JJ Proville

The Essentials Restaurant service became the working education for JJ Proville; he has said the shift from food media into kitchens was the point where the trade itself started to teach him: “So when I switched to actually working in restaurants—that was my education.” Before L’Oursin in Seattle, he spent nearly three years writing for StarChefs in New York. That background put him inside the industry from the editorial side before he moved west and reset the frame in Seattle. The decision to leave New York was shaped by the conditions of the city’s restaurant culture, which he described as “the grit and brutality of New York.” Seattle became the place to start over, and that restart now includes work outside the dining room as well. At L’Oursin, the operation has widened into retail: “We’ve opened a little market which is taking up a lot of time and energy! It’s nice to have a project.”

Signature

The menu language attached to JJ Proville centers on prepared seafood and French-leaning plates: Gambas Grillées, duck confit, and Bretagne-style shellfish towers.

In Their Words “We’ve opened a little market which is taking up a lot of time and energy! It’s nice to have a project.” “So when I switched to actually working in restaurants—that was my education.”