Walk into Surrell on E Madison above Madison Valley and you sense the decades of intention packed into every detail, from the carefully curated playlist to wine pairings sourced exclusively from Washington vintners. Chef and owner Aaron Tekulve didn’t stumble into this level of care. It started in his mother’s kitchen.
“Mom’s kitchen always gets a lot of credit,” Tekulve explains. “Surrell is the middle name of all the firstborn women on my mom’s side of the family. And so mom and grandma were really instrumental in teaching how to cook when I was young, especially my mom.”
That heritage runs deeper than just a name. His mother’s influence, drawing from Julia Child’s methodical approach, combined with his grandmother’s adventurous palate, created the foundation for one of Seattle’s most nominated fine dining destinations. This year, Surrell earned recognition as a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific.
Tekulve’s path to opening Surrell was not linear. After spending his 20s in a band, touring the country with “sweaty dudes in a van,” he pivoted to corporate work at FedEx, where he learned invaluable business skills.
“There’s this tactile thing of cooking that, you know, just brings a lot of people into the craft of it. And you can see yourself actively getting better at things,” he says, describing what drew him back to the kitchen. His athletic background, he grew up playing hockey and baseball, also shaped his approach to the physical demands of cooking.
Before Surrell’s 2020 opening, Tekulve spent years running pop-up dinners beginning in 2013. According the Tekulve, this was essential training for any aspiring restaurateur.
“Pop ups are for learning,” Tekulve says. “It’s a safer space for that. You can put more context into that before guests show up, so that they know that this is a night where there’s experimentation going on.”
For Tekulve, those years were formative. “I want everyone to do pop ups, because if you’re not willing to put in a year of that, you have no business opening a restaurant,” he says bluntly. “If you’ve never done that before and been willing to schlep your stuff, venue to venue and figure it out, and sell tickets and do this, then you’re not ready for entrepreneurship, because that will teach.”
The difference is practical. “It’s way harder when you go to a space. And it stays hard, because I have 10 people who work for me who will depend on me to make sure that they all got paid today.”
The James Beard nomination reflects Tekulve’s unconventional philosophy. He is quick to credit his team.
“You equate so much of that to why we were nominated for James Beard, because it is a reflection of all their work,” Tekulve explains. “It is only representative of the team you have, because you can’t be a “best chef” by yourself.”
This philosophy shapes everything at Surrell. “I am positive that it’s been this last year of what this team has been doing and the way they’ve been working together, and how they care about each other first, which then translates to how they care for guests,” he says.
That investment in staff is tangible: competitive wages, health insurance, dental coverage, paid time off, and mental health services. Tekulve practices what he preaches, typically working 50-hour weeks rather than the 60+ common in the industry.
Walk through Surrell’s doors expecting stuffy formality, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The restaurant prioritizes hospitality as much as technique.
“If you want to explore what Pacific Northwest cuisine and Washington cuisine is, I think that we do an incredibly great job of telling that story,” Tekulve explains.
Unlike many fine dining establishments, Surrell doesn’t turn tables. “You’re going to have your table for the whole night, because we don’t turn tables,” Tekulve says. Services last 2.5 to 3 hours, enough time to savor courses and conversation.
There are egalitarian principals. The kitchen operates without a dedicated dishwashing position, a deliberate choice that Tekulve says builds empathy. “Everybody washes dishes here as a team,” Tekulve explains.
“If everyone runs two, three racks a night, that’s it. And we work as a team with that…everyone has this area of empathy now, because everyone does the same thing.”
Surrell’s commitment to local sourcing is nearly as famous as its cuisine. About 80% of ingredients come from the Pacific Northwest.
“If we can’t get it from the Pacific Northwest, we want to work as much as we can local artisans to source it,” Tekulve says. “During the peak of the season, I’m at the farmers market pretty regularly for things, especially in Columbia City.”
The economics favor local sourcing now. “Everything’s pretty expensive, it’s all pretty much the same price anymore, so you might as well choose to spend the money with these smaller farms and ranches.”
Six years into opening Surrell, Tekulve has created something rare in Seattle’s fine dining scene: a restaurant that takes itself seriously without pretension, honors tradition while constantly pushing forward, and sees staff as collaborators in a shared mission. The James Beard nomination is recognition of what regulars already know.
Surrell is located at 2319 E Madison. Learn more at surrellseattle.com.
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