our paris

October 2020

City of Lights

As Americans cannot travel many places out of country at present I got to daydreaming about great cities I have been able to visit. And some that are dreams for the future.

I was lucky enough to visit Paris for the first time with Shaun; it makes such a difference to visit a foreign city with someone who knows it well. From Sacré-Cœur to the Jardin des Tuileries we walked every inch of the city on our first trip together. Since then, we have definitely developed a sense of routine for when we visit. We use “Haven In” as our source for rentals. They have amazing properties and excellent service. We try to close Copine for a break at a certain point during the year, so that is generally when we would travel.

Typically we like to stay in Montmartre. The area is home to many cheese mongers and food purveyors that we re-visit when stocking the apartment. Normally our first stop is to pick up some Vacherin Mont d’Or which is only available in the fall and winter. This cheese is literally life changing…you have to taste it to believe how good it is. A warm baguette from Coquelicot and some wine is all we need to start our vacation at that point. (Incidentally, there is also something to be said for a bottle of Pinot Noir from the Monoprix and a bag of Lay’s Saveur Poulet Rôti et Thym chips, as well. Simply perfect.)

A visit to Gilles Vérot is a requirement. Absolutely stunning terrines and charcuterie and they have these petites saucissons that are flavored with Roquefort, Truffles, Fennel or Pimentón. We get an assortment and eat them straight from the bag on the metro.

The main focus of our time in Paris is dining. Lunch at Taillevent is something we try to do on each of our trips. We also try to hit either, Frenchie, Frenchie-to-Go or Frenchie Wine Bar. Grégory Marchand is a genius and we really enjoy his clean flavors and cozy environments.

On our second trip we tried to eat at La Famille (an old hang out of Shaun’s) to find that it was no longer there…this is how we found Le Chateaubriand. Truly excellent; creative and well worth the often long wait time to dine there. Chefs like Iñaki Aizpitarte are doing things with food that are truly inspiring.

As far as shopping: E.Dehillerin, obviously. All manners of things culinary can be found here. Shaun has to head to the Marais for french cuffed dress shirts at Xoos and our last visit in 2017 included a stop at COS for clothing, which was a newer find for both of us. I really love Repetto for shoes. We also like to see what’s happening on rue Saint-Paul as far as antiques. 

Paris. Rome. Lausanne. Mykonos. Barcelona. Tokyo. I don’t know when we will have a chance to travel again, honestly. These are hard days; thinking forward gives a little hope for pleasant things to come at the end of this challenging year. Keep dreaming of places you have been and places on your wish list…and dream big.

the big apple

September 2020

New York City

As our friends out East consider how to rebuild their businesses and search for the new normal, I wanted to offer a little love letter to New York City; it holds a very special place in our hearts…it’s where we met. Any trip to New York for us is incomplete without a few basic needs: a visit to Per Se to say hello being the most obvious. Sometimes it’s dinner, sometimes just a drink or a peek inside but it’s a touchstone for sure.

Balthazar. A must. Shaun absolutely has to have a French Onion Soup and Frites at the bar. I love Balthazar not only because it’s an institution but because it’s perfect for rosé on a hot summer day, breakfast on a cold fall morning or a late night chicken paillard on a snowy night in February. Consistent and timeless.

Madison Square Park is a great place for a quick stroll mid-day. (And the original Shake Shack is there…)

The King Cole Bar at the St. Regis is a legend and a very “grown up” spot. Beautiful mural, great classic cocktails in a really throwback setting. A good place for either a business meeting or a pre-dinner martini. Your choice.

I love to go into Porto Rico Importing Co. in the West Village and check out the coffees and loose leaf teas. Great stocking stuffers, hostess gifts, etc. And the smells are divine…

Kitchen Arts and Letters is a great stop. They have an incredible inventory of culinary works from back issues of Art Culinaire to current cookbooks.

Blue Ribbon is an essential stop for any hospitality worker; open 4:00pm-4:00am and they have beautiful seafood towers, tasty fried chicken and well executed bone marrow.

The best thing about New York is that you can walk and walk…the same way you can in Paris…and find yourself in a great neighborhood with little cafés, bookstores and a multitude of places to tuck into for a few minutes, sip a wine and watch the city go by. The world is very uncertain at present. Shaun and I push every day alongside our colleagues in the hopes that all of us will be back, better than ever. Travel enriches each and every one of us in a multitude of ways.

Here’s to you, New York…stay strong and know we’ll be there when the dust settles to celebrate you the way you deserve.

routine

August 2020

rou·tine

/ro͞oˈtēn/

noun

1.) a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program

Routine is surely what has gotten me through this pandemic so far; obviously it’s a different routine than normal…but it’s something.

I so miss seeing our restaurant full of people celebrating life events. You realize that these gatherings are so important. They are the reason we dress up, get a haircut or manicure, save our money, grab a special bottle of wine, etc. So we can meet, catch up with old friends and decompress…

Our “routine” now involves a temperature check every morning when we arrive at work. Covid spray. Plating food in boxes. Just keeping Copine afloat. Shaun and I have also tried to make time (in a schedule that typically allows zero time for self-care) for just that. Reflection, meditation, hikes and deep breaths.

But the brightest part is that our whole team has stayed very connected.

Two of our kitchen staff are working elsewhere for the time being: one is in San Diego, temporarily feeding folks who cannot feed themselves and a second is delivering for one of our purveyors. 

Angela comes on Wednesday to catch up and brainstorm cocktails. Thursdays Amy and Anica stop in. Fridays bring a visit from Jeana and Michael. Jason and Marcie visit when time allows. And every Sunday, one of these fine folks comes in to help me with pick-ups. In each case they sit and catch me up on life and how they are filling their time these days, usually over a glass of wine that we are more than happy to provide.

I cannot explain how much peace this brings me…my team is like a touchstone. Healing and comforting at the same time. A bright spot of routine in a world that has been shaken like a snow globe.

Hang in there. Better times ahead if we all work together to make it happen.

integrity

July 2020

in·teg·ri·ty

/inˈteɡrədē/

noun

1.) the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

Please indulge me for this post…

I am disheartened when I see and hear certain things.

Sloppy business/state re-openings where the staff/public seem dispensable.

People complaining about wearing masks.

The casual attitude about the basic and undeniable value of human lives.

Negativity towards each other.

We must have integrity in our daily dealings. Always. There is most definitely a moral compass out there that tells us the difference between right and wrong.

I see people criticizing one another on social media platforms. But guess what? Opinions are less interesting if you can’t demonstrate that you have some integrity. Self promotion and hiding behind a false sense of importance are useless. The fish rots from the head down.

The fact is that we are all in this mess together.

Educate yourself and keep the negativity in your own space.

I do my best to support those around me and to acknowledge their circumstances, as well as my own, while doing so. No one is perfect.

We have nothing else if we do not have integrity.

Stay safe everyone.

trust

June 2020

trust

/trəst/

noun

1. firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

Trust. Something we all crave in these difficult times. Those of you that receive our newsletter and replied to the survey: thank you for taking the time. We so appreciate your responses.

As we begin to lay out plans for re-opening our doors for dine-in, we acknowledge at the outset that there needs to be trust. Trust on our end, that you will not come to Copine if you are unwell. And trust on your end that we do the same and that we are taking precautions over and above our normal standards.

We can agree that we live in a challenging world at present. Restaurants are a place to appreciate each other’s company and bond over a good meal. To recharge and relax and let the stress melt away…

Our team met as a whole this week and talked about what service will look like in the future. We have reorganized our dining area with the maximum amount of space between tables. We discussed ideas as far as delivering plates to tables. Directional flow in the room. What makes us all feel safe and how we can communicate that to our guests.

Our kitchen staff is on board with ideas to continue our Takeaway Supper Program in tandem with dine-in. A lot of you are uneasy about dining out, and with good reason. The next month or so should tell us a lot about consumer confidence, as well as what is working and what isn’t in the new normal.

There are always going to be things we cannot control. But we all stand together as we navigate the waters. And trust extends a branch that allows us to climb the tree to the next level. Safely.

Be well and we hope to see you in the not-too-distant future.

renewal

May 2020

renewal

/rəˈn(y)o͞oəl/

noun

1. an instance of resuming an activity or state after an interruption
   

Life, especially life in this time on this planet, requires you to stop and renew at various points.

The simple act of a long shower or hot bath. The scent of lemony flowers blooming in our front yard. A walk with our dogs. Going to work. The sound of our restaurant, filled with service noises and happy guests…

All of these are things not to be taken for granted, now more than ever.

As we inch slowly towards the future with this whole pandemic, we have to ask ourselves how we will adapt to the moving target of the new normal?

What will it look like for restaurants?

Shaun and I are preparing for a new beginning in the face of adversity. A rebirth…like the Phoenix. What will rise from the ashes for the hospitality industry? 

For Copine: our Takeaway Suppers will very likely continue in tandem with dine-in. 

Reduced hours. 

Masks in order to protect our team and our guests.

Sanitizer.

Social distancing of tables.

What we do not change are the standards we hold dear. Renewal does not mean re-inventing the wheel. It means keeping what makes Copine so special and adding to it. Our team has remained in close contact with us throughout the past few months. They are eager to get back to work. 

We will need the support of our guests as well as our incredible staff in order to get through this. We are not in a rush to re-open until we feel it’s warranted…in the meantime please be safe and think towards a positive future.

Renewal.

Stay tuned.

perseverance

April 2020

Perseverance

/ˌpərsəˈvirəns/

noun

1. persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success

Day 15 of no Copine…or at least the Copine I know and love. The faces of my staff as they arrive for work each day. Our purveyors when they drop off our orders. The guests who I see on a regular basis and live too far for picking up take-out make sense. I hope you are all well, safe and hanging in there…

One has to adapt to the current climate. We have expanded our Sunday Supper program to Thursday-Sundays for the time being. Orders are placed two days in advance (Tuesday for Thursday pick-up, Wednesday for Friday, etc.) and can be picked up between Noon and 5:00pm. Every order comes with easy re-heat instructions.

We are doing everything we can in order to safely serve folks through the end of this crisis. We limit our meals to 30 per day, as we need room to cool down and store the prep for each day, as well as the completed, packaged and bagged meals. We made the pick-up window long, so our guests rarely arrive more than one at a time. Email reminders are sent and all of guests practice social distancing on pick-up. It’s so odd how much things have changed over the last month? 

Perseverance is the new normal.

A way of thinking.

A state of being in these strange days.

We love you, Seattle. Stay strong and support your small businesses.

We will overcome. 

together

March 2020

/təˈɡeT͟Hər/

adverb

1. with or in proximity to another person or people
   

If ever there was a time to talk togetherness…this is it.

Even as anxiousness and low grade panic seem the order of the day, Seattle and its residents are pulling together in a way that reminds me how grateful I am to live here. We are facing something very real and full of unknowns with grace and a sense of calm that I have come to expect from this little corner of the world.

We cannot know what the fallout of these things will be, but I know that we must remain levelheaded and take one day at a time. 

What else can we do?

A few things come to mind:

Be diligent about cleanliness. We have this culture in our restaurant already, but we have taken extra precautions beyond our normal standards. Deeper cleans, excessive hand washing and daily education are the newer normal. Remember that restaurants have a different set of sanitation requirements already. If you felt safe dining somewhere before, you should feel safer now.

Support your small businesses. Buy their to-go options, like our Sunday Suppers or order Gift Cards to celebrate when this tough time is over.

Be safe. Avoid going out if you feel unwell. Be sure to reach out to your medical professionals.

Treat each other with care and kindness. 

And above all else, know that we are here for you. All of the small business owners I know are pulling together to do the best we can in a very difficult time. Please remember that we cannot work from home…together we can help save the Seattle dining landscape.

Sending you all positive energy…