Friends, founder bid adieu to Brusseau's, an Edmonds institution

EDMONDS — This city couldn't have known 26 years ago that the new cafe and bakery that opened in a former gas station a block off Main Street was part of an American culinary revolution.

Jerilyn Brusseau, 60, whose restaurant became identified with the city, bought her butter from a creamery in Monroe, her flour from a stone grinding mill in Mountlake Terrace, her salad greens from a farm near Granite Falls.

The daughter of a Snohomish dairyman, Brusseau said her aim was to re-create the warmth of her grandmother's kitchen and the appeal and freshness of home-cooked meals. It also placed her among the front ranks of U.S. chefs who were seeking out the finest local ingredients for innovative regional cuisine.

Yesterday, old friends of both the restaurant and its founder filled the cafe to say goodbye and to lament the closure of what had become an institution in this town.

They also enjoyed some of the restaurant's trademark dishes, including roasted turkey and hazelnut salad, marionberry cobbler and Morning Glory muffins.

Brusseau sold the restaurant in 1993, but it continued to bear her family's name. The current owner, Kathy Stanley, learned earlier this month that her lease was being terminated by the property's owner, who is negotiating with other possible tenants interested in opening a new restaurant. Brusseau's will close Sunday.

Stanley has been leasing the space on a month-to-month basis. Chris Hogan, the property manager for the restaurant, said that since Stanley bought the restaurant in 1998, she had failed to notify her of whether Brusseau's would exercise two options to extend the cafe's lease for five years.

Stanley, however, said she thinks Hogan wants to find a tenant that can invest more money than she could to renovate the space.

"The name Brusseau's was synonymous with Edmonds," said Kathy Thorsen, a 40-year resident, who dropped by yesterday. She testified to the founder's gift not only for serving delicious food but for a style of hospitality that turned strangers into friends.

One of the restaurant's first bakers, Celia Klempel of Everett, recalled the dozens of bicyclists who'd ride out to Edmonds on weekends for the warm and weighty cinnamon rolls.

"We used to turn out 20 big pans of cinnamon rolls, do you remember?" she asked Brusseau. Then extending her wrists from her sleeves, Klempel said, "I've got the burns to prove it."

Brusseau's son, Jeffrey, was 12 when the restaurant opened. He met and fell in love with his wife, Karen, as both made sandwiches behind the counter in 1987.

"This is really hard," he said yesterday, holding his own young daughter in his arms. "So much of our family's identity is here. So many friends are here. Mom set the bar high."

Sue Elliott, who now lives in Snohomish, said she was new to Edmonds and was having trouble finding work when Brusseau offered her a job in the restaurant.

"I walked in here knowing nobody and she believed in me. This was always a place about people, not a place to get a cup of coffee," she said.

In 1985, Restaurants Unlimited's Rich Komen tapped Brusseau to create the cinnamon rolls that went on to a famous and profitable life as Cinnabons.

After selling Brusseau's, she turned her creative energy to international humanitarian causes, founding Peace Table, a program that brings together chefs from around the world; and Peace Trees Vietnam, an organization that removes land mines from Vietnam and replaces them with trees.

When Brusseau's opened in Edmonds in 1978, it served what were very likely the city's first croissants, for 35 cents apiece, and its first cafés au lait, from coffee roasted by a hole-in-the-wall company in the Pike Place Market called Starbucks. French linens covered the tables, a piano stood in the corner for weekend concerts.

As it changed the tastes of a small town, Brusseau's also signaled that the suburbs might not always look to Seattle for their finer pleasures.

"Brusseau's not only provided something distinctive to our community," said Barb Fahey, former Edmonds mayor. "It drew people from all over. It brought gourmet foods and a new sophistication. In our minds, it's been an institution."

Time Snohomish County bureau reporter Jane Hodges contributed to this report. Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com