4A • May 20, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
Crossing my
fi ngers for the
return of the
blue herons
Feeling like a grown-up at the
Sokol Blosser Winemaker Dinner
B
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Chef Aaron Bedard and staff at the winemaker’s dinner.
T
he 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
CANNON SHOTS
upstairs
dining
R.J. MARX
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 fine 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 sophisticated. With staff
attentive but not too solicitous.
Everything strikes the right balance —
the Japanese have a word for it, “umami,”
sometimes defined as that uniquely perfect
degree of “mouth-feel.”
‘Camaraderie’
I met 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 dining room in one of
those glorious Cannon Beach days where
the sky is as azure blue as the Mediterra-
nean Sea.
Bedard’s upbringing is unlikely for a
master of haute cuisine — he’s from La
Grande, Oregon, where dining choices in-
clude Denny’s and the Rusty Spur Cafe.
Bedard was raised in the restaurant
business — his father ran a chain of KFCs.
“When I was 14 I started working in
restaurants just to make money and keep
busy,” he said. “I learned a good, solid
work ethic.”
He also learned he didn’t want to
worked in that style of food and service.
“I also realized I didn’t want to be in that
style of restaurant environment. I wanted
to be in a little more refi ned food and ser-
vice. This fi t into that really well.”
After graduating Western Culinary Insti-
tute Cordon Bleu, Bedard came to Cannon
Beach an intern under Executive 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 Coast-
al” People’s Choice award winner for
his short-rib ravioli, a dish fl avored with
Boursin cheese and Dijon mustard. Fresh
homemade pasta, of course, and a bleu
cheese cream sauce complement the dish.
While the restaurant gets “a lot of
guests” from the hotel, everyone is wel-
come.
Laurence Thomson is the restaurant’s
sous chef.
Publisher
Steve Forrester
Editor
R.J. Marx
Reporter
Lyra Fontaine
Advertising Manager
Betty Smith
Production Manager
John D. Bruijn
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Heather Ramsdell
Advertising Sales
Laura Kaim
On the menu at Sokol
Blosser Winemaker’s Dinner
COURSE 1: Spring salmon ceviche, fresh cucumber, red onions,
cilantro and fried corn tortilla paired with Evolution Brut Spar-
kling
COURSE 2: Fennel dusted halibut fi let, shaved asparagus, toasted
almonds and Bee Local Honey beurre blanc paired with 2013
Müller-Thurgau
COURSE 3: Intermezzo: Raspberry and rosé sorbet
COURSE 4: Marinated lamb loin, Humboldt fog & morel mush-
room risotto, sautéed spinach, baby carrots and Dijon reduc-
tion sauce paired with 2013 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir
COURSE 5: Caramel fl an, dried apricot compote, caramel tuile
cookie and candied Marcona almonds paired with 2013 White
Riesling.
irds concentrate on three things, eating,
procreating and grooming. And depend-
ing on what time of year it is, these
things may trade places as the number one im-
portant thing. This time of year, we all know
that producing eggs is number one on most
birds’ minds.
I have had the pleasure of putting up a va-
riety of nesting opportunities for different spe-
cies of birds.
My wonderful
husband has BIRD NOTES
made it pos- SUSAN BOAC
sible to rehab
a wood duck
house
and
place it in a tree across the creek and to put up
a fabulous purple community living situation.
No nesting action yet, but there has been some
interest!
I am particularly pleased that the great blue
herons look like they are taking up their sum-
mer residence across the creek from my house.
As I write this the herons are fl ying all around
the neighborhood and landing in trees and the
Neawanna!
Last summer, Neal Maine monitored this
heron rookery and reported that 11 babies
hatched in 7 nests. I am crossing my fi ngers for
that kind of productivity again.
The picture I have sent along with this col-
umn is of a dance I caught “on tape” at the La-
goon ponds in February 2016. To see the video,
please visit the North Oregon Coast Facebook
page.
Watch for baby birds in the next few
months. Most fl edglings spend several days
on the ground before they can fl y. They are
well attended by their parents, so no need to
“safe” them. Please consider keeping your cats
indoors for the months of May, June and early
July to help keep our bird populations healthy.
Thanks.
Join a growing group for birding adventures
in the Cannon Beach area. We meet the fi rst
Sunday of the month at the Lagoon Trail park-
ing lot on Second Street at 9 a.m. As a group,
we decide where the best birding is and bird
until about 11. Bring binoculars and wear ap-
propriate clothing. Everyone is welcome! Our
next two dates are June 5 and July 3
Susan has spent her life enjoying the great
outdoors from the lakes and woods of North-
ern Minnesota, Mount Adams in Washington
and now the Oregon beach environs. After
spending many pleasurable hours driving her
avid birder parents around, she has taken up
birding as a passion, to the mixed emotions
of her husband Scott. The Boacs reside on
Neawanna Creek in Seaside where their back-
yard is a birder’s paradise.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Caramel fl an, dried apri-
cot compote, caramel tuile
cookie and candied Mar-
cona almonds.
Fennel dusted halibut fi let
with shaved asparagus,
toasted almonds and Bee
Local Honey beurre blanc.
Stephanie Inn Executive
Chef Aaron Bedard off ers
a spring menu presenting
local ingredients.
“We do get a lot of guests from the
hotel,” Bedard said. “We’re attached to the
hotel and we’re very service-oriented for
the hotel. But I think our clientele is some-
one looking to experience fantastic service,
Northwest cuisine in a nice romantic, quiet,
professional environment.”
Bedard, 39, lives in Seaside and is the
father of three.
He defi nes Northwest cuisine as taking
fresh, local ingredients and preparing them
simply. “We have such beautiful ingredi-
ents, 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 dining experi-
ences 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.”
There are more than a couple celeb-
rity 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 something,”
he added. “I can call Chef Newman. We
borrow back and forth. The camaraderie is
really nice to have.”
Locally, Bedard said he loves to dine at
the Irish Table, and he likes the loose at-
mosphere of the Hardware Store. “It’s very
modern and the food is fantastic there.”
Chef Dave Bonnett of the Hardware
Store (aka “Screw and Brew) and Bedard
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Email: editor@cannonbeachgazette.com 9285, or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com
CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
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helped judge the 2015 American Legion
Chili Cook-Off, and Bedard is one of the
biggest supporters of the Cannon Beach
Farmers’ Market, 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.
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 percent,”
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 pep-
per, we have to watch the cooking — every
single day.”
The restaurant’s spring menu features
spring salmon — “the best this time of year
coming out of the cold water, with just
a little more fat to it, a little more butter
fl avor,” Bedard said. “We’re also featur-
ing morel mushrooms, sweet asparagus,
rhubarb — all of our local stuff that’s in
season now.
“We have a lot of fantastic feedback,”
Bedard said. “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 grow-
ing still.”
It made me think how lucky we are to
have such great restaurants at our finger-
tips. 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.
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Thursday, May 26
Cannon Beach Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall,
163 E. Gower St.
Friday, May 27
Cannon Beach Emergency Preparedness Committee,
10 a.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Monday, May 30
Memorial Day, City Hall closed.
Tuesday, June 7
Cannon Beach City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 163 E.
Gower St.
Monday, June 13
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protection District, 6 p.m.,
Fire-Rescue Main Station, 188 Sunset Blvd.
Tuesday, June 14
Cannon Beach City Council, 5:30 p.m., work session,
City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Monday, June 21
Seaside School District, 6 p.m., 1801 S. Franklin St.
Tuesday, July 5
Cannon Beach City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 163 E.
Gower St.
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protection District, 6 p.m.,
Fire-Rescue Main Station, 188 Sunset Ave.
Tuesday, July 12
Cannon Beach City Council, 5:30 p.m., work session,
City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Tuesday, Aug. 2
Cannon Beach City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 163 E.
Gower St.
Monday, Aug. 8
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protection District, 6 p.m.,
Fire-Rescue Main Station, 188 Sunset Ave.
Tuesday, Aug. 9
Cannon Beach City Council, 5:30 p.m., work session,
City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Tuesday, Sept. 6
Cannon Beach City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 163 E.
Gower St.
THE NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING
