EVERETT — You’ve seen “The Bear,” right?
Well, the kitchen at Everett’s newest steakhouse, 16Eleven, is a lot like the one in the FX TV show — tattoos and all.
Everyone, from prep cooks to the big boss, addresses one another with calls of “Chef!” Feedback and creative input is encouraged, and mental health is a priority. There’s always a degree of panic in the air, like there is in any restaurant kitchen. But executive chef Joel Childs has seen much, much worse.
As the upscale eatery in the APEX Art and Culture Center at 1611 Everett Ave. geared up for its long-awaited opening last month, it was all hands on deck for last-minute menu tweaks, staff hiring, cocktail testing. It was nerve-wracking, sure, but it’s the smoothest restaurant opening Childs has seen yet. He credits it to seamless collaboration between himself, his staff, APEX owner John Carswell and other supporters that they made it through in one piece.
“We’ve been living ‘The Bear’ for the last six months, in essence,” Childs said. “Only with less PTSD.”
At his last venture, as co-owner and titular chef at the now-closed Chef Behind the Curtain in Snohomish, the U.K.-born Childs was the only kitchen staff — so tense dinner rushes and personality clashes weren’t really a thing. Now that he’s heading up the kitchen at 16Eleven, he’s incorporating lessons from his wide experience to make it a place staff actually want to be, a magnet for rising culinary talent from around Western Washington.
It’s just another of the countless ways 16Eleven, and the APEX Center in which it’s housed, deviate from the downtown Everett norm. Between the classy ambience, playful house cocktails and world-class menu, it’s unlike anything else in town.
‘An actual art style’
The APEX Center, like the people innovating within its walls, has lived many lives since its construction in 1921. It was once a meeting hall for the Knights of Columbus, then a Masonic hall, and — for anyone looking for a good time in Everett circa 1995 — the home of Club Broadway, a nightclub and music venue.
The building sat nearly vacant for 15 years before Carswell purchased it with the intent of using it as storage and a display space for his DogTown Collection — the world’s largest collection of graffiti and urban art on canvas, APEX director of marketing Sherry Jennings said.
Growing up in Southern California, Carswell was drawn into the culture of street art when he realized it was one of the only visual art forms born and bred in the United States. Some of the country’s most visionary talents weren’t painting on canvases destined for the Museum of Modern Art, but on train cars and grimy alleyways where their work was often scrubbed away within days.
So Carswell, along with his wife, Abigail, daughters Baby G and Aislinn, and eventually many other volunteers, would go out on city streets at night, hoping to catch artists in the act. They wanted to commission creators to replicate their works on canvas, preserving it long after originals were wiped away.
“We wanted to be able to record what they did on canvas, so that future art enthusiasts will be able to see the way they executed their style,” Carswell said. “So it really is about historically preserving an art form that has not previously had much attention paid to it, and also educate people as to what this actually is — not just tagging or vandalism, but this is an actual art style that has been developing for the last 50-something years.”
Some pieces of the collection, once sprawling across entire buildings or rows of boxcars, now occupy mind-blowingly huge canvases, and they needed a place to call home. Carswell found it when he purchased the former Club Broadway last year.
Soon it became clear, though, that the building was destined for greatness. Carswell, his family and the project’s supporters started to dream of bringing something larger to downtown Everett than just a museum. It could be a community center, a driving force behind the local arts, a place that would draw food, music and art lovers from all around.
The project soon expanded to include a music venue upstairs, Kings Hall, that hosted some of the top acts at the Fisherman’s Village festival this year, and a gallery-slash-rentable event space where choice pieces of the DogTown Collection are displayed. As the work went on, Carswell’s team set their sights on filling a crucial gap in Snohomish County’s dining infrastructure: a high-end steakhouse, tinged with the open-source DIY punk ethos of the street art that gave 16Eleven its start.
‘106 totally different experiences’
16Eleven is the first part of the grand design you see when you step in off the street, the nondescript aged brick facade of the building belying the classy interior of the restaurant.
Snohomish design team Travis and Ruthie Nicholson are behind all of APEX’s interior spaces, each of which maintains a unique style that separates it from the rest of the building while paying homage to the artists displayed upstairs with little punk touches here and there.
Housed in the building’s former gym, the dining room is all vaulted ceilings and shadowy corners lit by the warm glow of lamps and candles, a modern take on the gilded Art Deco look popular in the building’s early years. Behind the bar, liquor bottles are shelved in restored gym lockers.
It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, but as they do, you’ll find yourself pivoting in your seat to get a look at the details on each wall: a bronze statue of a torch-bearing Greek goddess, elk and pronghorn heads (long-ago trophies purchased at auction from the Woodland Park Zoo, Jennings said), green velvet booths restored to look as lush as they were a century ago.
Then you turn your attention to the menu itself, and it’s hard to think about anything else. The easiest way to sum up 16Eleven’s offerings is by calling it a steak-and-seafood place, but don’t worry — jackets and ties aren’t required here.
One glance at the cocktail menu lets you know the minds behind the spot aren’t afraid of having a little fun. Bar manager Cameron McCaffree has conjured sips that run the gamut from utterly unique to modern classics, and my dining party had no trouble finding the perfect fit for each of our moods.
I went with Sorry I’m Latte ($17), a grownup older cousin to an espresso martini made with vodka, cold brew, amaro and a rub of fresh lemon around the rim. (I’m a sucker for a good coffee cocktail, a theme you’ll find repeated in my regular order at the Muse Whiskey & Coffee.
Herald photographer Ryan Berry ordered the Kidz Bop Reviver ($16), a fun and fruity play on the Corpse Reviver featuring lychee liqueur and Rainier gin. And when Jennings stopped by to answer some of our questions, she went for her go-to: the 212 International Fashion ($16), an old fashioned with an extra kick from cinnamon syrup and citrus bitters.
After we finished oohing and aahing at our drinks, we turned our attention to dinner. Half the menu is dedicated to shareables, where Childs’ singular pan-fusion culinary style really shines through in choices like pork and veggie potstickers dressed with tikka masala sauce ($15) or dry-aged beef sliders topped with duck fat and a zippy carrot-ginger sauce ($22). A plate of deviled eggs ($19) is dolled up with caviar and microgreens and served atop a chunk of volcanic rock.
As a diner who’s regularly half-joked to servers that I like my steak still mooing, the steak tartare crostini ($23) naturally caught my eye. The metallic savoriness of the finely chopped raw beef was set off perfectly by a thick smear of rich ricotta and a tinge of Dijon, followed by a pleasant sweet-tartness from apple gel. I unapologetically scarfed down the last crostini shortly after tasting my first.
And while warm sushi might not sound the most appealing at first take, trust me on this and try the pressed salmon sushi ($19), which is briefly torched just before serving to caramelize the drizzle of yuzu mayo on top. A tiny medallion of serrano pepper offers just the right amount of bite and heat to emphasize the buttery fish.
Picking a main course is challenging when everything looks so delicious on paper, of course, but ultimately you come to a sort of choose-your-own-adventure turning point.
Want to dip your toe in for a casual lunch or a comforting classic? Under “Favorites,” you’ll find two unwavering classics Childs said have followed him to every kitchen he’s worked in. A hearty Wagyu cheeseburger doused in red wine foie gras butter ($23) has been popular among diners since 16Eleven opened last month. Or go for a working-class lunch with a dash of extravagance with the fish and chips ($22).
There’s nothing actually that special about Childs’ take on the stalwart pairing — it’s simply a platter-sized slab of flaky fried haddock on a bed of shoestring fries with a squeeze of lemon and some punchy tartar sauce. But as we found when we ordered it, the beauty here is all in the details. The fish is mouth-meltingly tender, with a lovely golden crust. The fries are crispy and comfortingly hot from the fryer.
Another path leads you towards 16Eleven’s curated selection of 30-day dry-aged steaks, featuring just a handful of choices from a 12-ounce New York strip ($71) to the mammoth 32-ounce tomahawk ($160), which looks like something a caveman would tear off mouthfuls of while using the long bone as a handle. Pair it with a lobster tail or foie gras (both $30) for a splurge or one of a variety of compound butters ($4) for a more reserved treat.
You could also make your way to the selection of entrees, where Childs has the chance to bring out a few stunners rarely seen in this neck of the woods. To his knowledge, 16Eleven is the only place you can regularly order beef Wellington ($69) in all of Washington.
You’ll be warned that it’ll take an extra 20 minutes to arrive, but it’s worth the wait. It’ll arrive artistically plated among roasted vegetables and a celery root puree, the tender beef encased by the flaky puff pastry and a savory layer of duxelles and prosciutto. You might want to lick the plate when you’re done to get at the last remnants of mushrooms and red wine.
So yes, you have choices when you sit down for a meal at 16Eleven. Childs designed it that way in the hopes of bringing a little taste of Michelin-esque dining to Everett without pricing out the locals.
“It’s fine dining, yes, which is not something you see a lot of here in Snohomish County,” Childs said. “But it’s not a three-course prix fixe dinner with starched white tablecloths that makes you feel you’re out of your depth or undeserving of being there.”
When you’ve reached the end of whatever adventure you choose, the dessert menu is a sweet respite. I was, devastatingly, too full to sample any of the choices on this trip, but I’ll return someday for the profiteroles stuffed with créme patissiére and topped with edible gold leaf ($12). Childs recommended a British classic, the sticky toffee pudding ($13) — not actually a pudding at all in the American sense, but a dense date and molasses cake drizzled with toffee sauce.
“The idea is that there are 106 seats at 16Eleven, and every night you walk in that door there could be 106 totally different experiences happening in the same room,” Childs said. “You can meet a friend here for a nice but inexpensive lunch or you can have an extravagant anniversary dinner. You can just sit at the bar and nurse a cocktail and a dessert. We want it to be a place for everyone.”
16Eleven, inside APEX Art and Culture Center, 1611 Everett Ave., Everett. Open Monday through Thursday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. to midnight, closed Sundays. Reservations can be made online at 1611everett.com.
Riley Haun: 425-339-3192; riley.haun@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @RHaunID.
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