A New York native, Karen is a hospitality vet through and through. She has a Bachelor’s of Science in Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI and during school she spent a summer studying abroad in Germany where she focused on European cooking and wine, learning how to perfectly pair the two. Most of her restaurant jobs have been in the kitchen, but she’s also made sure to work as a server to gain a greater understanding of the business from all aspects.
She had a stint as a personal chef in New England for a while. Prior to joining the front of house team at Ray’s she was a line cook for 5 years, 3 years working in the Cafe and 2 years on the Boathouse line. Working at Ray’s has felt like home to Karen she loves how passionate and dedicated the team is to their jobs and to the guests’ experience. When she’s not at Ray’s Karen can be found checking out a new restaurant with her friends, or at home cooking.
Jose is an excellent addition to the Ray’s management team. He’s been working in hospitality for the last 15 years bartending and managing restaurants and is a level 1 Cicerone and level 1 Sommelier.
Jose grew up in California and after moving to Washington graduated from Cascade High School in Everett. After studying math and Spanish at Spokane Falls Community College while planning to earn his teaching degree, he found his passion was in the hospitality industry and changed course to focus his attention to managing and training young adults in fine dining atmospheres.
He loves to cook and makes a great surf and turf with filet mignon, a mushroom gravy, and sauteed butter prawns, all of which he pairs with a great Malbec.
When he’s not helping run a busy dining room he enjoys snowboarding in the winter and kite boarding and paddle boarding in the summer. And he loves to travel to the beautiful PNW mountains for hiking and camping.
Originally from the Midwest, Pamela comes to Seattle and Ray’s with an extensive hospitality career. She has been both the front and back of the house management for TGI Fridays, The Hard Rock NYC, Le Madri NYC, Hank’s Oyster Bar DC, and numerous smaller casual and fine dining restaurants across the country.
For a time, she stepped away from hospitality and explored the worlds of talent management, movie-making, video game production senior management, government consulting and finance.
Her passion for helping a client bring their event from a dream to reality brought Pamela back to hospitality and catering. Most recently at Thyme Café and Restaurant in Santa Monica, CA, she responsible for all aspects of all events – from small 10 guest dinners at client’s home, to lavish weddings or huge 2-day corporate events – Pamela handled all the details to make client’s visions reality.
Pamela’s extended family reside in the PNW, and she is excited to explore the area and all that it offers from hiking mountains to wine tasting in Woodinville and restaurants in Ballard.
Born and raised in south Texas, Stephen Rodriguez moved to Washington in 2013 looking for glory. He began his culinary career at 25, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed straight out of the Art Institute of San Antonio with a degree in culinary management. Over the years he’s worked with many talented young chefs whom have helped to shape his personal philosophy. Hard work and dedication are some of life’s best and most endearing qualities and working in the kitchen has really shown him how to love life and respect the wonder of nature’s bounty.
When he’s not working he’s at either at a coffee shop reading a book or a bar here in Ballard talking about aliens or food. In the Boathouse he and his crew have fun and work hard producing high-quality, fresh seafood.
Jose brings many years of experience and talent to Ray’s. He spent six years as Sous Chef at the Daily Grill in the Sheraton Hotel, seven years as Sous Chef for Nordstrom Café and also has fine dining experience as a line cook at the Metropolitan Grill and The Brooklyn Seafood, Steak & Oyster House. Jose’s favorite fish is salmon and he loves preparing it fresh every day. When not in the kitchen cooking, he enjoys spending time with his family or playing basketball with friends.
