Victor Steinbrueck
Local Tide | Seattle, WA
December 2025
Although his family ran a shop at Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Victor Steinbrueck grew up wanting to be a basketball player. But in between practices, games, and school, Steinbrueck developed a love and passion for food while learning from and cooking alongside his Chinese Filipino grandmother, whose warmth, hospitality, and home-cooked meals brought people together. After college, when his career as an athlete came to an end, he committed to hospitality full-time. Steinbrueck got a gig as a personal chef for a Seattle Seahawks player before joining the team at Tamarind Tree in the International District as a server. He started working at a catering company a year later, and spent the next three years learning the ins and outs of service, teaching classes, and organizing large-format events.
In 2017, Steinbrueck went to the Philippines for his cousin’s wedding and spent the next few months travelling throughout Southeast Asia. Inspired by the cultures and cuisines he experienced abroad, he returned to the United States and started hosting pop-ups around Seattle, cooking seafood-focused dishes that drew on his family’s legacy and paid tribute to the diversity of his hometown. Over the next three years, Steinbrueck gradually developed the menu for his concept—adding dishes, retooling recipes, and attracting a loyal following—before finding a permanent brick-and-mortar space.
Steinbrueck opened Local Tide in early 2020 in Fremont, where he features sustainably sourced seafood from the Pacific Northwest. When the pandemic hit, the restaurant pivoted to a counter service format without abandoning its central mission to educate customers on the diverse bounty of the region’s coastal waters and support local fishermen. From rockfish bánh mì to his take on miso black cod, Steinbrueck draws on his Chinese, Filipino, and German heritage to create dishes that reflect the Seattle community and showcase the high quality of the seafood. Outside the kitchen, he also serves on the board of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, working to preserve and restore the local aquaculture for generations to come.
