Back in the days when on-line commerce was in its infancy, ChefShop.com, the brainchild of a Queen Anne husband-and-wife team, rode the first wave of that brave, new world.
Fourteen years later, after countless on-line startups have vanished like the snows of yesteryear, Eliza Ward, 52, and Tim Mar, 56, are still in the game, supplying specialty foods and ingredients to a network of on-line customers who can’t always get what they want at traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
ChefShop.com’s suppliers range from Italy and the South Pacific to Queen Anne. “Everyone is local somewhere,” Ward noted.
One of ChefShop.com’s suppliers, in fact, is A & J Meats & Seafoods, an upper Queen Anne icon.
The business maintains a brick-and-mortar presence at 1425 Elliott Ave. W., where the shelves are stocked with items like Tasmanian tea tree honey, Maldon salt flakes and Hungarian paprika for those who prefer to shop the old-fashioned way.
Ward said most of their walk-in traffic comes from Queen Anne, Magnolia and Ballard.
Sensible, straightforward model
In retrospect, the business model appears straightforward and sensible: Marry the traditional, artisan methods of food production with the emerging e-commerce technology. Ward and Mar’s passionate desire to connect growers and consumers drove the model.
In the late 1990s, though, as Amazon.com reported quarterly rivers of red ink, the endeavor didn’t seem such a sure bet.
Culinary intelligence — paying attention to our relationship to food and how it is produced — wasn’t the factor in the marketplace it is today. Of course, the Pike Place Market had been a Seattle fixture all along, but the University District Farmers Market didn’t open until 1993. Today’s luminaries in the slow-food movement — Peter Kaminsky, Alice Waters and Michael Pollan — were far from familiar names in the American kitchen.
In 1995, Mar, a professional photographer who worked as a film and video producer at the time, produced a video for children with food promoter Mauny Kaseburg called “Earth to Table.” In 1997, “Mauny’s Kitchen” debuted on Microsoft’s MSN.
Two years later, Mar and Ward, a Microsoft alum, launched ChefShop.com from a small space on Elliott Avenue. Later, they migrated to South Lake Union, before returning to the neighborhood of their origins.
“It’s a nice community thing,” Ward said of the business. “We know a lot of people; a lot of our suppliers. We’re providing an on-line shipping arm for those who don’t have it.”
Smart choices
ChefShop.com has not been immune to the economic recession, but Ward said the business model, like the food they sell, is sustainable.
Cooking classes are part of the mix, which run Wednesday and Thursday evenings, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., and usually attract two-dozen people at $75 per class.
Educating customers and the palate involves making smart choices, Ward observed. Smart choices often mean eating less: “If you know what you put in your mouth, you will be more satisfied,” she said.
You don’t need to have fancy equipment,” Ward advised. “Just a few gadgets and a good knife.”
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