EVERETT — It’s good, inexpensive food served by earnest and polite high school kids.
What could be better?
If you work near the Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center across from Paine Field, you’ll do yourself a favor by stopping by the school for lunch.
Le Bistro’s menu includes burgers for $6, sandwiches for $7, chef salads for $4 and three-course daily specials with a beverage for about $13.
The student-run, fine-dining-style restaurant is located at 9004 Airport Road and is open for lunch from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. most Tuesdays through Fridays. The specials and days open are listed at www.snoisletech.com. Reservations are encouraged.
Overseeing the operation is longtime teacher and former restaurant chef Becky Pechman and Jennifer Knudson, who helps manage the front of the house.
In any given quarter about 50 culinary students work at Le Bistro. The morning shift preps and cooks, the afternoon shift cooks, waits on customers and cleans.
You will be greeted by sharply dressed servers in black and white. Their colleagues in the kitchen are dressed in monogrammed white coats and hats.
It’s the real deal.
The table linens are clean and crisp. Water and coffee refills are at the ready.
On a recent Friday my co-worker Greg and I ordered the daily special: creamy fennel soup, foccacia bread, spaghetti and meatballs and a slice of orange and olive oil cake.
Our server, Sita Urquiaga, 16, of Mukilteo, said the fennel for the soup had been chopped just that morning.
Greg opted for a dinner salad instead of soup, and Sita was quick to let us know that the salad dressing was made in the Le Bistro kitchen, too, as was the tasty bread.
“It’s all made from scratch,” she said.
Sita brought us generous portions of sweet spaghetti sauce, al dente pasta and savory meatballs. Greg even had some of his meal boxed up for an afternoon snack.
The cake was delicious: Moist, not too sweet, with a delicate orange taste. You can opt out of the dessert for a $3 reduction on your bill, but I wouldn’t. Greg didn’t need a box for his cake.
Other specials this month include turkey sage chowder, roasted vegetable tart, buttered popcorn ice cream sundae on Jan. 16; roasted garlic potato soup, pumpkin ravioli, chocolate raspberry truffle tart on Jan. 21; cheddar cheese soup, London broil, profiteroles on Jan. 22; clam chowder, fish and chips, lemon meringue pie on Jan. 23; vegetable beef soup, turkey tetrazzini, lemon pudding cake on Jan. 27; and black bean soup, fish tacos and tres leche cake on Jan. 29.
Burgers and sandwiches also come with soup or salad and fries or onion rings. The most expensive sandwich is the double cheeseburger at $8. And if you don’t like the dessert special, you can order house-made ice cream for $2.
If you’re lucky and it’s not too busy, your server might offer you a tour of the kitchen and the culinary classroom.
Sita led us around.
“I’m having a lot of fun serving,” she said. “But I want to be a chef. I took a summer school course here at Sno-Isle and fell in love with the culinary program. It’s an incredible opportunity. After I graduate, I would like to go to study at Le Cordon Bleu, but that’s like the Harvard of culinary schools, so we’ll see.”
Customer Kris Wendell of Arlington has eaten at Le Bistro enough over the years that the chef knows her by name.
“The students here do an absolutely wonderful job,” Wendell said.
Tips are used for culinary-hospitality class field trips, so give generously. Greg did.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
Le Bistro
Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center, 9004 Airport Rd., Everett, snoisletech.com/le_bistro.php, For reservations or take-out orders, call 425-356-1709.
Hours: 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. most Tuesdays through Fridays.
Alcohol: None.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
