen Absolut Citron vodka to sip between either.
The award-winning clam chowder is, of course, another logical meal opener, although the last bowl I sampled was slightly gritty. The best attribute of Duke's grandpa's recipe is its robust clam flavor. All too many so-called chowders these days taste like a vaguely seafoodish whipped cream mousse. Duke's chowder is real. It's $2.95 for a cup; $5.25 for a full bowl.
Line-caught salmon, halibut and ling cod make frequent guest appearances. The Alaskan Ling Cod has an almost California effect: The generous fillet is baked with a black-bean paste, served under a spicy chili-cumin sauce with sour cream and guacamole.
Also excellent was a slab of rare (very rare) grilled Yellowfin Tuna. It's marinated with cilantro and coconut milk, quickly grilled and served with a lively fresh ginger sauce.
One of the few negatives was an entree of Lobster Flambee ($19.95) which is everything that Duke Moscrip is not. Misleading and somewhat pretentious.
The lobster (a steamed tail) is not flambeed. The sauce is. Courvoisier cognac, lemon, shallots and butter are flamed at tableside with great pyrotechnic flair, and then poured over the shelled chunk of lobster. It's amusing, but hardly necessary.
I suspect the practice will soon be dropped - if it has not been already.
Has Duke acquired his last lake-side fief? No. Expect to see another in place (I'm not saying on which lake) before next autumn.
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Duke's Yacht Club
1111 Fairview Ave. N., Seattle.
American.
Lunch ($6 to $11)
11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monday through Saturday.
Dinner ($8 to $20)
5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, Saturday.
Sunday brunch ($9.95)
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Lounge, full liquor.
Major credit cards accepted.
Non-smoking area provided.
Reservations: 292-9402.
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DUKE'S
CLAM CHOWDER
8 servings
1/4 pound diced new potatoes
4 slices bacon, diced
6 tablespoons butter
3 ribs diced celery1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 pinch chopped fresh garlic
White pepper to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
1/3 cup flour
4 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 1/4 cups clam nectar or broth
2 ounces clam concentrate or clam base (or 1 additional cup clam nectar)
1 1/2 cups chopped clams, fresh or frozen
1/4 teaspoon dill
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1. Blanch the potatoes in boiling water for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook the bacon until transparent. Add the butter, celery, onion, basil, marjoram, Italian seasoning, thyme, bay leaves, garlic, and white, black and cayenne peppers. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the flour and cook over low heat 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the cream, half-and-half, clam nectar and concentrate. Heat to just under the boiling point.
4. Add the potatoes and chopped clams. Bring to a boil slowly and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Stir in the dill and parsley; serve.
TOM MARKS IS A TIMES STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER. THIS RECIPE WAS TESTED BY SEATTLE TIMES HOME ECONOMIST CECE SULLIVAN.