‘Something for Everyone’

Market Place Bistro Is Mount
Vernon’s Latest Culinary Offering

by Heidi Thomas

The word Bistro means “something for everyone” and usually conjures up a pleasant picture of small, elegant European cafés.

The Market Place Bistro at the Best Western CottonTree Inn in Mount Vernon offers an upscale, metropolitan-type atmosphere with a variety of foods at small-community prices, says Barry Harter, food and beverage director. When he was asked to take over management of the restaurant facilities a year ago, he did a market analysis to determine what was needed in the area and came up with the Bistro concept.

“We’re trying to set a new standard of dining for the Skagit Valley. It has the feeling of Seattle or Vancouver and yet it’s not expensive. It’s comfortable, warm, inviting and sophisticated,” he enthuses, “and it’s an affordable place to bring the family or it can be a special place to come for a nice, romantic dinner for two.”

Harter has been in the restaurant business for 35 years and has for the past eight years owned the recently remodeled Axelson’s Café in Burlington. Axelson’s is one of the oldest established restaurants in Skagit County and also offers catering. Its atmosphere and menu is more down-home cooking, Harter states.

Originally from Indiana, he started working in the food business during high school and college, while he studied for his degree in education. He taught and coached in elementary and junior high school for eight years. But he also kept a hand in the restaurant business, working part-time at Boomers Landing in Anacortes (now Randy’s Pier 61) from 1982 to 1993, when he purchased Axelson’s.

“I decided then to move out of elementary education and into educating people about food,” he quips.

Married for 11 years, Barry and Brenda Harter met in Florida when he was visiting his dad who lived next door to her grandmother. Brenda had helped her grandmother in the restaurant and hotel business since she was 13 years old, starting as a dishwasher and working her way up through the ranks until she graduated from Ball State University with a degree in hospitality management. She has managed a country club, restaurants and catering for Hilton Hotels and the Bellevue Athletic Club. She came to the CottonTree as catering director 12 years ago.

While her husband also is a chef at Axelson’s, Brenda does the books for that restaurant. Both work long days with little time off, but they say they love their work. “You get immediate gratification in this business,” declares Barry.

“I’m a people person,” adds Brenda, “and my forte is organization and details. I just love doing conventions.”

 

‘A happy business’

“It’s a happy business, but it’s also time intensive,” Barry notes. “It’s not a 9-to-5 job. Food service is your life. You have to enjoy what you do.” He usually works 10- to 12-hour days, seven days a week, but when they do take time off, they enjoy playing golf, basking in the sun, reading and, of course, eating in good restaurants. His dream, when he retires is to “travel, stay in great hotels and eat in all the great restaurants.”

The immediate goals for the bistro are to keep the restaurant full all the time and to increase in-house banquets. He says patronage has been “growing every day” since they opened last November. Another long-term goal, Brenda adds, would be to open more Market Place Bistros in other locales.

The Bistro is open for lunch 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and features salads, soups, chilled or warm sandwiches, burgers and pasta. The restaurant seats 100 inside and has patio seating for another 20 during nice weather.

Dinner is served from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday. The menu includes items such as fish and chips, seafood combos, salmon, oyster stew and pasta dishes from Fettuccini Alfredo to Seafood Bella Rossa, as well as steaks, lamb and chicken. Appetizers run the gamut from prawns, oysters and mussels to brochette, crab cakes or a Bistro combination plate. A fine wine list and espresso bar complete the evening repast.

A Bistro Buddies menu features cheeseburgers, chicken strips, grilled cheese sandwiches, clam chowder, and fries or chips for kids.

On Sundays, the Bistro opens from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a brunch menu including eggs Benedict or eggs Dungeness, steak and eggs, frittatas, a portabella mushroom omelet, pancakes, crêpes and French toast with Grand Marnier. Or if your taste buds are crying out for a lunch entrée, there’s also a “BLunch” menu, which includes soups, salads and sandwiches.

Harter says the decision was made not to serve breakfast during the rest of the week, as the hotel offers a substantial continental breakfast to its guests. A large percentage of the Bistro’s clientele comes from the hotel.

Happy hour lasts from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, with appetizers and half-price drinks.

Brenda Harter is head of catering at the CottonTree, with six banquet rooms and a total capacity of up to 600. She also coordinates off-premise catering (see related article).

Between the Bistro and the convention center, the restaurant employs between 35 and 50 persons, depending on the season and number of events occurring. Kathy MacMillan is the chef and Rick Turnipseed her assistant. Bar manager is Donette Garcia, night bar manager is Aaron Jones and Brenda’s banquet captain is Josh Jones.

“We have a great, cohesive, hard-working staff,” Harter states. “This is their career and they’re dedicated to the food-service industry.”

For reservations, call 848-7553.