Gordon Naccarato & Pacific Grill

Gordon Naccarato was born in 1954 in Tacoma, Washington.  At age 18, he moved to Los Angeles to attend Loyola Law School, but after a year told his father that he was dropping out, stating that there are plenty of lawyers, but not good chefs.  He went to work for Michael McCarty at Michael’s a day after it opened in Santa Monica. His wife joined him six months later, and they both stayed for five years, with Gordon working his way up the kitchen ladder.

In 1984, he had a good customer who suggested that Chef Naccarato and his pastry chef-wife at the time, Rebecca, move to Aspen, Colorado, and he would bankroll the chef as his partner.  Both chefs left and within a year, had opened Gordon’s.  There was nothing like it in Aspen and to make reservations, one would have to book months in advance.

In 1985, the Great Chefs television crew arrived to tape both chefs for Discovery Channel’s new television series called Great Chefs of the West.  Gordon appeared in episodes 3 and 4 and pastry chef, Rebecca Naccarato, appeared in episode 10.  

They were divorced several years later in 1990, at which time they closed down Gordon’s and Chef Gordon moved to Los Angeles to work at Campanile, Monkey Bar and Le Colonial, then he moved to Florida.  In 2002 he returned to Washington State and opened the Beach House Restaurant in Purdy, then the Pacific Grill in Tacoma in 2005 and more recently, Smoke + Cedar in 2014.  He is the President of Naccarato Restaurant Group that runs these restaurants now in 2016.