Image Credit / Tom Douglas 

Seattle’s culinary landscape is huge, and Tom Douglas promotes it, experiences it, and contributes to it. Not only does he own several restaurants in the city under the group Seattle Kitchen, but he also owns a cooking school called the Hot Stove Society and runs a popular radio show on Kiro 97.3 FM. On top of that, Douglas does an amazing job co-leading an entertaining, culinary-related hour once per week with acclaimed chef Thierry Rautureau, on the Hot Stove Society Radio and Seattle Kitchen podcast. 

Oh, and don’t forget about the numerous cookbooks that Douglas authored and the other restaurants he has fathered. 

Image Credit / Amazon 

Furthermore, in 2012 Douglas won the James Beard Award as Best Restauranteur. 

He is a jack of all trades!

A quick list of the restaurants that Douglas owns include:

• The Carlile Room
• Dahlia Bakery
• Dahlia Lounge
• Etta’s
• Lola
• Palace Kitchen
• Seatown Market & Fishfry
• Serious Pie
• Serious Takeout 

Similar to many chefs and bartenders around the world, the pandemic has flipped Douglas’ success and livelihood upside down–but only temporarily. 

Douglas has shown tremendous resiliency during COVID, which has forced him and his team to think outside of the box and be innovative in ways they never thought.

Douglas’s persistence during the pandemic was mentioned in an article in Forbes, 

For the Tom Douglas team, the company’s mission to achieve “deliciousness served with graciousness” remains intact, but it’s executed in a dramatically different setting. The major pandemic-driven pivot involved moving operations into the catering kitchen and Rub With Love production facility in an industrial section of the Ballard neighborhood.

Douglas and his team pride themselves on connecting with the community of Seattle and supporting one another. Everyone deserves to eat great food, no matter their socioeconomic status. Seattle Kitchen has various community partners that team up with them to fight hunger in their community, educate the masses on nutrition and sustainability, and inspire others to get interested in the restaurant industry. 

Straight from Seattle Kitchen’s site: 

As our name suggests, Seattle Kitchen, we foster the sense of community that you feel around the table: a feeling that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We depend on those around us and they depend on us. We actively build community within our businesses, neighborhoods, and philanthropic intentions at our tables and beyond.

Now that the pandemic is dying down and restaurants are opening back up, Douglas is excited to merge his classic trends with the ones he has come to discover over the past year. Pop-up bars, to-go drinks, and themed culinary experiences will continue as his many restaurants become accessible to the public once again. 

Recently, Douglas and Rautureau featured Fathom Seafood’s live Dungeness crab on their podcast Seattle Kitchen. 

Image Credit / Instagram 

Are you interested in following Tom Douglas on what culinary adventures await him? 

Follow him on Instagram and Twitter!