Tumble Swede pops up at Ballard SeafoodFest

The Ballard SeafoodFest began in 1974 as a two-hour barbecue to help raise money for a financially strapped Chamber of Commerce. This year, it will be a two-day festival (July 11 and 12) at the intersection of NW Market St & Leary Ave likely attended by 60,000 people who want to eat serious seafood, drink beer and party in honor of the neighborhood’s fishing and maritime roots.

Let’s get back to that serious seafood stuff.

This year, in a sea of American and Asian-influenced food purveyors – at presstime, the list featured 25 vendors and we’re sure it’s growing – we are most excited to put our plastic bibs on for Tumble Swede, the New Nordic pop-up restaurant which exploded onto the Ballard scene earlier this year. Their salmon alone can make a burly viking weep.

We know you know that Scandinavian food is so much more than meatballs and pancakes. But, the Tumble Swede visionary Lexi (the owner of Old Ballard Liquor Co who goes by her first name only) and her ever-changing collaborative chefs are determined to educate the public on what appears to be an international awakening of Nordic cuisine and in particular a return to traditional techniques – smoking, pickling, preserving – combined with the freshness of local local local PN Dub ingredients.

For SeafoodFest, Lexi and Chef Larkin Young (Willows Inn on Lummi Island) are putting their focus on easy-to-carry sandwiches. There will be a Citrus & Dill Shrimp sandwich representing Sweden; a Salmon Salad sandwich with Cucumber & Sweet Dill Mustard for Norway; and a Danish Coriander Pickled Herring with Tart Apple & Sweet Onion. They will be served with a fork, lobster-roll style, on split Macrina potato baguettes. 

Drool. Wipe. Repeat.

In an email, Lexi told me: “All of these are very indicative of the kinds of flavors you’d find in Scandinavia. My hope is that people who are coming to a food festival for fairly common American and American-Asian food will take a chance and try something more unusual, like the herring. Larkin Young just got back from a 2-year stint at Willow’s Inn a short while ago and he’s going to be collaborating on this with me, so I’m confident that it’s going to be delicious and elegant. We both really want to bring a quality street food experience that’s also appropriate for the cultural traditions of the neighborhood.”

Show your Nordic sandwich pride.