Hello friends, new and old,

As the dust has settled from summer with the sun setting earlier, though the weather doesn’t seem to always agree we’re in fall, at Off Alley we’re celebrating the shift to our favorite season to cook in. On top of that, we’ve got a few really exciting events, some we can talk about and some still hush hush!

Fall is always my favorite season, as we still have the lingering abundance of summer (think grilled or pickled peppers, preserved tomatoes etcetera) before we’ve raided our larders. As one of my favorite farmers refers to as the “dark suck” that sets in late winter, we love working against that. We also have the abundance of fall, especially this year, with all the wild mushrooms and richer, heartier dishes. It’s the food I love cooking the most, from pot pies, to long slow braised meats (we just got a whole mutton in from Whidbey Island, soon to be on the menu as a shepherds pie).

Looking at the immediate future, this week I’ll be out teaching a class out at Kurtwood farms, for my third year in a row. If you haven’t been, these classes are so much fun! Kurt has a really beautiful kitchen set up just to do these classes, and it’s such an intimate and fun way to get to learn what we do behind the scenes. In the past I’ve taught a class on sauces, offal, and this one will be focused on shellfish and seafood. While. these classes to sell out pretty fast, we’ve had a couple requests for cooking classes at the restaurant. Would you be interested in attending a small cooking class, of 8 people, on a Wednesday night, with chef pouring wine and cooking dinner as we cook together? Please let us know, as we’ve had a few requests recently and seeing how much interest there is!

Next up, Sunday, October 26th, is our James Beard Taste of America event! I was recognized by the James Beard Foundation early 2024 as a semi-finalist, and they’ve invited me to participate in a country wide event celebrating local chefs. I’m extremely excited to cook alongside so many talented people throughout our community, some old friends, and some I haven’t had the pleasure to cook alongside yet with! As always, we’re going big, and bold, and bringing offal to an event of 400 people, which will be the largest number of people we’ve convinced to eat offal in one day ever. Fuck yeah.

Next up, as we go into November, and December, we’re looking at hosting a couple pop ups, we’ve got a special week cooking lots of pigs feet, and a few other events that are a little under wraps until we get closer, and we’re really excited to announce as we get near.

However, before our calendar fills up, we wanted to talk about potential buy outs / privatizations. If you’re not familiar, or haven’t inquired yet, we do offer a wide option of different experiences depending on the size of the group. No doubt if you’re reading this e-mail you’ve been in before, so for groups past our 12 seats, we can pull out all the chairs, and offer a very fun Spanish style tapas / finger food focused experience with cocktails and wine flowing freely. We’ve got a handful of these events under our belt at this point, and think we do a pretty fun job of offering an experience a little different than others.

Other options, for smaller groups of 8-12, we can offer a coursed out experience, as a bit of a hybrid between our old tasting menu, and our current a la carte menu. Snacks to start with cocktails or bubbles, then a full sit down experience, with a large format item ending the meal. Whole grilled ribeyes, french Pithivier pastries filled will sausage and foie gras? We’ve already done it all, and love cooking these intimate and big format dinners! Feel free to text, or e-mail for more details how you can celebrate the holidays the way I enjoy most - Great food, great wine and spirits, and skip the clean up!

Last up, speaking of Holidays, we’ll be brining back our feast of the seven fishes, Thursday, Christmas Eve, and gasp, returning the tasting menu between the day after Christmas, up to New Years Eve. It’s something we’ve done every year, as our NYE reservations fill up fast, so we offer a “NYE-lite” menu, leading up to the eve, for those who don’t want the difficulty of getting a reservation, or the full NYE experience as we celebrate big every year.

Restaurants are strange places in this world currently. We appreciate all of your support, and we’re as a team, dedicated to being a place of respite from the craziness of the world. We’re a gathering space, we’re a place to celebrate, we’re a place to grieve (That story to soon follow), we’re a space to pop in, or a place to sit and relax for hours. As always, we’re excited to see you, and excited to hear your stories. We’ve always got space for walk ins, just remember, as it gets colder our space gets a whole lot smaller, and if you don’t mind standing, it’s 10% off your whole bill, or grab your best warm jacket and scarfs and don’t wait a minute for a table and enjoy a table outside.

Always searching for that joie de vivre,

Evan Leichtling

Chef / Owner Off Alley