After putting in the miles the previous day, we awoke to what I consider a rather typical Seattle morning.
It always makes me want to jump right back in bed...... We usually wake very early when travelling. Getting up at 4 or 5 am is the norm, whether in Hanoi, Prague, Antigua, or Istanbul. When in Seattle though, we usually get a great, long, night of sleep. And usually awake famished......
The Missus picked the spot for breakfast; Lola in Belltown. I was interested as well, since this is part of the Tom Douglas empire. In spite of all my visits to Seattle, I'd only eaten in one Tom Douglas restaurant; Dahlia Lounge back in 1994, when he won the James Beard award for Best Chef: Northwest.
It was 8am on a Friday morning and the place was packed!
The Missus ordered the "Lola Breakfast" ($15).....and for some reason ordered Her eggs boiled...6 minute eggs. One of the eggs that arrived had cracked and the albumen was oozing out sloppily. She asked about it and the Server grumpily removed the plate and it was brought back very quickly....so we knew they had just scrapped off the egg whites and dropped the plate back on the table.... the eggs, were also way past 6 minute territory.
Other than that, the smashed garlic potatoes were wonderful....I enjoyed the fingerling the best. We had potatoes this way twice in Seattle, something that I had done at home a while back, but now I've been inspired to do potatoes this way again. The bacon was very nice, great flavors, crisp around the edges, chewy in the center.
I ordered Tom's Favorite Breakfast ($19). I had read that Lola is Greek inspired and this "hash" of sorts featured octopus, which did not disappoint.
The octopus was among the best I've had in ages, perfectly tender, yet slight crisp from the griddle. The winter squash added a wonderful, mild sweetness to the dish, the bacon, salty-smoky flavors, and let's not forget the leek, which brought the entire dish together.
The poached egg was adequate, though I'm not a fan of the sourdough toast here....they are still into hard and chewy breads here.
We both enjoyed the coffee and instead of feeling weighed down by breakfast, both thought this hit the right balance in terms of portion size.
Lola
2000 4th Ave
Seattle, WA 98121
We then headed off to this Seattle landmark and truly one of my favorite places in the world.
No matter how many times I've visited Seattle; I've never gotten tired of checking out Pike Place Market.
We have our favorite places; the Missus never gets tired of watching donuts being made at the Daily Dozen Doughnut Company and I enjoy checking out Beecher's Cheese.
And then of course, as I mentioned back in 2007, Piroshky Piroshky is a must stop......
Well, make that "used to be" a must stop. I got a Sauerkraut, Cabbage, and Carrot ($4.20) which seemed to be a shadow of its former self....did they change the recipe somewhere in the recent past? First, the filling was pretty cold and strangely bland, second, the pastry lacked the buttery-yeasty flavor that we both recall.
Kind of sad since this used to be a tradition for us.......
Piroshky Piroshky
1908 Pike Pl
Seattle, WA 98101
Still, it's always grest to visit Pike Place Market and to check out places that weren't around the last time we visited......I did want to taste the shot of the brine at Britt's Pickles, but no one was around....so we'll just have to go next time.
We then started off to our next stop when it started to come down a bit. So we ducked into Seattle Coffee Works...the Missus had Her V60 pour over and I had some iced coffee.
When things settled down a bit we caught the route 131 bus down to SODO. Now, I might joke about the Missus and Her love for Chanel bags and such......but I've got a bit of a bag fetish as well. You see, I'd been searching for the perfect carry-on bag for years. We only do carry-on when we're travelling, unless we'll be bringing stuff back....we have a foldable duffle for that. A few years back, I got a Tom Bihn Tri Star, basically a European sized carry-on and I loved it. The Missus complained about spending so much for luggage, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.....Until the Aeronaut 30 came out and I got Her one.....now She's a Tom Bihn-nite as well.
Anyway, Tom Bihn's factory and only showroom is located on Ohio Ave South. So we caught the bus, got out at the South Dawson Street stop and walked to the showroom.
The showroom is basically a partitioned off section in front of the factory floor. But.... I was in travel bag geek heaven! Anyway, the Missus determined that I should get an Aeronaut 45, which can actually hold a lot more than I believed. So yes, another bag for me.......
4750A Ohio Ave S
Seattle, WA 98134
We caught the bus back to Pioneer Square. By now we were getting a bit hungry. So we stopped by this fast casual shop named Sprout, ordered a Cobb Salad and went back to the room and shared it. By now it was nap time for the Missus and usually, I'd be joining Her. But, for some reason, I was still a bit jazzed. I guess that 10 hours of sleep I got he night before really did me good....except for my legs of course....
It had dried out a bit, so I decided to take a walk around the area....to some of those places I hadn't been to in a while.
Man, the last time I actually visited the Waterfall Garden was back in the 90's.
And though the area is still kind of gritty.....kind of like the Tenderloin in SF, things look a lot better than I remembered. It looks like folks are starting to move into lofts, we saw folks walking their dogs.....
I had a destination in mind.....funny, how you get into a pattern of things. By habit, I went to the "old" location of Uwajimaya.....and then remembered it had moved over a block back in 2000!
Picked up some bottled tea and water and walked back to where we were staying. I was kind of suprised to smell so much reefer in the air as I walked around Seattle. I don't ever recall that before!
I'd been gone over an hour, so the Missus had a nice nap. It looked like it was going to be a nice evening.....
And we had reservations at Sitka & Spruce for dinner.....
sounds like another great day!
Posted by: kat | Saturday, 13 December 2014 at 05:11 AM
It was Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Saturday, 13 December 2014 at 08:45 AM