Uncle Ted’s Eateries

Planning to eat at Uncle Ted’s tonight? If you are, plan on canceling.

A former aide to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) filed papers in 2004 to create a restaurant company called Uncle Ted’s Alaska LLC. But, unfortunately, it looks like the aide got cold feet last year, right around the time his boss’ criminal investigation came to light. A few weeks following The Anchorage Daily News’ initial coverage of the scandal, the aide, Trevor McCabe, dissolved the company. “Decision not to pursue original business idea,” is the only explanation.

According to documents McCabe filed with the state, he was registered to run eating and drinking places, food stores and miscellaneous retail stores. Perhaps he had a vision for a chain restaurant devoted to foods loved by Stevens, who is known as “Uncle Ted” up in his home state. Alas, we’ll never know (we can only offer our suggestion of “Big Boy” inspired icon). I can imagine a mean salmon sandwich, you could even call it a “Murkowski” for fun. Certainly pork (ribs? chop? roast?) would have been in generous supply.

This wouldn’t have been the first time that McCabe used his relationship with Stevens for his benefit — a connection that’s become clearer due to the federal investigation of Stevens. He served on a marketing board with Stevens’ son, Ben Stevens, that provided federal grants to the seafood industry, while they were paid “consulting fees” by the same companies receiving the money. He also benefited from a string of the elder Stevens’ earmarks that have come under FBI scrutiny.