A very neighborly thing to do
Steve Wilson
The Bay House’s presents ‘Neighbors to Neighbors,’ a lower-priced local foods menu
Story & photos by Niki Price • Oregon Coast TODAY
[Posted Jan. 24, 2012]
Steve Wilson, owner of The Bay House, knows that his restaurant has a solid reputation. There’s been a restaurant on this site since 1937, for goodness sake, and it’s been a fine dining establishment since 1978, when The Bay House was founded by Gourmet Room alum David Herring. And, ever since he took over the restaurant in 2006, Wilson has upheld the tradition, with pride.
So, when travelers ask for the best restaurant in Lincoln City, locals often point toward The Bay House. But lately, Wilson has been wondering: how many of those referring locals have ever actually dined there?
“I think that the reputation of the Bay House is overall pretty favorable, even among people who have never been here before. They’ve heard good things and that’s it,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. We really want to earn our reputation, especially with our neighbors.”
To address this problem, executive chef Sean McCart unveiled the restaurant’s new Neighbors to Neighbors menu. Offered only on Thursdays, for a limited time, this menu offers three local, seasonal courses (salad, entrée and dessert) for the fixed price of $25.
The menu will change every week, based on what McCart can find from local producers. Early bird readers who want to dine at The Bay House on Thursday, Jan. 26, will enjoy a bosc pear salad made with Barking Dog Farms greens, hazelnuts, Oregonzola cheese and an herb dressing. The entrée will be their choice of Carlton Farms pork tenderloin roulade with butter-braised Brussels sprouts and Dauphinoise potatoes, or vegetarian lasagna with kabocha squash, kale and béchamel sauce. For dessert, there will be a divine “Huckleberry Trio,” in which the sweet-tart berry is served in cobbler, mousse and ice cream.
“My biggest hurdle has always been the perception that The Bay House is too expensive,” Wilson said. “Yes, we are more expensive than the places that serve pre-made, frozen, deep-fried food. But once we get people in the door, they find that we deliver value and a wonderful experience. So we figured, why not make our dinner even more attractive, and bring our neighbors in?”
Wilson and McCart hope this Thursday promotion will highlight their restaurant’s new focus on local, sustainable sources. The Bay House has a longstanding relationship with Barking Dog Farm, which is less than a mile from The Bay House. Newer vendors include Corvus Landing Farm, a vegetable outfit near Neskowin, and Walker Farms, which produces ethically-raised chicken, pork and lamb in Logsden. The Bay House guys have gotten to know these farmers on a personal level: Steve and Sean, enjoying the food grown by Dave, Carolina, Randy and Sarah.
Story & photos by Niki Price • Oregon Coast TODAY
[Posted Jan. 24, 2012]
Steve Wilson, owner of The Bay House, knows that his restaurant has a solid reputation. There’s been a restaurant on this site since 1937, for goodness sake, and it’s been a fine dining establishment since 1978, when The Bay House was founded by Gourmet Room alum David Herring. And, ever since he took over the restaurant in 2006, Wilson has upheld the tradition, with pride.
So, when travelers ask for the best restaurant in Lincoln City, locals often point toward The Bay House. But lately, Wilson has been wondering: how many of those referring locals have ever actually dined there?
“I think that the reputation of the Bay House is overall pretty favorable, even among people who have never been here before. They’ve heard good things and that’s it,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. We really want to earn our reputation, especially with our neighbors.”
To address this problem, executive chef Sean McCart unveiled the restaurant’s new Neighbors to Neighbors menu. Offered only on Thursdays, for a limited time, this menu offers three local, seasonal courses (salad, entrée and dessert) for the fixed price of $25.
The menu will change every week, based on what McCart can find from local producers. Early bird readers who want to dine at The Bay House on Thursday, Jan. 26, will enjoy a bosc pear salad made with Barking Dog Farms greens, hazelnuts, Oregonzola cheese and an herb dressing. The entrée will be their choice of Carlton Farms pork tenderloin roulade with butter-braised Brussels sprouts and Dauphinoise potatoes, or vegetarian lasagna with kabocha squash, kale and béchamel sauce. For dessert, there will be a divine “Huckleberry Trio,” in which the sweet-tart berry is served in cobbler, mousse and ice cream.
“My biggest hurdle has always been the perception that The Bay House is too expensive,” Wilson said. “Yes, we are more expensive than the places that serve pre-made, frozen, deep-fried food. But once we get people in the door, they find that we deliver value and a wonderful experience. So we figured, why not make our dinner even more attractive, and bring our neighbors in?”
Wilson and McCart hope this Thursday promotion will highlight their restaurant’s new focus on local, sustainable sources. The Bay House has a longstanding relationship with Barking Dog Farm, which is less than a mile from The Bay House. Newer vendors include Corvus Landing Farm, a vegetable outfit near Neskowin, and Walker Farms, which produces ethically-raised chicken, pork and lamb in Logsden. The Bay House guys have gotten to know these farmers on a personal level: Steve and Sean, enjoying the food grown by Dave, Carolina, Randy and Sarah.
Sean McCart
“We want to know who grows, produces and raises everything that we use, which gets easier all the time. We’re looking for a supplier of local eggs and milk, but we’re confident that will happen soon. Using local ingredients is just better. Better for the local community, better for us, better tasting and even less expensive.”“We’re done using stuff that is shipped in from farther away than our customers come from. The Cisco truck stops here, but that’s because we don’t know anybody local who makes plastic wrap and tinfoil. If you hear of anyone, let us know.”
It wasn’t always like this at The Bay House, as Wilson readily admits. He spent several years expanding the serving capacity of his business: a bigger lounge, more bottles in the wine cellar, different menus through the day, dinner seven nights a week. Early last year, the shrinking economy finally forced him to reexamine his “bigger is better” strategy, he said. With a little help from Chef McCart, Wilson chose a bold and rather frightening path: serve fewer people, but make them very, very happy.
Since September, the restaurant has served dinner just five nights a week, with a staff of three: McCart, the executive chef, along with sous chef Kevin Ryan and chef de garde manager Scotch Graves. This allows the chefs to put more time and care into their work, Wilson said. They make nearly everything by hand, from the pasta and the butter to the pickles and the sausage.
Wilson also chose to remove several tables from the dining room and lounge, allowing for a maximum of 45 dinners every night. This has allowed the chefs time to create a tasting menu, which changes daily and offers five courses for $50 per person. A sample: Cinderella pumpkin risotto with walnuts, followed by scallops with pears, a Muscovy duck confit cassoulet and a Piedmontese beef filet. For dessert, a chocolate trio with Oregon huckleberries and mint.
That tasting menu is offered the other four nights a week, in addition to the full a la carte selection. Thursday, Wilson said, is just for neighbors.
“This is a great opportunity for us to do something nice for our neighbors, especially those who have never had the opportunity to dine with us before,” he said. “We hope to impress them and, hopefully, give them something they can personally recommend.”
The Bay House Restaurant and the Bayside Lounge, 5911 SW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City,
open at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. To make a reservation or get more information,
call 541-996-3222.
It wasn’t always like this at The Bay House, as Wilson readily admits. He spent several years expanding the serving capacity of his business: a bigger lounge, more bottles in the wine cellar, different menus through the day, dinner seven nights a week. Early last year, the shrinking economy finally forced him to reexamine his “bigger is better” strategy, he said. With a little help from Chef McCart, Wilson chose a bold and rather frightening path: serve fewer people, but make them very, very happy.
Since September, the restaurant has served dinner just five nights a week, with a staff of three: McCart, the executive chef, along with sous chef Kevin Ryan and chef de garde manager Scotch Graves. This allows the chefs to put more time and care into their work, Wilson said. They make nearly everything by hand, from the pasta and the butter to the pickles and the sausage.
Wilson also chose to remove several tables from the dining room and lounge, allowing for a maximum of 45 dinners every night. This has allowed the chefs time to create a tasting menu, which changes daily and offers five courses for $50 per person. A sample: Cinderella pumpkin risotto with walnuts, followed by scallops with pears, a Muscovy duck confit cassoulet and a Piedmontese beef filet. For dessert, a chocolate trio with Oregon huckleberries and mint.
That tasting menu is offered the other four nights a week, in addition to the full a la carte selection. Thursday, Wilson said, is just for neighbors.
“This is a great opportunity for us to do something nice for our neighbors, especially those who have never had the opportunity to dine with us before,” he said. “We hope to impress them and, hopefully, give them something they can personally recommend.”
The Bay House Restaurant and the Bayside Lounge, 5911 SW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City,
open at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. To make a reservation or get more information,
call 541-996-3222.
Raising the bar – by lowering the volume
Less is more, and then some, at The Bay House
By Niki Price • Oregon Coast TODAY
Steve Wilson blames his career in hospitality. For the better part of 30 years, he has worked in great hotels, with large-scale dining outlets, where he found success in offering more services to more guests, round the clock. Five years ago, when he bought the venerable Bay House Restaurant in Lincoln City, Wilson applied his experience to its operation. He expanded the lounge, added another dining room, built up the already-substantial wine cellar, brought back lunches and advertised heavily, in newspapers and magazines throughout the Northwest.
“My philosophy, when I got here, was that I wanted to make The Bay House better, but I also wanted to make it bigger, so that more people could experience what we were doing,” Wilson said. “But eventually, it became clear that we couldn’t keep expanding, and it was becoming a struggle to do everything well.”
About a year ago, Wilson said, he began to rethink this “bigger is better” philosophy. His psychological progress was certainly nudged by the poor economy, which continues to gnaw at restaurant revenue across the country. But, it was also heavily influenced by the presence of Sean McCart, who became the executive chef at the Bay House in 2009.
Unlike Wilson, who came up through the hotel business, McCart has spent his career in restaurants: Azul LaJolla and Roy’s in southern California, Marché in Eugene and others. In addition to his culinary degree, he also holds a business degree and he’s always wanted to own his own restaurant. He’s a fast-talking, passionate young chef who looks individuals like Thomas Keller (The French Laundry in Yountville) and Grant Achatz (Alinea in Chicago) for inspiration.
“So together, we started talking about what the Bay House should look like, and what it would take to make amazing food, on a smaller scale,” Wilson said. “How could we establish a level of business that would allow us to make fabulous food, that we were really excited about, and still stay in business?”
The answer, they thought, was to become a smaller restaurant. The square footage is the same, of course, but there are fewer chairs and tables wedged into it. And, rather than serving three menus (lunch, dinner and lounge), the kitchen staff now concentrates on two, both starting at 5 p.m., five days a week.
On busy summer evenings, that can mean shrinking from 80 dinners a night to 40. This smaller volume has allowed McCart to use more local producers and ingredients. Before, they purchased just some of their produce from Dave Schafer at Barking Dog Farm, around the corner on the Siletz River. Today, chef and farmer are collaborating on a “growing program,” which ensures both quantity and quality for the Bay House kitchen. Restaurant staff also keeps buckets of scraps, which travel upriver to a farm where two pigs are being raised, which plans for the menu in the spring.
“We’ve always used fresh, but making ourselves smaller has given us more face to face time with the person who is growing the vegetables, who’s catching the fish or raising the lamb. We don’t just know where our beef is coming from. We know the farmers,” Wilson said.
In addition, Chef McCart can spend more time with each part of his cooking process. He makes his own pasta, pickles his own vegetables and cures the house pork belly. The results are delicious, Wilson said, and they’re also good for the bottom line.
“Who knew that making all this stuff in house – cutting our own meats and making our own pasta – would be less expensive as well as amazing? I certainly didn’t. Because we’re just doing 40 for dinner, we have the time to use every part, to cut down on waste, and to make every plate special,” Wilson said. “And it’s costing us less, so our prices are down about 15 percent.”
This week, for example, the seasonal menu includes a Carlton Farms Pork Tenderloin Roulade with Swiss chard, wild chanterelle mushrooms, sage and corn bread, for $31. The local albacore tuna, served with asparagus and a wild mushroom mélange, is $32. The Fall Salad, with organic spotted butter lettuce from Barking Dog Farm, plus sweet golden tomatoes, bright carrots and shaved manchego cheese, with an apple-honey vinaigrette, is $5. The beet salad, with fresh-roasted hazelnuts, Oregonzola cheese and a Meyer lemon vinaigrette, is $7. And you can sample McCart’s house-made ravioli, stuffed with fresh wild chanterelle and lobster mushrooms, for $9.
Wilson said that the “less is more” evolution has improved staff morale and efficiency. When the restaurant was bigger, the three top chefs — McCart, the executive chef, along with sous chef Kevin Ryan and chef de garde manger Scotch Graves — rarely worked together.
“Now, my three best guys are my whole kitchen staff, and they work together five nights a week. They’re much more efficient, just much more done, and the quality gets better every day, which is really tremendous. I’ve always thought our food was terrific. But Sean keeps telling me that it’s going to get better. He’s been right every time,” Wilson said.
“I’ve always wanted the Bay House to be the best. But being expensive was never the goal. It was just a byproduct of having great food. Now, it feels like we have found a way to be less expensive, and better, at the same time.”
It’s been a hard education for this hotelier, who is accustomed to saying “Yes, of course” and adding a table whenever the next reservation comes along. Wilson has learned to say “No, we’re booked” and “May I add you to the waiting list?” as he watches the positive results on the bottom line.
“It took me a while, but I finally realized that trying to be everything for everyone – that’s just more noise that can take focus away from what you’re really trying to accomplish. We want people to come here and experience what our chef is doing, and be thrilled. That’s it.”
The Bay House Restaurant and the Bayside Lounge, 5911 SW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City, open at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. To make a reservation or get more information, call 541-996-3222.
Steve Wilson blames his career in hospitality. For the better part of 30 years, he has worked in great hotels, with large-scale dining outlets, where he found success in offering more services to more guests, round the clock. Five years ago, when he bought the venerable Bay House Restaurant in Lincoln City, Wilson applied his experience to its operation. He expanded the lounge, added another dining room, built up the already-substantial wine cellar, brought back lunches and advertised heavily, in newspapers and magazines throughout the Northwest.
“My philosophy, when I got here, was that I wanted to make The Bay House better, but I also wanted to make it bigger, so that more people could experience what we were doing,” Wilson said. “But eventually, it became clear that we couldn’t keep expanding, and it was becoming a struggle to do everything well.”
About a year ago, Wilson said, he began to rethink this “bigger is better” philosophy. His psychological progress was certainly nudged by the poor economy, which continues to gnaw at restaurant revenue across the country. But, it was also heavily influenced by the presence of Sean McCart, who became the executive chef at the Bay House in 2009.
Unlike Wilson, who came up through the hotel business, McCart has spent his career in restaurants: Azul LaJolla and Roy’s in southern California, Marché in Eugene and others. In addition to his culinary degree, he also holds a business degree and he’s always wanted to own his own restaurant. He’s a fast-talking, passionate young chef who looks individuals like Thomas Keller (The French Laundry in Yountville) and Grant Achatz (Alinea in Chicago) for inspiration.
“So together, we started talking about what the Bay House should look like, and what it would take to make amazing food, on a smaller scale,” Wilson said. “How could we establish a level of business that would allow us to make fabulous food, that we were really excited about, and still stay in business?”
The answer, they thought, was to become a smaller restaurant. The square footage is the same, of course, but there are fewer chairs and tables wedged into it. And, rather than serving three menus (lunch, dinner and lounge), the kitchen staff now concentrates on two, both starting at 5 p.m., five days a week.
On busy summer evenings, that can mean shrinking from 80 dinners a night to 40. This smaller volume has allowed McCart to use more local producers and ingredients. Before, they purchased just some of their produce from Dave Schafer at Barking Dog Farm, around the corner on the Siletz River. Today, chef and farmer are collaborating on a “growing program,” which ensures both quantity and quality for the Bay House kitchen. Restaurant staff also keeps buckets of scraps, which travel upriver to a farm where two pigs are being raised, which plans for the menu in the spring.
“We’ve always used fresh, but making ourselves smaller has given us more face to face time with the person who is growing the vegetables, who’s catching the fish or raising the lamb. We don’t just know where our beef is coming from. We know the farmers,” Wilson said.
In addition, Chef McCart can spend more time with each part of his cooking process. He makes his own pasta, pickles his own vegetables and cures the house pork belly. The results are delicious, Wilson said, and they’re also good for the bottom line.
“Who knew that making all this stuff in house – cutting our own meats and making our own pasta – would be less expensive as well as amazing? I certainly didn’t. Because we’re just doing 40 for dinner, we have the time to use every part, to cut down on waste, and to make every plate special,” Wilson said. “And it’s costing us less, so our prices are down about 15 percent.”
This week, for example, the seasonal menu includes a Carlton Farms Pork Tenderloin Roulade with Swiss chard, wild chanterelle mushrooms, sage and corn bread, for $31. The local albacore tuna, served with asparagus and a wild mushroom mélange, is $32. The Fall Salad, with organic spotted butter lettuce from Barking Dog Farm, plus sweet golden tomatoes, bright carrots and shaved manchego cheese, with an apple-honey vinaigrette, is $5. The beet salad, with fresh-roasted hazelnuts, Oregonzola cheese and a Meyer lemon vinaigrette, is $7. And you can sample McCart’s house-made ravioli, stuffed with fresh wild chanterelle and lobster mushrooms, for $9.
Wilson said that the “less is more” evolution has improved staff morale and efficiency. When the restaurant was bigger, the three top chefs — McCart, the executive chef, along with sous chef Kevin Ryan and chef de garde manger Scotch Graves — rarely worked together.
“Now, my three best guys are my whole kitchen staff, and they work together five nights a week. They’re much more efficient, just much more done, and the quality gets better every day, which is really tremendous. I’ve always thought our food was terrific. But Sean keeps telling me that it’s going to get better. He’s been right every time,” Wilson said.
“I’ve always wanted the Bay House to be the best. But being expensive was never the goal. It was just a byproduct of having great food. Now, it feels like we have found a way to be less expensive, and better, at the same time.”
It’s been a hard education for this hotelier, who is accustomed to saying “Yes, of course” and adding a table whenever the next reservation comes along. Wilson has learned to say “No, we’re booked” and “May I add you to the waiting list?” as he watches the positive results on the bottom line.
“It took me a while, but I finally realized that trying to be everything for everyone – that’s just more noise that can take focus away from what you’re really trying to accomplish. We want people to come here and experience what our chef is doing, and be thrilled. That’s it.”
The Bay House Restaurant and the Bayside Lounge, 5911 SW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City, open at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. To make a reservation or get more information, call 541-996-3222.
