Wild Abandon, located 2411 SE Belmont St, will be soon celebrating 15 years of delicious food, since February 1995. We sat down with owner Michael Cox to discuss what drives his passion for the business and the restaurants history.

id Magazine: What made you pursue a career in the restaurant business?

Michael Cox: I have always been in the restaurant business, my parents owned a restaurant supply business. They helped me get my first job as a dishwasher in their friends restaurant when I was 13…child labor you know (we laugh)
We didn’t care about child labor back in Colorado…so I have have just always been in the restaurant business…you know, it’s one of those things that it is kind of addictive. There’s the front of the house, so there’s the immediate gratification and cash, and I got tired of working for other people…had this vision one day and…here we are.

You describe the menu “eclectic American with Northwest flair”?

I would say more like Northwest fair with a European flair…for one thing we have changed chef’s over the years and have evolved, but we are definately heavy-handed in Italian and French influences…but you know, it’s the American way, a melting pot you know…American food by nature is sort of a fusion. In the old days we would have called it Continental Cuisine, right?

Does the menu rotate or is it seasonal?

We do seasonal changes, but the menu doesn’t exactly rotate…some things don’t change, somethings do change…some things are seasonal, others are not…

Do you have a signature dish?

Definately the baked Ziti Pasta, which has been on our menu for years and years, and our Chapino.

What is Chapino, for the newbie?

It’s a seafood stew, like the italian version of bolognese. It’s a brothy, tomato, mildly spicey stew with clams, mussels, shrimp and fish…whatever you have. Oh, our pork shoulder…it’s oil poached, which sounds odd, but it’s amazing and definatly a comfort food.

What’s oil poached?

It’s actually slow poached in a thing of oil, for hours and hours and hours…then it’s pressed…it’s not low calorie by the way. It just falls apart, it’s amazing.

I’ll have to try the Ziti dish next time I’m here…

That’s on the Happy Hour menu too. It’s different at Happy Hour, it’s vegetarian, on the dinner menu it comes with scallops, but you can have it without. Almost all of our…wherever possible, we have vegetarian options with most of our dishes if they are not automatically vegetarian…like the Cavatappi pasta with Itlaian sausage, you can have it without the sausage and the Risotto with Scallops, you can have it without the scallops. We do try to be vegetarian friendly, we also like to have some vegan items on our menu. As a matter of fact, our breakfast menu has an entire section of vegan choices.

How has business been?

Business has been interesting…you know we have one of the top ten patios back there, so that has been a huge draw in patio weather. In the days when it was summertime and I only had the dining room, I opened that big patio, summertime business was a lot different, much less…so with the patio, we do really well. We have the Recession Buster Menu, which is $10 entrees, and has been a good pull to bring people in.

We have a happy hour…people are looking to save money, so you have to have that range…so we have some spendy items on our menu, but we have options available that people can afford.

The Recession Buster menu is available all the time?

Well, for dinner. You know breakfast and lunch is a whole different thing, We’re kind of like a schizophrenic restaurant (I laugh) we’re open for breakfast and lunch and that’s like one restaurant, and then dinner is another restaurant.

What is “The Red Velvet Lounge” part of the restaurant?

“The Red Velvet Lounge” – actually I’m beginning to get rid of the “The Red Velvet Lounge” part over time, I’m going to have a new sign that will say, Wild Abandon Restaurant and Lounge. “The Red Velvet Lounge” was something I did years ago to give people…to try and do away with this concept that Wild Abandon was this really facy expensive restaurant where you only went for special occasions. That’s how “The Red Velvet Lounge” was born. Obviously there is no separate space, they are a symbiotic thing. “The Red Velvet Lounge” and Wild Abandon occupied the same space, so you’d kind of decide what your doing, and that was the side you’re at.

Originally their was a curtain, a red velvet curtain…and the booths. They both showed up at the same time. So, beyond the curtain was the lounge, and before the curtain was the restaurant. That was the original concept, and then of course we never intended to sit people on one side of the curtain or the other, it was just sort of a gimmick. So people could, just come in and have cocktails and an appetizer. Then we came up with a burger on the menu and the Happy Hour, that was the whole reason for the “The Red Velvet Lounge.”

So it is too many words, a little confusing to people, so I’m going to get rid of “The Red Velvet Lounge” and just restaurant and lounge. Simple.

Do you feel like you have dimenished the fancy restaurant concept?

Yes, pretty much.

Do you make everything form scratch or do you have vendors?

We do…our mainstay bread is focaccia, we make that here. We do buy some bread form Grand Central bakery…that would be the only thing we don’t make from scratch. All of our desserts, our ice cream, our sorbe.

For your support of the LGBTIQ community, I know you do an Our House dinner?

I do…every year for my anniversary I do an Our House dinner. We give at least 50% of the proceeds for the entire night to Our House. There have been times where I’ve done more.

I noticed the great paintings here…Is the artwork on the walls here on a rotational basis?

Yes…except that one (he points to a very large 60’s era mosaic piece) all the others change about every six weeks. That one was given to me by a customer on her way out of town, she moved to Canada. It was made by her father in 1965. He was a dentist…I always tell people it’s made out of human teeth. (I laugh) She said, “You have to have it, it belongs here in the restaurant,” and my house was built in 1965, so I had it there. I heard she was coming back to town for a party, so I had to bring it back down here so I wouldn’t get busted!

In closing…What drives your passion for making great food, and the hospitality you provide here?

What drives me…I don’t know. Maybe I should see a therapist to find out! (I laugh)

For example, is it bringing people together, building community? Creating and providing an experience maybe?

Definately…that…and of course having, as simple as having my own job and creating a life for myself. Something I can be in control of and love to do. I suppose the thing that is most satisfying to me, is to look out over the dining room when there’s customers and seeing people sharing a bottle of wine, having a good time…the music is Ella Fitzgerald in the background, the candles are lit, and the lights are low…looking out over that and watching that happen and getting the satisfaction that I created that.

Wild Abandon 503.232.4458 2411 SE Belmont