Ponti Seafood Grill

At 15, this Seattle landmark has an interesting story to tell

There are a lot of intangibles in the restaurant industry. All the right pieces can be in place, put there by knowledgeable industry insiders, but the spot never takes off. Is it the location? Management? The “it” factor? And what about places just doomed to fail that work like magic? Hard to say. But when a restaurant is successful for 15 straight years, you know someone has the answer.

In the case of Ponti, that someone is Richard Malia (pictured), a guy who has spent the last 30-some years in Seattle's restaurant industry. As a young man, he worked at the Spaghetti Factory (a case in point: why is this place still booming?).  In 1972, he and wife Sharon decided to open The Snug. They found a spot in downtown Seattle where they could cater to the business crowd and devised an innovative menu that had people lining up to get in, even in the rain. That menu now looks boringly familiar—homemade bakery items, soups, great sandwiches and desserts. But at the time, they were the first to offer something reasonably priced that tasted good and wasn't some sort of pre-packaged food. Sharon was the first to combine cream cheese frosting and carrot cake. How can you not love her? People did. “The Snug served from 300 to 500 lunches per day with an average check of $3 per person,” states Malia. “It was amazing. We didn't take a day off for seven years.”

Being the first to try something, make it work and then be imitated is a Malia hallmark. In 1978, The Snug was the first restaurant in Seattle to serve Starbucks coffee. In the late 70s, a larger downtown location called Malia's Northwest (aka Mrs. Malia's) was opened. Four remarkable firsts happened here that now seem commonplace: they served fresh Northwest fare using local ingredients, their wine list exclusively offered Washington and Oregon wines and they produced winemaker dinners where the winemaker actually interacted with the guests at dinner. The first dinner featured David Lake of Columbia Winery. Malia's was also the first to pour Redhook Ale.

In 1990, Richard and Sharon partnered with Jim Malevitsis, of Adriatica fame, to bring Ponti Seafood Grill into being. (They also started Axis together, but eventually the Malias took full ownership of Ponti and Malevitsis took Axis.) Fusion cooking took shape at Ponti, placing it on the cutting edge. With opening chef Alvin Binuya, a menu was created that combined Northwest bounty; the flavors, scents and spices of Asia; and classical European culinary techniques. In the 1991-92 winter issue of Wine & Food Companion, David Rosengarten wrote “…Ponti is one of the most exciting new restaurants we've visited all year, anywhere in the world.”

A combination of exciting food, a Mediterranean villa on the ship canal with windows overlooking the Fremont and Aurora bridges, flowers and pedestrian paths and a well-thought-out wine list that has garnered the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence each and every year goes a long way to making this a continually popular restaurant. In summer, the patios offer a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the too-brief outdoor dining season in Seattle. There's also the Richard factor.

He has brought approachability and affordability to the fine dining experience and is a true believer in the use of fresh ingredients and sustainable harvesting methods (see the Seattle DINING! article on sustainability, Fall 2004). In the 1980s, he worked with John Spellman on a “Save the Farmlands” project in south King county and maintains close ties to local farmers and fishermen. He's intimately involved with the fishing industry and has actually worked on boats in Alaska. Ponti serves only the highest quality wild fish and does not traffic in endangered species. Sharon's family (the Sorianos) has been very involved over the years in Alaska fisheries.

Richard is also an old-style restaurateur. As he says, “I'm the one greeting and talking to our customers. They feel comfortable coming up and telling me about their meal and what the experience meant to them. I want to be shaking hands and helping make it a memorable event for them.”  He also encourages the chef to do the same and you'll find Executive Chef Josh Green in the dining room chatting about fish and preparation methods.

Ponti has also become home to many regulars. Listening to conversations in the lounge (you know you do it, too), it's clear that the many long-time staff are friends with the customers. And the customers know each other, too. They trade advice and talk about mutual friends and joke about which table belongs to which customer. People may come for a meal, but they're here for the camaraderie as well. “Ponti is as much a neighborhood hangout spot as it is a special occasion, destination restaurant,” says Richard. “People come here to relax and enjoy themselves.”

In addition, Richard and his staff come up with ways to have fun with their food. In 2004 when the Seattle Art Museum showcased impressionism, they jumped on the bandwagon with “Van Gogh's Table,” a summer-long menu addition that highlighted the foods and wines of French inns. The kick-off event paired eight food tastings and eight French regional wines. And, needless to say, winemaker dinners continue with local wineries like DeLille Cellars, Matthews Cellars and Woodward Canyon.

Richard is also very involved in the restaurant community as well as the larger community. He was the driving force behind the “25 for $25” idea when the industry went into a slump after 9/11. The program is so successful that it is still going strong after four years. Restaurants involved in the program find March and November to be busy months when they might otherwise be a bit slow. Malia was a vice president for two years of the Seattle chapter of the Washington Restaurant Association; he has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes Association (one of his children is diabetic).

Despite the intangibility of restaurant success, it's clear that Richard and Sharon Malia understand what people are looking for, sometimes before we know it ourselves.

Summer 2005