To be this unobservant in my own neighborhood is shameful. So close to home- how could I have missed this place? The exterior is wood shingled, I see white curtains in the windows, a sign planted out front. Walking in, I am welcomed by Chef Dustin Ronspies and another gentleman seated in the kitchen, who turns out to be a wine merchant. Dustin is tall, taller than me anyway (I’m 5’11-6’0). A bandanna pushes his curly brown hair away from his face, he’s dressed casually in a blue “Swinery” T-shirt, rolled pants and tennis shoes…no chef jacket- just an apron. He haggles with the wine guy while I check out the space, take some photographs. I can hear them chatting and cant help but smile at Dustin’s curt no bullshit response to the numerous sales pitches being cast his direction. “No, I don’t want that. No…forget it. Yeah, Ill take a case of that one there. Leave me a little bit of that- Ill taste it later.”- he’s pouring through the bottles, tasting, a half dozen stained wine glasses in his wake. From what I hear, it sounds like he’s a straight shooter…blunt and forthright- I like that.

The restaurant is small…cozy nest small- not cramped tight shoebox small. The interior is a fresh warm yellow, candle votive’s and photographs decorate the walls, the tables (a few small, one big) and chairs are a rustic wood style. Art of the Table feels like a place you want to fill completely with only your close friends and family. I can easily imagine the dining room crowded, deep platters of hot food being shared, wine sloppily passed, the saturation of laughing and loud conversation. Based on the room set up, the prix fixe menu, its apparent that the atmosphere Dustin had in mind was that of a communal family kitchen vs. an uptight formal dining room. When it comes to the food, my timing is off- the restaurant is closed today, the kitchen devoted to prep work. I feel like a kid yearning for Christmas when its only Halloween. Reading over a list of entrees, I’m hungry…damn- did I not just have lunch a mere 45 minutes ago? The descriptions alone make me ache…Corn flan with Roasted Chanterelles, Parmesan Black Pepper Tuile & Smoked Tomato Jam…Hazelnut Crusted Korubuta Pork Tenderloin with Fennel, Treviso, Polenta & Parsley Puree…my belly is purring. I hung out with Dustin for nearly two hours. We sat in the kitchen chatting as I watched him work at breaking down a huge slab of beef and sort through ingredients. Our conversation was easy, comfortable…at times I would forget that I was here to ask specific questions and instead we unconsciously diverted to topics like favorite travel destinations or friend’s in common. Later in my visit, he showed me a garden he had planted out back and shared some thoughts on what he wanted to do down the line. Dustin struck me as motivated, hard working, ambitious and passionate as well as supremely laid back and fun. It was a pleasure to spend time with him. Art of the Table is fantastic and he is equally so. I feel immensely lucky. Its folks like Dustin and interesting moments like those in the garden or being privy to the intimacy of a chef’s kitchen that bowl me over with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for what I get to do, the people I get to meet. Truly, it never gets old…it never fails to squeeze my heart a little. Interview with Chef Dustin Ronspies. When and how did you first start cooking? Growing up, my Grandma brought cooking into my life. As long as I can remember she always cooked. I just remember being at her house every weekend and I was always peeling carrots or potatoes…washing dishes. I worked in a little pizza joint when I was 13 years old because I wanted some money. I was a little kid and my Mom gave me $20 a week for allowance…I dont know…I just wanted to buy shoes…I was just a kid that wanted things. I moved from Chicago when I was 10 years old…moved to Florida. I lived there for 20 years, I eventually moved to West Palm which is where I went to school at the Culinary Institute down there. Did you always know that you would be a chef? No, I intended to be an architect. I was in architecture school for 3 years but I cooked while I was in school. How did you come to this from there? I worked at Outback Steakhouse for 6 years while I was in school studying architecture…quit Outback and said I would never cook again. Tried to find a drawing job but 2 1/2 weeks later I was in a restaurant again as a delivery boy just to make some money and ended up getting swindled into cooking for them…that was when everything switched. I was all of a sudden in charge of a kitchen…just a small breakfast and lunch place. Did 2 years with them and then my Dad was kind of pushing me to go to Culinary School. He wanted me to have a degree in somethin’…he didn’t care what. I fought it for a long time then finally enrolled in Culinary school in ‘98…graduated the top of my class. After I graduated, I worked in France…I worked for a luxury hot air balloon company out there. From 2000-2007… I worked as a private chef…all over the place. Ive cooked in 15 countries. How exactly did you end up in Seattle? When I originally came to Seattle it was to work on a yacht. I was down in Florida and I was sick of what I was doing/sick of Florida. My roommates boyfriend at the time was a yacht captain, he worked on a boat out here and was really good friends with the chef and knew the chef was quitting so he offered to set me up with these guys if I wanted to try something different. I had never worked on a yacht but he said I would make a good whack of money and if I wanted to see the West coast this would be the perfect way to do it. I thought…hey, yeah…Ill see what this is all about and I came and as soon as I got to Seattle, I was like, I love it here- this place is so much my speed, so much what I like and that’s what got me out here. So I did summers in Alaska and winter’s down in Costa Rica. Whoa, wait…tell me about the hot air balloon company? How does that work? Its pretty sexy. Ten thousand dollars just to get out there…to do the whole thing- air fare, accommodations, 10 days of sightseeing/field trips, winery tours, balloon flights, dinners..everything. Basically, they would do their balloon flights over the vineyards in the evening and I would set up these picnic style spreads in these medieval castles. What an odd life people lead right? You never really hear about that shit you know? Oh I know…it was killer though! Such a cool job you know? I got to do whatever I wanted to do. That was kind of pinnacle because that’s where I first got some real food. I came from Florida and was immediately put into a situation where there’s a farmers market every day and I got to go buy all this beautiful food. It was such a change from South Florida where you’re depending on these shitty produce companies. Just the fromageries and the patisseries, boulangerie…every town had distinctly their own and they were all so good. It was so much fun to be in France..same with Italy…I was in Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic over eight months but we always had our home base in France. When I came back from there, obviously I had 8 months in Europe..I came back with a totally different frame of mind and went back to school to talk to one of my chefs if he knew about any jobs and he hooked me up with family I worked for after that. They were pretty high society/East coast family..Palm Beach in the winter, South Hampton/NYC in the summer, the four house compound in Aspen…I worked for them and that was a whole different thing. Eventually, I came out here…you know, on the job I mentioned before. Worked then I quit and took a break… got an apartment in Queen Anne. I didn’t work for 6 months…I just kind played out here. I love music and art…eating and drinking…I met all of these people. After that I worked on another yacht for this rich kid and he was terrible to work for. The last time I worked for him, I was out snowboarding and he told me to start rounding up this ridiculous last minute dinner party…at that point, this is the forth or fifth time in the past 3 month he had done that, I was just sick of it. The next day, I woke up and I’m laying in bed, it was January 16th, I just knew I needed to do something different…to do something for myself. So I got up and went to my computer and looked on Craigslist for commercial real estate and I found this place that morning. I came in here and I looked at it 7 or 8 times and it was a shit hole. I thought I could do something with it. Yeah, I signed a lease and put all my saved money into it- didn’t borrow any from anybody- and just went for it. I had a vision I guess. So you started it yourself? Well, Laurie was my friend that was working on yachts with me. She runs the front…yeah, pretty much me and Laurie started it. She was here from day one. I put all the money into it but she is definitely a partner in the whole situation. We couldn’t do it without each other. Did Art of the Table turn out the way you wanted it to? When I started I was going to run a catering job…the kitchen was set up so I could at least do parties…I had no idea. Three weeks before we opened I had no idea what we were going to do. I just made this rash decision to start doing one communal dinner a night. Whats the story behind the name “Art of the Table”? Its a book…its kind of a comprehensive manual about setting tables and its more for front of the house. It was actually written for butlers. I just kind of liked the name and I’m an artist…so it just fit. My time in Europe showed me communal eating and I really liked the focus of the table in the name because that set up was a big part of it. I know you focus on locally sourcing your ingredients..what brought that on? Why did you decide to go the farm route? My menus are all based on local foods. I started straight off the bat- I was shopping at Ballard farmers market. In 2 1/2 years I have about 50 different farmers that I work with now. It was all about building relationships with people, I wanted to meet these people…I had dinners on farms with the farmers- I know what they do, their philosophy, I know what they are trying to accomplish which is way above and beyond what most people actually put into their sources. Half of my week is put into sourcing my food, talking to these people and finding what I want. Its all about the beauty and the flavor of what they grow, its all about the food and the people that do it. I know there’s no pesticides going on in any of this food, there’s no spraying…its all grown either organically or 10 steps above organically. I see your menu has some cultural variance…is there a type of cuisine you rely on most? It would be European…Italian, French…I do a lot of, I like North African flavors. I like Mediterranean big time. I started French, that was what I based my food on because I worked with a French chef- he was my mentor. But, I taught myself everything past that. Whats your favorite part of this? Cooking. Cooking whatever I want to on a daily basis. Not having anybody tell me what to do. Least favorite? Running the business…I hate it. Answering the phones, trying to get people in here…guerrilla marketing…that all stresses me. Whats your favorite thing to make? Ice cream. That would be one of my specialties. Ill make ice cream out of pretty much everything- caramelized onion ice cream, caramelized turnip ice cream, beet ice cream…I just did toasted porcini ice cream. These are all desserts- they re sweet. Ill do sorbets for salads or something that are more savory. I do a different ice cream every week…I revolve a whole dessert around the ice cream. A nice tart with a nice ice cream… so good, it really compliments the flavor. The other day we did a pear and almond tart with a yogurt and honey ice cream topped with wild huckleberries. I have a couple foragers that come around that I get a lot of wild ingredients from. I know you switch your menu up weekly but are there dishes that stand out as especially popular or dishes that you’ve gotten special attention for? From people…they love the off the wall pastas and raviolis that we do. They just go- they sell like crazy. Phil, my sous chef, he focuses on pastas..he gets into it. He started with me a year and a half ago with no kitchen experience. Just cooking with his mom, went to school…started as an extern and here we are a year and a half later kickin’ ass. Hes, my left hand..actually, I’m left handed, so he would be my right hand. Are there ideas cooking wise you want to explore that you haven’t yet or any future plans/changes in store for Art of the Table? Cheese making is something I would really like to get into. I regularly make my own pancetta, bacon…Ive got some coppa hams hanging now…fresh sausages. Everything that goes on our plates we make in house- I don’t outsource anything. Even if someone was making a good sausage…I would buy it and eat it at home- I would never serve it here. I like to make everything we serve using really fine ingredients…I’m constantly searching for better things. What would you like to see change in the way that people eat? In this country we need to get away from the processed foods. Lets get back to cooking…even if its simple. Cooking doesn’t have to be anything extravagant or in depth…it can be very simple. Nourishing yourself with something good instead of something that is laden with chemicals. At the same time, we need to get back to being local with what we buy- supporting our local economy. Why are we getting fruit from Chile? Why are we getting all these foods from China? We have an abundance here. I think this country grows probably 80% of what you can find all over the world in some place. I mean, there’s all of these Japanese and Chinese farmers out here that are growing things from their home countries, finding out a way to do it. I think we have the climates within this country to grow just about anything we want to and I think we need to turn our heads back to that. We don’t need to source elsewhere like we do- in the U.S we take pride in the fact that we can have or get anything we want from wherever…I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing. As this world fills up more and more…and we re polluting the environment as much as we are- I think we need to make a conscious effort to turn this around. Its a fight…big businesses like Cargill and Tyson are willing to fight to the death to make sure that doesn’t happen- they’re just totally fucking everything up. There was an article in the NY Times this past week about E Coli and the beef industry…terrible. Someone needs to step up to change things…Michael Pollan maybe, but if he did anything within government he would have hits on him guaranteed. Where are your favorite places to eat in Seattle? I like Lark, Green Leaf, Chiso…the taco truck on 45th. Umm, one of the great dinners Ive had was at Harvest Vine- that was pretty amazing. Spent about 5 hours there…me and Phil tried to eat most of the menu. I like to eat at Olivar…I like to support people that are in the same frame of mind. I like Tavern Law…its way cool. At the same time, I just wish more restaurants would focus on local stuff…we have the resources here why not use them? Do you cook at home? No. I cooked dinner on Sunday night for my folks and that was probably the first time I cooked there in 6 months. I might make a grilled cheese or something at night but I go out a lot. Are you a drinker? What do you drink? Oh yeah…mostly beer and wine. Beer is my hobby…the menu shows that. I like it all- light, dark. I’m really into the wood aged beers. I’m kind of a glutton so I like to find rare things and consume them heavily. My next thing is I want a beer bar with good food. What would you be if not a chef? A farmer. I would’ve never thought that 4 years ago but…yeah…a farmer. I would do that and supply my restaurant with food that way. Ive got a garden in back of the restaurant- I just ripped up some beds and I’m growing vegetables, herbs and stuff. Favorite/ least favorite foods? Grilled cheese…made with good cheese and good bread. I like cheese a lot. Fish…if I could eat fish everyday I can do weeks of that. I don’t eat too many sweets. I drink a lot of coffee, alcohol. I like savory food- sausages, pasta. I don’t like calf’s liver but I need someone to cook it good and maybe I would change my mind on that. Free time? I travel if I can. Snowboard in the winter…camp/bike in the summer. I like to be outside. I don’t spend too much time at home. I used to read a lot but I don’t read too much anymore…I try to read a little bit. I’m a Netflix junkie…I’m hooked on Lost, Dexter, Weeds…I like independent foreign films. Proudest achievement? It would be this. To have said that I didn’t think I would make it a year and to be here 2 1/2 years later and the relationships Ive formed through this. Ive done a lot of cool things in my life but this with all the stress and all the love we put into it…no matter what happens in the future this is set. Its done- its been fun. There’s bigger things that are going to happen, this is temporary but everyone’s first restaurant is their first love. Coming from nothing and then a private chef background to do what I have in the last 2 1/2 years…it blows me away. A lot of people told me I would never make it…I proved them wrong. That’s a good feeling. Heroes? Folks you admire? My dad. He supported us and did whatever needed to be done. My mom too…she gave us all love. My grandma…Im more family oriented than anything else.