A Conversation with Jeff Bishop of Merende

Il Trattoria di Merende quietly opened its Pacific Avenue doors in early December. Since then we’ve found ourselves enjoying its small plates and cocktails on several occasions. Having never met before, we sat down with Chef Jeff Bishop last week to find out a bit more about him and Tacoma’s newest downtown destination.

How did you get to Tacoma?

I grew up back east. As a navy brat I traveled around quite a bit. Annapolis. California. Hawaii. The Philippines. I traveled the world. I went to culinary school back East in Maryland. After culinary school I went overseas to Guam. I worked in hotels there. Then I worked in Thailand and Australia for a while.

My wife was a Navy nurse. We moved back to Washington State when she got stationed at Bremerton. We went through a divorce and I just stayed in the area. I worked at Fircrest Golf Club for many years. I worked in Leavenworth and with RUI – Restaurants Unlimited. I worked at Palisades and Stanley & Seaforts. After Stanley & Seaforts came Il Fiasco. I ran Il Fiasco for about 4 years. In the middle of that, we opened Brix 25 in Gig Harbor. There was a falling out about 4 years ago and I got a job on Vashon working for Sound Food Café. It was a really cool job. It was a 30 year old restaurant that had been there a while – all hippied out with hardwood floors and really cool little store next door. It was a small little kitchen that made really good food.

The only place I haven’t been is Europe. That is next on the agenda.

Did this moving around influence how you cook today?

Absolutely. I lived in different cultures. I experienced different foods.

But, more than the moving, I had a passion for cooking at a young age from watching my grandmother and mom cook all the time. That was the driving force behind me. Just loving the smells in the kitchen.

What kind of food were they cooking?

My mom is Spanish / Mexican heritage. My grandmother was Aztec Indian. She knew how to make tortillas at a young age. Ah, the smell of mole on the stove.

Were you in there helping?

Oh yeah. I was getting in the way more than anything else. I loved doing it. I loved just reaching my hand up over the counter and grabbing whatever there was and unfortunately, it was occasionally lard or butter …. Oh S***. That happened a couple of times.

How do you get your inspiration?

I still dream about food. It’s kinda nice. Food is always in the back of my head.

I also try to surround myself with people that have the same mentality about food. – all the people in the kitchen. Even though they may be younger than me, I try to bring people in that have a passion for food. They love doing this. They love food.

I may be the chef, but I bounce ideas off them all the time. I want them to think. I‘m the chef. It’s my responsibility if something’s shitty, but I want your feedback. I want you to think on your feet. We’ve got this case of quince what are we going to do? We’ve got this case of honeycrisp apples, what are we going to do? I want them to think. I don’t know everything about this business. The day you think you know everything is the day you need to get out. A long time ago I worked at North by Northwest in Gig Harbor. The chef, Michael Borassi, was really great. He was one of my mentors. He had a lot of influence on me. He really taught me … peasant style cooking. Rustic cooking. Cooking like you do at home. Cooking like how you grew up eating. Simple simple presentations like bruschettas. A beautiful piece of bread with some simple ingredients on it. A beautiful tomato. Some fresh herbs. We all love that kind of eating. It’s fresh. He really got that moving in my head.

Why did you decide to move to downtown Tacoma and open Merende?

It was something different. Vashon was driving me crazy. The commute was awful and it wasn’t conducive to a good life. I love Tacoma. I have a lot of people that seem to enjoy what I do in Tacoma. That’s nice.

What does Merende mean?

It means small meals. The workers would all be out in the field. Instead of taking a break and going 8 miles home for lunch. They’d all bring something with them and sit down beneath the big tree. One guy would have bread. Another wine. Salami. Cheese. They’d do this a couple times a day. It’s a small meal. It’s more about shareables. I don’t want to call it tapas. It’s not really tapas, but it’s along parallel lines.

How are things going so far?

We still have a lot of work to do. Fine tuning. I just want to make sure all the Ts are crossed and Is are dotted. We are going into the slow time of year, but we can ride this little wave for a little while and be true to our so-called mission statement – be a family run restaurant with great service, great food, and don’t be pretentious about it. Hopefully that’ll work.

What keeps you up at night?

Nothing really keeps me up. I don’t have any real issues. I think about food. I’ll get up and draw something on a piece of paper. I’ll write a couple features. That’s it. I don’t have any demons when it comes to this industry.

Are you concerned about your timing given the current direction of the economy?
Yeah. If we had opened when we were penciled to, we might’ve gotten the Summer explosion with some things. But is there really any good time to open a restaurant? We’re still getting people in here. People will always go out to eat. They’ll always try something. It’s also the beautiful thing about the merende mentality of the smaller plates. You don’t have to go out and spend $75 per person. You can snack on a few things and still feel comfortable to go out somewhere else for dessert … Or have dessert here!

What on the menu are you most proud of?

I love the fig and prosciutto flatbread. I really enjoy that. It has all the components you’re looking for. Sweet. Salty. Creamy. Crunchy. Crunchy with the bread.

Details
Merende
813 Pacific Avenue
Tacoma, WA 98402
(253) 722-1993
MerendeRestaurant.com