January 2020
copine
[kɔ.pin]
noun
1.) comrade (pal); petite amie (girlfriend) [french]
I am often asked where the name for our restaurant came from. Simply put: we spend so much of our time here, Copine is like a best friend or partner.
In 2004 we had an extensive pre-opening training to prepare for Per Se. I was fresh from Maitre d’/Managerial jobs in Manhattan and Shaun was returning to the states after working in Paris for two years. Both creatures of habit, we kept sitting in the same two seats every session. We talked about Paris, New York City and Oregon (where Shaun is from) as well as his love for Seattle, where he attended high school. We bonded over our love for the restaurant industry. After we began dating (and I became the literal “copine”) we realized how closely our visions aligned. Late night planning sessions began. Eventually, in 2008, it was time to move on from New York and our lives there. The pull of exploring life on the West Coast was very strong.
We headed to San Francisco first, to work with our old friend and mentor Chef Christopher L’Hommedieu. Our time in that city was brief, but full of making new friends like Evan and Sarah Rich of Rich Table and Charles Bililies, the visionary behind Souvla. (By the way…if you are in San Francisco do NOT miss either of their restaurants.)
Then it was off to the Napa Valley where we helped open a new hotel with Sean O’Toole (now Chef/Owner of Torc) and continued to talk out our dreams of what eventually became Copine. It was around this time that a former colleague asked Shaun if he was ready to return to the Pacific Northwest and Chef a place called Book Bindery. It was a great opportunity: our testing ground…our concept to run and operate the way we saw fit. Making that move allowed us to be introduced to the Seattle market and our future guests. But more significant was that we treated that property like it was ours. Spending all of our free time tweaking, honing and streamlining what we thought our eventual restaurant could be. After 4 years there we decided to make our dream happen.
When you take a step like that, you realize the amount of sacrifice you have to make and how much respect you need to have for your vision. Someone once said “treat it like it’s your own and someday it will be.”
Copine seemed like the perfect name.