El Gaucho

About the Business

Specialties

Our menu features fresh seafood selections and 28-day dry-aged Niman Ranch All-Natural Prime Certified Angus Beef® and custom-aged Certified Angus Beef® Tenderloin Filets as personally selected by John Tarpoff. Steaks and chops are prepared on our one-of-a-kind charcoal grill in our open exhibition style kitchen. Our commitment is to sourcing the finest ingredients - and we proudly source the best products in the world.

History

Established in 1996.

Seattle's original El Gaucho opened in 1953 by Jim Ward; it's sister restaurant was the 13 Coins. Paul Mackay opened the Seattle 13 Coins for Mr. Ward and became the General Manager of the original El Gaucho. After Mr. Ward passed, the restaurants were sold off and El Gaucho closed its doors shortly after, in 1985. By that time, Mr. Mackay had already left and ran many restaurants such as Elliots, Metropolitan Grill, Yarrow Bay Grill, and opened his own restaurant, the Flying Fish, in 1995 with Christine Keff. Mr. Mackay always said the original El Gaucho didn't die a natural death, but was murdered by the next owners who didn't understand the value of quality, service and tradition. He always wanted to bring it back and did in 1996, when the El Gaucho was reincarnated at 1st and Wall in Belltown. The family business, Mackay Restaurant Group, continued to expand with several additional locations. We now operate as El Gaucho Hospitality management group.

Meet the Manager

Business owner information

Kirin C.

Manager

Chef Kirin Chun grew up in a family of cooks and began his culinary career at age 16 for restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, gaining experience and accolades along the way. He joined the El Gaucho Seattle team in 2014 as a pantry cook and was quickly promoted to Executive Sous Chef. In late 2017, Kirin was selected to join Miller's Guild as the Chef de Cuisine and was shortly thereafter promoted to Executive Chef.  After three years working closely with chef Jason Wilson, Kirin came back to lead the El Gaucho Seattle culinary team as Executive Chef at the new Seattle Union Stables location. In 2023, he was promoted to General Manager.Kirin stays on top of new cooking trends through a lot of Instagram, cookbooks, and going out to eat whenever possible. In his free time, Kirin enjoys working on cars and motorcycles, fixing anything, drawing and writing.