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Win Dinner for a Year at Ray’s Nov. 1-21!

Ray's Fire Boat Cropped

This November, as we look forward to 2018 and turning 45, we want to pause for a moment to celebrate the past, present and future of Ray’s, with you our beloved guests.

From November 1-21 enjoy three weeks of special menus that throwback to memorable moments and eras in our history. It will conclude with the drawing of a very special prize… Dinner for a Year at Ray’s for one lucky guest!

But first we want to hear from you!

Help us create a special 3-course menu of your favorite Ray’s dishes during the final week. Describe for us your most memorable Ray’s appetizer, entrée and dessert dishes from a recent experience (one in each category) or get out your copy of Ray’s cookbook, “Seafood Secrets of the Pacific Northwest” and tell us which appetizer, entrée and dessert is your favorite by Friday, November 3 at 11:59pm. Then our Executive Chef Paul Duncan will recreate a 3-course menu made up of the top item in each category, available in the Café and Boathouse Wednesday, November 15-Tuesday, November 21.

Tell us your top choices on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, email us at [email protected], or fill out a quick online poll. Don’t have a cookbook? Don’t worry we have some gently used copies available for purchase at the Café.

How to Win Dinner for a Year at Ray’s:

  • Starting Wednesday, November 1, 2017 and ending at dinner service on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 each time you dine at the Café or our first floor Boathouse and use your Loyalty Card you will be automatically entered to win dinner for a year at Ray’s Café and Boathouse.
  • The more times you dine the more chances you have to win.
  • On Wednesday, November 22 we will put all of the entries into a drawing and choose a winner at random.
  • Don’t have a Loyalty Card sign up here and start entering to win today!

Each week we will feature a different multi-course menu with nods to our past, try all of them and get entered to win each time!

Here’s what’s in store:

November 1-7: Guest Chef, Ray’s Founding Partner Russ Wohlers

The man who put Ray’s on the map with his simple approach to cooking the best local seafood, is back in the kitchen cooking up some of his favorite original Ray’s recipes:

  • Appetizer: Teriyaki Salmon
  • Entrée: Grilled Ling Cod with Black Lentil-Chanterelle Ragout
  • Dessert: Mum Mum’s Apple Pie

November 8-14: James Beard House Dinner

In 1992 Ray’s cooked a very special dinner at the James Beard House in New York City. For this week only, we are recreating that dinner in the Café and Boathouse for you to enjoy in full or choose courses a la carte:

  • Appetizer: Ray’s Dungeness Crab Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper-Lemon Aioli
  • Appetizer: Assorted Northwest Oysters on the Half Shell with Champagne Mignonette
  • Entrée: Chatham Straits Black Cod in Sake Kasu with Sesame-Rice Cake and Wasabi-Ginger Emulsion
  • Entrée: Crisp Butter Lettuce with Raspberry-Thyme Vinaigrette and Vanilla-Scented Alaskan Spot Prawns
  • Dessert: Scharffen Berger Chocolate Indulgence with Chambord Sabayon

November 15-21: You Choose the Menu!

Experience your favorite Ray’s recipes in a 3-course menu that you, our guests created!

We will be tallying up votes from your emails, social media comments and our online poll, to determine which appetizers, entrées and dessert to serve. The top item with the most votes for appetizer, entrée, and dessert will make up the menu. We will announce this guest favorite menu via social media before it begins.

Good luck to all, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

 

 

Official “Dinner for a Year at Ray’s” Contest Rules

How to Enter

  • Use your Ray’s Loyalty Card each time you dine from November 1- 21, 2017 and be entered to win dinner for a year at Ray’s. Each time you use your Loyalty Card your name will be entered in to the drawing to win dinner for a year at Ray’s, good in the Café and Boathouse.
  • Must have a Loyalty Card with a valid phone number to enter. Sign up here or at Ray’s Café or Boathouse.
  • One entry per day per venue (Café and Boathouse) will be counted towards the contest.
  • No minimum purchase amount is necessary to participate.

Prize

  • One winner will be drawn at random on Wednesday, November 22 to win Dinner for a Year at Ray’s, valid through November 30, 2018. We will announce the winner via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and contact them via phone.

Fine Print

  • Winner will be selected at random.
  • Entries are limited to one per day per venue (Café and Boathouse). You will be entered each time you dine during this period and use your Ray’s Loyalty Card.
  • Start date: Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 11:30 a.m. P.S.T.; entries made prior to this will not be valid.
  • End date: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. P.S.T.; entries made after this date will not be valid.
  • Winner must claim prize within 48 hours of being contacted by Ray’s via social media, email and/or phone. Or we will draw again.
  • Employees of Ray Boathouse, Inc. and their immediate families are not eligible to participate.
  • Entrants must be at least 18 years of age.
  • By claiming a prize, the winners consent to Ray’s use of their names and image/likeness including photography and video in future Ray’s marketing and advertising without compensation or further approval. Further, by accepting a prize, the winner agrees not to assert any claims and to release Ray’s, from any and all liabilities, injuries or damages sustained in connection with the award or use of the prize.
  • Winners are solely responsible for reporting winnings and paying all applicable taxes.
  • The odds of winning will be one out of the total number of eligible responses submitted.
  • Grand Prize:
    • $2,600 gift card to use toward “Dinner for a Year at Ray’s.” Valid in the Café and Boathouse through November 30, 2018. Equates to $50 per week for 52 weeks.
    • Cannot be used on Ray’s merchandise or in combination with any other offer. 
  • Menu items subject to change based on availability.

General Conditions

  • Void where prohibited / restricted by law.
  • All federal, state and local laws apply.
  • Paying and reporting taxes (if any) are the winner’s sole responsibility.
  • Prizes may not be substituted, transferred, redeemed or exchanged for cash, except at the sole discretion of Ray’s.
  • Ray’s is not responsible for illegible, damaged, lost, late or misdirected entries.
  • All submissions become property of Ray’s.
  • Ray’s reserves the right to refuse all prizes to any client who in their sole determination abuses their right to participate or violates the rules.
  • Should the winning submission be determined to be untrue or false in any way, the winner must be responsible for any and all real costs associated with grand prize or another winner may be picked at the discretion of Ray’s management.
  • All conditions, rules, and regulations of Ray’s Loyalty Card program apply.

These are the official contest rules of the “Dinner for a Year at Ray’s” contest. These rules may be subject to change without notice.

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Reeling in the years at Ray’s by Russ Wohlers

Russ Wohlers

Ray’s started with the small kernel of an idea that salmon and other fish could be broiled just like a steak on a beach bonfire grill, after reeling it into the boat from a good day of fishing. Then came halibut, lingcod, sable fish, oysters, mussels and clams. Excellent seafood that could be cooked in a way that made the true flavor of the food shine. Simple, good ingredients, cooked with herbs and salt and pepper…

But lets back up to how this simple idea mixed with the right people at the right time, altered the way Seattleites and the Northwest not only dined, but approached food.

Growing up on a small apple farm in the Wenatchee Valley, there was nothing but fresh seasonal food to enjoy, and fishing salmon and trout in the Wenatchee River with friends was my reward for chores and hard work on the ranch. Catching and eating fresh fish, as well as harvesting fruits and vegetables was a highlight of my youth, and this way of eating was forever engrained in me.

In the mid 1960s I spent a summer in Southeast Alaska as a cook and crewmember of a purse seiner, learning the ropes in the kitchen and furthering my knowledge about fishing. The money I earned allowed me to spend a quarter at the University of Washington where I met an exchange student from Austria whose older brother was managing a boutique hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. So, off I went on a grand adventure that was to last three years in Jackson Hole, where I tutored under a European trained chef for a period of time.

It was here I discovered that I really enjoyed cooking and restaurants. This led me to Sun Valley, Idaho where I managed a steak and salad concept for two years before getting transferred to Seattle to manage a different restaurant within the company.

One day in Seattle, I was picking up supplies at Bargreen Restaurant Supply (now Bargreen Ellingston) I asked Sam Bargreen about good restaurant locations in the city and he suggested Ray’s Boathouse, “it’s a little out of town but a really good location”.

I took his advice, went out to Ray’s and was instantly inspired to make the concept of simply prepared, fresh local seafood a reality. From a partnership involving myself, Earl Lasher and Duke Moscrip, Ray’s Boathouse & Café as it is today was born.

The idea was to do as much as possible with a few really good ingredients. Ray’s started assembling cooks that had passion and ideas to do different things, to innovate. We reeled in great ideas from everyone that offered innovation. Ray’s then filtered these ideas through our identity, standards of quality and concept to ensure that we stayed on course.

We had a wholesale fish buyer’s license very early and bought fish right off the boats that fished in Puget Sound in front of the restaurant.

In order to get really good fish Wayne Ludvigson and I put out the word that we would pay cash if fisherman would bring us the best quality fish. That started fishermen as well as gatherers coming to our back door with the best they had. We didn’t overcook. We served our seafood with steamed fresh vegies, crisp salads and fluffy rice/grain mixtures, and the rest is history.

The dynamism of the Seattle market has challenged our industry to be innovative. Over the nearly 45 years that Ray’s has been reeling in ideas much has changed and much has remained the same. When I started cooking 50 years ago cooks were the “low man on the totem pole” today chefs are the stars.

What makes a great restaurant and a great chef is longevity. This requires balance between cooking skills, people skills, business skills and innovation. These skills combined create success, and success allows longevity.

Of course longevity doesn’t exist without our guests. We have the most incredible, loyal guests. They have praised us, challenged us, pushed us to innovate further, humbled us, and inspired us to never stop improving.

Hospitality has always been a driving force at Ray’s. My mother’s family was from England and manners and hospitality was very important in our household growing up. Besides an excellent seafood restaurant, I wanted all of our guests to leave Ray’s feeling as if they’d just left a family meal, full of warmth, great food and wine, and a level of care they’d not experienced in a restaurant before.

Over the last 44 years we have reeled in excellent teammates that added to the success of Ray’s then graduated to own their own restaurants, wineries, and other businesses. We are always evolving as a company and currently we are doing so both physically and philosophically. We have younger partners in our new co-owners Douglas Zellers and Tom Olsson who partner well with Executive Chef Paul Duncan to bring new energy, innovation, seek out excellent new team members, all while staying true to our roots of simply prepared local seafood.

The future at Ray’s is brimming with excitement for what the next 45 years will bring… who will be the next fisherman we discover with new improved sustainable practices, what wines will our team reel in that creates an incredible new pairing, who will cook in our kitchens and blow us all away with their talent… we don’t know yet but we hope you’ll be along for the ride!

See you soon,

Russ Wohlers, Ray’s Founding Partner