Anchorage - The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, Orso, and Darwin's Theory

After having our lunch at IHOH we strolled the short two blocks or so to the coast. Past the house of Oscar Anderson who claimed to be the 18th citizen of Anchorage. The house is now a museum.

Anderson lived in this house until his death in 1974 and he sure had a heck of a view.

Right past the house is the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail; named after the 7th Governor of Alaska, Tony Knowles, this nicely paved trail runs for eleven miles (!) all the way past the airport to Kincaid Park.

And no; we didn't do eleven miles. But we did enjoy strolling along the coast.

Not too many people on the trail; but lots of birds!

We stopped on the shores of Westchester Lagoon; where there were quite a few folks; of the two and four-legged kind enjoying the day.

From here we decided to head back to our hotel.

It was a pretty long walk; past some interesting and colorful homes.

Through Delaney Park.

Before getting back to downtown and doing a bit more shopping.

It was still fairly early' like 430, but we were hungry. I had read that the place right next to Glacier Brewhouse, named Orso had a pretty nice Happy Hour until 6pm. So we headed on over.

We sat in the bar area and ordered a couple of items and had a few drinks. The staff was very friendly.

We started with the Roasted Beets and Fresh Mozzarella ($5.95).

The beets were really hard; the pesto like sauce quite salty which really just over-powered the mozzarella and everything else in the dish.

The Flash Seared Crab Cakes (Happy Hour - $10.95); were mediocre as well.

Not "flash fried" enough; somewhat mushy, and frankly, bland.

The Crispy Cauliflower (Happy Hour - $2.95) was a bargain during HH. However; the "tomato-red pepper sauce" was too salty. And not sure about the temp of the oil used for frying as this was on the greasy side.

I think the final nail in the coffin for the Missus was the Polenta Ragu another Happy Hour bargain at $3.95.

The polenta was on the dry side, there was a bit too much cheese for our taste, and not enough "ragu". What sealed the deal was the bread crumbed crusted poached egg; a bit too much fried stuff going on at Orso. And then when we tasted the egg; there was definite fishiness to it. I've noticed that more and more; we're coming across eggs in the States that have a fishiness to them. Not sure what they're feeding the hens, but we're not fans of it.

We decided to pay and head next door where the Missus wanted to do another flight of Bourbon.

Orso
737 W 5th Ave.
Anchorage, AK 99501

And so; the Missus got Her Bourbon Flight.....

And I got an Old Fashioned.....

But the place was slammed, so after this we decided to head back to our room......

Except that we passed this bar on the way....one that I'd seen earlier and was curious about.

Named Darwin's Theory...… I talked the Missus into checking the place out. It was the most wonderful dive bar! The service was straightforward and for some reason, folks in the place started talking to us. Seemed like there were a good amount of locals in the place. Folks seemed to know each other...….just like back home in Hawaii.

So we sat and had a Bourbon.....

The young man who sat next to me was very friendly and we started up a conversation.....he is born and raised in Alaska. We did learn a bit about living in this state of hardy, self-reliant people....but one of the first things we were told was not to "ring the bell" in the place. If you ring the bell; it means you buy the everyone a round! Often times, folks flush with money off of the king crab harvest or something similar will come into the place and ring that bell.....and buy everyone in the house a drink. Heck, if I win the lottery and am visiting Anchorage.... We started chatting about his life and he told me he was a refrigeration mechanic for the last 6 years. But before that he did seasonal work on the king crab and other boats for three years...and even earlier seasonally. He looked really young; I asked him his age....26! Yikes!

Anyway, this was totally my kind of place. If I ever find myself back in Anchorage, I'm headed here...….

Darwin’s Theory
426 G St
Anchorage, AK 99501
Hours:
Sun - Thurs 10am - 230am
Fri - Sat   10am - 3am

We headed back to our room and slept well....there was no one coming back at 4am.....nor were there any ghosts waking us. Still, daylight at 430 am kinda threw me off.....

Yes, I got up real early due to the daylight. Our flight was scheduled to leave Anchorage at 930, but man, it was so bright at 5 am!

I mean, as of right now, based on current experience, I'll take polar winter over twenty hours of sunlight.....

Anyway, we found some interesting "gifts"...….. loved the hand sanitizer collection.....

And we had an actual meal from Seattle to San Diego which wasn't bad at all.

And while the food had left something to be desired. Well, the beauty and experience was priceless.

Thanks for stopping by!

Comments

[kat]

bummer about the food, but what a great view!

[Soo]

Alaska sure is lovely! Oscar picked a good spot for his house.

[Dereck]

Fishiness as in past shelf life, or some other fish taste? I love runny yolks, but have had so many over the past few years that just tasted off, I have kind of moved to more cooked.

[Kenneth Bonus]

Per several seemingly reliable sources on the Net (various sites related to raising poultry), the fishy flavor comes from a chicken diet that is high in Omega-3s. This is supposed to be good for you, despite the off flavor. It's tough to get a good meal anywhere in Alaska, but easy to get a great view!

[Kirk]

The views are outstanding Kat!

It sure is Soo!

I'm sure it's got to do with diet Dreck.

Thanks for the info Ken. I've noticed that higher quality eggs usually do not have that fishiness. Also, eggs outside the US; at least the places we've been to don't either.

[Junichi]

Love the tourist trap sign in the window!

[Kirk]

They've got a great sense of humor Junichi! Darwin's Theory was a lot of fun!