Business, Ag Section

CSunday, May 10, 2015

City Editor Russ Hemphill

(509) 665-1161hemphill@wenatcheeworld.com

Local avg.: $2.68 Nat’l avg.: $2.65

Gas prices

Sources: AAA; Wenatchee World surveyof 12 local gas stations each week

$2.25

$2.37

$2.50

$2.62

$2.75

5/74/304/234/164/94/3

(Washington avg.: $2.97)

This special Mother’s Day edition of Everyday Business

will be of particular interest to moms who love tacos, write a blog or want to work on a cherry packing line. You know, the usual mommy-type activities. You other mothers

might not give a hoot. But take a look anyway:

Job seekers line up to work cherry lines

Looking for work? Stemilt Growers had another huge turnout for their annual job fair last Monday. And they still need workers.

Nearly 570 job seekers lined up early for the event at the Wenatchee Conven-tion Center. The company is hoping to soon fi ll 800 jobs on cherry packing lines start-ing in late May.

Hopefuls can still fi ll out an application at WorkSource Wenatchee, 215 Bridge St., Wenatchee. Or you can get more info by calling 665-6605 or visit fortress.wa.gov/esd/worksource/.

You need tacos to go with that ‘Entiattitude’

With Mexican restaurants sprouting like chili peppers across the Wenatchee Valley, it’s easy to overlook one of our favorite spicy dining spots: Tacos Chava. Their location in Wenatchee Valley Mall is good, but did you know they have a sister restaurant in Entiat?

Last year, Tacos Chava’s co-owners Salvador and Oralia Tovar opened their second eatery in one of Entiat’s prime locations, a converted gas station that was once the home of the Entiat Valley Bakery.

Now that the weather’s nice, it’s great to relax in the restaurant’s multi-windowed dining rooms, munch a few $1.25 tacos and sip a beer, all while enjoying views of the city’s new park, Columbia River and distant ridges. They’ve also added outdoor seating, so you can have a tanning-and-taco afternoon straight through summer.

But the best thing about Tacos Chava is the condi-ment bar. It’s loaded with salsas of various heats (mild, medium and — ay-yi-yi — muy caliente) and the best guacamole-cilantro sauce in the region. Also, don’t miss the onion chunks steamed in sweet chili sauce.

BY MIKE IRWIN

World staff writer

HEY, MOM, YOU LOOKING FOR A JOB?

WENATCHEE — New owners of Warm Springs Inn & Winery say their vision for the place isn’t really about the century-old house or its history-fi lled rooms, although those are start-ing points for the inn’s Old World hospitality.

Seattle restaurateurs-turned-innkeepers Ludger and Julie Szmania say what engages them most is the vintage home’s setting — green lawn edging the Wenatchee River, stately trees arching over white gazebos, decks facing sage hills in the distance.

“We were looking to simplify life,” said Ludger. “We were looking to get away from the rush of the big city to a sunny place we could relax and call home. We think we’ve found it, and now we want to share it with others.”

Owners of the six-room Warm Springs since 2013, the Szmanias have spent the last 20 months upgrading the inn — along with their bed-and-breakfast skills — to now feel confi -dent enough to welcome a houseful of guests. They’ve also fi ne-tuned the inn’s operations as a wedding venue with the hiring of a full-time director, Ericka Brown, who planned 13 ceremo-nies last year with 12 more scheduled in coming months.

“What did we know about running a bed and breakfast? Practically nothing,” laughed Julie. “We knew how to run restaurants, to prepare fi ne meals, but there are so many other aspects to running an inn and hosting weddings.

We had to learn them all.”The Szmanias began with renova-

tions that opened up the inn’s downstairs gathering rooms — break-fast area, dining room, lounging and meeting spaces — to light and air. Heavy drapes came down. Interior windows replaced shelving and walls. Eight new glass French doors. A guest standing on the inn’s front porch can now see straight through the lower fl oor to the back deck, river and hills beyond.

“We wanted to open the place up to our surroundings,” said Julie. “It’s so beautiful that it’s really a shame to block that view.”

Upstairs, the owners lightened each bedroom’s color palette, simplifi ed the decor and brightened the bathrooms. Outside, gazebos sprouted sound equipment for wedding parties. New seating areas were arranged under the cottonwoods.

When they began last year to book guests, they took guidance from compliments and complaints — “our

guests are our best teachers,” said Julie — to add amenities and smooth out kinks in guest services. The wine bar space was opened up to accommo-date larger wine tastings. Bedding and linens were upgraded. Audio equip-ment was installed in the gazebos for wedding parties.

And then there’s the food.Raised in Germany and trained as

a chef in Europe, Ludger immigrated to Canada in 1977 to work for a hotel chain in Montreal. He then served as executive chef for some of the nation’s top hotel companies, including Hilton in Puerto Rico and Four Seasons in Vancouver, Houston and eventually Seattle.

He and Julie married in 1988 and for the last 15 years they owned two highly-touted Seattle-area restaurants. Chef Ludger prepared menus, ran the kitchen crew and did much of the hands-on cooking. Julie drew up business plans and oversaw the fi nanc-es. Together, they worked their way to the top of Seattle’s competitive restau-

rant scene, regularly earning 27 points out of 30 in Zagat’s annual restaurant rankings.

“We loved it,” said Ludger. “It was an exciting and rewarding time. But as the years went on, we realized it was time for a change. New environment. New challenges.”

At the inn, Ludger has stayed true to his philosophy of preparing simple, high-fl avor dishes from the freshest ingredients he can fi nd. He and Julie have prepared a multi-tiered spot for an expansive garden kitchen, and they’ve shopped regularly at Mike’s Meats and Auvil’s Select Fruit at Pybus Public Market. During growing seasons, they’re drawn weekly to local farmers markets and are now contacting local producers directly to maintain a steady fl ow of fresh veggies, meats and locally prepared foods.

And it all shows up on the plate. At a recent three-course brunch, Ludger served fresh fruit (including a

BY MIKE IRWIN

World staff writer

A recipefor hospitality

World photos/Mike Bonnicksen

Above: Chef Ludger Szmania, center, talks with guests Tonya Haworth, at left, and Amelia Beckel about his cooking while they eat breakfast at Warm Springs Inn & Winery. Below: Vines cover the west wall of the 100-year-old, multi-columned Warm Springs Inn & Winery.

Warm Springs Inn & Winery What: A 100-year-old home converted into a bed and breakfast and wedding venue

Who: Owners Ludger and Julie Szmania, former Seattle restaurateurs

Where: 1611 Love Lane, east of Wenatchee off Lower Sunnyslope Road

Notable: The main fl oor with dining and gathering spaces has been completely renovated for prime views of the surrounding landscape — river, trees, hills and expansive lawns. Guests should also look forward to gourmet breakfasts and weekend dinners. 

Info: Call 662-5683 or visit warmspringsinn.com. 

Photo provided/Wenatchee Worksource

Stemilt Growers had another huge turnout for their annual job fair last Monday. And they still need workers.

Please see INN, Page C2

Please see BIZ, Page C2

EverydayBusiness

Mike Irwin

Garden Suite: the inn’s largest room.

Okay, commercial winemakers, you and your loyal

customers know your wines are great. Now, it’s time to let everyone else know. And there’s no better way than entering your wines in this year’s North Central Washington Wine Awards.

The deadline for entering your wines is May 22, so it’s time to start putting a selection of your best together for

entry. Better yet, enter all your wines since there’s no entry fee.

Foothills Magazine partners with Great Northwest Wines to put on the competition. Great Northwest Wine, created by Andy Perdue and Eric Degeman, coordinates competi-tions and publishes wine news throughout the Northwest.

The judging will be held behind closed doors June 2 in Wenatchee. All wines

are judged double blind, meaning that the eight judges will not see what wines are served or what wineries are entered before tasting. They will know what category or variety of wine they are sampling.

Winners will be announced at the 2015 Wenatchee Wine and Food Festival Aug. 22 at Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee. All winners will also be featured in Foothills Magazine’s annual wine issue in

September. The magazine will be distributed throughout NCW and statewide to further promote the local wine industry.

Fill out the entry form online or download from ncwwineawards.com. Then drop off three bottles of each wine entered at The Wenatchee World offi ce, 14 N. Mission St., by May 22. It’s that simple.

It’s a great opportunity to let your wines shine,

promote your craft and do your part to promote the region’s acclaimed wine industry. Sales of award-winning wines at the Aug. 22 gala benefi t the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center.

All the information you need can be found on the website, ncwwineawards.com, or call Foothills editor Marco Martinez at 664-7149.

Rick Steigmeyer: 664-7151steigmeyer@wenatcheeworld.com

Time to enter wines in the NCW Wine AwardsWinemaker’s Journal

Rick SteigmeyerWorld staff writer