DOWN TO EARTH
Meal of a Lifetime
October/November 2003
By Jim Long
Ron Zimmerman looks at the world through a
different set of glasses than most people, but his way of looking
is refreshing. After many years in the corporate world, he moved to
France and studied cooking in some of France’s finest
restaurants.
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Eventually, Ron and his wife, Carrie Van Dyck, moved back to
Ron’s hometown of Seattle. His mother was selling herbs, literally
from a wheelbarrow at the side of the road. Ron, knowing that good
food and herbs are nearly inseparable, expanded the existing
business and opened a small retail herb nursery on his parents’
land. Then he converted some existing buildings into a restaurant,
and The Herbfarm was born.
Very quickly, the restaurant blossomed into something
remarkable. Reservations quickly became hard to come by. It wasn’t
unusual to wait a year or more for a reservation.
They served lunch and dinner, both for a set price with a set
menu. Lunch was $65 per person and took two hours. Dinner was $165
per person, which included four hours of eating and nine courses of
food with seven wines.
The Herbfarm is now housed in the winery district of northeast
Seattle, in completely new surroundings. The old building on the
family farm burned a few years back, and this was the first I’d
seen of the new location.
Dinner at The Herbfarm is unlike anything you will ever
experience anywhere. This isn’t the kind of meal, or experience,
that you dash into and expect to eat and leave quickly. The
Herbfarm’s tantalizing experience allows guests to savor the
flavors of the freshest herbs and vegetables grown by the
restaurant staff and picked just minutes before cooking.
My most recent meal at The Herbfarm began with a pair of Olympia
oysters, some paddlefish caviar in a fingerling potato, served next
to a Dungeness crab with dill in a lovely “beggar’s purse,” which
was tied together with a sprig of chive leaf, and a helping of
Jerusalem artichoke chips with green goddess dip. That was only the
first plate — the appetizer for the appetizer — and was served with
a small glass of 1997 Argyle Brut wine.