Well, yes, it does happen to be National Sandwich Day. And the menu at Derby, Ethan Stowell's latest restaurant, does happen to offer a couple of Reubens. One is the traditional sandwich made with grilled rye, shaved corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, "Derby sauce" (Russian dressing). The salad, so often a throwaway on these combo plates, was surprisingly good: mixed greens, currants, a tangy, burnt-orange vinaigrette, some pecorino cheese.
The beer was also named Reuben, an IPA from Reuben's Brewery in Ballard. Notes of citrus and tropical fruit, with a bit of pine in the finish.
The venue is 6th Avenue South, a street you probably don't traverse unless you've got business in the neighborhood. Repair shops, warehouses, hardware distributors. Not unexpectedly, many of the customers at Derby sport trucker hats, but a surprising number are gents wearing suits, as if this were midtown. How'd that happen?
Turns out, Derby occupies front-and-center space in a 36,000-square-foot facility called The Shop. The SoDo warehouse describes itself as a country club for gearheads. If you're into performance cars and motorbikes, the thinking goes, you'll be happy to fork over $200 a month to park your vintage Maserati in the company of similar show-pieces. (Lesser vehicles are more than welcome; there are garage bays for do-it-yourselfers.) The developer is Matt Bell, former exec at RealNetworks and other tech ventures. "I always wanted something like this," Bell told Geekwire when The Shop opened earleir this year.
Stowell himself qualifies as a gearhead; his latest ride is a white '63 Chevy Impala with baby blue interior that he found at the annual auto show in Greenwood. "I was stoked to get it after the birth of our third daughter because we could fit three car seats across the back."
Derby, 2233 6th Ave S, Seattle
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