Homer Away From Home

In Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, the restaurant Homer is known for its creative take on ordinary ingredients, its commitment to using locally grown food, its homey atmosphere, and — perhaps more than anything — its namesake, an adorable golden retriever whose humans, Sarah Knowles and Logan Cox, co–own the restaurant.

Homer is a local celebrity, recognized all over Beacon Hill, which Knowles said is a great thing.

“People see our dog in the neighborhood — we live two blocks away,” she said. “I think it kind of adds to the sort of familial aspect.”

And that’s exactly what Cox and Knowles hoped to create with the restaurant, which opened in 2018 to much acclaim. The restaurant’s dishes, which are inspired by Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines with a Pacific Northwest twist, are created to be shared.

“There’s always lots of little dishes people can share and spread things,” says Cox. “They’re literally, you know, breaking bread to dip in it with each other, and I think that kind of creates the atmosphere and makes a really fun dining experience.”

Cox wants the restaurant to feel like a community hub, with neighbors stopping in to say hi and bringing their dogs for a soft–serve sample.

“I think the idea of Homer is really the kind of restaurant that we would want in our own neighborhood that we were growing up in,” he says.

A customer dining at the restaurant says she loves the dishes, which have simple ingredients with complex flavors and interesting spices.

“I come here for my birthday celebration. I come here for family time, for date nights with my husband,” she says, “or just a random night when I want to be surprised with a delicious dish.”

Cox emphasizes the importance of sourcing local ingredients for dishes, not only because of the higher quality but because of the connections it brings to the community — and the food itself.

“Knowing the person that grows the vegetable or raises the lamb or catches the fish, it really gives you an even higher appreciation of the ingredient that you’re going to be cooking,” he says. “And you really take ownership of the thing that your friend grew for you.”

When Washington Grown visited the restaurant, Cox taught host Kristi Gorenson to make a seemingly simple salad featuring roasted pears grown at Tonnemaker Hill Farm in Royal City, alongside smoked trumpet mushrooms. He incorporated fermented coriander seeds, herbs, and their in–house blend of seaweed and mint powder.

“Land, sea, mountains,” he said. “Pacific Northwest, all in one place.”

Cox said that while pears and mushrooms might sound like a weird combination, the end result is delicious.

“We do a lot of this in the restaurant, where we sort of incorporate or mesh together different ingredients that wouldn’t really think of meshing together,” he said.

Another customer at the restaurant praised the way the restaurant combines well–known foods in surprising combinations.

“Just a real jolt for the palate,” he said. “Things that you swear, you’ve never tasted before, and they’re familiar foods. It’s wonderful.”