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Thursday, September 27, 2007

Skillet

posted by on September 27 at 13:43 PM

Skillet, Seattle’s newest best thing ever (extolled here), isn’t away this week because they got shut down.

(Although they did. I spoke with Danny, one of the Skilleteers, this morning, and he said they ran out of water on site that day, but that they sorted it out and everything’s cool. He sounded relaxed; maybe you can’t not sound relaxed when you have the accent of Kentucky? The health department was apparently all over them instantaneously. Which, unlike some people, I kind of think is a good thing, especially after reading a recent piece by Calvin Trillin in the world’s best magazine, in which he journeys to Singapore and, thanks to their insane level of food-safety vigilance, partakes freely and without fear of internal repercussions of millions of delicious foods from millions of delicious street carts. If you’re going to be eating hot food from a cart or an Airstream or what have you, don’t you kind of want them to have a multicompartment sink with hot and cold running water? And refrigeration? That’s what Seattle’s regulations require.)

Skillet’s away because they’re catering a photo shoot for Harley Davidson in Los Angeles. Skillet got its start doing this, which Danny termed “combat catering.” Combat? He laughed. It’s just what they call it. He said it’s unlikely they’ll be serving food to actual bikers or even actors playing bikers; these shoots usually involve “a pretty picture of the bike sittin’ in the sunset,” and Skillet feeds the crew.

They’ll be back next week, down in South Lake Union on Wednesday and Thursday, Ballard on Friday (check here). On the menu, per Danny:

• “Something with mushrooms”
• “Definitely the burger and the poutine”
• Probably the Thai coconut soup (“Oh god, it’s so good”)
• Crispy artichoke hearts with chipotle aioli
• And other delicious stuff

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All hail Skillet!

RSS icon Comments

1

Skillet sounds great.

But you got it all wrong about Singapore.
I have been there many times, and eaten at lots of the hawker centres there that Trillin talks about- and they dont all have 3 compartment sinks. The government sets up the food courts, and they are clean, with running water, yes.
But they are nowhere near as fussy or facist as the health department in Seattle. They just rinse off plates in cold water, no fancy sterilising dishwashers, and everybody cooks granny style-fast and loose.

And the food is amazing, Trillin barely scratched the surface. He missed the oyster omelets, the murtabak, the fresh fruit salads and smoothie type fruit drinks, the cold tiger beer, and a million other things.

If we had anywhere near as sensible of regulators as Singapore, or even Portland, there would be street food as good as Skillet all over town.

Posted by Rosco | September 27, 2007 2:08 PM
2

Food stands don't necessarily need 4 compartment sinks and hot and cold running water. It really depends on what's being served, where it's cooked, and how it's stored. Why are hotdog stands able to get around the requirements but not others?

Seattle deserves a proliferation of all sorts of street food. That a couple taco trucks and other "don't know where the hell it's gonna be next" mobile eateries are newsworthy is really very very sad.

Posted by NaFun | September 27, 2007 2:15 PM
3

can we get a bethany-translator on this thing? "Skillet...isn't away this week because they got shut down. Although they did."
fucking brillant, as usual.

Posted by your slog posts are even worse | September 27, 2007 3:38 PM
4

Sometimes I want to gag when one of the staffers/all of the staffers find something they like and report on it ad nauseum


But I haven't tried it Skillet yet so who's to say. I did, however, see it parked behind The Old Peculiar last week and felt like it was a celebrity sighting

Posted by Lake | September 27, 2007 3:45 PM
5

What, no Fremont stop?

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 27, 2007 3:51 PM
6
Posted by Terry Mitchell | September 27, 2007 10:35 PM
7
Posted by Terry Mitchell | September 27, 2007 11:01 PM

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