Take 5 Urban Market

Executive Chef Bryan Vietmeier

My first job, a paper route, had me walking past the building where Take 5 now resides. Those dark, cold, rainy mornings at 13, I never would have thought my life would bring me back to the “hood” at 47, cooking as I did for my family of 7 back then, along side my sister and her family, this time for the neighborhood. My first cooking job was also in the neighborhood. My junior and senior year at Ballard high I presided over the grill at the Market St McDonald’s. In those days the food was actually cooked. Almost from scratch. It was under the Golden Arches that I learned some of the basics of kitchen organization and teamwork that I still use today.

My career has spanned from the days of high school to jumping around several waterfront seafood houses to 12 years as a Sous Chef with the Four Seasons Olympic to 7 years as Executive Chef with a well known Seattle and Bellevue private fine dining club, to 3 summers in Alaska as chef of a full service 1K a day fishing resort with 5 years as a chef with one of Seattle’s top caterers thrown in between as well. Somewhere in the middle of it all I earned my culinary degree from South Seattle Community College.

I humbly bring my 30+ years of well rounded culinary experience and knowledge back to the great Ballard community. It feels good to be back. I look forward to serving Ballard and beyond, growing and changing to create a unique experience for our customers and neighbors. I am excited about this opportunity and feel it fits well with my experience and personality. There are times in my career when my passion has waned, when cooking became just a job, a hard and underpaid job at that. Since starting this Take 5 adventure my passion for food has never been greater, my job no longer feels like work, the future looks bright and my skills and talents are being fully utilized. I have come home to find this is where I was meant to be all along.