One Pot, Two Pot, Three Pot, Four

I finally had the chance to enjoy one of Seattle's finer dining establishments called "One Pot." One Pot can be best described as "a comunal dining expierience." What does this mean to the average person? Basically, you sit around a huge dinner table with friends and strangers. Then, you eat, drink, and be merry. The food is usually crafted by one of the many fine chefs we find here in the Northwest.

The most recent event was held under the Mo Bar next to Neumos. The decor was brick walls and pipes. The music being played, everything from mo-town to Beirut, from Elliot Smith to Ella Fitzgerald. The food was simple and elegant, from the pork and lamb meatballs in a simple tomato sauce, to the raw milk cheese, to the delectable braise rabbit.

I missed out on much of the table side festivities as I was running plate after plate from the partially remodled kitchen to the downstairs VIP room. But, what I caught, I liked. As I cleared the tables of the plates, grabing some sweet morsels that were left I chatted with Seattle restauranteurs. "Have a glass of wine" one offered which started a long conversation on what lacked in the Seattle food community and the finer parts of Pinot Noir.

The creater, Michael Hebberoy, is what I would most accurately coin as "Awesome-tastic." He is a visionary, and it seems his battle cry is "Kill the Restaurant." While cleaning up after the event we chatted about the finer points of dumpster diving and about cleaning someone else's plate (this was brought on when I lovingly picked a large hunk of exquisite rabbit that had been half eaten from one of the dirty plates and said "How could anyone waste this awesome rabbit?" and then promptly shoved it in my mouth). "I've worked in the restuarant business since I was thirteen. If someone sent back half a steak, I'd be like 'Hey! That's good steak!' and later on when I got older all the wait staff would get grossed out, but I didn't care. It was still a good steak." It turns out we are avid fans of both culinary practices.

Being from Portland Hebberoy has some of the Northwest Sensibilities, but with a joi de vivre that can only come from that big-little city. In many ways Portland is much more of a major metropolitan area than Seattle could ever dream of. Sure, we have the people and the economy, but Portland has something that Seattle has lost: Heart. Portland lives for culture, food, art and music; in Seattle it is our weekend, our hobby, but not our soul. From the public tranist that functions to the late night donut spots, Portland is a 24 hour city, and its proud heratige of counter-culture lives in the viens of Hebberoy.

Love him or not, he is a man on a quest to change the way the world looks at the table, at community, and at gastronomy. Whatever Michael has in store for Seattle and One Pot I will be looking forward to with big eyes and an empty stomach. . . and maybe a few drinks in me.