Originally published Saturday, January 16, 1999

By JON HAHN  
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

If Blue Ridge is a planned community, you have to wonder if they planned it to be within walking distance of one of the best little eating spots north of the Ballard Bridge.

Almost hidden within the fecund ferniness of Swanson's Nursery on 15th Avenue Northwest, the tiny Festivities Cafe is where lots of locals end their so-called exercise walks. A brisk morning walk that may burn off, say, 800 calories might be followed by a steaming bowl of fruit- and nut-garnished and whipped-cream topped bread pudding that replaces those calories exponentially.

There is something about a great cafe nestled inside a great nursery that encourages you to slow down and enjoy life. There are no signs down on the 15th Avenue Northwest-Holman Road curve pointing to this gastronomical garden spot, but then, Barry Foster and Casandra Vaivadas don't have to advertise their cafe.

Word-of-mouth makes a food businesses successful, especially if the mouth is connected to a happy stomach. In one unannounced visit, this mouth consumed a bread pudding and a bowl of Moroccan curried chicken soup with a side of the best focaccia bread I've ever tasted.

"We make all the soup stocks the day ahead, so the flavors get a chance to mix well," said Barry, basting the chicken breasts on their way into the oven. "Then, we add the meat as the bowl is on its way to the customer. That keeps it from getting over-cooked and tough."

Two different soups are featured every day, "but it's pretty much a spontaneous decision that depends on what's in season or available," said the soft-spoken Seattle native who doubled back from graduate work in zoology into the kitchen world.

Casandra backed into restaurant work with a theater degree from the University of Puget Sound and almost a decade of selling cosmetics for the Nordstrom folks. A Beacon Hill native, she got her early restaurant training working for Tony Canlis -- "a great teacher who taught me the importance of good presentation and treating people well," Casandra said.

She met Barry while they both worked at McCormick's Fish House downtown. "I was still working at Nordstrom but intended to go to Paris and needed a second job for the money. Barry and I used to talk all the time about what we'd do if we had our own restaurant, and he had already been to Paris and studied and worked there," she said.

Barry actually started as a waiter in Portland and leaped at an opportunity for hands-on kitchen training with Jimella Lucas of The Ark restaurant fame. "That's when I decided not to go into graduate studies (zoology) at Cornell, because I was more interested in cooking," he said.

He moved to Seattle and continued waiting tables (Rosellini's Four-10, Rex's Deli, etc.) "and then I decided to do it right and go to Paris. I put in a couple years as a stagiere, a sort of chef's assistant, at LaVarenne Cooking School, that included setting up classes and translation work in exchange for training.

"After Paris, I came back to McCormick's, about 1984, and that's where I met Casandra. When the lady who started this cafe decided to sell, I talked Casandra into coming along."

Her Paris trip went on the back burner as she leaped into the world of 10- and 12-hour days of cooking and baking. It was sort of like Brer Rabbit getting tossed into the brier patch.

"Barry is a much better cook and baker, but he lets me do much of the baking because he knows I enjoy it!" Casandra said. Her baking includes special-order cakes and giant cinnamon rolls on weekends, as well as the daily offerings of those fabulous bread puddings, the to-die-for focaccia, fresh-daily scones, fruit crisps, and tempting tasties such as Kahlua cream-cheese brownies, carrot spice cake, lemon squares, daily quiches and a variety of cookies the size of a road-kill volleyball.

Barry concedes that the soups are his favorite kitchen job. "They're all pretty labor-intensive. We don't really work from recipes, and rarely do the same soups on any given day. Customers are always asking for recipes but there are very few written down. It's more a stream-of-consciousness type of cooking.

"We try to have one every day, without meat. And in the summer we usually have a gazpacho. People really sort of expect that, and they like it. The stocks are always done the day before, and if anyone has an idea, we might make a choice about what meats or vegetables or spices to use."

It's really more planned than he makes it sound. And it's exceptionally tasty and well-presented. "Cas and I both have worked in some fine restaurants, and we both like great food, but simple.

"We roast our own turkey and bake our own bread and we make our own fruit chutney to go with the turkey sandwich . . . that sort of thing. We roast our own tomatoes and use only fresh herbs."

When he is stopped in mid-sentence and asked for his favorite of all soups, or the most important ingredient, Barry smiles: "You've gotta really like to eat soup. My mother made great soups. A lot of our Sunday night dinners were soup, bread and salad. She made a great roasted eggplant soup. I think we were the only kids on the block who ever even saw an eggplant."

Therein lies some sort of link with Casandra, who admits that one of her favorites is eggplant pie, with sausage, ground beef, sun-dried tomato and herbs -- a recipe from her mother, Annabelle Vaivadas, of Kent. "Mom comes here occasionally, and she brings friends and she always says that we're doing great things. She's one of our biggest fans," Casandra said.

Like Barry, she also admits that she doesn't cook much at home on Queen Anne. "Like Barry, I eat some here and because of the long hours, I end up taking something home. My favorite is one of our individual-size pizzas, with caramelized onion, roasted potato, goat cheese and mushrooms -- I love mushrooms on everything.

"But Barry's pizzas . . . they're the best! He makes them with different blends of cheeses and herbs, like little works of art."

There is a sort of mutual admiration thing going in this kitchen that spills over on the menu. And there's a symbiosis that makes eating in a light, airy greenhouse-and-nursery atmosphere a truly satisfying experience.

But then, the folks who walk down from Blue Ridge already know that.

Festivities Garden Cafe at Swanson's Nursery, 9701 15th Ave. N.W., is open daily 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; breakfast pastries, pizza, salads and soups, sandwiches on homemade focaccia, desserts and cookies; 206-789-1163.