If you’ve left your house at all during the last two years, you’ve probably noticed that Seattle is in the midst of a restaurant boom. And if you pay attention to who is opening these restaurants, you’ll see a lot of the same names: Tom Douglas, Ethan Stowell, Josh Henderson, Renee Erickson, Matt Dillon—all of whom already own multiple restaurants, with more on the way.
Award-winning chefs owning a large number of restaurants is nothing new. Culinary entrepreneurs across the country—Mario Batali, Thomas Keller, David Chang, Tom Colicchio—have created restaurant empires that have grown and diversified the country’s dining culture and obsession with food.
In Seattle, however, restaurateurs owning three or more businesses is still relatively new. Douglas opened his first place, Dahlia Lounge, in 1989. Over the course of 15 years, he expanded slowly, adding Etta’s, Palace Kitchen, and Lola. In the last decade, however, he has opened more than 10 restaurants. Stowell opened his first restaurant, Union, in 2003 and has steadily grown his company to include 12 restaurants (with at least two more expected to open in the next year)…
