That's the last tall ship to leave Lake Union. Note the level of the water which is much lower than it is now with the Ballards Locks in place. My final reason is the bridge's most famous tenant, The Fremont Troll.
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| Light graffiti done with fellow blogger Jonathan "Wakuda" Fischer |
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My original idea for this blog post was to review several new and old Seattle restaurants I've been to recently. Let's go ahead and do a quick run down with grades.
Coastal Kitchen
My memory is foggy on this one because it was a long time ago. I remember sitting at the bar. The bar tender was our server/host/drink maker. She was doing each job at about 50% which adds up to 150% effort....or does it? I'm not good at math.
I ordered a pasta dish which came with a green puttanesca sauce. Puttanesca means 'whore' in Italian. It's by far my favorite of the 5 mother whore sauces. It seemed to be mostly a parsley sauce with green olives and capers. It was topped with white anchovies, which are effing delicious. If you ever see these on a menu, get some. My main complaint with the dish was there wasn't enough pasta. For an entree in a place that seems to have medium sized entrees, this was slightly disappointing, and I was left with a bowl full of salty capers and olives and nothing to eat them with.
The atmosphere was kind of strange, as if it was stuck in the 90's. All the servers were required to wear ties they clearly picked out. It was their "flare". I hate flare. They weren't required to tie them very well or wear them tight. It was sloppy and out of place and it reminded me of the California Pizza Kitchen.
Final Grade: C
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The Kingfish Cafe
Located around the corner from Coastal Kitchen, The Kingfish Cafe is one of the first food memories I have of Seattle. I remember getting toasty on mojitos from the bar and eating some excellent fried chicken.
This time around I wasn't as impressed. The food wasn't bad, but it was heavy and the portions were big. My wife and I started by sharing the fried green tomato appetizer. These were delicious and they came with hush puppies which were also very good. Unfortunately I was almost full at this point. Had the hush puppies been left off, I don't think this would've been an issue. For an entree I had the Crab and Catfish cakes. These were good if a bit dry, but the tartar sauce and coleslaw helped with this.
I guess I'm hard to please with portion sizing. But somewhere between the size of my entree at Coastal and Kingfish is what I would consider the perfect amount of food.
Final Grade: B
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The Book Bindery
A relatively new restaurant, the Book Bindery is headed by Chef Shaun McCrain. A graduate of the same program I attended, Shaun was the former Executive Sous Chef at Per Se in New York. Homesick, he returned to Seattle and opened a fantastic restaurant within walking distance of where I live. God bless you sir.
Foie Gras, Hamachi Crudo, Lobster sauce, Panisse, Pickled Duck Tongue. I'm simply listing what I tried because I'm not a good enough writer to express how good this meal was. Here are a few adjectives I might use: Refined, beautiful, rich, bright, fun, decadent. It was the best food I've had in Seattle.
I'd like to take a moment to make a special note of how good our server was. He was gracious and informative. I can't stress just how much service matters in this industry. Had he been rude or indifferent, like I've noted in so many servers in this city, the meal might've been ruined. I'm not kidding. Quality of service is the number one reason a customer returns to a restaurant.
Final Grade: A
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Bitterroot
The quest for good BBQ in Seattle has been one I haven't participated in actively. I have however had my fair share and I've never been impressed to say the least. Bitterroot was different. Bitterroot offered something no other BBQ place in Seattle has to date. Complete disappointment across the board. The pulled pork was somewhat dry and hardly smoked. The coleslaw seemed like it was dressed at some point, and then they rinsed the dressing off. The french fry I tried was dried out and hollow. The smoked beet and frisee salad was flavorless. Whaaaaaa?!? Double Take! Beets and frisee?!? There are plenty of cuisines where the application of new techniques, philosophies and flavors are welcome. BBQ is not one of them. About the only thing I liked was the mustard sauce which I had to use copious amounts of to make my pulled pork sandwich edible.
The service wasn't bad, so at least they have that going for them. That and a bar in the back stocked to the ceiling with bourbons. If they can sell all that bourbon, they might break even. If they can't, they need some serious help in the kitchen.
I heard a good quote from friend Amy Faulkner concerning BBQ. "It's only good BBQ if you can smell it from outside the restaurant." She followed this up with "Fact." Sorry folks, it's not debatable. I'd like to add that if I ever lived in Memphis or St. Louis, I wouldn't spend much time trying any new "NW Cuisine" restaurants.
Final Grade: D-
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Well we had a little bit of everything in those reviews. Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo and for good measure, la puttanesca. Check back shortly for a killer bread and butter pickle recipe.
*The Fremont Bridge celebrated over 566,000 openings and counting as of January 2006. Just 30 feet above the water, the bridge rises for marine traffic on average of about 35 times a day, making it as one of the busiest bascule bridges in the world. - Seattle Gov
