18 minute read
MATCH MAKER | by Eric Degerman Local touch has Walla Walla Steak Co. sizzling
Thiessen puts his brand on WW with Walla Walla Steak Co.
By Person Name
The Walla Walla Steak Company and Crossbuck Brewing is housed in the historic Walla Walla train depot. Private events are staged in the refurbished rail car.
By Eric Degerman
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Mount Rushmore-type figures for the Washington wine industry have called Walla Walla home for decades and made some of the Northwest most famous steak-worthy reds.
And yet, there wasn’t anything resembling Walla Walla Steak Co. in downtown Walla Walla until cattle rancher/chef/vineyard owner Dan Thiessen brought his lifelong vision to reality two blocks from the iconic Marcus Whitman Hotel in 2018.
“Why there hadn’t been a dedicated steakhouse was baffling,” Thiessen says with a chuckle. “That was a home run concept for us — a hometown, blue jean-comfort steakhouse tradition.”
At the other end of the circa 1914 train depot on Second Avenue is Crossbuck Brewing and its stylish sports bar atmosphere.
“The magic of this place is getting here and then deciding if you want to go left to the taproom or right to the Steak Co,” Thiessen says. “It doesn’t depend upon the menu choices, only what vibe you are looking for.”
Thiessen’s pursuit of fine cuisine took him straight from Asotin, (Wash.) High School — Class of ’90 — to Hyde Park, N.Y., where he graduated from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America two years later. His work ethic originates from the cattle and wheat ranches his forefathers ran in the Lewis-Clark Valley
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starting in the late 19th century. Those roots and legacy inspired Thiessen to offer an authentic, vertically integrated agricultural experience in Walla Walla.
“When our guests can hear that the Thiessen Ranch Burger comes from Thiessen Ranch, who is the managing partner of the restaurant, there’s a level of authenticity that cannot be challenged,” he says. “We’re able to show a bottle tableside that comes from Wagon Wrench Vineyard — the vineyard that my wife and I and our boys live on. And all of our staff knows my wife and our three boys because we try to dine in the restaurant once a week. They are seeing our boys grow up, and we know their families.”
After cooking in Switzerland for three years, Thiessen’s career in the Seattle area included serving as executive chef at the Space Needle, corporate chef of Salty’s Restaurants, a five-year run with a radio program and a teaching stint at the Art Institute of Seattle. The opportunity to become executive director of the Wine Country
Dan Thiessen applies his diverse skills and business acumen as the managing partner for The Walla Walla Steak Company. Culinary Institute at Walla Walla Community College in 2011 gave him the chance to return Eastern Washington. His wife, Melissa, who grew up in Walla Walla, directed communications and marketing for the college. Much of her time now is spent heading up sales for Thiessen Beef LLC. “It’s really fun for our boys to be raised around the cattle and understand how it all works, and that was one of my dad’s final wishes,” Dan says. “Now, the boys have their own egg business, and we’ll see how it goes. We have a lot of irons in the fire right now. I drink a lot of coffee, but I’m blessed to have great teams.” Ownership of the restaurants includes Paul Mackay, who retired to Walla Walla after a career that launched and Walla Walla native Rock Silva worked in famous restaurants in Seattle and Australia before returning home as executive chef. involved a number of the Northwest’s most revered restaurants,
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Walla Walla Steak Co. 2018 Wagon Wrench Vineyard Sangiovese, Walla Walla Valley, $56
— 100 cases, 14.8% alc.
French Canadians weren’t the only wine lovers who put down roots in the Walla Walla Valley during the 19th century. Immigrants from Italy and their descendants also have played critical roles in the formation of the region’s wine industry.
The Locati family has been farming in the region for generations, and their diversification — beyond the famous sweet onions they helped establish in 1904 — included planting Mission Hills Vineyard in 2006.
Not surprisingly, favored varieties included Barbera and Sangiovese. In this case, Sangio makes up 6 of the 8 acres, and they planted the VCR 6 clone, the certified Brunello clone from Montalcino in Tuscany first planted in the U.S. at famed Ciel du Cheval Vineyard on Red Mountain in 2002.
One of the recent wines made from this parcel includes the SMAK Wines 2019 Spring Rosé of Sangiovese, a bottle that found its way to No. 1 ranking on The Seattle Times’s Top 20 Northwest wines for Under $20. The rosé program is the brainchild of Fiona Mak, a graduate of Walla Walla Community College’s Institute of Enology and Viticulture.
Connections to the college go deeper still. Those grapes were sold to Mak by Dan Thiessen, who spent six years as executive director of the Wine Country Culinary Institute at WWCC. Only recently did Thiessen rebrand the plantings as Wagon Wrench Vineyard within Thiessen Ranch, which the family has owned and operated since 2015.
“When my wife and I bought our farm and vineyard, we bought it from Mike Locati, who had Locati Cellars, and Jason Fox was the winemaker for Locati,” Thiessen said. “Jason was also a student at the E&V program at the community college when I was executive director of the culinary program.
“Our paths have been intertwined as we’ve run in some of the same circles, and he’s an incredibly talented winemaker,” Thiessen continued. “He’s worked with that fruit for quite a while and enjoys it. And it’s been fun for us.”
Thiessen Ranch is just off Mission Road, about two miles east of the Whitman Mission National Historic Site. And the Thiessens’ choice of the vineyard name is fitting. The family cattle brand, which originated in the early 1800s, came from Germany 140 years ago and depicts a wagon wrench.
While a tiny producer near Portland — Coe Cellars — bottled a 2018 Mission Hills Sangiovese, here Thiessen uses the new name on his own bottling. Other customers for his Sangiovese include Cascade Cliffs in the Columbia Gorge, Fox’s own Lagana Cellars, Sous Sol Winery in Woodinville and Locati. At the 2015 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the Locati 2012 Estate Barbera won best of class.
“Winemakers have had much success making wine from that vineyard, which has been fun for us to talk about,” Thiessen said.
Now, his approachable 2018 Wagon Wrench Vineyard Sangiovese can be found on the wine list at Walla Walla Steak Co., alongside some of the region’s most famous bottles.
Walla Walla Steak Co., 416 N. Second Ave., Walla Walla, WA 99362, WWSteakCo.com, (509) 526-4100.
SERVES 4
Cowboy Ribeye
Ingredients 1 24-ounce bone-in ribeye 2 tablespoons rice bran oil
Method 1. Allow steak to come to room temperature prior to cooking. 2. Season generously with salt and fresh-cracked pepper. 3. In a preheated cast iron pan, begin cooking steak in a small amount of rice bran oil or any other high temperature oil. NO OLIVE OIL! 4. Continuously flip steak until an internal temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit is achieved. 5. Remove steak from pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
Marinated Spring Vegetables
Ingredients 2 pounds assorted spring vegetables such as green beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and asparagus ¾ cup quality olive oil ¼ cup red wine vinegar 2 ounces chopped Italian parsley and oregano
Method 1. Bring a heavily salted pot of water to the boil. 2. Set a large bowl with ice water aside. 3. For the marinade, combine herbs, red wine vinegar, olive oil and garlic. 4. Blanch green vegetables such as asparagus and green beans in boiling water until bright green and tender. Remove and shock in ice water. 5. For the tomatoes and potatoes, simply toss in olive oil and salt, then roast in a 300-degree oven for 30 minutes. Tomatoes should slightly pop. 6. Combine prepared vegetables with marinade and store in the refrigerator. 7. To serve vegetables, gently warm and serve over steak. including El Gaucho, 13 Coins, Metropolitan Grill, Elliott’s Oyster House and Waterfront Seafood Grill — now AQUA by El Gaucho. In 2016, Mackay began to purchase historic buildings in the Walla Walla Valley, including the former train depot that was home to Jacobi’s Café for three decades.
“I’ve known Paul since 1996 when he opened up the original El Gaucho, but I didn’t know he retired here, and he didn’t know I grew up here,” Thiessen said. “Paul and I had a lot of coffee together and a lot of conversations about what this town was ready for and what I wanted to do. He kept bugging me about how much longer I was going to stay at the college.”
So he resigned in 2017, and they teamed up with Philip Christofides, an architect whose design clients have included Starbucks and Mackay’s operation. Their Walla Walla Steak Co., came out of the chute in the fall of 2018 and survived the pandemic with some changes that have made it easier on his staff and proved to be popular with patrons.
“Post-COVID, we had no idea what we were going to open up to, so we decided to switch to reservations,” Thiessen said. “It allowed for a throttle to be applied to the flow of the night. We no longer had that 6:30 p.m. spike in sales that was really rough on the staff and the kitchen. And we learned that we can provide an even higher level of service to our guests if we take reservations.”
Thiessen also decided to serve only dinner and do so just five nights a week, scaling back from lunch and dinner seven days a week.
“We’re open 27 hours a week, and we did nearly as much in sales in ’21 as we did in ’19,” Thiessen said. “If we would have been open in January and February of 2021, we would have beaten 2019’s numbers.”
A key figure in the transition has been executive chef Rock Silva, whose résumé includes the now-closed RN74 — a downtown Seattle concept by acclaimed Bay Area restaurateur Michael Mina, work within the ever-growing empire of Ethan Stowell and time in the kitchen of James Beard Award-winning chef Jason Wilson.
“I was born and raised in Walla Walla, but I moved to Seattle four days after high school graduation to go to culinary school,” Silva said. “Dan ran that program but left the quarter before I started.”
Not long after that formal education, Silva worked in Australia for four years, which included two years with iconoclast George Calombaris.
“I’ve always tried to work for the hottest chef that time and learn what worked for them,” Silva says. “George Calombaris was more than a celebrity chef — more like a Gordon Ramsay personality. And he was all over the place.”
Thiessen and the Walla Walla Valley continue to benefit from Silva’s desire to come home and raise a family with his wife, Amanda.
“Rock has got an incredible range of abilities,” Thiessen says. “He’s not afraid of looking at a 400-cover Saturday, then turn around and do a killer seven-course meal for 12 people — and be in his element. That’s not always easy.”
And the long-range plans for Silva extend
The Cast Iron Cowboy Ribeye with marinated spring vegetables matches well with the Walla Walla Steak Co. 2018 Wagon Wrench Vineyard Sangiovese, made by Jason Fox of Lagana Cellars. RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES
The Chocolate Crémeux Tart with cocoa nibs and hazelnuts showcases the versatility of the Yellowhawk sparkling Rosé. RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES
beyond Walla Walla as the Walla Walla Steak Co./Crossbuck Brewing concept has expanded to Woodinville’s tony Schoolhouse District. They will have diners who live a stone’s throw from the eateries. Sandwiched by the District Flats condos are five wineries — Barnard Griffin, L’Ecole N° 41, Landlines, Montinore and Spanish-owned Valdemar Estates.
“I have chef friends who give me a hard time because they have Seattle restaurants, and they’ve downsized to come to Walla Walla to slow down, and here we are, starting in Walla Walla and now launching in Woodinville,” Thiessen says with a chuckle.
His mobile catering operation is called Angus Prime, and given his background, it’s easy to understand why Thiessen approaches a cut of steak that came off his ranch as a winemaker might who’s working with estate grapes and deciding when to harvest, how to ferment, how long to age the wine and how it should be enjoyed.
“When you look at beef — the cut of beef, the grade of beef and the preparation — those three differences can apply multiple factors on the same product,” Thiessen says. “And grass-finished, no-graded beef is going to taste significantly different that corn-finished USDA Prime. And then how is it aged?”
When it comes to his wine list, there’s also a product raised on Thiessen Ranch — the Walla Walla Steak Co. 2018 Wagon Wrench Vineyard Sangiovese, which is made by Jason Fox of Lagana Cellars. In a valley famous for Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah, some diners may wonder why a bottle of Sangiovese deserves a prominent spot on the wine list at Walla Walla Steak Co.
“I think Italians would challenge that and say that Sangiovese is the classic red meat preparation,” Thiessen says with a smile. “I think it depends upon where you are from. In Walla Walla, people are going to say, ‘Cab.’ That’s not to say anyone is right or wrong. My deal has always been about personal choice.”
And Silva built a dish that hits on many aspects of Thiessen’s homegrown wine — the Cast Iron Cowboy Ribeye with Marinated Spring Vegetables.
“I think it’s safe to say you can go red with beef, and with something like a Sangiovese, it always screams Italian, so you can pair it with any sort of red sauce
SERVES 4
Chocolate Tart Dough
Ingredients 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour ¼ cup cocoa powder ⅔ cup powdered sugar ¼ cup cocoa nibs 3 tablespoons hazelnuts
Pinch of salt ⅔ cup cold butter, cut into cubes 1 large egg
Method 1. In a food processor, combine dry ingredients and mix. 2. Add butter and pulse until sandy consistency is formed. 3. Add egg and pulse until combined. Dough should not be fully formed. 4. Turn dough onto a floured surface and form a ball. Flatten the ball and refrigerate for 1 hour. 5. Roll the disk out and form into desired tart shell mold. 6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 7. Cover the shell with foil, fill with dried beans to weigh the foil down on top of the shell and blind bake — baking the pie crust before you add the filling — for 20 minutes. 8. Remove the weighted foil and return the shell back to the oven for 10 minutes. 9. Remove shell and cool on wire rack.
Chocolate Crémeux
1 ½ cups milk chocolate 7 tablespoons of cream ¾ cup grams milk 2 egg yolks
Method 1. Bring a pot of water to the boil. 2. In a metal mixing bowl whisk in milk, cream and egg yolk. 3. Cook mixture over a double boiler until mixture reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit. The mixture will be thick and creamy. 4. Remove this crème anglaise from heat and stir in the chocolate to incorporate and develop your chocolate crémeux. 5. Fill the tart shells with crémeux, top with toasted nuts of choice and cocoa nibs. 6. Place in the refrigerator and allow the tarts to set for 1 hour.
Yellowhawk Wines nonvintage Rosé Sparkling Wine,
Columbia Valley, $38, — 1,400 cases, 11.5% alc.
George-Anne Robertson’s path is that of a renaissance woman, having reinvented herself a time or two after growing up on the prairies of Saskatchewan.
She’s been a mountain biker sponsored by Cannondale and a student of fashion at Parsons — The New School of Design in Greenwich Village, wanting to be the 21st century’s Claire McCardell. She raised two children, piloted the Piper Malibu Mirage once owned by football great Joe Montana and became a fitness instructor after her divorce.
“But I didn’t want to be an old lady personal trainer, so I started studying wine on the side,” Robertson says with a chuckle.
While she couldn’t have imagined becoming the bubbles maven of Walla Walla, here she is — standing on an 84-acre stage that’s about to blow up the valley with sparkling wine on behalf of Yellowhawk Resort and restaurateur Dan Thiessen, who leads the ownership team that purchased the former Basel Cellars property in late 2020.
And five years ago, living in Sun Valley, Robertson re-imagined herself and invested in her future.
“I was researching schools for my son, and I said, ‘You should go to this wine school in Walla Walla. I think you’d really like it.’
“And he said, ‘I think YOU would really like it. That’s your thing, not mine.’ ”
So in 2017, Robertson left her friends in Sun Valley and dedicated her energies to the Walla Walla Community College winemaking program. To the delight of then-instructor Tim Donahue, she took a special interest in sparkling wine production. Had it not been for the pandemic, she’d now be making bubbles for Fujisan, the company in Japan that hired her out of college.
“And then Tim called me and told me these guys wanted to do sparkling wine in Walla Walla,” she says. “I told him that I would only do it if he would be my consultant.”
Her sources include Celilo in the Columbia Gorge, Gamache in the White Bluffs, Breezy Slope in the Walla Walla Valley and the vines that surround Yellowhawk, yet the program’s growth for the traditional tirage style of sparkling wine is linked to the continued collaboration with Four Feathers Wine Services in Prosser. Early on, Robertson spent a fair bit of time on the road to the Yakima Valley, and that’s noted on the back label where it reads “Bottled by Yellowhawk, Prosser, WA.”
At this point, Yellowhawk has six expressions of sparkling wine with different approaches. At the high end — at the moment — is the 2019 Sparkling Semillon ($48), the only vintage bottling and pulled from Double River Vineyard, the original name for the 1997 planting between the Walla Walla River and Yellowhawk Creek. Robertson’s lineup includes the Bubbles White, Bubbles Red, Bubbles Rosé, Sparkling Rosé and Sparkling Chardonnay.
Her Sparkling Rosé comes topped by the traditional cork and cage, and while it’s made with Malbec — not a Champenoise grape — it’s done using traditional methods and with zero dosage, making for a bright profile of strawberry and boysenberry that’s finished bone-dry. It’s grown at Gamache, which means Robertson works with viticulturist Lacey Lybeck of Sagemoor Farms.
Earlier this year, Yellowhawk’s entry-level Bubbles Rosé received a gold medal in the forced-carbonation class at the Experience Rosé Wine Competition in Sonoma. And while that wine is available beyond the Walla Walla Valley, sale of the Sparkling Rosé is limited to the Walla Walla Steak Co. and the tasting room at Yellowhawk. Burgers, sliders and shareable plates such as Baked Wagyu Meatballs are now available at Yellowhawk on the scenic patio or in the tasting room.
Yellowhawk Resort and Sparkling House, 2901 Old Milton
52 | greatnorthwestwine.com Highway, Walla Walla, WA 99362, YellowhawkResort.com, (509) 522-0200. Canadian by birth, cosmopolitan by nature, George-Anne Robertson is the Yellowhawk winemaker. RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES
because of the wine’s acidity,” Silva says. “I added tomatoes and oregano to bring in a Mediterranean herb component, and there’s a little bit of red wine vinegar in the vegetables, which brings out the acidity of the wine and cuts through the fat in the beef.”
Thiessen’s business empire also includes Yellowhawk Resort and Sparkling House. The ownership group hired George-Anne Robertson — like Fox, a graduate of Walla Walla Community College’s enology and viticulture program — to be their winemaker.
“At Yellowhawk, everything on the menu will pair with sparkling,” said Silva, who also oversees that kitchen. “For this, I wanted to do a dessert to show how versatile sparkling wine is.”
He crafts Chocolate Crémeux Tart with Cocoa Nibs and Hazelnuts in a way that’s not creamy like a custard, but it’s not a ganache, either. The chocolate showcases the strawberry notes in the wine, while the inherent brightness of Malbec makes the bubbles dance, cleansing the palate for another spoonful of the tart and providing yet another example of why bubbles go with just about anything.
“If the tart is cold, it will bring out a bit of booziness in the wine, but once the tart is warmed up, it’s a slam dunk,” Robertson said. “And with the bubbles, oh, wow! the hazelnuts are enhanced. Good job, Rock!”
Silva and “G.A” — the chef’s nickname for Robertson — also will be centerpieces for the second annual Shindig, a consumer festival at Yellowhawk that spans the final weekend of August. Immediately, it turned into one of the biggest fundraisers for Walla Walla Valley nonprofits. Awareness of Shindig got a big boost through Steak Co.’s ties to the Revelers Club, an innovative loyalty program launched more than decade ago by the Mackay restaurant group. Its membership roll is larger than the population of some Eastern Washington counties.
“It’s a party to celebrate the valley, and it’s going to be massive,” Silva said. “Last year, we had 350 people. This year, Dan wants closer to 500 people.
“Friday is a big reception with a magnum tent this year. And Saturday is the Grand Gala — a big six-course epic meal all paired with wine, and then there’s an auction after,” Silva added. “And all of the proceeds go to agencies around the valley. We raised $160,000 last year in our first year!” Walla Walla Steak Company and Crossbuck Brewing, 416 N. Second Ave., Walla Walla, WA 99362, WWSteakCo.com, (509) 526-4100.
