The history of your smokehouse is a drama-packed story. Spill
it.
We actually first opened our restaurant in 1994 next to the
Kingdome. Two weeks after we opened, the ceiling of the Kingdome began
to fall off, and they had to implode the building. We lost the rest of
the baseball season and the whole year of football. Then, in 2001, the
Nisqually earthquake happened. I remember when the alarm went off; I
was knocked down to my knee and all of a sudden we could hear these
explosions as the bricks from the building next door fell into our
restaurant. By the time the earthquake was over, our restaurant had
been completely flattened by thousands of bricks. It was phenomenal
that none of us got killed. So, long story short, after that I owned a
hot-dog stand, and just sorta stood around trying to figure out what
the fuck I was going to do.
How did you pick this new location?
It’s a long story and it involves Paul Allen, and I had to sign this
agreement with him not to talk about it, so let’s not talk about it,
okay?
Okay. Explain to me the whole meat-smoking process.
We smoke the meat in our Cookshack smoker, which is essentially a
steam bath for cow meat. A meat sauna, if you will. We place apple
wood, hickory wood, and mesquite wood in a box; warm the wood with
electric coils; and then place the meat on racks above the wood. The
tougher the meat, the longer you smoke it. The beef you’re eating took
about six hours to cook.
How does one learn to smoke meat?
I spent about three months experimenting with pounds of meat on my
deck. For those three months, I fed my kid mostly beef, which is
probably why he is so huge today. I also ended up giving away a lot of
the meat to my neighbors who wandered over, intoxicated by the
scent.
Have you seen the health inspection reports on this establishment? I checked those out after I ate there and became very sick. Wish I had read all the reviews on this place before I ate there. The food was horrible… so getting poisoned by it was adding insult to injury. I can’t believe this place hasn’t been shut down. Maybe something to do with his agreement with Paul Allen? Money is power, eh? I encourage you to review the health inspections records up on the King County web site!