Our story
A chef who grew up cooking over campfires on the Olympic Peninsula, and a brick warehouse built the year after Seattle burned.
The chef
Mara Ellison spent twelve years in steakhouses from Chicago to San Francisco, and in every one the best thing on the plate was the crust. She came home to Seattle to cook the way her family did at Lake Crescent every summer: over a wood fire, with nothing to hide behind.
Alder was the obvious choice. It grows everywhere west of the Cascades, burns hot and even, and gives beef a sweet, light smoke that doesn’t bury the flavor of the meat. The Coast Salish peoples have smoked salmon over alder for generations, and to most people who grew up here it’s simply the smell of the region.
The beef
We buy whole loins from three family ranches in the Kittitas Valley, the Palouse and the Okanogan Highlands. The cattle graze on open range and finish on Washington grain, and we know every rancher by name.
Downstairs, the loins hang in a cold, humid room with Himalayan salt on the walls and a fan that never stops. Over three to six weeks they lose a fifth of their weight and gain a flavor that’s nutty, deep and a little like blue cheese. Our butcher cuts every steak to order the afternoon you eat it.
The building
- 1889
The Great Seattle Fire burns 25 blocks of downtown, including every wooden building in what is now Pioneer Square.
- 1891
Our building goes up in brick and sandstone as a ship chandler’s warehouse, one of dozens rebuilt to the new fire code.
- 2017
Mara Ellison signs the lease on the empty ground floor and basement, and starts drawing a kitchen around a hearth.
- 2019
Alder & Ash opens with 70 seats, one fire and a basement aging room that holds 40 loins.
- 2023
We double the aging room and open the Library and the Cellar for private dinners.
Come see the fire for yourself.