Consistency is Overrated

One thing we have come to expect in our consumer culture is consistency. And due to how mechanized and automated we have become, consistency is pretty easy to pull off: Every Ford Focus hatchback is the same size, every can of Coke has the same taste, and every iPhone’s power button is in the same place.

Consistency is simple when you’re dealing with inanimate, non-living products that are created by robots in some factory somewhere.

But what about when you’re dealing with things that are organic, dynamic, and alive?

At the Well & Table, our beef, poultry, and pork come from small, local, family-owned farms that don’t butcher animals by the hundreds each day. Our vegetables and fruits are not the result of corporate mono-cropping under sterile and controlled conditions. Local fields are subject to local weather, and small farms require flexibility when it comes to the specific cuts of meat on offer.

In a word, a farm-to-table vision demands a bit of flexibility. We can plan next season’s menu, but Mother Nature may have other ideas.

What does this mean for our guests at the Well & Table?

Well, since our wines come from local, small-batch vintners who don’t mass-produce, we may not have the same exact wine selection this month that we did a month prior. Our local cattle rancher may have ribeyes on hand one week but filets the next. Our autumn cocktails will likely incorporate a fresh apple garnish or pear liqueur, but strawberries are ripe in the summer.

The benefit of a dynamic menu that is shaped by nature (rather than trying to bend nature to our own will) is that it will give our guests the opportunity to avoid a rut and try new things. Who knows, we may be out of your usual go-to wine, which then makes possible your discovery of a local winery that you never even knew about.

Perfect consistency is artificial, predictable, and worst of all, boring. What is far more important is the fact that every dish we prepare at the Well & Table is made with love, thoughtfulness, and care — care for our guests, yes, but also care for our local economy and the farmers, winemakers, and brewers that fuel it.

After all, it is those local merchants (and not some remote and faceless corporation) who will be blessed and impacted by the vision we are promoting.

And that is why we do what we do.

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The Well & Table is located in Gilman Village in Issaquah, WA. We are hoping to be open for business in late spring, 2021.