‘Bye, Scott. I won’t forget you.

Our family hasn’t been spending a lot of time and money in restaurants over the past two years, but when we had a little extra and wanted to splurge, we went to Lunchbox Laboratory.

Lunchbox Laboratory is unlike any burger place anyone’s ever been to before. Instead of pre-formed patties and the same five or six toppings, Lunchbox Laboratory was a constant experiment  in pushing the boundaries. After all, its owner was a chef. He owned two highly-regarded restaurants in Seattle before he opened his burger lab. Let’s face it: How many burger places in America are currently serving duck or lamb burgers? He did. One could spend all day picking ingredients and seasonings for those burgers, too, from a huge list. (There was a ketchup on the menu called “Satan’s Tears”, for instance, among other items.)

Scott Simpson made the best cheeseburger I’ve ever eaten in my life. It’s sloppy. It’s huge. It’s delicious. He used Kobe beef and the best ingredients he could get. When I wasn’t stuffing my face with a perfectly done burger and Tater Tots, he made amazing milkshakes. (The pumpkin pie caramel milkshake. The Key Lime milkshake. I’ve heard about the Nutella milkshake, but I am afraid. After all, we do like sleeping inside.) We were both afraid that “Top Chef Masters” would find out about Scott, we would lose him to the bright lights of LA, Chicago or New York, and I’d have to get on a plane to have his food.

http://www.lunchboxlaboratory.com/

We didn’t lose Scott to television, or even to another location. We, and everyone else who loved him and his food, lost him to bipolar disorder. He died on Monday. He was only 38. We didn’t see him every day. We didn’t see him more than a couple of times a year. At the same time, he always made time to talk with us, no matter how busy he was when we visited for a meal. We last saw him two weeks ago. We were scheduled to meet up with a friend, and we hadn’t been to the new South Lake Union location yet. Someone’s three-year-old pulled the fire alarm in the building just after we finished our lunch. Scott was apologizing to the diners who had to spend a few minutes outside while things were checked out. I patted him on the back, and told him it wasn’t a big deal. Everyone was safe.

It is amazing to me that someone so brilliant, so gifted and so kind is no longer with us. Someone responding to his obituary in the Seattle Times today called him a “supernova”. I have to agree. Everyone says the same things when something like this happens. “They’re in a better place.” “We’ll see them again.” Maybe. Mostly, I’m just pissed off that this country doesn’t treat mental illness as something that’s as much of a killer as heart disease or cancer. I don’t see a lot of telethons or “walks for the cure” for bipolar disorder or depression. Evidently, it’s not sexy.

Mostly, I’m sad. I wonder to myself what he would have come up with in the future. I feel badly for his loved ones, especially his girlfriend, Allegra. Lunchbox Laboratory will survive with his employees and his business partners, but he won’t be there.

I wish things were different.

-S

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