Pike Place Market wanderings + Dinner Spur Gastropub

January 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I went to Seattle the other weekend because F had to work at the office there, and since he already had work paying for a hotel room, it seemed like a nice mini-vacation to just take the Bolt Bus up there to visit. It’s about 3 hours from Portland to Seattle depending on if there’s traffic may be more- the times of arrival of the bus tries to account for it so often the buses arrive early. The buses are new and include a charger for every seat and wireless, and fares can range from $1-$25 each way, depending on when you buy how full the bus is. So the cost was very minimal (you can go round trip for the cost of 1 way on Amtrak) and with no trouble for me at all to travel there since the pick up and drop off are not far from where I live. As an example, I bought tickets on Fri to go Sat-Sun for this trip and it cost me $49. For my future trip in Feb, I bought 2 tickets for Sun-Mon and it was $50 (admittedly, one of them was a $1 fare!).

In fact, I find the Bolt bus much more peaceful than the Amtrak, and unlike the Amtrak I never get stuck in awkward seats of 4 that face each other… though there also is no dining car to escape to since you’re on a bus. Unlike the Amtrak the Bolt bus arrives about 15-20 minutes before departure and boards by letter (sort of like Southwest), so actually has less lead time needed than the Amtrak coach where you have to line up for your seat assignment. The bus is also direct with no stops. I can’t speak for anyone who is tall on the leg space comparison- I know there is room to put bags in the seat in front on Amtrak but not on the bus.

I was only there in Seattle for 28 hours (from Saturday to Sunday- I still had full day of work Friday and Monday before and after), so it was a very fast visit. My motivations were romantic and out of pity because he sounded pathetic about how if he had known he would have told me to come with him, and since he doesn’t plan mainly so he wouldn’t end up sitting in his hotel room watching movies the entire weekend. Instead, on Saturday we watched the sunset from the 28th floor of his hotel as I shared earlier. And ok… so maybe his legs were tired from being on them all day while at the office on Saturday, so we did just get room service and watch random movies like The Grudge (only partially- once it got scary I went up to RView instead for cocktails and the view and left F), The Big Year (which I actually really liked but never would have picked to watch- hardly any action, just about ordinary people who are dorking out on a hobby and learning a bit about why people like what appears to have so much work and little payoff as a hobby), American Reunion, and Green Lantern.

On Sunday though, I had more aspirations. We had brunch first- I had a list of options for F and then we ended up at Bacco Cafe as previously covered. Then we visited Pike Place Market where I adored one vendor with cute stuffed dolls, including squid and little chickens by Adorable Seattle (the chickens i purchased are shown posed with my kitty at home), wandered to taste some interesting vinegars at DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine (and was jealous over the variety of fresh pasta offerings such as raviolis of crab, lobster, beet, drunken sweet potato…, and cheeses at Beecher’s (you might even see them making the cheese) and Mt Townsend Creamery (love their truffle cheese). Next, after walking past the disgusting Gum Wall, we spent some time at the Seattle Aquarium where their exhibit lets you really see the otters, and I found a great otter wristlet for me to use during the spring/summer, before resting our feet at Pike Brewery.

My intention was to have a few small plates at Spur Gastropub and then the dessert, which I remembered as being really interesting last time I visited. However, since it took 30 minutes to even get our first small plate, and I had to catch the Bolt Bus leaving at 8pm so wanted to leave the restaurant by 7 (after getting there at 5:45), we did not have time. As it was, I only had a few bites of the entree (F skipped because he had eaten at out previous stop Pike Brewery) before I asked it to be wrapped up to go.

We started out with the Tagliatelle with duck egg,, oyster mushroom, and pine nut, which I wish the pine nut had been more mixed in because even after I broke the egg and mixed, all the pine nuts were in the slight indentation of the plate so never made it into the mix and were discovered when there was barely any pasta left. What fared better was the Baby Beets salad with chevre, flaxseed, and coriander. The entree of Mad Hatcher Chicken with pear, hedgehog mushrooms and watercress started out with the skin crispy but the actual meat dry until I dunked that chicken into the gravy. I thought it actually tasted better as a leftover the next day as the gravy had all soaked into the chicken, though the skin had lost its crispness on reheating.


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Bacco Cafe at Pike Place Market

January 17, 2013 by 1 Comment

Back to my recent weekend in Seattle.

There were so many brunch options I had picked out for Sunday morning in Seattle- but of course we can’t visit them all in one brunch. Among the options I presented to F included Portage Bay Cafe for their fruit bar, Skillet Diner because they have bacon jam, and Toulouse Petit for their French-New Orleans offering, but all these were greater than a mile away and he was still sore from being on his legs all day while working in the Seattle office. So I yelped options closer to us that included Cafe Campagne for their French brunch take, Library Bistro because someone talked about how they felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and I was using my smartphone to browse and we were impressed with the mobile version of the Library Bistro website and I wanted to reward them for it, Sweet Iron that specializes in waffles and Biscuit Bitch which specializes obviously in biscuits, but…

He went with Bacco Cafe Pike Place Market because after our meal we could then wander the Pike Place Market for a while, and also visit the Waterfront. It is a tiny little cafe that is mostly known for their Dungeness Crab and Smoked Salmon offerings (including in omelette, benedict, and sandwich form) and various fresh fruit shakes.

Note that although their address says they are on Pine, we ended up having to walk back up to 1st street and Pine for their breakfast food- the address they list seems to be more for their bar area downstairs that is part of the rest of the plaza and isn’t entrance to the space they were using for breakfast/brunch.

Bacco Cafe at Pike Place Market’s hot oatmeal with seasonal fruit and steamed milk and brown sugar served in little vessels on the side. He thought it was thoughtful that the steamed milk was already warm so as to not make the oatmeal cold. I had the specialty of Dungeness Crab Benedict, with dungeness crab meat, two poached local free range eggs, hass avocado with hollandaise sauce on multigrain english muffin served with herb roasted potato. I thought my dish was ok- plenty of crab, but it seemed underseasoned. I wish I had had a little lemon- maybe they forgot or were rushed, admittedly we did get our order very quickly, I think in 10 minutes of ordering it.

They make the fruit shakes right there (you can watch them putting in the fruit into the juicer). Both of us enjoyed our fruit shakes- mine with strawberry, banana, pear and apple was not as tart as his with grapefruit, lime, and kiwi I think?


Bacco Cafe is a tiny place with 6 counter top seats and about 10 two-tops I think (there is a nice area outdoors to eat that offers more tables but isn’t used when the temperature if around freezing like it is now). So I was surprised there was no line at 11:30, though as it approached lunchtime the place began to fill up but even then it was maybe a 20 minute wait (and this was for larger groups of 5-6 that were showing up). It seems they have a downstairs area as well which we walked past on our way to try to find the front door of this place, but it was closed off. Bacco serves breakfast all day (from morning to mid afternoon, they close before dinner) everyday, so you don’t have to come get that Dungeness Crab bennie only during brunch on the weekends. If you want a break to sit down and warm up by the market, this would be a nice hidden retreat from the other crowds for some coffee or shakes to regain energy.

We’ll be back in February to attend Pike Brewery’s annual chocolate and beer pairing event dubbed Pike Chocofest, so I’ll have the opportunity again to try one of the other brunch places I found. We found out about the Chocofest event last year but I had to travel for work, so I missed it but we decided to try it this year. We won’t need to wander the Pike Place Market area though during our next visit (though we will likely stay in this area again for convenience to Pike Brewery)- we did lots of wandering in this area next after brunch, to be covered in the next post…

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Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Lunch Edition

January 15, 2013 by 2 Comments

While I was on winter break from work during the holidays, I stopped by at  Nuvrei again a couple of times. It’s become my breakfast/brunch obsession. I wished I lived closer as I was jealous each time I saw a regular come in and get greeted by name and exchange life updates small talk with the staff.

This time, rather than stopping in the early morning I stopped during lunchtime, and I found the fact that they have no menu board but you have to get to the register to grab one of their printed paper trifolds (even though the line is supposed to snake to the right of the entrance, past where they assemble the sandwiches and all the pastries and those macarons before you get to the register all the way on the left) pretty disorienting. They should have the menus closer to the right side perhaps in a menu holder that is noticeable so you can take the time to read through it before you get to the register area.

Still, even though they only had 8 bar seats and 3 tables, we were able to find a seat for 2 to enjoy our little lunch. One extra tip- if you look at the outside countertop where they have the additions for your coffee, there is one more small counter spot and 2 stools if you don’t want to eat back at the office or it’s not nice enough to eat outside.

Even though I came during lunchtime, I ended up with more options from their all day breakfast sandwiches part of their menu. I tried the cheddar jalapeno bagel with cream cheese, and swooned over the taste of the bagels which uses with their homemade pretzel dough, so is not quite a traditional bagel but all is totally forgiven.

Also, I tried the Smoked Cheddar pretzel with chive cream cheese and smoked wild sockeye salmon which was like a dream, every bite was so heavenly, it just sinks in with the right amount of chewiness. I suppose you can just get the bagel or the smoked cheddar pretzel by themselves too and they would be just as tasty, but seriously, their pretzel bread is such a perfect mix of soft and doughy yet firm and just a little bit of salt but then add in how it tastes with the savory sandwich fixings… like the fresh melt in your mouth salmon with that smooth just enough smear of cream cheese…so incredible.

Nuvrei Patisserie and Café breakfast sandwich pretzel bagel Nuvrei Patisserie and Café breakfast sandwich salmon pretzel

On the brioche side, the grilled cheese with young asiagio cheese was helped by the dijon butter and the cornichons, but it still seemed plain. Also on brioche, the Morning Croque Madame with was  a much better combination with its gooey oozy melt in your mouth mix of brioche, fried egg, bechamel, dijon butter, swiss cheese and ham, served hot.

Nuvrei Patisserie and Café brioche grilled cheese Nuvrei Patisserie and Café breakfast sandwich brioche Croque Madame Nuvrei Patisserie and Café breakfast sandwich brioche Croque Madame Nuvrei Patisserie and Café breakfast sandwich brioche Croque Madame

If you are looking for a grab and go pastry, besides the pretzel based bagels and their various flakey buttery croissants, you might also consider their yellow squash pizza with chevre fresh oregano and ground pepper, and the margarita pizza with tomato onion chevre and fresh basil, both on a olive oil crust. I find what they did with the squash an example of what I had mentioned in a previous post: that everything is thoughtfully created with love and high quality and European craftsmanship.

Nuvrei Patisserie and Café breakfast yellow squash pizza

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Lobsters in LA

January 5, 2013 by 3 Comments

I love lobster rolls. I seem to have a harder time finding them here in the Northwest, but in LA there are several roaming lobster trucks, so when I went to visit for Christmas week I requested that I try one. The Lobsta Truck was on holiday, so based on previous experience of my siblings and location from where we were staying, our next choice was Cousins Maine Lobster. It was parked right next to another food truck, Let’s Roll It, that takes various Japanese dishes and then substitutes cooked meat from other cultures instead- we looked longingly at inari pouches with lobster and a lobster maki roll, but did not get distracted. We were here for lobster rolls, and then off to a second lunch destination.

My brother and I got the Connecticut Lobster Roll, which has fresh warm Maine lobster served on toasted New England style roll and touched with melted butter and lemon. The fact that it is a New England style roll is critical. My mom went with the Maine Crab roll that uses Maine Jonah crab in the same roll brushed with butter and dressed with mayo. At first she was using a fork to just eat the crab meat and I was totally not going to let her throw away that roll- I would eat it plain- but then she discovered that it was really good bread and ate it all herself after all. One of my bucket list trips is to go to Maine and just eat lobster rolls all week.

Cousins Lobster Truck Cousins Lobster Truck

They have a cute little ironing board where you can wrap up your leftovers in foil if you’d like, but that’s silly. You will not have any leftovers. You will devour this sandwich in mere minutes, mmmming the whole time from the toasted but soft sweet buttery roll and the generous lobster meat.

Cousins Lobster Truck crab roll Cousins Lobster Truck lobster roll LA

Cousins also has a restaurant in Pasadena, which then offers additional menu options if you don’t have the flexibility to stalk down the latest location of their truck.

Actually, this was quite a lobster day. First, after all that sweet lobster had melted in my mouth, on the way to lunch stop #2 I had the lobster ice cream.

Cousins Lobster Truck lobster ice cream

And, later that evening, the family went off to eat the specialty house lobster at Newport Seafood Restaurant.

Newport Seafood Restaurant Chinese lobster

I don’t think there is ever too much lobster. Having it whole where you need to free that tender lobster meat from the shell is not something I really enjoy- I prefer lobster tails and lobster rolls and let’s say, lobster that is added to a dish (such as the Risotto Con Aragosta I had at Michaels on Naples).

I was so happy with my dinner at Michaels- my lobster risotto was decadent but not too creamy, and I also go to share 1/3 of the  Bistecca Per Due special they had, a really tasty 32 ounce prime rib eye roast with my brother which they carved table-side for us. Even though it was a chilly 40 degrees or so, sitting on their upstairs patio was no problem at all because they had covered it with a tent and had plenty of heat lamps, a roaring fireplace, a saxophone player playing at the bar, so sophisticated  it didn’t even seem like we were outside. If I hadn’t been with my siblings, I would have never gotten to experience this elegant meal- and it was one of my top two meals of the week (the other being Cousins which was delicious but not really elegant as we were eating standing on the street). Great picks J!

Michaels on Naples lobster risotto Michaels on Naples Bistecca Per Due Michaels on Naples Bistecca Per Due

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Coppia – a dinner on New Year’s Eve

January 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Coppia is the former Vino Paradiso wine bar, remodeled and re-purposed for a greater focus on food and wine pairings. Inside, the modernist space is a mix of clean lines and silver and black and cool looking lighting, looking so urban that I wondered if I was in a big city sushi bar. In retrospect it does seem to fit into the idea of the artsy urban vibe of the Pearl so I can see how this could be in line with the “local wine watering hole” for the area. The center appears to be the bar and open kitchen located in the bottom of the U of this U-shaped space, while the sides of the U are where the tables for dining are placed, a series of two-tops that can be pushed together, but not so many tables that there isn’t a bubble of space for each table to have privacy.

As we perused the menu options which were set for New Year’s Eve 12-31-12, we also looked at the other wine offerings and liked the fact that there were several by the glass options, and you could also get flights of wine. The wine list is mostly Italian but with several options from the local area and around the world as well, and all were reasonably priced. We arrived 15 minutes early for a 9:30 reservation and were told the guests at our table were still paying, so a bar table with high stools was cleared of a serving tray and we were given two glasses of water so we could sit and wait. I appreciated that.

But then not 2 minutes later, we were seated at a table for two that I had already seen was empty when we arrived. We left around 11. Not sure if it was because they were understaffed for the holiday evening since it was New Year’s Eve, but service seemed slow, with us often sitting over empty dishes or getting halfway through sipping the glass of wine of the next pairing before the actual course even arrived, and another couple that had arrived while we were having our second course somehow caught up to us and were having dessert while we were still in the middle of ours. Was the fact they had ordered a bottle of wine to share instead of pairings making the service easier, or was the server picking up the pace as it got closer to midnight?

At one point a server started to give us a second glass of the complimentary sparkling prosecco until he realized we were already drinking the wine paired with our first course, and for one course they poured his red in a white wine glass and my red in a red wine glass so that the juxtaposition between our glasses was silly. Although the wines were listed on the menu, after they were taken away it was a good thing I took a photo with my phone so I could refer back to it as the servers would just drop off wines and food without a word of explanation. The service at the bar looked much more personable.

FIRST COURSE

Choice of insalata of radicchio, olive oil, garlic, anchovy with parmesan and crouton (we took off the anchovy so it would be vegetarian), paired with Broglia Sparkling Gavi or a zuppa of cauliflower veloute and scallop. The salad was quite garlicky although the wine pairing was nice and crisp. The soup was lovely thanks to the scallop, and was paired with Matteo Correggia Arneis that offered a round fruit mix of apple and pear tones.

SECOND COURSE
Choice of a risotto with wild mushroom or tajarin that is house-made with sugo di carne (pork & veal) and parmesan. The risotto was the best dish of the night- the tajarin seemed a overcooked as it was limp and mushy, so sad, though the sauce was good. The risotto was paired with a delicious Raptor Ridge “Mm” Pinot Noir, and the tajarin was paired with Castello di Verduno Pelaverga- and I think his wine was better while mine had an unusual nose (though tasted fine) that seemed unidentifiable except that it was faintly dry and chalky somehow though F deemed it “dryer sheet”. Again, his risotto was the best dish of the entire meal.

THIRD COURSE
Choice of sformato, a souffle-flan with artichoke and spinach in a spinach sauce, or fagiano, a roasted pheasant with cavolo nero (black kale) and quince, or agnello, lamb chops with cotechino sausage and lentil. The sformato (paired with Quaranti Chardonnay) and the agnello (paired with Bryn Mawr Pinot Noir) were selected. The souffle-flan was good and rich which I liked (although of course I like rich foods, while F complained it was a little too rich), while the lamb chops were a little underseasoned and the lentil suffered the same fate (meanwhile, F kept eying my lentils, wishing he could have just had a dish of lentils, and I kept wondering what it would be like to put some of the spinach sauce on them. Go figure.)

FOURTH COURSE
Choice of bonet chocolate flan-mousse with amaretti crust and caramel sauce paired with a surprisingly spice-tasting of cinnamon in the glass of Cocchi Barolo Chinato, or a torta of flourless hazelnut cake and creme anglaise paired with a 20 year tawny port. Both were just the right portion and amount of richness or nutty light cake that was not oversweet.

Except for the prosecco and the Sparkling Gavi, each pouring came with a mini carafe to refill the tasting portion already poured.

Coppia has a great concept, but it seems the service is letting that premise down, at least when we were there for our visit.  The wine pairings enhanced each of the dishes we had- it’s too bad I just don’t know anything more about them than the name listed on the photo from my phone’s camera.  I don’t think I would pick this restaurant again for any special occasion. However, being able to stop by for a wine and bite to eat of the antipasti at the bar where you can interact more seems like a nice option if you are in the area and looking for a nice glass of wine to relax with and you want less bustle then offered at Metrovino about 1/2 mile away.

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