A Bar or Bar With Food?
- By Autum Schumacher
- Published 2 July 2008
Autum Schumacher
Chef Autum is a member of the International Culinary Tourism Association and preparing to launch an exclusive culinary tour program in Alaska in 2009.
My first night back in Seward after a year and a half sojourn through the Midwest I was fiend-ing for the good stuff. Anything of the Alaskan seafood variety would do; fresh, tasty, lots of it. Had it not been early in the season and nearly 10pm I might’ve ended up in any one of a handful of dockside digs along 4th Avenue. Given my stellar timing, there were only two options available that evening; A bar, and a bar that “serves food”; Thorn’s Showcase Lounge. I headed toward Thorn’s with high hopes and belly growling.
If you are unfamiliar with the 37 year old establishment, allow me to enlighten you, it’s got character. Upon entering, the guests’ senses are immediately assaulted and disoriented. Dim, sporadic amber glow filters through panels along the wall, through a haze of cigarettes, fried food, and the musty time kept odor of old memories. Once the eyes adjust the décor is noticed; classic, masculine 70’s chic. Red-bulleted leather chairs, love-seats and cozy booths line the dining area. The bar has a red velvet bumper, ensuring an elbow sinking good time, and is topped off by a gold silk brocade façade that houses the liquor. On the topic of spirits, the primary decoration for the walls and every other conceivable flat surface is the largest known collection of specialized liquor bottles in the country if not the globe. There are 525 bottles occupying the customer inhabited area, and another 1,025 are housed downstairs. When we walked in I nearly turned back around, there was no way this place had what I thought I wanted.
Mentally kicking myself for aesthetic profiling and erring on the side of my very insistent stomach I decided to give the place a try. We ate at the bar. I ordered the “small bowl of halibut chunks”; they’re served a la carte, their only accompaniment homemade tartar sauce. When the waitress set down the wooden bowl I could only stare. It was piled high, steaming, and still recognizable as halibut! There was a thin, barely perceptible breading, more like a spice rub, perfectly caramelized brown edges spoke of expert searing. My mouth waters remembering the flavors; Sweet initially, with a slight salty pique of pepper, moist layers dissolved quickly after a slight roll of tongue and tooth. I couldn’t stop, I ate until completely sated, craving fulfilled, belly stuffed, I welcomed the onset of food coma.
This is the type of experience anyone with working taste buds would hope for, and those of the foodie ilk dream of. After this flavor ambush I knew I had to come back, and I wanted the story, did everyone know of this place? They should, and they ought to celebrate its continuity in the face of squeaky clean tourist traps unfolding around it.
It took me a month, but I made it back and the following is what I learned. Proprietor Gene Thorn moved to Alaska March 2nd 1952. He has owned several properties over the years, some of which were bars, before re-building what is now Thorn’s Showcase Lounge (after a fire destroyed the original structure) in ’71.
Gene is among other things, a stubborn perfectionist. The bar used to serve primarily Halibut, Steak and Crab or Shrimp Louis, going through approximately 30 cases of (fresh from Cordova) King crab a day. When the folks he got the crab from were no longer able to supply him, he took Crab Louis off the menu; he said he refused to make the dish without the best product available; it wasn’t available so he wouldn’t serve a lesser version. Thankfully our local Resurrection Bay Seafood company is able to supply the approximate 500lbs of halibut Thorn’s uses daily for his “Bowl of Halibut chunks”. The “Halibut chunks” whose flavor seared my palate and catapulted my nosy inquiry to Thorns history, is a staunchly guarded recipe that has been Gene’s for the last 46 years, the origination of said recipe remains part of its mystery.
Unfortunately there is now a greater threat than product supply for this stubborn Seward mainstay and that is time; after over 40 years of Alaskan entrepreneurial adventures Gene Thorn is ready to retire. Thorn’s will be up for sale in the very near (as of yet undisclosed) future. Situated along prime downtown 4th Ave, will the new owners carry on the staunch non-wavering quality driven- smoke inhabited torch? If current trends are any indication, this is not likely, however maybe Gene will incorporate a few friendly stipulations of sale. Those of us fortunate enough to have sampled his scrumptiously simple fair can only hope so. Until either eventuality comes about may I recommend hitting up the Large bowl of Halibut Chunks while it’s hot.
If you are unfamiliar with the 37 year old establishment, allow me to enlighten you, it’s got character. Upon entering, the guests’ senses are immediately assaulted and disoriented. Dim, sporadic amber glow filters through panels along the wall, through a haze of cigarettes, fried food, and the musty time kept odor of old memories. Once the eyes adjust the décor is noticed; classic, masculine 70’s chic. Red-bulleted leather chairs, love-seats and cozy booths line the dining area. The bar has a red velvet bumper, ensuring an elbow sinking good time, and is topped off by a gold silk brocade façade that houses the liquor. On the topic of spirits, the primary decoration for the walls and every other conceivable flat surface is the largest known collection of specialized liquor bottles in the country if not the globe. There are 525 bottles occupying the customer inhabited area, and another 1,025 are housed downstairs. When we walked in I nearly turned back around, there was no way this place had what I thought I wanted.
Mentally kicking myself for aesthetic profiling and erring on the side of my very insistent stomach I decided to give the place a try. We ate at the bar. I ordered the “small bowl of halibut chunks”; they’re served a la carte, their only accompaniment homemade tartar sauce. When the waitress set down the wooden bowl I could only stare. It was piled high, steaming, and still recognizable as halibut! There was a thin, barely perceptible breading, more like a spice rub, perfectly caramelized brown edges spoke of expert searing. My mouth waters remembering the flavors; Sweet initially, with a slight salty pique of pepper, moist layers dissolved quickly after a slight roll of tongue and tooth. I couldn’t stop, I ate until completely sated, craving fulfilled, belly stuffed, I welcomed the onset of food coma.
This is the type of experience anyone with working taste buds would hope for, and those of the foodie ilk dream of. After this flavor ambush I knew I had to come back, and I wanted the story, did everyone know of this place? They should, and they ought to celebrate its continuity in the face of squeaky clean tourist traps unfolding around it.
It took me a month, but I made it back and the following is what I learned. Proprietor Gene Thorn moved to Alaska March 2nd 1952. He has owned several properties over the years, some of which were bars, before re-building what is now Thorn’s Showcase Lounge (after a fire destroyed the original structure) in ’71.
Gene is among other things, a stubborn perfectionist. The bar used to serve primarily Halibut, Steak and Crab or Shrimp Louis, going through approximately 30 cases of (fresh from Cordova) King crab a day. When the folks he got the crab from were no longer able to supply him, he took Crab Louis off the menu; he said he refused to make the dish without the best product available; it wasn’t available so he wouldn’t serve a lesser version. Thankfully our local Resurrection Bay Seafood company is able to supply the approximate 500lbs of halibut Thorn’s uses daily for his “Bowl of Halibut chunks”. The “Halibut chunks” whose flavor seared my palate and catapulted my nosy inquiry to Thorns history, is a staunchly guarded recipe that has been Gene’s for the last 46 years, the origination of said recipe remains part of its mystery.
Unfortunately there is now a greater threat than product supply for this stubborn Seward mainstay and that is time; after over 40 years of Alaskan entrepreneurial adventures Gene Thorn is ready to retire. Thorn’s will be up for sale in the very near (as of yet undisclosed) future. Situated along prime downtown 4th Ave, will the new owners carry on the staunch non-wavering quality driven- smoke inhabited torch? If current trends are any indication, this is not likely, however maybe Gene will incorporate a few friendly stipulations of sale. Those of us fortunate enough to have sampled his scrumptiously simple fair can only hope so. Until either eventuality comes about may I recommend hitting up the Large bowl of Halibut Chunks while it’s hot.
