In the transient and fickle restaurant business a solid thing can be hard to find.
Anyone who has worked in restaurants, frequented restaurants or been in anyway affiliated with restaurants knows this all too well. Places come and go. Faces come and go. Only once in a while does a staff become a family.
In the southeast reaches of Lower Queen Anne a group prolongs the family of the Cloud Room, former occupant of the 11th floor of the historic Camlin Hotel. Several people from that erstwhile Seattle institution have found a new home here.
The Emerald Grill took over 211 Dexter Ave. N., former site of a pan-Asian restaurant adjacent to the Holiday Inn, about a year ago. In an effort to reorganize, the hotel's former general manager, Dave Watkins, brought in Jeff Morris. After a month of deliberation Morris, the Cloud Room's former executive chef, came aboard to "reinvent the place." Morris brought his specialization and know-how to the table - a fruitful effort to give this Holiday Inn an extra edge.
Morris says the most important parts of nurturing a kitchen are ingredients and presentation; location is secondary. In the reinvention process Morris reassembled ex-Camlinites, cultivating a garden he knew had potential. Although the Camlin closed in 2003, the former staff has kept in contact. Morris knew some quality people looking for work, and the chain of events brought some of "the family" back together.
"It is a standard process," said Morris. "You need to fill spots. I knew a guy looking for a job tending bar, and I knew if he could handle the Cloud Room he could handle any room in town."
Over the Emerald Grill's first 14 months the family reassembled: Morris, two bartenders, sous-chef, kitchen staff, servers - even a few people in the hotel. Watkins asked if there was any way to get the sign for the old Cloud Room.
"We are defiantly a throwback [to] Cloud Room," said Shelley Ryan, Emerald Grill supervisor and former Cloud Room employee. "After the Camlin closed, we all looked out for each other. We got each other jobs when we could. Now, some people who come in look at me, trying to place where they seen me before ... the Cloud Room!"
Ryan explains how, during the Cloud Room's last two weeks, they were so busy because everyone came in to tell their stories. To say goodbye. She is happy to back to with the family, pleasantly surprising guests with a good meal. Recently, there was a couple visiting Seattle for the first time; each day they would go out and see the sights, every night returning for a good, reasonably priced meal.
The Emerald Grill is what Morris calls an American bistro: normal fare well made. Entrees range from $9 to $18. Portions are substantial; options, pleasantly surprising.
"I don't go over the top with the menu," explains Morris. "People who are used to Holiday Inn fare say we exceed their expectations."
Guests cluster around the bar and TVs in the evenings, winding down, attempting to relax from the stresses of travel and work. They have happy hour and dinner, contentedly watching sports and bantering.
Morris and the gang realize The Emerald Grill will never be the famous Cloud Room, which opened atop the Camlin in 1949, 23 years after the hotel itself had opened. The place where Frank Sinatra, Elvis Costello, Dean Martin and a host of others played, where some of "The Fabulous Baker Boys" was filmed in the late '80s. Nevertheless, the group enjoys the sort of community they are cultivating. Even people who didn't work at the Cloud Room seem to know (or be learning) many of the Camlin stories and enjoy continuing the legacy.
"It's nice when people who live around here come by. Regulars are good," said server Rick Kowal. Though not an original Camlinite, he gets into it. "We get a lot of business guys who come by every few months - the familiar faces."[[In-content Ad]]
