Despite the well-documented struggles of the restaurant industry, celebrity chef and restaurateur John Howie is not pining for the days prior to the pandemic. He does, however, fondly recall the end of 2021, when cooped-up diners again began filling tables at restaurants.

“A lot of us had better years the first year out of the pandemic,” Howie says. “If they were people who were getting paid, they had saved some money and hadn’t gone out for a while.”

Howie’s Eastside restaurant empire, the John Howie Restaurant Group, was the big winner in Seattle magazine’s annual Readers’ Choice awards, topping seven categories:

Best Restaurant: John Howie Steak.
Best Happy Hour: John Howie Steak.
Best Neighborhood Restaurant: Beardslee Public House.
Best Seafood: Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar.
Best Pet-Friendly Restaurant: Beardslee Public House.
Best Brewery: Beardslee Public House.
Best Distillery: Wildwood Spirits Co. (Bothell and Ballard).

For the last nine years, Howie has also operated a full-service restaurant on the Microsoft headquarters campus in Redmond called In.gredients. All except his newest entry, the second Wildwood Spirits, which opened in Ballard earlier this year, are on the Eastside.

Howie was born in Chicago, and then lived briefly in Denver — “I don’t remember any of that” — but his father was killed in a car accident when Howie was just a small boy. His mother and the man she remarried moved the family to Kirkland three years later.

Howie says his mother, who eventually divorced, struggled with alcohol. His passion for cooking was sparked at a young age, as he often made meals for his two sisters out of necessity. He moved out on his own when he was just 15, got a GED through Bellevue Community College, and discovered he “had a knack” for working in restaurants, “primarily because I loved to eat.”

Howie has since worked at several restaurants, including a decade as head chef at Palisade, before opening Seastar in 2002. He was nominated as Outstanding Restaurateur by the James Beard Foundation awards, and has been invited to serve as a guest chef at the James Beard House five times. He has also been featured in numerous prominent media outlets, including The Today Show, The CBS Early Morning Show, the Food Network, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

What are the economics of the restaurant industry right now?

There’s been reductions in guest frequency and guest check average across the board. For us, the summertime’s always slow, but we still always hang in there and do OK. Election years are always tough, but we also have strong inflation. I think fine dining is the most difficult and gets hit the hardest. The Wall Street Journal just came out with a piece that independent restaurants have more debt than ever. But it’s nice that we’re still resonating with people.

What did the pandemic teach you?

The family meal is something that I’ve been asked a hundred times to redo. It was a full meal for four people. The very first one we did for $50, and that was $50 for four people. We (also) provided people with a butcher box with information on how to cook everything in it. We got crazy lines, and it helped keep us relevant in front of our guests and customers, and it gave them something to do at home.

The CEO of Landry’s hospitality company, Tilman Fertitta, once said that restaurants are not about the food.

I can’t agree less. I believe it is about the food. But if you don’t have the hospitality to go with the food, you don’t have success because people want to feel like they’re being treated as guests in your own home.

Describe each John Howie property.

John Howie Steak: Classic American steakhouse with chef-driven culinary foods. Beardslee: Casual comfort with house-brewed ales. Seastar: That’s my favorite child, right? Innovative global cuisine and amazing wine list. Wildwood: Highest quality craft spirits from the only chef- and sommelier-owned distillery in the world.

Do you have a favorite restaurant of yours?

You know how people say their first child kind of always ends up being their favorite? Seastar is always going to have my heart. But I love Beardslee. I’d probably eat at Beardslee almost more than I would Seastar, and I eat less at John Howie Steak because I’m probably not supposed to consume that much steak. But the French onion soup and the steak at John Howie Steak is probably one of my top three meals, too.

If someone’s unfamiliar with your restaurants, which would you tell them to check out first?

Depends on who I’m talking to, to be honest. If you’re a seafood fan, Seastar. Steak, John Howie Steak. More casual comfort food, Beardslee. It’s also Beardslee for people who have less to spend.

Why was Beardslee voted the best dog-friendly restaurant in Seattle?

We just did four Mondays in a row where we did what we called “Yappy Hour.” We actually set up an extra tent outside with bowls and bones for the dogs and stuff. So, you can stand around and have happy hour with your dog. For the longest time my insurance company said no, you can’t really have dogs on your patio. Well, at some point I had enough guests asking me. I think three years ago we changed that.

What’s your favorite John Howie spirit?

Oh boy. Because it hasn’t been bottled yet, I’m not going to give you the new bourbon. But my favorite is Rendition (straight rye whiskey). A lot of people don’t like rye because it’s usually hotter and spicy. We took that out and it’s worked really well. It’s been named Double Gold twice in the two competitions it’s been in.

Many fine-dining restaurants have ended lunch service. Have you?

We brought back lunch at Beardslee on Saturdays and Sundays, and have now added lunch on Friday, Thursday and Wednesday. Seastar is reopening for lunch. We will have a special each one of those days, and that special won’t change. We’re trying to get something out there in front of people that they can afford and that they want.

Which restaurant has the highest foot traffic?

Beardslee. Of course, a large part of that is it’s a big restaurant, but the price point is more user friendly. The highest guest check average is clearly John Howie Steak.

What’s your favorite food?

What’s on the plate in front of me, maybe (laughs).

OK, what’s your death row dinner?

I’m not sure this is good, but it would include seared foie gras. That’s one of my favorites, even though we don’t have it on the menu anymore. A grilled steak like a prime New York bone-in. A Delmonico steak cooked over mesquite. Amazing. I love most grilled fish, especially louvar. It’s absolutely the most tender, flavorful whitefish you’re ever going to have.

How do you engage your frequent guests?

Each restaurant has its own mailing list. We put a lot of stuff on social media. I just finished recording probably eight different videos. I’m telling them that my shirt changes from Mariners to Seahawks to Huskies to Cougars and stuff. You know, just something fun like that.

Talk a bit about your philanthropy.

It’s extremely important to me that we continue to give back to the community because when I was young, there were a couple people that gave me a hand up here and there, more in how they treated me than anything financial. Like when we opened Wildwood in Ballard, we made a whole bunch of money for the Ballard Food Bank. We want to be a long-term staple for the communities that we’re in.

What’s next for you?

I am really working hard on getting our spirits distributed. Am I going to say that I would never open another restaurant? I can’t say that, but I’m going to tell you that this state has made it really difficult. Minimum wage has nothing to do with it. What the state doesn’t have is a tip credit (a way for employers to count a percentage of tips toward the minimum wage). You’re going to pay servers $20 an hour starting Jan. 1, and they’re going to make two to four times that an hour in tips. You can’t make them share that with anybody else. That’s why we have service charges at our restaurants. It’s challenging, but I’m still having so much fun.