Last week I ate one of the best restaurant meals of my life, at [Tanuki](http://tanukipdx.com) in Portland, OR. My review will be in Gourmet soon, so I’m not going to talk about the details of that meal, but I do want to talk about what kind of restaurant Tanuki is and why we need more of them.
But first, a tortured analogy.
I am a huge fan of 37signals, a Chicago company that builds web-based software. They have several products, but the one I use most often is [Backpack](http://www.backpackit.com/?referrer=MATTHEWAMSTERBURTON). “Most often” is a euphemism for “dozens of times every day.” I organize all my writing projects in Backpack. Any miscellaneous piece of information I know I’ll need later goes into Backpack. Gift ideas, vacation plans, ideas for projects I might want to take on in the future, it’s Backpack all the way down.
Not everybody loves Backpack or the other 37Signals products, however. There’s a discussion board where people frequently post to say that Backpack doesn’t have the features they want, and what is 37signals going to do about it? The answer is: 37signals is going to suggest that you use something else. That’s because the company doesn’t build products to please their customers; they build exactly the products they want to use and assume there are people out there who are looking for the same thing–hopefully enough people to keep 37signals in business.
Tanuki and other restaurants like it take the same approach. The menu at Tanuki reflects the things chef-owner Janis Martin loves to eat. It’s not designed to appeal to a wide audience, but for the right people, it’s hugely appealing.
The chef best known for this kind of restaurant is David Chang. The menu at Momofuku Ssam Bar is insane. Scrapple, Chinese pork buns, kim chi, country ham, all on the same menu? No vegetarian options? This menu tells a story, and the story is: this is the stuff I love to cook, and if you don’t love it, eat somewhere else.
These very personal restaurants (what do you call them, anyway?) are the most exciting places to eat in the world. They don’t serve refined food and they rarely offer great service. But wow, what a rush. I’ve rarely had a meal that was more exhilarating than at Tanuki or Ssam Bar.
We need more restaurants like this in Seattle. One that comes close is [Poppy](http://poppyseattle.com/), which I wrote about recently. Poppy’s flavors reflect the tastes of its chefs, Jerry Traunfeld and Dana Cree, and it’s an unusual restaurant. They’ve been reconfiguring the menu a lot lately, though, which makes me nervous. I hope they stay true to their original vision of lots of little tastes, a liberal hand with herbs and spices, and an emphasis on vegetables.
I want to see every chef with a crazy idea just go to town on it. Get a tiny space (Tanuki has about four tables) now while rents are low, fire up a hot plate, and cook the stuff you love. Especially if you live in my neighborhood and the stuff you love involves spicy noodles. Then you won’t be able to get rid of me.