OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2016
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
Photos by R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
10 years ago this week — 2006
Astoria High School may be faced with a serious problem following the
2006 spring sports season.
Where in the world are they gonna put all that hardware?
The Fighting Fishermen won a baseball title last week, and added a pair
of track team championships Friday afternoon in Seaside.
They’ll look to add more later this week in state playoff competition,
with a good majority of the track team heading off for the state meet which
begins Friday at Hayward Field in Eugene.
Warrenton and Gearhart leaders considered extensive details
of the Clatsop Community College siting process Tuesday night
— and afterward came on board with the consensus that John
Warren Field is a solid choice.
In both communities, CCC President Greg Hamann asked
city leaders to embrace the Astoria site on the clear understand-
ing that if it doesn’t look feasible, another site — possibly in War-
renton — would be given serious consideration.
Efforts to create a Columbia-Paciic National Heritage Area took a leap
forward Thursday.
Four Northwest lawmakers joined forces to introduce legislation
designed to preserve the historical treasures of Oregon’s early years and
boost tourism and heritage-related businesses.
U.S. Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., intro-
duced legislation in the Senate Thursday to consider creating a National Her-
itage Area along the Lower Columbia River. U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.,
and Brian Baird, D-Wash., introduced identical legislation in the House of
Representatives.
Smith said it was a natural follow-up from the buzz in the region during
the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.
50 years ago — 1966
Washington and Oregon
isheries interests will meet
with Washington Gov. Dan
Evans in Olympia Wednesday,
according to Dr. E.W. Har-
vey of the Astoria Seafoods
laboratory.
Washington troll ishermen
are mainly responsible for the
meeting, Dr. Harvey reported.
“They have asked for support
from our side of the river,” he
noted.
Oregon Gov. Mark O. Hat-
ield has also been invited to
the meeting, slated for 4 p.m.
Dr. Harvey said Washing-
ton trollers hope to get some
support from Washington
oficials to alleviate Russian
ishing off Washington and
Oregon.
Medallions
commemorating
dedication of Astoria Bridge will
be used this summer in trade
promotion efforts in connec-
tion with the dedication. Medal-
lion was designed by Rolf Klep.
(Photo by Jean Hallaux)
TOKELAND, Wash. — Beach dwellers living along the north shore of
Willapa harbor have too little time and too much tide, neither of which, of
course, wait for anyone.
Savagely, with surging precision, the Paciic Ocean is claiming Cape
Shoalwater and Toke peninsulas for its own. Today, ocean freighters steam
in a channel 90 feet deep where only 18 months ago the homes beach peo-
ple stood.
Twice a day the never ending tide gushes the full length of Willapa har-
bor draining that large bay through the pass at the north end. Cape Shoal-
water, which once guarded that pass, no longer deserves its name. It’s little
more than a quiet curve in the coastline.
An organization know as the Cape Shoalwater — Toke Point Anit-Ero-
sion Project is trying to muster forces to hold back the sea. But so far its
efforts to stem the tide have been washed out.
75 years ago — 1941
Although much has been said in the last year of Astoria’s hous-
ing shortage, more than 55 irst-class new homes within vicinity
of the $5,000 class have arisen, are being completed or have been
started within the last 12-month period.
There is a mountain of evidence supporting the fact of hous-
ing inadequacy, especially in the rental ield. The 1940 census lists
1,501 dwelling units for Astoria. As of last weekend, there were
listed with the major realtors of the city, one two-room apartment
and two houses for rent.
President Roosevelt today created the ofice of civilian defense to mobi-
lize full powers of civilians for home defense efforts and named Mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York as its director.
La Guardia will retain his post as mayor of New York.
The OCD, which will give every man, woman and child an opportunity
to do his or her “bit” for the defense effort, will be organized under the ofice
of emergency management on a strictly voluntary basis, the president said.
All local salmon canneries now have their own salmon oil
extraction plants, six years after the irst experiments in removal
of salmon oil from edible trimming were made here.
Colored photographs of seining operations on the Columbia River, an
Astoria port docks scene, and a splendid and unusual shot of the Astoria col-
umn appear in the June issue of National Geographic magazine accompa-
nying an article entitled “The Columbia Turns on Power” written by May-
nard Owen Williams.
Aaron Bedard is the executive chef at Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach.
Chef celebrates
world around him
SOUTHERN
EXPOSURE
B y
R.J.
M aRx
C
ANNON BEACH — The
Stephanie Inn’s reputation
precedes it and anyone looking
for the most luxe look at Cannon
Beach would be wise to take the
plunge.
Located in the southern part of
town, tucked on a side street off
Hemlock by the ocean, you can
almost feel the luxury lapping as you
walk up the stairs.
The Sokol Blosser Winemaker
Dinner is a regular event pairing the
restaurant’s extraordinary cuisines and
the wines of Sokol Blosser.
Being in the upstair’s dining room
makes you feel like a grown-up, but
not in that stuffy way.
Rather you know you are about to
have something demanding of your
senses, your experiences and your ine
taste.
Chefs and sommelier ratchet up
the game — we are moving to another
level and expectations run high.
When you are eating here, you feel
you have arrived. The atmosphere is
as elegant as the cuisine is sophisti-
cated. With staff attentive but not too
solicitous.
Everything strikes the right bal-
ance —the Japanese have a word
for it, “umami,” sometimes deined
as that uniquely perfect degree of
“mouth-feel.”
Learning the ropes
I met Executive Chef Aaron Bedard
on location in his dining room a week
after the dinner, because I don’t like to
mix business and indulgences. We sat
down prior to the lunch hour in the din-
ing room in one of those glorious Can-
non Beach days where the sky is as
azure blue as the Mediterranean Sea.
Bedard’s upbringing is unlikely
for a master of haute cuisine. He was
raised in the restaurant business in La
Grande where his father ran a chain of
KFCs. “When I was 14, I started work-
ing in restaurants just to make money
and keep busy,” he said. “I learned a
good, solid work ethic.
“I also realized I didn’t want to
be in that style of restaurant environ-
ment. I wanted to be in a little more
reined food and service. This it into
that really well.”
After graduating Western Culinary
Institute Cordon Bleu, Bedard came to
Cannon Beach an intern under Execu-
tive Chef Crystal Corbin.
“I didn’t have that much of a palate
until I got training and working here at
the hotel, under some really fantastic
chefs to guide me,” Bedard said.
Bedard is the “Iron Chef Goes
Coastal” People’s Choice award win-
ner for his short-rib ravioli, a dish la-
vored with Boursin cheese and Dijon
mustard. Fresh homemade pasta, of
course, and a bleu cheese cream sauce
complement the dish.
Chef Aaron Bedard and staff at the winemaker’s dinner.
Caramel flan, dried apricot com-
pote, caramel tuile cookie and
candied Marcona almonds.
Bedard’s
upbringing is
unlikely for
a master of
haute cuisine.
Guests and more
While the restaurant gets “a lot of
guests” from the hotel, everyone is
welcome.
“We do get a lot of guests from the
hotel,” Bedard said. “We’re attached
to the hotel and we’re very service-ori-
ented for the hotel. But I think our cli-
entele is someone looking to expe-
rience fantastic service, Northwest
cuisine in a nice romantic, quiet, pro-
fessional environment.”
Bedard, 39, lives in Seaside and is
the father of three.
He deines Northwest cuisine as
taking fresh, local ingredients and pre-
paring them simply. “We have such
beautiful ingredients, I try to just kind
of let them sing a little, let that be the
highlight,” Bedard said.
The Cannon Beach atmosphere is
more free-spirited than East Coast din-
ing experiences and more “rustic” than
the Portland restaurant scene, he said.
“That’s one of the reasons I like it. It’s
a slower pace. It’s really nice.”
Celebrity chefs
There are more than a couple
celebrity chefs in Cannon Beach —
Jonathan Hoffman, John Newman
and Will LeRoux immediately come
to mind.
“We don’t necessarily have a
scene, but the culture here is kind of
tight,” Bedard said. “I know almost
every chef in town, and we all kind of
take care of each other, which is really
awesome.”
“Sometimes you run out of some-
thing,” he added. “I can call Chef New-
man. We borrow back and forth. The
camaraderie is really nice to have.”
Locally, Bedard said he loves to
Fennel dusted halibut fillet with
shaved asparagus, toasted almonds
and Bee Local Honey beurre blanc.
dine at the Irish Table, and he likes
the loose atmosphere of the Hardware
Store. “It’s very modern and the food
is fantastic there.”
Chef Dave Bonnett of the Hard-
ware Store (aka “Screw and Brew)
and Bedard helped judge the 2015
American Legion Chili Cook-Off, and
Bedard is one of the biggest supporters
of the Cannon Beach Farmers’ Mar-
ket, returning in June.
Bedard said he welcomed the
arrival of Public Coast and Pelican
Brewing, adding Cannon Beach as a
destination to the brew-pub scene.
The ‘high mark’
With new restaurants coming,
Bedard said he sees a need for him and
his staff to “hit the high mark.”
“We’re striving for the last 5 per-
cent,” he said. “The 95 percent is
pretty good, but it’s the last 5 percent
that really pushes us above. We have
to watch the salt and pepper, we have
to watch the cooking — every single
day.”
The restaurant’s spring menu fea-
tures spring salmon, which is “the
best this time of year coming out of
the cold water, with just a little more
fat to it, a little more butter lavor,”
Bedard said. “We’re also featuring
morel mushrooms, sweet asparagus,
rhubarb — all of our local stuff that’s
in season now.
“We have a lot of fantastic feed-
back. Our guests are really great. We
also get criticism/feedback too, which
is good because it keeps us in check.
We know we’re still not perfect. We
have to strive for greatness everyday.
If we’re learning from those mistakes,
we’re growing still.”
It made me think how lucky we are
to have such great restaurants at our
ingertips. Even if we can only afford
to go to a Stephanie Inn once a month
or every six months, such a splurge is
good for the soul.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
South County reporter and editor of
the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach
Gazette.