Vince's Italian Ristorante - The Womb of Nevermore

[Slabgorb]

OK, I saw the other thread, about Jim, Warrel, and Jeff working in a restaurant. All true, I was another cook working in the same kitchen, about 1993-1996.

* If anyone ever sees Jim, ask him what 'bool-kooky' is. It will probably get a laugh out of him, if you manage to pronounce it right.
* I had hair down to my shoulders, it being Seattle and all, and still had the shortest hair of all the cooks. Warrel had his all up in his big white poofy chef hat.
* We used to get stoned in the walk in closet. And Warrel used to get the best, well... we had some fun that way.
* Poor Jim had to drink literally gallons of this thick liquid for his Crohn's disease problems. Poor guy.
* We used to listen to Pantera all the time, although, I admit, when I worked alone, I preferred jazz.
* Jeff is really quiet and sweet, Warrel is very clever and witty, and Jim is one of the most stand-up guys I have ever known, and one of my favorite ever bosses. (He ran the kitchen staff for Vince)
* Vince was this straight-off-the-boat guy from Italy, who absolutely hated the way I said 'penne'. And 'carbonara'.
* We made italian food, some of the dishes were REALLY good. If you do go see Jim, and he is cooking italian, ask for an Arribiata or a Puttanesca. The pizzas at Vinces I still miss, the Margherita and the Blanco. Man, good stuff.
* We cooked in front of a big window, and if there were kids loooking, we would toss the pies.
* The height of the oven made us all get burned on our arms as we put the pizzas in and out of the oven. I know I still have scars.
* It was Seattle, grunge time, and people like Eddie Vedder would grab meals there. (I remember him more because he tipped the kitchen 20 bucks on a to go order)


I will put more stories up if I think of any.

 

[Galiral]

this thread needs to be sticked

 

[Will Bozarth]

i approve of this thread

 

[Dead Winter]

* Vince was this straight-off-the-boat guy from Italy, who absolutely hated the way I said 'penne'. And 'carbonara'.
* We made italian food, some of the dishes were REALLY good. If you do go see Jim, and he is cooking italian, ask for an Arribiata or a Puttanesca. The pizzas at Vinces I still miss, the Margherita and the Blanco. Man, good stuff..

Haha, I believe it! When someone mispronounces something in Italian, especially if they can't roll the r's, Italians hate it. It's like nails on a chalkboard for them. Lemme guess, he hated the way you said "penne" because you didn't accent the double n, right? And "carbonara" sounded more like "car bon erra", I bet. Bah, it all goes down well when eaten, in any case!

And damn you for mentioning arrabbiata and puttanesca! Puttanesca means quite literally "whore's pasta" because all the ingredients are so easy to get your hands on. Now, thanks to you, I'm craving some puttanesca! And spaghetti alla carbonara is my absolute favorite Italian dish. It's heavy enough to kill a water buffalo with one bite, but damn it's good.

Post some more stories!!!!

 

[dreaming neon darkspot]

hahaha whore pasta ... two of will's favorite things.

 

[Dead Winter]

Honestly, puttanesca is so good here that he'll forget all about where it came from, haha!

 

[rebirth]

yeah sounds cool

 

[Slabgorb]

Vince's Puttanesca: (one serving)

Low burner, olive oil on the bottom of a pan. Add crushed garlic, a pinch of red pepper, a pinch of capers (about a half dozen capers), and some crushed, pitted kalamata olives (about three or four olives), and a chopped anchovy.
When the anchovy just dissolves, add one six-ounce ladle of fresh, peeled, seeded, crushed tomatoes.

Simmer on medium heat for about five minutes.

Serve over al dente penne.

 

[futureteller]

Vince's Puttanesca: (one serving)

Low burner, olive oil on the bottom of a pan. Add crushed garlic, a pinch of red pepper, a pinch of capers (about a half dozen capers), and some crushed, pitted kalamata olives (about three or four olives), and a chopped anchovy.
When the anchovy just dissolves, add one six-ounce ladle of fresh, peeled, seeded, crushed tomatoes.

Simmer on medium heat for about five minutes.

Serve over al dente penne.

Stories please. The sticky ones.

 

[kmanick]

Nice!
I think I'll try this tonight
thanks!

Vince's Puttanesca: (one serving)

Low burner, olive oil on the bottom of a pan. Add crushed garlic, a pinch of red pepper, a pinch of capers (about a half dozen capers), and some crushed, pitted kalamata olives (about three or four olives), and a chopped anchovy.
When the anchovy just dissolves, add one six-ounce ladle of fresh, peeled, seeded, crushed tomatoes.

Simmer on medium heat for about five minutes.

Serve over al dente penne.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

haha, classic thread already. sticky this

 

[Slabgorb]

Ok, so we got as much fountain soda as we wanted, crappy stuff. You would get it without ice, usually, as when you got busy the ice would all melt and it would be both warm and watery- we preferred it just warm.
So the kitchen would be filled with glasses of pisswarm coke tucked away a bit but still within reach. (we had the glass wall of the kitchen, so the glasses were more or less strategically placed)
Jim got the bright idea that a particular beer we happened to have on tap looked exactly like warm coke if you put it in the same glass as a coke would be in.
There was the birth of Bool-Kooky. (Jim called it 'Bool-Kooky', because it was short for 'Bullshit Coke'). So instead of glasses of warm coke all over the place, we had glasses of warm beer.... or Bool-Kooky.

 

[Slabgorb]

The Sonic Nights sucked- we were across the street from what was then the Key Arena- no idea what it is called today, but the Seattle Supersonics played there. Back before Shawn Kemp got all fat, and they were really good. They kept going to the finals, but losing to, hmmmm, must have been what, the Pistons* or something? I could look it up but I am lazy.



Anyways, we being cooks, we fucking hated Sonic nights.

Hated. Sonic. Nights.

Nothing but hassle. Sonic nights worked a lot like hurricanes. A shitload of crap blows at you, then you get a lull as the eye passes over (the game actually being played), then a shitload of crap blows at you again. Made for a late late cleanup.

*looked it up, it was the Chicago Bulls, which makes a lot of sense.

 

[Shpongled]

It's still called Key Arena, but back in the days when the Sonics were going to the Finals, it was Seattle Center Coliseum.

5 star thread!

 

[ms. anthrope]

Slabgorb, Are you still living in Seattle?

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

ms a where did the karl sanders banner go?

 

[Slabgorb]

@ms.anthrope: No, sorry, not living in Seattle, long boring story involving a lot of dotcom companies, I am now in Columbus. I am no longer a chef, and only eat at restaurants, but I tip really well.

Hopefully Warrel won't be mad at me for telling about this one.

Warrel had some really great acid. It was in the form of a little purple gelatin pyramid- he gave me two doses. I managed to convince my wife to do them with me- we were so zonked out. We managed to walk over to 7-11, but for some reason we were upset that we were not wearing hats. So we went home, got hats, and returned to 7-11 to continue shopping. I can still make my wife laugh by mentioning the hats. Warrel got the best shit.

Bonus Story!
One time we were all cooking, it was a busy night (may have been a Sonic Night) and a truck broke a gas main in the back. We had to shut all the open flames off in the kitchen. Of course, we went out and smoked cigarettes while we waited for the gas to be fixed.

 

[Slabgorb]

The guys did a lot of their drinking (I am not a big drinker, myself, preferring other things) at the bar attached to where we worked, aka Vince's Bar.

(also I think Jim had a crush on one of the vince's bartenders, she ended up fucking another one of the cooks, if I remember correctly, she had glasses and a nice rack. Jim has always been a tits man)

But another big place in the area was the Mecca, I think because it stayed open later than us.

We got off work at like 1-1:30 AM, so you kind of get to know the rest of the bartenders and restaurant staff from the area, as they are the only other people around that have just gotten off work and are jazzed up and want to unwind.

So anyways, the Mecca. The Mecca was a seedy, bar-and-five-tables kind of hole in the wall, with BARELY enough room to squeeze by the bar. It was extremely long, and extremely thin. Like a shotgun shack, except with the bathrooms where the back door would be. If you wanted to see if someone you knew was near the back, you had to budget about 20 minutes to squeeze past the people trying to get drinks.

We made a lot of bad jokes about the Mecca. They all went like this.

'Mecca me drunk.'
'Mecca me late for work'
'Mecca me write bad checks and beat my wife.'

The Mecca was decorated with coasters. People did artwork on the coasters, and they decorated the place with these coasters, so they were everywhere. Just about everyone from the area (Queen Anne) had at least one coaster on the wall.

 

[Slabgorb]

Ok, so I am a dishwasher at Vince's, having moved to Seattle with my new bride after not making it in San Francisco. (long story that has nothing to do with Nevermore)

So I get a job washing dishes at Vince's. Washing dishes at an italian restaurant is not too much fun, mostly because of the pasta sticking to the gigantic fucking cauldrons of pasta. So I wanted to be a cook instead. I knew I didn't want to wait tables, no fun at all.

And Jim was in charge of the kitchen, with Warrel as the solo day chef, with a lot of influence on the kitchen. Jeff wasn't working there yet, I think he may have just joined Jim, Warrel and Van in the band, but he didn't start working at the kitchen right away.

(I want to emphasize how YOUNG LOOMIS WAS at that point. Hah. I don't think he was legal to drink.)

So I invite Jim and Warrel over for a brunch with our other Seattle friends at my tiny apartment. How tiny was it? It had a 'murphy kitchen table'- the kitchen was so small the table folded up against the wall when you weren't actually using it.

Jim and Warrel had to sit on the ground to eat the food, because I had so few places to sit in the apartment. Like always, they were really cool about everything. I was made a chef pretty soon after that, so it worked out pretty well for me, I got my poofy white hat.

 

[deathstrike from hell]

easily the best thread in a year. thank you.