Until I die, I’ll make certain that I reside somewhere within shopping distance of the Queen Anne Thriftway.
Yeah, my allegiances are probably personal, as a native of Queen Anne, but the fact still remains that there isn’t a supermarket in Seattle that even approximates this place. Why? Thriftway’s merits are manifold–its flawless produce, its jewel-box dessert case, its absurdly extensive wine selection–but the most impressive has got to be the Kiosk.
Established in 1991, the Kiosk is Thrift-way’s in-store demo kitchen, providing a library of original recipes and cooking tips along with a real live chef on display every single day. The Kiosk’s featured dishes are reliably seasonal (prime rib for the holidays, fish in the spring, peach-themed stuff for the summer), simple to assemble, and fucking fantastic. To boot, guest chefs provide demos several times a month: I caught Chris Zarkades of Brasserie Margaux busting out his potato-crusted salmon with rémoulade a few weeks ago, and other recent cameos include Kerry Sears from Cascadia and Tom Douglas, the granddaddy of local celebrity chefs.
Kiosks have been installed in all three of the local Thriftways, and, in keeping with Thriftway’s obsessive-compulsive devotion to authenticity, culinary specialists have so far been deployed to 22 different countries in order to retrieve products for the Kiosk. (During the annual Copper River Festival in May, Thriftway has the precious salmon helicopter-delivered from Juneau, to ensure being the first place in town to offer it. The salmon is then fried up and dished out at the Kiosk not two hours after it arrives.)
Upcoming Kiosk events include a demo from El Gaucho’s exec chef, Ken Sharp, who will be showcasing the swank steakhouse’s signature chocolate ganache on Thursday, July 18 at 4:00 p.m. Throughout July, samples of local berries, tomcots (described as a “unique apricot”), and decadent Charentais melons from France will also be offered (along with free bites of varying summer salads every day of the week). And “Peach-o-Rama” starts at the end of the month–wherein the Kiosk’s organic peach orgy begins, with peach chutney, peach salsa, peach bruschetta, peach smoothies, and just plain sliced peaches, all for the tasting.
All of this is in a grocery store. For free. Every day, all year long. I’d love to see Safeway try to pull that off.
Queen Anne Thriftway
1908 Queen Anne Ave N, 284-2530.
