Food&Wine Section D | The Seattle Times | www.seattletimes.

com | March 26, 2010

sandwich science
COLUMN

Wineries are
tapping into
eco-friendly
trends

By Paul Gregutt
Wine Adviser

A few years ago, I was invited

to deliver the keynote address to
the annual meeting of Washington
wine-grape growers. This is a group
of more than 300 vineyard owners
who oversee the roughly 35,000
acres of wine grapes in Washington
state. More than a few of them also
make and market wine.
Although they obviously have
an agricultural perspective, I set
out to convince them that they
were in the entertainment busi-
ness, too. Even those who simply
grow and sell grapes, without hav-
ing to make or market the wines,
are bound to the fortunes of the
wines that result from their efforts.
If a vineyard consistently produces
(courtesy of flickr user pouryourheartintoit) grapes that end up in highly rated,
Just one of the many possible combinations of enticing culinary creations available at Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard. award-winning wines, the prices
and demand for those grapes will
rise. If it goes the other way, well,
Customers have been lining up to try the that contract may not be renewed.
The point is that wine is a fash-

mouthwatering offerings at Lunchbox Laboratory,

ion-driven business. Like other
trendy, optional pleasures, wine is
mostly viewed as entertainment. It
Scott Simpson’s new burger joint in Ballard. must compete with everything else
that’s vying for consumers’ enter-
tainment dollar. Do you buy a $20
bottle of wine, or go to the mov-
“Amazing By Leslie Kelly high-end burgers done your way. Or, ies with your spouse? Pick up that
Special to the P-I if you order from his daily specials new wine book for your Kindle or
burgers. From board, it’s burgers done his way. download the Guitar God app for
the long list It’s enough to make any chef feel The revamping of the kitchen is your iPhone?
of existing fried. So, what’s a crazy genius to do? the first step in an eventual expan- Inevitably, changes in con-
Simpson and his partner, Allegra sion. (Look for a second location sumer buying habits affect wine
combinations Waggener, shut the Lab earlier this soon in Greenwood.) The cramped styles and trends, and we are in the
to the a la carte week for a quick kitchen makeover, interior (in the former Ballard Bros. midst of some major sea-changes
a redo designed to better accommo- space) currently consists of a couple at the moment.
selections, the date the crush. of long tables surrounded by a super- Younger consumers in particu-
options are so The back story on this venture lative collection of ‘60s- and ‘70s- lar are looking for products that
unbelievable reads like a script for a made-for-tv- era kitsch, including metal lunch- pay attention to their environmen-
movie. Simpson was at the top of his boxes featuring a slew of classic tal impact. At the vineyard/winery
and delicious game at the much-loved Fork when shows. Unfortunately, an ill-placed level, this applies to everything
that I had to he abruptly dropped out of sight, fan blows a steady stream of arctic that pertains to the care and stew-
holed up in his apartment eating a air on shivering customers. When ardship of the land. It starts with
come back!” steady diet of pizza. After gaining a diner sitting next to me asked if sustainable farming, which mini-
-Amy Dailey, 100-plus pounds, he had a gastric they could turn it down, Waggener (courtesy of thestranger.com) mizes the use of chemicals and of-
customer from bypass operation, shed the weight snapped, “No. Sorry, Hon!” Mad scientist and owner Simpson takes ten leads to organic farming, which
Portland, OR and opened a tiny space dedicated to See lunchbox, Page d8 pride in his decadent creations. in turn evolves into biodynamic.
In this state, Bill and Greg Pow-
ers were pioneers in sustainable
grape growing, and their Badger
Mountain vineyard was the first
RESTAURANT ADDRESS: 7302 1/2 15th Ave. N.W. PROTIP: Avoid prime lunch and dinner to be certified organic. The Vinea
PHONE: 206-706-3092 hours unless you don’t mind lines project in Walla Walla is one that
REVIEW: PRICES: Burgers $8-$9, cheese BEST BETS: Meal Deal ($14 for burger, encourages sustainable vineyard
practices countywide.
Lunchbox $1.50 extra; sides $3-$5; shakes $4
HOURS: Closed Monday; Open
side, and soda), shakes ($4), daily
“experiments” (prices vary)

Laboratory Tuesday 11a-3p, Sunday 11a-5p, all

other days 11a-8p
VERDICT (out of four): Food ★★★,
Service ★★, Ambience ★★ 1/2 ❚ Comments? Write Paul an E-
mail at paulgwine@me.com.

The (super-sized) Last Supper INSIDE

How food portions have increased by 69% in
paintings of Christ’s final meal
By Melissa Healy
Los Angeles Times
The Christian faith holds several acts of
“super-sizing” to be miracles accomplished by
Jesus Christ — a handful of fish and loaves of
bread expanded to feed thousands; a wedding
feast running low on wine suddenly awash in
the stuff. Now a new study of portion expan-
sion puts Jesus once more at the center.
In a bid to uncover the roots of super-sized
American fare, a pair of sibling scholars has
turned to an unusual source: 52 artists’ ren-
heavenward for 1,000 years.
“I think people assume that increased
serving sizes, or ‘portion distortion,’ is a re-
cent phenomenon,” said Brian Wansink,
director of the Cornell University Food and
Brand Lab and author of “Mindless Eating:
Why We Eat More Than We Think.” “But
this research indicates that it’s a general trend
for at least the last millennium.”
To reach their conclusion, Wansink and
his brother Craig, a biblical scholar at Virginia
Wesleyan College, analyzed 52 depictions of
the meal the Wansinks call “history’s most fa-

(Jason Koski / AP)

derings of the New Testament’s Last Supper. mous dinner party” painted between the year Washington wine
Their findings, published online Tuesday 1000 and the year 2000.
Cornell University Prof. Brian Wansink holds a plate illustrating how in the International Journal of Obesity, indi- Using the size of the diners’ heads as a industry tops 650
food portion size has grown in “The Last Supper.” cate that serving sizes have been marching See supper, Page d12 wineries | D6