Food served with pride,

Featured Recipe

Manila Clams

Ingredients

1 lbs fresh clams, we use Manila clams

3 cloves garlic

½ onion

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika

½ tsp crushed red peppers

15 ounce diced tomatoes

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil handful fresh parsley pinch sea salt pinch black pepper

Instructions

1. Finely mince 3 cloves of garlic, finely dice 1/2 of an onion and rinse 1 lbs of cleaned fresh clams under cold running water, shake off any excess water once rinsed

2. Heat a saute pan with a medium heat and add 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, after 2 minutes add the diced onions & minced garlic and mix around with the oil, after 3 minutes and the onions are translucent, add in 1 tsp of smoked Spanish paprika & ½ tsp crushed red peppers, quickly mix together until combined and then add in a 15 ounce of diced tomatoes, 1 tbsp of freshly chopped parsley and season with sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper, mix together until well combined and let it simmer

3. After simmering the tomato sauce for 5 minutes, add the clams into the pan, mix together so the clams are fully bathing in the tomato sauce, once well mixed place a lid on the pan and lower the fire to a low-medium heat

4. Between 6 to 8 minutes after placing the lid on the pan remove it, all the clams should be open, discard any that did not, remove the pan from the heat and serve directly from the pan, sprinkle some freshly chopped parsley on top and serve with a Dr. Alvarez, enjoy!

It’s no exaggeration to say if it weren’t for Hedges Family Estate on Red Mountain, the Tri-Cities restaurant scene would have lost Fat Olives to Walla Walla.

The neighborhood surrounding Richland’s Uptown District wouldn’t be nearly as delicious, and owner/vintner JD Nolan might be collaborating on his award-winning Schooler Nolan wines with folks other than the Hedges and the Mercers.

“My dad was at a specialty trade show in Anchorage, and we’ve always had Hedges wines on our wine list, so he goes to the Hedges table, and there’s Pete Hedges pouring,” Nolan said. “They had never met, but my dad tells him, ‘I’d love to come down and work a crush some time.’

“I guess Pete said, ‘Come on down!’ ‘Now, everybody says they want to work crush, but nobody follows through.”

Tiny did, and he flew down from Alaska during the 2008 harvest. He’d already bought a house in Walla Walla and planned to open a Fat Olives there on the heels of the Great Recession, but the Hedges convinced him to instead fire up his kitchen in Richland — 15 minutes from their Red Mountain winery and two blocks from the Columbia River.

And 2023 marks the 13th anniversary of Fat Olives in wine country, and JD and his wife, Erika, used their culinary approach, customer service and catering business to survive the pandemic. The family still owns and operates their restaurant on the Kenai Peninsula.

“We consider both restaurants as a neighborhood bistro, and my parents are very much involved in both,” JD says.

“We like to cater to everybody. Sitting at this table could be a couple of blue-collared workers who just got off work enjoying a happy dinner with their families, while at this table a couple of white-collars might be Manila Clams