Former Grateful Dead chef Ray Sewell
uses his 20 years of cooking experience
on the road to open a successful
downtown Eugene resturaunt.
By Rory Carroll
Oregon Daily Emerald
A step into Chez Ray’s restau
rant in downtown Eugene is
a step into the past. From the
walls adorned with pictures
of o wner and operator Ray Sewell
arm-in-arm with the likes of Tim
othy Leary and Carlos Santana, to
television monitors that continu
ously play kaleidoscopic psyche
delic ipiages^ it is clear that this is
a restaurant which has been influ
enced by the ideas and ideals of
the late 1960s.
But what is most outstanding
about Chez Ray’s is how it has be
come the contemporary focal
point of downtown Eugene.
“Chez Ray’s has brou^it new life
to downtown,” restaurant regular
Stephanie Perceful said.. “And it is
so brilliantly decorated.”
Since moving into a larger space
in December — complete with a
bar and music stage — Chez Ray’s
has broadened its appeal far be
yond just the Saturday Market au
dience. Any night of the week, the
restaurant is packed with an array
of hungry customers.
“Conservative people in busi
ness suits come here and get
loose,” said Shine Sewell, Ray’s
daughter and a restaurant hostess.
“Dreads eat next to a judge or a fire
marshal or a police man. This is a
place where people can let go.”
Patrons range from University
exchange students seeking a slice
of American life, to drop ins by
Ken Kesey and touring musi
cians.
“Few people come here who
don’t come back,” Shine Sewell
said.
Ray Sewell sees the broadening
of his clientele as a positive —
and somewhat surprising —
change.
“There is no one type who
comes to eat here, this is a very
neutral room,” he said. “I attrib
ute that to the fact that we’ve be
come mainstream. When I reflect
upon the whole journey and the
entire struggle to remain an inde
pendent thinker, there was rarely
a thought given to, ‘What if it
works?’ And it has.”
Sewell's journey began when
his mother moved from Cleve
land to a San Francisco apartment
above City Lights Books between
the Tenderloin and North Beach
districts in the early 1930s. That’s
where he got his exposure to
counter-culture life, with the likes
of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and
William S. Burroughs frequenting
the bookstore.
“My mother was a great lover of
books and stories. The path I
chose was not to listen to too
Catharine Kendall Emerald
Chef Ray Sewell cooks up a tasty green salad for a customer.
many stories but to make up my
own,” Sewell said.
Sewell never excelled academ
ically in high school and was later
diagnosed with dyslexia. His high
school placed him into a food
service program, which ignited
his interest in cooking. Although
he said he was bitter that at the
time he wasn’t properly diag
nosed as being dyslexic, Sewell
now views his early exposure to
food preparation as a blessing.
Sewell went on to a three-year
apprenticeship in San Francisco,
learning classic French cooking
from strict Swiss chefs. Sewell
tempered 18-hour days in the
kitchen with late nights taking in
times at the Fillmore West Audi
torium.
“The music was an escape from
the intense apprenticeship,”
Sewell said.
At this time, the cultural revo
lution was coinciding with the
culinary revolution. The culinary
revolution — sometimes called
“California cuisine” — involved
not taking any ingredient as an
absolute. Rather, it encouraged
chefs to look locally for similar, if
not better, ingredients.
In 1972, Sewell decided to
leave the Bay area for Eugene.
“I saw the Saturday Market
once when I was visiting and
thought, I can do this,” Sewell
said. The Oregon Country Fair
was his fir st introduction into the
community. Having a certified
French chef cooking in the mid
dle of the forest helped lend cred
ibility to the County Fair, accord
ing to Sewell.
In the mid 1970s, Sewell start
ed working for Bill Graham Pre
sents. He began cooking for the
Grateful Dead on tour and didn’t
stop until 1994. He is the first and
longest-running chef the Grateful
Dead ever had. His success with
them lead to offers from such leg
endary acts as George Clinton,
James Brown, Frank Zappa and
Bob Dylan, just to name a few.
Today, Chez Ray’s menu is an
adventurous assortment of dishes
Sewell learned while cooking on
tours. From his “world-famous”
salmon burger to his original cus
tard french toast, Sewell's menu
delivers the same flair that the
man does. Sewell calls his style of
food preparation “jazz cooking,”
due to the arty and improvised
angle he takes towards the prepa
rations of his dishes.
Sewell calls the mixture of art,
music and dining “culinary the
ater.”
“Back when people ate around
the fire pit, there was heat and
light and food. While you wait,
there is time so there is story
telling and joking. After dinner
there is the traditional dance and
jam session,” Sewell said. “That
has continued to manifest and I
think that is the genesis of cele
bration.”
Sewell said that his goal has al
ways been to provide an arena
where he can offer entertainment
and food in an environment that
is comfortable. At Chez Ray’s,
Sewell brings together the com
ponents of the feast.
While the future remains un
written, Sewell is anything but
short on ideas, including music
every night of the week, a short
film festival, vaudeville nights
and poetry readings to live jazz.
As for himself, Sewell is looking
into making a cooking television
show, finishing up a book he is
writing with longtime friend
Tripp Sommer about cooking on
the road, and celebrating his 23rd
wedding anniversary with his
wife, Dawn.
“One of the pluses of owning a
business is that you can explore
your own passion and surround
yourself with it,” Sewell said.
Chez Ray’s is open seven days
a week and is located at 44 W.
10th Ave.
SOMEONE
you know
down in the
DUMPS?
Send them some
LOVING
through a personal ad
in the Emerald!
Emerald Classifieds 346-4343
any one ita®
this coupon
0ITmT good through *»/15/oo
-gi
1
^atC
s\>
4:00 - 11:00 pm
Wheeler Pavilion - Lane County Fairgrounds
AdmiSSIOIl $5 includes Mug Over 21 only.
Featuring a special“Collaboration” Brew
60 Microbrew Beers - many new smaller breweries
Live Entertainment: Mare Wakefield, U-Gene Band,
Don Lartarski Duo, Chip Cohen, and Cinqasept
**Free Home Brewers seminar 1:00 pm
Saturday, April 1 at the Wild Duck Brewery
\j. | 344-2247for more information
Creating solutions, changing Hues.
A benefit for Easter Seals