Romancing Stone -- Choose Granite For A Passionate Affair, But Not A Cheap Date -- Granite Is Perfect For Rolling Pastries, Mixing Dough Or Hand-Made Pasta. But Its Appeal Ismore Elemental

Oct 13, 1996

John Hinterberger

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DO your kitchen over in granite?

For years I wanted to.

They are expensive counter tops, costlier than marble or Corian, a synthetic "marble."

Marble makes a poor kitchen surface. It's softer and highly absorbent, and stains - permanently.

The synthetic "marbles" or "granites" - bits of stone in an acrylic binder - look good and are practical, but they aren't the real thing. It's one thing to look like a slab of polished rock. It's another to be one.

One night a few months ago, there was an advertisement on television for granite counter tops. "Half price."

I called.

A couple of days later, a salesman, packing heavy samples, arrived.

Granite in slabs - as opposed to 12-inch cut tiles - can cost anywhere from $70 to $105 a square foot, cut, polished and installed. The price depends not upon its quality - granite is granite - but upon its relative scarcity, consumer demand and proximity to markets. It's heavy and costly to transport.

The salesman tapped on his calculator.

"Which sample do you like?"

I pointed to a sample labeled Juparana Columbo.

"It's an East Indian granite," the salesman said. "It's shipped in blocks to Italy, where it's cut and polished. The Italians are the best in the world at marble and granite polishing."

It was a complex looking piece of stone: Swirling patterns of salmon pink and diamond-like quartz and mica ran through wavy grays and ripples of soft black.

I ordered $2,000 worth of Juparana Columbo, maybe a billion years old.

A week later, a carpenter came, tore out the existing counter tops and nailed down a thick layer of support plywood. At 7 the following morning, a truck rumbled into the driveway. The stonecutter and an apprentice got out and began unloading power saws, chisels and slabs of ancient India.

On the fourth day, with a thin film of granite dust over everything in the house, they finished and began washing down the stone.

From underneath the gray dust the colors emerged - and glowed. The workmen rubbed in a sealer (granite, too, can stain if not well-sealed) and departed.

It's not the most adaptable of work surfaces. You can't (at least shouldn't) cut or chop on it. You don't want to splash grease on it (unless you wipe it up quickly). And some chefs don't like it.

Said Joe McDonald, caterer/chef and co-director at The Ruins, the Seattle private dinner club: "I hate it.

"It's cold. It stays cold. It sucks the heat out of any warm plate you put on it. When I work in a (private) home that has granite, I always feel as if I should have brought an electric blanket."

Aside from aesthetics, then, what's good about it?

It's perfect for rolling pastries, mixing dough or hand-made pasta. But its appeal is more elemental.

Granite is a fundamental part of the Earth. It's not rare. It makes up much of the rock mantle of the planet. It's almost everywhere and it can be miles thick. Yet you cannot look at its polished patterns without sensing or marveling over the ancient seas and tides and forces that laid it down.

More than prettiness accounts for its growing popularity. Joyce Ricketts, of Roy Ricketts Inc., 3417 First Ave. S., a Seattle kitchen-design firm, said demand for granite countertop installations is strong and growing.

"People see it in other folks' homes and it develops its own market. It sells itself. It's practical; it's durable. You can't chip it or crack it - only with a great deal of force. You can set hot utensils down on it. And it's beautiful."

Ricketts said she prefers to go to a granite showroom, look over dozens of pieces and select a slab that, in its entirety, appeals to her. She cited two specialty houses (others are listed in the Yellow Pages under "Granite"): Meta Marble & Granite Inc., 410 S. Front St. (762-5547), and Oregon Tile & Marble, 5964 Sixth Ave. S. (762-1858).

An afternoon at Meta Marble & Granite is a cross between a visit to a vast geology display and a natural art museum. Designers walk through with clients.

Meta is owned and run by a young Turkish-American, Attila Kilic, who maintains a showroom of more than 4,000 slabs of natural stone.

He is passionate about the romance of his materials; he believes in their primeval artistry. He speaks of the "mystery" of ancient stone. He works in jeans.

"I still open the crates of an incoming shipment myself, with a Skil saw. I want to see every piece I get. I want to know it. I'm still excited by it, like a kid examining a new present."

Jeff Beyl, a manager at Oregon Tile, said the present fashion in granite tends to greens.

"Granite obviously has been around for a long, long time," he said. "But in the past 10 or 12 years more people are discovering how attractive it can be. In the past, you tended to see a lot of what you might call `consistent' patterns." (That is, speckled or granular, from which granite derives its name.) "Now we are seeing an increasing number of swirling patterns."

By some estimates, there are 2,500 individual colors found worldwide, ranging from neutrals to granular mixes with reds, greens and blues.

Lloyd and Monique Wilhelms of Mercer Island used several varieties of granite throughout their home. For their professional looking kitchen, they chose a light speckled-brown granite from Brazil.

"We must have looked at every piece of granite between here and Portland," said Monique Wilhelms. "After all, you have to live with it. And (in the showrooms) you don't get to see it at its best. It's usually hanging vertically, covered with dust and not in the best light.

"At first we had considered using marble, because we wanted something that would age, would show that it had been used. But after trying several substances on a sample, we changed our minds. The wine stain was OK and so was food oil. But I tried lemon juice and it turned an ugly kind of gray. We decided on granite, Juparana Fantastico. There's a lot of it (in the house) and I just love it."

Granite has one profound negative. Installed in my very ordinary kitchen, it made everything else look suddenly, surprisingly shabby.

"When are you going to re-do your floors?" one friend asked abruptly.

John Hinterberger's restaurant and food columns appear in The Seattle Times in Sunday's Pacific Magazine and Thursday's Tempo. Gary Settle is Pacific's staff photographer.