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El Guacho
Where the Pacific Northwest Parlays the Finer Things in Life
By Jenny Adams
At the end of the day, the end
of the month, the end of the year, El Gaucho’s numbers exist as proof
that guests are willing to pay top dollar for truly personalized
service.
El Guacho — in Argentina, the words would conjure up images of the cowboy, the dust, the dirt and fodder. In America, and especially the Pacific Northwest, El Gaucho now denotes what is best about life — the silk-trimmed tuxedo, the single malt, the waltz and glamour. Begun in Seattle in 1953 by Jim Ward, the original El Gaucho closed in the early ‘80s, but it was General Manager Paul Mackay who refused to believe that the market for such class had gone the way of the cowboy. Reopened in 1996 by Mackay and his son Chad, El Gaucho is bringing profits and elegance of the Buenos Aires social scene into the American milieu.
The Origins of Opulence
Much like Evita Perón, the recreated El Gaucho’s childhood in 1996 took place in a less-than-desirable neighborhood. “We were in a blighted area of downtown,” says Chad Mackay, president of Mackay Restaurant Group. “Homelessness, drugs ... we had operation Nightwatch across the street. It was not pretty. But, what it offered was cheap rent.”
The group moved into the middle floor of a three-story building in the then-derelict area of Belltown with the idea that if they were going to transport patrons back into the 1920s, the outside surroundings were of little consequence.
“Through valet parking,” Mackay says, “we were able to usher people arriving through the double doors and, once inside, they were ours. “We were basically able to control the environment.”
Of course, today, like all good fairy tale endings, the glass slipper perfectly fits the foot. “Now, it is $8 billion later,” Mackay says of Belltown. “Million-dollar condos are all around, and there are restaurants and clubs stacked everywhere. But, we were one of the first.”
The grandeur has since spread. The purchase of the entire building in Belltown meant the addition of The Pampas Room Jazz club downstairs and the Inn at El Gaucho on the top floor, containing 18 hotel rooms — not to mention two separate El Gaucho restaurants welcoming patrons in Portland, Ore., and Tacoma, Wash., as well.
The original Seattle location is the largest with 8,000 square feet, an open kitchen, three separate levels of terraced dining and a 40-seat arcing, half-circle bar.
Margot Arellano and Philip Christofides designed all three establishments, with specific attention to the lighting system to provide the atmosphere and a sense of unified elegance to the concept.
“We tried to create something that captures the essence in terms of the elegance, but with dramatically different spaces,” Mackay says. “Instead of spending on glitz at the front door, what we try to do is reduce expectations there, understate it, and then knock their socks off with incredible lighting and design.”
From the Grazing Plains to the Sea
While the inside is indeed breathtaking, the amenities of entertainment, food and spirit are what make a night in any El Gaucho unforgettable. Corporate Chef Ken Sharp oversees the delivery of the highest-quality meat available in the nation.
“At base level, we are a steakhouse,” Mackay says. “We use old school CAB prime, then we dry age with a 28-day aging. It costs 20 percent more to age a steak like that than your typical steak house that just keeps it in Cryovac. What we give our guest is the best product that money can buy.”
This also includes seafood selections of three fresh fish a night, 18-pound King Crabs and Australian lobster tails — items so requested that 40 percent of the food sales actually come from the ocean.
Rare Occasions
Even with the Washington state laws demanding all spirits be purchased from the state, the liquor selection is enough to impress royalty — including labels such as and Courvoisier L’Espirit — a Cognac that hails from the time of Napoleon.
‘We tried to create something that captures the essence in terms of the elegance, but with dramatically different spaces. Instead of spending on glitz at the front door, what we try to do is reduce expectations there, understate it, and then knock their socks off with incredible lighting and design.’
— Chad Mackay, president,
Mackay Restaurant Group
“We take guests wherever they want to go,” Mackay says. “We will have a $30 bottle of wine, but I also have a $4,000 bottle of wine. I can do a well scotch, or I can take you on a journey through 50 years of scotches.
Supporting the diverse collection of special releases and rare decanters is not a leather-bound menu, but it is the time and delicacy put into finessing and fine-tuning staff for the upsell.
“Every other week is an hour of spirit training,” says Lee Lewis, general manager of the Tacoma location. “Unless you taste wine every single day, it is hard to taste intelligently. Now, I am taking the wines and adding to them to show the differences to the staff. I will add ascorbic acid to a wine, or I will add sugar to make it too sweet. We also do scotch talks — from the complete distillation process. We brought in people from Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to talk about their scotch line.
“What you see,” he says, “is whatever we talked about really gets sold that week. If you give them that level of knowledge, then they can confidently sell it.”
A Female Perspective
From touches that are distinctive by today’s standards, such as the mink fur banquettes — often requested by ladies in backless attire — to the throwbacks from by-gone eras such as the six captains outfitted in tuxedos attending each customer’s slightest fancy — “It seems like every possible need for the guest was considered in the construction,” Lewis says.
And, contrary to every other steak house in America, the female patronage is the management’s key goal in first and final impressions.
“El Gaucho is designed for women,” he says. “Steak houses are typically dedicated to men. Women are the ones in a family making a dinner decision. It is easy to lose focus on that because of who is putting the check down.”
At the end of the day, the end of the month, the end of the year, El Gaucho’s numbers exist as proof that guests are willing to pay top dollar for truly personalized service.
“Our liquor sales are between $5 million and $6 million each year,” Mackay says. “Every week, we are pumping out $100,000. But, we are not a blue-blood restaurant, even though we do serve on silver in tuxedos. What we do is provide great entertainment for people and make it so they feel incredibly special,” he says.
“We could be incredibly snooty, but we just don’t take ourselves that seriously.”
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