I don’t watch cooking shows—it’s too torturous to view larger-than-life images of delicious looking food you can’t eat—so I forget that a chef’s celebrity status, even far from Los Angeles or New York, can drive patrons through the door.
But seeing frequently televised chef Jenn Louis in a pinstriped apron, darting around her new restaurant, Ray—which replaced her old restaurant, Lincoln—chatting with customers and employees like an affable blue jay, it’s easy to imagine that her personality motivates visits as much as her telegenic food does.
The space doesn’t look much different than Lincoln: an L-shaped floor plan with an open kitchen and a bar; high, angled ceilings; exposed rafters; tall glass windows and garage doors rolling open to the street—basically, a lot of air and light, even on cloudy days (although there are a couple of cozy booths tucked away next to some classic arcade games like Donkey Kong). But in the kitchen, Louis has turned her sights on Israeli cuisine.
Israel’s history means it unites Jewish and other culinary traditions from around the region and the world, and Ray’s recent menu shows off various influences (with, naturally, a Pacific Northwest angle), including a Yemenite Braised Chicken, a greenly fresh-tasting sort of stew, warming but not heavy on these unexpectedly cool early summer evenings ($18); an eggs and tomatoes shakshuka available for one ($13, +$4 for merguez sausage) or in a table-feeding order for four ($40, +$16 for merguez); and a dripping shawarma burger that splits the difference between US and Israeli street food with two thin lamb patties, iceberg lettuce, and a garlicky Libyan Jewish pilpelchuma ($9).
