For a third-generation restaurant that is 75 years old, change is inevitable. And change is coming big time to the Seattle fine-dining icon Canlis.
News hit this week that Canlis executive chef Aisha Ibrahim and her wife Samantha Beaird, who is the restaurant’s executive sous chef, plan to leave in April to follow their dream of opening their own restaurant concept, maybe in New York, or maybe in Los Angeles. Ibrahim, who was the restaurant’s first female executive chef and worked previously at the Michelin-starred restaurants Manresa in the Bay Area and Azurmendi in Spain, has been with Canlis for nearly four years, and this year was nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Pacific Northwest.
And that’s not the biggest announcement.
The move comes as the two brothers who own the restaurant, Mark and Brian Canlis, are planning to go separate ways—but not out of any dispute. The two took over the restaurant in 2007 from their parents, Chris and Alice Canlis, who ran it for 30 years.
Now Brian is selling his shares to Mark and his wife, Anne Marie, though Brian will remain on the board.
In early June, Brian is plotting a move to Nashville, where he plans to work with Will Guidara, the former co-owner of the famed New York City restaurant Eleven Madison Park. Guidara is also co-producer and the culinary brains behind the series “The Bear,” and author of the book “Unreasonable Hospitality,” which has become required reading in the industry.
Guidara and his wife, Christina Tosi, co-owner of the Milk Bar dessert and bakery chain and an author herself, reportedly bought a $3.2 million historic home in Nashville last year.
Brian reportedly has been thinking about making a change for a couple years. When he and Mark took ownership, Brian was single. Now he has a family, including four children, and he and his wife, Mackenzie, have been drawn to Nashville. Brian and Guidara were college roommates at Cornell.
Brian describes the work with Guidara in reports as a one-year trial, and it’s not clear what that will mean.
Guidara, who is also host of the annual hospitality symposium The Welcome Conference, is bringing an Unreasonable Hospitality Summit to Nashville for the first time this year, scheduled for May 22-23, which is described as a training workshop with him and his team.
Brother Mark Canlis, meanwhile, will continue at the Seattle restaurant, which will be looking for a new executive chef.
“It feels like a piece of your heart has been ripped out,” Mark told Seattle Met. “It’s sad. The other side of that is I am so proud of him for making this call.”
For a restaurant with such a long history in the Pacific Northwest, Canlis has not been shy about trying new things.
Last year, for example, Canlis offered its staff weekends off during the summer. Real Saturday-and-Sunday weekends, which meant closing on Saturday nights.
Canlis was founded in 1950 by Mark and Brian’s grandfather, Peter Canlis. It was one of the first fine-dining restaurants to hire women in roles traditionally held by men, and was an early adopter of team-service practices.
During the pandemic, the high-end restaurant re-imagined itself multiple times in an attempt to keep the entire staff employed. Canlis at times offered bagels in the morning, drive-thru burgers and meal delivery. It was also a crab shack and a Swiss-themed yurt village. It kept the business going until normalcy returned.
Last year, when Barbie was the hit movie, the brothers had the restaurant painted bright pink and temporarily renamed it “Kenlis,” for a dance party involving roller skating and horses, as a breast cancer benefit.
Despite the high-end setting, Canlis has brought a certain playfulness to the table, even with so much uncertainty ahead.
Meanwhile, Mark told The New York Times he is open to whatever may come. The restaurant had a record year in 2024. It will celebrate its 75th anniversary in December, no doubt with a party of some sort.
Brian expressed confidence in his brother’s ability to carry the torch as Canlis enters a new era.
“For the record,” he told the Times, “I think he’ll crush it.”
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