Home Grown: A celebration of local culinary enterprise

Al Calozzi: Cheese Steak Frizzler

There are hot dog carts all over Belltown, their steaming $5 Polish specials (with cream cheese at no extra charge) offering late-night sustenance to the tired, the poor, the hungry, at the exits of clubs. Joe Jeannot once had the lock on this niche of glassy-eyed, danced-out twenty-somethings; he owned a string of carts on Second, First and Western before he went legit and opened a barbecue joint on Westlake, Slo Joe's, and found out how tough it is to run a real restaurant; he was last seen tending bar at Toulouse Petit.

There are still plenty of sidewalk hot dog vendors, and then there's Al Calozzi, whose cart once offered an alternative, Philly cheese steaks, only to find the health department's thermometer-wielding inspectors on his case. But Al's had longer lines because, after all, you can only eat so many cream-cheese-smeared tube steaks before your body cries out for beef. To the rescue came Jennifer and Steve Good, the folks who own Queen City Grill as well as Belltown Billiards, the den of 8-Ball propinquity lodged in the building's basement, which needed a chef for its kitchen lest its pool-playing, Jaeger-shooting patrons wander off the premises.

And the next thing you know, Big Al was cooking for money. Calozzi's Italian Kitchen was all cued up, sending plates of chicken piccata and vodka rigatoni across the passe and foil-wrapped cheese steaks out the neon window on the Blanchard slope.

Calozzi, a former martial arts instructor, sounds like he's part of the cast of Jersey Shore. He grew up in an Italian restaurant across the river from Philadelphia, where he learned to make its signature dish, Philly cheese steak. "I was about ten years old," he says. "My uncle Anthony takes me into the kitchen and stands me on a milk crate. He says, now watch, this is how it's done. And shows me how to cook cheese steak. To me that was just natural. I mean my whole family has always been passionate about food."

You sense the passion as Calozzi slaps a couple of slabs of frozen top round on the grill, seasons it, and starts chopping it with twin metal spatulas. He thwacks and turns, flips and chops some more as the meat fries in the rendered fat. (There's a culinary word for this: it's called frizzling.) A handful of onions, no peppers unless you ask, and more grilling. When the meat resembles well-done hamburger, Calozzi slices an Italian roll and slathers it with the critical ingredient, Cheez Whiz. Emulsified, stabilized, colorized, it's the topping of choice (says Calozzi, says the New York Times) and scoops everything into the waiting maw of cheese-dripping bread.

Calozzi's cheese steak is squarely in the tradition of guilty pleasures, like the lawnmower beer consumed by elite winemakers, like reading the New Yorker for its cartoons. Though it's tasty, the flavors aren't particularly subtle or challenging, the texture is gooey (you get a big wad of napkins), but the price is surely right, eight bucks. You want peppers with that, just ask. You want hot sauce, it's over on the condiment counter.

People lined up, dozens every night. Before long, Calozzi moved to Pioneer Square and added pizza (didn't work out), then to Georgetown (doing well). Most recently, he took over a space in the heart of downtown, formerly Great Steak, in Rainier Square. Doing gangbusters.

Cathi Hatch: Investor's Angel

Cathy Hatch has made a career of putting investors together with businesses that need money. Some tech, sure, but lots of restaurants, wineries and specialty attractions.

These are angel investors, people with money (who can "afford" to lose it) listening to pitches from entrepreneurs in the wine and hospitality industries. Hatch's contribution to the mix is an organization called the ZINO Society. By creating "insider events" that bring the two groups together, she produces a social environment to nurture a camaraderie between vintners, chefs, and the owners of unique venues, on the one hand, and investors on the other.

ZINO has 300 or so "Roundtable" members who bring money to the table, and has helped place nearly $30 million in private financing since 2005. It also provides ongoing mentorship to the entrepreneurs and companies it funds.

Hatch herself doesn't make the investment decisions; that's up to the folks who write the checks, but she's more than happy to list some of the local restaurants and hospitality industry figures who've received funding. Foremost among them, no doubt, is John Howie Steak, the chef's third restaurant. On the beverage side, there's BroVo Spirits, the ambitious project by Mhairi Voelsgen and Erin Brophy to produce custom-distilled spirits for craft bartenders. Then there's Idaho-based Prosperity Organic Foods, which sought and received funding for its first product, Rich & Creamy Melt. And if you go back a few years, you might remember Bacon Salt? The parent company, J&D Foods, also received Zino Society funding.

That's the success story. But Hatch is concerned that strict new requirements imposed by the Obama administration will require more discouraging paperwork for her investors, who, until now, have been allowed to certify themselves as eligible. "The new requirement demands that we have our investor members prove that they qualify as accredited," she says. "Most likely, many people will no longer be willing to participate as members and provide angel funding, which will of course be a reduction in business investments."

So far, the worst has not happened. Zino Society presented a comprehensive look at the Washington wine and beer industries earlier this year; last year she wrangled half a dozen tech entrepreneurs with apps to help connect travelers with local expertise (concierges, peer-reviewed restaurants, etc.).

And you know she has a pretty good sense of humor. She regularly refers to her husband, who retired from a prominent spot on local television (CEO of KIRO TV) as "Curmudgeon Ken."

December 2013

Ronald Holden is a Seattle-based journalist who specializes in food, wine and travel. He has worked for KING TV, Seattle Weekly, and Chateau Ste. Michelle; his blog is www.Cornichon.org