Go Eat! Keeping Up With The Jones

SEATTLE – Part pub, part bistro, part neighborhood hangout. The Jones in Maple Leaf is a place where anyone can go for fine food – without fine dining.

„Fundamentally, that is the idea more than anything else,“ says Scott Simpson who opened the restaurant with his soon-to-be wife, Michelle Steele, last October after a total overhaul of the now defunct Joe’s On Roosevelt.

The two named the place after their chef, Jason Jones who, ironically, has a fine-dining pedigree having previously worked at The Herbfarm and Nell’s.

„One of the great things about Jason is that when he has ideas about stuff he wants to do, he’s not going straight to lamb’s tongue and foie gras. He’s thinking, ‘Here’s the way I want to do a burger,'“ says Scott.

The couple, who’ve each run the gamut of restaurant jobs, always knew they wanted to have a place of their own.

„From pretty much the time we met we talked about what we would do with a restaurant of our own,“ says Scott. „(Michelle) had plans that she drew up when she was like 7 of a nightclub she would own that was going to be called Delusions of Grandeur and it had a mezzanine and it had a cigar bar.“

Scott and Michelle were inspired by a little family-run restaurant in Italy – nothing fancy – just really great food.

„Literally, we came back and we said ‘okay, we’re going to mortgage the house and we’re going to buy a restaurant.'“

Just about everything on the menu is made in house. From the focaccia bread on the grilled bleu cheese sandwiches, to the pizzas, pastas, hamburger buns and ice-cream.

„There’s a basil aioli that goes on the chicken sandwich – we make that. We make the bread that goes on the chicken sandwich,“ says Scott.

With so many tasty offerings on the menu, Michelle says it takes more than just one visit to keep up with The Jones.

„Because we get really excited about the food, and our staff does too, it kind of rubs off and people start thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to try this now, but, I gotta come back and try that thing.’ It seems to be working!“

Places Michelle and Scott like to Go Eat!: Assaggio, Siam on Broadway, Tawon Thai, Lark, Moxie.

For More Information:

www.thejonesbistro.com