In Seattle, a Renowned Family Restaurant Partnership Ends, Mindfully
The New York Times
Canlis, opened in 1950, has been run by two brothers since 2007. One of them, along with the executive chef, is leaving.
It was the night of the nacho cheese fountain. That’s when Mark and Brian Canlis knew the family’s namesake restaurant was truly theirs.
Opened by their grandfather Peter Canlis in 1950, Canlis was a somewhat staid Seattle institution by the time the brothers took it over from their parents in 2005. The elegant dining room was a midcentury aerie overlooking Lake Union. The food was luxe surf-and-turf with Pacific Rim inflections. Glittering piano music accompanied martinis and mahi-mahi.
It was time for some changes, and a party.
“We had a giant nacho cheese fountain in the middle of the dining room, where you could put chips under it,” Brian Canlis, 47, said. “It was a big party for everyone. Every guest wore crazy wigs. We had a D.J., we took all the furniture out and it was this wild dance party at Canlis. And regulars were like, ‘What is this place?’
“That was a night where something clicked for Mark and I, when we decided to throw the party that we wanted to attend and not just the one we were supposed to.”
But soon, after nearly 20 years in which they ran Canlis together, the restaurant will no longer be theirs. It will just be Mark’s. Brian is heading to Nashville in June with his wife, Mackenzie, and four young children. He’ll be working on a yet-to-be-determined project with his best friend since college, Will Guidara, the hospitality guru who made his name at Eleven Madison Park in New York.
