21-07-2025
A Beloved Chef Is Retiring and Closing His Bainbridge Island Restaurant
Greg Atkinson is riding off into the sunset. After a 48-year-career as a chef, food writer, and teacher, the longtime fixture of Seattle's dining world is retiring, reports the Seattle Times. The bad news? That means that his Bainbridge Island restaurant Marche has closed. The good news is that it's being replaced by a seafood and oyster spot called Sweetwater Tavern, which should open later this year.
The Times recounted Atkinson's career, which started in 1977 when he got a cooking gig at his brother's Irish pub. He spent a long time working on San Juan Island, where difficulty sourcing good produce from the mainland encouraged him to use local ingredients. 'It seemed like the food I could buy from the local fishermen and farmers was higher quality than what was coming in on the trucks on the ferry,' he told the Times, 'so I just started doing that.' That made him, as the Times puts it, one of the 'first proponents of local, seasonal and sustainable foods in the Pacific Northwest.'
That attitude is commonplace now, thanks in part to Atkinson. He spread this ethos through his cookbooks and writing (he won a James Beard Award in 2000 for his writing), and as an instructor at Seattle Central's Culinary Academy. In 1997 he got a job as a consultant at storied Seattle restaurant Canlis and became the head chef there for seven years. Now, with Marche closed, the restaurant part of his career is over, though he told the Times he still plans to write.
Yes in my backyard (bagel)
One of Seattle's hot bagel shops is expanding. Backyard Bagel, which opened in Fremont last year, announced on Instagram that it was opening a second shop at 4520 Union Bay Place near University Village, which until recently was a General Porpoise doughnut shop. 'We weren't planning on it but this opportunity was too good to pass up,' Backyard wrote on Instagram, indicating that it would open in the next few months after staffing up.
Croissants from Ukraine
Lviv Croissants, a Ukrainian-born sandwich chain, is planning to open its first West Coast location in the Westfield Southcenter mall, reports Puget Sound Business Journal. The chain has a production facility and storefront in Georgia, and is planning to open other shops throughout the United States, according to the Journal.
Trader Joe's could come to Northgate
Also from the Journal: Popular grocery chain Trader Joe's is considering opening a Northgate location, in the long-closed Bed Bath and Beyond. Trader Joe's didn't confirm these plans, but the Journal reports that the company has filed a pre-application for the space. Trader Joe's operates several stores in the Seattle area, but the latest opening, in Greenwood, still drew a massive line earlier this year.
