Recapping: The Inaugural ‘Bite of the San Juans’

The crowds were large, and mostly unexpected.

By Julia Wayne October 29, 2014

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A hungry crowd buzzed around Friday Harbor’s Brickworks building long before doors opened for the first ever Bite of the San Juan Islands on Sunday. Friends of vendors offered help, a barely veiled excuse to get the first peek at the dozens of booths full of delicious things. Literal boatloads of people walked directly from ferries toward the scent of fresh-baked bread. And no one left until long after the teardown time, everyone hanging on to help lighten kegs carried over from Orcas, or slurp just one more freshly shucked oyster.

The refrain from vendors, laughing and smiling as new people poured in, was that they never expected such a crowd. San Juan Island Distillery co-owner Suzy Pingree mixed her award-winning Spy Hop gin with their Westcott Bay Cider syrup, Westcott Bay Cider, and lemon juice for a cocktail they called the San Juan 48. “To me the best part of the event is the collaboration between the food producers and the chefs and all the alcohol producers—it’s really fun for us all to be connected and to be together. We all share values in being island-centric and doing the best possible things we can do to draw people here.”

In the next booth over, Kari Koski defined “shrub” for dozens of curious imbibers. The owner of Kari’s Island Elixirs has been making bitters and vinegar-heavy shrubs sourced from the islands for years, keeping her just-picked blackberry-lemon thyme and juicy plum flavors a ferry ride away.

Across the room, Chef John Hamilton of Cask & Schooner and sushi restaurant Tops’l seasoned blistering padron peppers for one of his bites. The generous portion of salty, lightly spicy peppers was one of the most talked about dishes floating around, with strangers telling me I must try them. Tops’l chef Kazu-san’s black cod gindara kazusuke and fresh-shucked oysters topped with a spicy, sweet, salty mignonette were other big hits.

Under the Barn Owl Bakery table, the owners’ daughter watched people fall in love with crusty, perfectly baked Lopez Island breads and goodies. Savory flatbreads, topped in island-grown produce were chewy and earthy in the best ways, and sold out before the event was over.

Megan Stocklin and the Island Hoppin’ Brewing team hit the road from Orcas, and were elated at the way things turned out. “We believe so strongly in what this was about,” she relayed as she filled an umpteenth cup of hoppy beer. “The return on the investment that we see is the connections we’re making with the community of people in all the islands, and with other businesses. We’ve already come up with a few different collaborations with other vendors for next year, just from being here today.”

Event organizer Richard Daly of San Juan Island Cheese smiled from behind the table as he sold tickets with co-organizer Shannon Borg. The cheese shop owner boasted all locally-sourced products on his booth, with a chocolate goat cheese truffle made with Quail Croft chevre and topped with San Juan Island Sea Salt, coffee from San Juan Roasters, and a beer-bacon-cheddar chowder made with Island Hoppin’ ale.

For him, the motivation for putting in the work to start a new island tradition was as much about the food as it was about creating a celebration of doing the right thing. “When you know something’s the right thing to do, it’s really easy to do. And it’s really easy to get people behind it, to understand it, but it’s hard to get them to act. I think a lot of people come to one island, maybe Orcas and they hear about a great restaurant on Lopez. Or they go to San Juan and hear about a great restaurant on Orcas, or however. Being able to bring things together into one place, at the same time, we wanted to be able to represent all the islands. So, if someone came up from Seattle or wherever, they could taste all these bites from the islands, get representation from all of them, under one roof.”

Ideally, he says, next year will have even more cohesiveness in what’s being served. “We were hoping that the chef would be there, with the meat producer on one side, the produce grower on the other, to increase awareness of where your food comes from. That was kind of the ideal, and we didn’t quite get there this year, but we can be there next year.”

 

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