Seattle: Day Two & Three

More from Seattle, on Flickr. Day Two starts here and Day Three, here (navigate right to move forward in the timeline).

Seattle is still a grungy town. The youth of Seattle still sport flannel, lace up boots and “vintage” clothes from the local Goodwill. This isn’t a bad thing — I’m just surprised that Grunge™ is still alive and well. My teenage years were spent wondering about this mystical place that had spawned many a band that I listened to intently. I watched Singles religiously.

Over a decade later and things are far different. Seattle is looked upon comparatively to the other places and cities I’ve been to. Mostly home (Chicago), San Francisco and Austin. These have been notable cities in my travels.

Seattle has good eats. Fantastic, scrumptious, wonderful eats. I remember reading an article somewhere in which it was mentioned that Seattle had exploded musically because the rain kept people indoors playing music to while away the time. Perhaps the proximity of some very damn fine seafood and the aforementioned, drove people to cook damn well. Because in Seattle there was nothing but back to back culinary delights. Of note: Wild Ginger, Dahlia Lounge and Red Fin. All very fine meals. Being a bit of a foodie, I sought these places out via LTHForum and from other foodies-in-the-know. Red Fin was a no brainer — it was at the Hotel Max where we were staying. Dahlia Lounge because it’s one of the many restaurants owned by popular restaurateur Tom Douglas (who also appeared in Season One of Iron Chef America) and Wild Ginger based on many an LTHForum recommendation. The daytime meals were also great. Casual, fresh and just good. Okay, so there was one bad experience — at La Panier which is right in Pike Place. It was breakfast and we were looking for hot chocolate and some fresh pastries. The place was packed and the bread smelled good. After an alarmingly disorienting ordering process (wherein one owner and 5 helper girls couldn’t even get one order ready to go), we finally got our goods. The Girl™ took one sip of the hot chocolate and threw it away. I took that as a bad sign, took a sip myself and threw mine away too. We went just a few doors down to the original Starbucks and made up for the hot chocolate. The pastries — a chocolate croissant and some brioche — were below average. C’est la vie.

There’s more to write and note perhaps (or not, some things are better left unsaid) but if that tells you anything, the food was notable and memorable.