Tucked away in a little industrial area a few blocks from proper downtown Kirkland is one of the city’s most well-hidden treasures among restaurant lovers.
Organic foodies rejoice: DERU Market is expanding to a second location this summer, this time smack dab on Central Way across from where the Kirkland Urban development is underway.
“We’re busy here, and DERU could use a little brother,” owner and head chef Jamie Casady said. “That’s literally where [the idea] came from: We were struggling with if it was the right decision. If we could do anything we wanted, it would be similar to Deru.”
The new restaurant — aptly named DERU’s Little Brother — will operate under the same concept, but with a different menu. Little Brother will feature the same style of counter service and the same ideal under which Casady and now-husband Jordan Cooper started the business six years ago.
Casady, a Kirkland native, grew up on 10th Avenue and remembers the Crab Cracker restaurant as a kid. Now years later, her second restaurant will take a place on the street-level floor of the large mixed-use complex that houses the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce, among other businesses.
To reach the original DERU Market from the 9th Avenue, customers walk around a series of raised beds full of herbs, flowers for garnishes and strawberries. The chefs stop by the little gardens throughout the day to pick things fresh, right in front of their customers.
Casady met Cooper at culinary school in New York City and the two started the project as a catering business, then takeout only. They fell in love, Casady said, while dropping a handful of strawberries into a bowl and were married a year ago.
DERU Market’s website sums the concept up perfectly: local, organic, seasonal food, cooked with love from scratch daily.
Casady said the restaurant works with somewhere between 30 and 50 local, organic farmers, and with the opening of a second location, Deru decided to do something special for their suppliers.
“We try to remain flexible and in touch with the farmers and learned what they do and what works,” Casady said. “All the food growers were going to downtown Seattle farmer’s markets because they can’t make and money at Eastside markets.”
Alongside the local and organic focus is a passion for teaching customers where their food comes from and the importance of sustainable farming, which is why Deru launched a Saturday farmer’s market on May 14 at the location where Little Brother is expected to open some time in the next few weeks.
A handful of unique vendors showed up, including a stand selling artisan baked goods, and another selling plant starts, and another selling flowers. More farmers should show up with a greater variety of fruits, berries and vegetables, once harvesting begins in earnest.
“It was successful, but it poured down rain,” Casady said. “We had a beautiful two weeks and everyone was happy to get their fields wet. For the first day and the little we’ve done to let the community know we were there, it was really successful.”
The hope is that the market will become profitable enough to be worth the extra time commitment from the farmers, most of which are small operations.
“It’s our way of saying to the farmers, ‘We love you, we support you and we want the community to know more about you and have more access,'” Casady said. “For our guests, it’s an effort to say, ‘Here’s what a farmer’s market looks like: nothing but farmers there and local aspiring musicians.'”
Casady said she doesn’t have any further plans to expand her business, and in fact wasn’t looking to add a second location until the owner of the downtown development, Robert Pantley, approached her about moving in.
“As a chef-owner, I love what we do, the team, the guests and to stay connected,” she said. “I didn’t want a second restaurant to take away from that. It feels like a special project, being just eight blocks away. That made it kind of really… dreamy.”
JOHN WILLIAM HOWARD, Kirkland Reporter
jhoward@kirklandreporter.com or 425-242-4361
