Inside Homer: Logan Cox on Fire, Pita and the Beacon Hill Restaurant He Built Two Blocks From Home

“Here at Homer, we serve our naturally leavened, wood-fired pita bread,” chef and co-owner Logan Cox told Seattle Today. “It’s made in-house, and we serve it with the series of spreads that we serve at the restaurant.”

For Cox, bread is closely connected to the communal style of eating Homer is built around: sharing plates, passing dishes and eating together. During our visit, the warm pita became the starting point for experiencing that philosophy.

“Hi Seattle, my name is Logan Cox and welcome to Homer,” Cox said. “Homer is a neighborhood restaurant that my wife and I opened here in Beacon Hill, where we both live with our children.”

Cox opened Homer with his wife, Sara Knowles, in 2018. The couple spent two years looking for a location within two miles of their Beacon Hill home before finding the corner space at 3013 Beacon Avenue South, just a few blocks away. They named the restaurant after their golden retriever.

For Cox, who previously worked at Sitka and Spruce, the kitchen revolves around one essential element: fire.

“It is a wood-fired only restaurant,” Cox said. “Everything we cook is over applewood. It is inspired by the Mediterranean, and we use the ingredients of the Pacific Northwest to sort of guide our menu.”

That combination gives Homer its identity. Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean flavors meet Pacific Northwest produce, meat and seafood, with local ingredients helping shape what comes out of the kitchen.

The neighborhood restaurant has also attracted recognition beyond Beacon Hill. Cox received James Beard Award nominations for Best Chef: Northwest in 2019 and 2020. Homer has also been recognized by publications including Eater, which named it to its 38 Essential Seattle Restaurants list, as well as Seattle Met and The Infatuation.

But during Seattle Today’s visit, some of the clearest examples of Homer’s approach could be found in the spreads surrounding its freshly baked pita.

Cox pointed first to a zucchini and cashew dip finished with red smoked chili crisp and pickled squash. Beside it sat one of the restaurant’s constants.

“Our hummus, which is on the menu every single day, with marinated chickpeas,” he said.

Another dish brought Homer’s Mediterranean and Pacific Northwest influences together.

“Here is our yogurt labneh, which we make our yogurt in-house and strain, served with a seaweed powder, mint and dried tomatoes.”

The labneh takes a familiar Levantine preparation and gives it a distinctly Northwest element through the addition of seaweed, while keeping Homer’s emphasis on making components in-house.

Then came the porchetta, which Cox described as one of Homer’s most popular dishes.

“Here’s our porchetta, which is one of the most popular items on our menu here,” he said.

Its preparation reflects the restaurant’s whole-animal approach.

“We get whole and half pigs in, butcher them, use them for all different cuts for different things,” Cox said. “But here we roast this pork belly whole with the skin on the exterior, so it gets nice and crispy.”

Working with whole and half pigs allows the kitchen to use different cuts across the menu rather than relying exclusively on pre-portioned meat.

For the porchetta, the result is largely about texture: tender pork belly beneath a crisp exterior.

“I like that crackling crunch on the outside,” Cox said.

When Cox is away from his own kitchen, many of his favorite places remain close to home.

“My favorite coffee shop is probably All City in Georgetown,” he said.

For pizza, Cox pointed to Bar del Corso, the Beacon Hill restaurant just down the street from Homer. For sushi, he chose Sushi Kashiba near Pike Place Market.

There is also one restaurant currently high on his list to visit.

“My friend Johnny Spero just opened a restaurant called Passage on Whidbey Island, which I’m very excited to try,” Cox said.

Spero, who previously earned a Michelin star at Reverie in Washington, D.C., opened Passage at the Inn at Langley, where the restaurant offers a multi-course tasting menu centered on ingredients from Whidbey Island.

For a restaurant that has received attention well beyond its neighborhood, Homer remains closely tied to Beacon Hill. Cox and Knowles built it just blocks from their home, using live fire, Mediterranean influences and Pacific Northwest ingredients to create a restaurant rooted in the community where they live.

And during our visit, that story began in its simplest form: a warm piece of wood-fired pita placed on the table and meant to be shared.

Homer is located at 3013 Beacon Avenue South in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood and can be found on Instagram at @restauranthomer.