GSS: Frontier Room; Bada Lounge; Belltown Bistro
Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo but we chose to avoid the crowds and check out a few more Great Seattle Shake participants. We decided to hit Belltown where three of the places are within two blocks. I have to say that it actually would have been a perfect night to do the Cinco de Mayo thing, though. The temperature stayed in the upper 60s, so Tia Lou’s deck was jammed, as was the sidewalk in front of Mama’s Mexican Kitchen and people were spilling out the door of Torero’s. As for our GSS quest, we are doing pretty well! Yesterday was Day 5 of the event and we have now visited six places!
We started at the Frontier Room. Now, although I occasionally frequent the Frontier room, it’s defintely not at the top of my list. Most nights the crowd gets a bit too, well, sloppy, I guess is a good way to put it. However, they actually do have pretty decent food, something that sometimes gets overlooked in the crush in the backroom. So we arrived at 7:00 to give us time to enjoy our drink and appetizer and yet be out before too many of the regulars started coming in.
R ordered the Strawberry Lemondrop, made with Stoli Strawberry, as opposed to actual strawberries. I ordered a Vodka Martini with a twist and we chose Chicken Wings as our appetizer. R’s Strawberry Lemondrop was a bit on the sweet side, although it still had some of the Lemondrop twang. The twist in my martini was perfectly executed and it was a basic martini. Decent. But the wings, the wings were perfection!
Our serving dish was filled with seven large drumettes, crispy and spicy, hot off the grill, surrounded by stacks of fresh carrots, celery and last, but not least, a large dish of real blue cheese dressing. These were really excellent wings. We happily dove in and could do so without worry since our table setting included a napkin that was actually a hand towel! Plenty of room to clean wing residue from your hands and face. :-)
The next stop on our agenda was Bada Lounge. When Bada first opened I’d go in now and then but hadn’t been there for a year or more so I was looking forward to trying it out again. This is another place that I remember being surprised that the food was pretty good.
Now before I get into the food and drink information, I want to take a minute to say that the bartender here was really great at looking out for the customer’s interest. Thursday is also Ladies’ night at the Bada and they run specials associated with that. As we were placing our order he was giving us suggestions on how to get the most bang for our buck and he was great at marketing the place, too – giving us all kinds of information about happy hour and other deals that were available. Now back to the program…
R ordered an El Diablo, basically a variation on a Margarita served over rocks. I ordered the Keylime, a concoction of vanilla vodka, lime juice, simple syrup, and pineapple juice. R especially liked how the ginger ale in her drink made it fizzy. I was amazed at how much my drink actually tasted like key lime pie – I mean I could even taste the crust, thanks to the vanilla vodka!
We ordered the Grilled Shrimp for our appetizer. The shrimp was yummy, although I didn’t think the sauces really complemented the shrimp. The cucumber salad was a nice touch and added a refreshing element. With that we were off to our third and final stop.
As you may remember, I recently visited the Belltown Bistro (one of the BluWater locations) and thought it was okay but wasn’t overly impressed. So you might wonder why I went back so soon. One, I’m a sucker for a "deal" and two one of the things I really liked were their little "sliders" (mini-hamburgers) and since they were on the GSS menu I was in!
We arrived at the Belltown Bistro just about 9:00 and I was a little surprised to see how packed the dining room was. I guess other people are liking the place more than I do! :-) I understand the draw and I will come back, it’s just that I don’t feel they are bringing anything unique to the area. Anyway, R and I squeezed in at the bar – I didn’t notice this last time, but the bar has weird angles so in some places even though there are two seats, your space sort of overlaps – odd.
We took a look at the menu and I was immediately disappointed – sliders weren’t on the menu! How could that be??? This was the only place, so far, that we’ve visited that had an actual menu different than what’s on the online site. They also had one additional drink on the real menu. It’s not that big of a deal, except that I had really been craving those baby burgers. The bartender apologized when we asked about it – he wasn’t aware there was a discrepancy – and again as we left. So we appreciated that.
Oh well, I thought the Guava Cooler sounded interesting and asked the bartender if it was sweet and he told me it wasn’t so that’s what I ordered. R ordered a Fresca, the drink that had been added to the menu. It was basically, citrus juice and grapefruit vodka. Our drinks arrived and mine was pretty sweet – not sure what that bartender was thinking. R’s was pretty good and mine was passable and now, in the course of 5 minutes, I’ve suffered two disappointments here! :-) But I did survive.
They have one appetizer that changes weekly and last night it was a yummy sounding spring roll but we decided to go with the Chicken Satay. The chicken was excellent and with all we’d had earlier in the night we couldn’t quite finish it.
With last night’s experience my feelings remain the same. The place is fine and there are some real nice things about it – for instance the booths offer more privacy than many of the Belltown places have. I’m sure I’ll be back but nothing really draws me.
Other GSS entries:
- The Great Seattle Shake
- The Matador and Hi-Life
- Palace Kitchen
- Pink Door, Il Bistro & Bonus Del Rey Preview
- The Bookstore and Jasmine
Bada Lounge
2230 First Avenue
Seattle
206 374 8717
The Frontier Room
2203 First Ave. at Blanchard
Seattle
(206) 956-RIBS
BellTown Bistro
2322 First Ave.
Seattle
206-728-2000
Website: Eat Drink Dine
I can’t remember exactly how I found this site, but I’ve had the url tucked away for some time meaning to spend a little time checking it out. I finally took a closer look at it yesterday and thought I’d share it with you.
It’s a pretty fun site that helps with pairing wine and food. You can either start with a wine and get a list of foods (and recipes) that would work well with it or start with food and find the wines that would complement it.
There are also educational/resource sections with information on topics such as wine regions, vintage charts, spices and information on plating food. There’s just a plethora of information!
Tyler Florence’s New Cookbook
I took a quick look through this cookbook yesterday. It looks very interesting! Tyler is one of my favorite Food Network chefs. Many of the recipes I’ve used from the site are from his shows.
At first glance, it looks like this book has lots of educational pages as well as recipes. It looks like he shows the steps to accomplish certain techniques.
I’m going to take a closer look at it in the next few days but for those of you who live near a Costco, I’d start looking for it now!
And, yes I know that I don’t really need another cookbook, but I’m just going to admit right now that I have an addiction. And that admission is not the first step to recovery as I have no intention of recovering! :-)
Rachel Ray Rant
I’ve been debating this entry for quite some time. I know that Rachel Ray can do no wrong with much of the American public and that I stand to alienate some folks with this rant but I can’t hold it in any longer! Last week I saw a little article in the Seattle P-I about Rachel’s new magazine and I decided it was time to speak up!
Now before I go into the "bad", let me say that I’m sure that Rachel is a nice person. This isn’t about her, so much, as what she dishes out. Although, she is just a little too perky (don’t her cheeks hurt by the end of those shows!) for my particular taste. Makes me think there may be more than just dried herbs going into some of those dishes…
My first encounter with Rachel was on the $40 a Day shows. Since I love to travel and mostly have a limited budget when I do, I was excited to see how she fared in some of my favorite places. And, I thought it would be interesting to actually see some new places, too. Well, the first few shows I found pretty interesting. Then I started thinking about some of her tips about saving $$ on meals. Thinking always gets me in trouble.
I noticed that in order to save money on meals, she was spending more in other ways. A classic example is when she recommends that you "get out of the downtown area". True, food will be cheaper, but how much are you going to spend in cab fare to get there? Or, if you are driving, on gas and parking? I didn’t see the show she did in Seattle, but one of the places she visits is a place in my neighborhood, Bick’s Broadview Grill. I love this place and I’m glad she found it. Since I didn’t see the show I don’t know if she cabbed or drove to Bick’s but I can tell you that a one way cab fare would be well over $20. That’s one way. And, although their meals are less expensive than some comparable places downtown, we’re only talking a buck or two, maybe three but no more than that. If she was driving, parking is free but gas-wise (especially at today’s prices) it would probably be a wash. So she’s making her $40 a day food budget but overall spending more on her travel budget. How smart is that?
Also it seems that most of her "dining" does not include alcoholic beverages, sometimes, but always limited. Now, not that I need alcohol in my life or massive quantities of it, but for me it’s a pretty basic part of dining – especially when you’re traveling on vacation. So I don’t think her $40 budgets are realistic.
Now having said all that I would say that when I travel, I probably mostly spend less than $40 on meals, at least for the overall trip. In fact, I know that because I’ve done a lot of business travel and had to track my expenses, so I know. It can be done, especially if you are averaging expenses over a number of days, it’s just that Rachel’s way doesn’t really make sense to me.
So now let’s talk about 30 Minute Meals. Another great concept for millions of people, although one I balk at a little, because for me the preparation isn’t something to "get through" but a big part of the dining process. However, there are times we all need to be efficient and I recognize that’s the case for many people on a regular basis.
So who are the people who are most likely to need 30 Minute Meals? Single parents, dual-income families, single people working more than one job or working while going to school. For many of these people budget is as important as time.
So when I see Rachel recommending things like shredded cheese (instead of shredding your own) or packaged greens or cuts of meat that have already had all the "prep" work done I cringe a little. I don’t know about your grocery store but mine charges a lot more for those items than for the ones you need to prepare on your own. I’d say that cheese costs about 4 times more per pound (maybe more) when you buy it shredded instead of shredding it yourself. And I question the nutritional value of some of these products, not all, but some. The other day she was using a single serving package of shredded carrots! Any fresh fruit or vegetable begins losing nutritional quality as soon as it’s picked and even more when you process it and expose it to air.
So, while I agree these things all make meal preparation faster, I wish she would talk about some of these trade-offs. That prepared or partially prepared food will cost more, that you may lose some nutritional value, and that you may have less control over the quality. And maybe, when you are making these meals, it makes sense for you to adopt some of the ideas but take a little more time on others. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing either way. Just explain the trade-offs and let the viewers make informed decisions.
Then her third show was announced, Inside Dish with Rachel Ray. Again, I thought this sounded like it had potential. I’m not a huge celebrity watcher but it would be interesting to hear how some people incorporate food and dining into their lives. So I watched the first couple shows. The people and subjects were interesting but, unfortunately, you didn’t get to hear much about them. Every time they’d say something Rachel would relate it to some experience or story in her life! And then the discussion would be all about her. Sure, something you do when you have a conversation with someone but not something that should be done when the focus should be on the guest. And since these shows are (presumably) edited, I can only imagine what the actual conversations were like!
But, what do I know? The world continues to watch her shows, buy her books and generally love the girl-next-door-ness of her. So now, we are going to have this magazine, "Everyday with Rachel Ray". It makes me want to scream. I know, however, that all I have to do is turn her off, not buy her products. Which I do or don’t do, as appropriate. However, she’s also crowding out FoodNetwork shows that I do like, and that’s what really gets me. People like Sara Moulton are not having shows renewed. I find Sara to be much more educational than Rachel. But, you know, her food takes time.
Phew! I feel so much better! :-) Thanks for letting me rant.
Update: My take on $40 a Day
Future Planning
Don’t forget Taste of the Nation is May 15th @ 6:00pm. There’s still time to get your tickets and support a great cause!
You also need to plan when you’ll attend DeLaurenti’s first ever Cheese Festival! On May 14th and 15th, artisinal cheese vendors will line Pike Place offering samples of their goods. There will also be a wine garden, both days from noon to five with a $5 entry fee benefiting the Market Foundation. Cooking demos are scheduled throughout both days. On May 14th there will be seminars on topics such as, serving and pairing cheeses. And the week before the festival several local restaurants will be featuring a cheese plate. For the list of restaurants see the Cheese Best Fest information, near the bottom of the page.
And some of you may be interested to know that’s the weekend that Boston is in town!
So get your ducks in a row – you don’t want to miss out just because you didn’t get your schedule worked out! :-)
James Beard Awards
The James Beards Awards (pdf file) were announced today. I’m sorry to say that none of the nominees from Seattle won. :-( It was great to have so many nominees, though!
Mario Batali, son of Armandino Batali of Salumi fame took top honors as "All-Clad Cookware Outstanding Chef".
Move over Nigella…
… there’s a new sexy chef in town!
Saw this guy on the Today show this morning and they showed a couple of the pictures in the book. Don’t know a thing about his food but the pictures are nice and the title is great. :-)
GSS: Palace Kitchen
It’s the second day of the Great Seattle Shake and we managed to hit another location! This stop wasn’t originally planned but when we finished the Yakima Valley Wine Tasting and found ourselves directly across the street from the Palace Kitchen, what else could we do but stop in and check it out? The Palace was definitely on my list of places to get to. Between this event and the new Happy Hour the Palace was calling my name! Now, I can’t say the same for R. Unfortunately, she has experienced a series of bad service experiences here but I was determined that wouldn’t happen again!
The bar was crowded when we arrived but we did manage to score two seats. After taking a look at the GSS menu, I decided to try the Citrus Spin (Finlandia lime, grapefruit juice and a float of chambord) and R went with the N.W. 75 (Finlandia cranberry, cranberry juice, float of sparkling wine). Both of our cocktails were quite lovely!
For our appetizer we went with the Wood Grilled Chicken Wings and coriander cream. Now, I find this rather amazing but I had never had chicken wings at the Palace. I don’t know why – maybe all the other good things have just taken precedence. So when they arrived I was delighted to see that these weren’t just any old Chicken Wings! Beautifully arranged on the plate were three whole wings. They were surrounded by the coriander cream. Now, I am a firm believer in eating chicken wings with your fingers and so it was no problem to grab one of these puppies and pull it apart into more manageable pieces for eating. I was so busy working on my wing that I didn’t really take time to figure out exactly what I was tasting – and being the resourceful person I am, I figured it would be listed on the menu anyway. But it’s not. I want to say these were seasoned with Coriander, maybe? I’m not sure but they were great! R and I each finished one and divided the third. It was all a bit messy but worth every minute of it!
Fortunately, we were done with the wings when Chris Hedges from Hedges Cellars sat next to us. He had just finished packing up after the tasting and came over for a quick beer. I don’t know why but I always think it’s funny when wine people drink beer – it just seems so beneath them! :-) As R and I finished our drinks we talked with him about this CMS change, how the family tradition is being carried on (he’s actively involved with the marketing and has a sister interested in the winemaking), possible changes in the tasting room location, the "bottle your own" event (a fun event they have every November) and other wine and winery topics.
And so another fun night at the Palace Kitchen concludes. Our service was good, so R was happy, and we were able to check one more place off our GSS list!
Other GSS entries:
- The Great Seattle Shake
- The Matador and Hi-Life
- Frontier Room; Bada Lounge; Belltown Bistro
- Pink Door, Il Bistro & Bonus Del Rey Preview
- The Bookstore and Jasmine
Palace Kitchen
2030 Fifth Ave, on the corner of 5th and Lenora
Seattle
(206) 448-2001
Yakima Valley Wineries in Seattle
Last night R and I attended a tasting of Yakima Valley wines held at Tom Douglas’ new catering facility, the Palace Ballroom. I was excited both to taste the wines and to see the new facility.
About 35 wineries were represented at the tasting. As is normal for these types of events, there was a trade tasting earlier in the day, a little break and then the public tasting. The public event was to start at 6:00 and by 5:45 the line was forming outside the door. At 6:00 the doors opened and the crowd started pouring in. There were plenty of staff to do the check-in so the line moved very quickly. We were soon inside, picking up a glass and starting our tasting.
Before the room got too crowded I made my way to the DeLille table. This is one of my favorite wineries and I always try to sample their wines at tastings, since with their pricepoint I don’t purchase as much as I’d like to. Last night, this strategy really paid off. There were two bottles that had been only for the trade tasting that still had a little wine, so I got to taste the 2002 D2, 2002 Harrison Hill and 2002 Chaleur Estate. I’d never had the Harrison Hill before; apparently it is normally limited to about 500 cases and most goes to restaurants. This was really a deep, intense wine and I was glad I had the chance to taste it.
I won’t go into excruciating detail about all the wines I sampled but I will call out a couple things of note.
Alexandria Nicole was a new name to me. I sampled their Syrah and liked it a lot. Unfortunately I didn’t look closely at the label so I’m not sure exactly which of their Syrahs I tried. The cheat sheet we were given doesn’t list it either. :-(
Donitelia Winery was also new to me. I sampled their Sangiovese and will watch this winery in the future.
The 2002 Dark Star from Kana Winery is a really interesting blend of Syrah, Mourvedre and Counoise.
Thurston Wolfe was tasting two wines, a 2002 Zinfandel and a 2003 Sweet Rebecca. I liked the Zin and really liked the Sweet Rebecca, a bit to my surprise. I normally can tolerate dessert wines on their own and enjoy them with dessert but this wine, a fortified Orange Muscat, was very pleasant on it’s own.
Hedges Cellars is taking their popular red CMS and expanding the "CMS" to become a second label. They now have a white CMS, formerly known as their Fume Chardonnay. Since Fume Blanc is also known as Sauvignon Blanc they just had to add a bit of an "M" grape (I’ve forgotten which one) to make it fit into the CMS label. It’s an interesting tactic and R and I spoke with Chris Hedges about it and other related topics when he happened to sit next to us at the Palace Kitchen bar, following the tasting. The Hedges label will be reserved for Red Mountain wines.
As for the ballroom, it’s a great spot. Good location, lots of old brick and the appetizers they served were quite nice. There was a great cheese and fruit platter, although this it the type of dish that creates a bottleneck; wonderful mini-tarts filled with goat cheese and topped with pancetta and caramelized onion; smoked salmon bites with a wasabi cream dollop; heavenly lamb meatballs; and a few other things that I didn’t quite get to. They had plenty of food and even when we left at 8:00 there were still items left on the table.
I don’t know if it was they way they laid this event out or if they had oversold tickets – maybe a bit of both – but for the first hour the place was so packed you could barely move from table to table. At about 7:00 enough of the crowd had given up so you could move about more freely and then it was very pleasant. If you are planning a corporate event or need a facility for a large party it’s definitely worth checking out.
U-Dist Farmers’ Market & Glass Eye Sale
This Saturday the U-District Farmers’ Market opens! I’m so anxious to check it out. Especially since they normally open on Memorial Day weekend – it will be fun to see what they have this early in the year. Over the last couple years they’ve added more meats, fish and cheeses to the line-up so I’m sure there will be lots of interesting new (and old) things to see. Although I love shopping at Pike Place, this is my favorite community market. Even more than at Pike Place you can get to know the actual people growing your food.
Here’s a link to the directions, in case you need it. Unfortunately, their main link is still broken, although I just emailed them about it. You can get more information about all the Farmers’ Markets here.
Another fun event this Saturday – not exactly food related but "food for the soul", instead – is the Glass Eye sale at their warehouse. Always a fun treat to pick up some wonderful glass pieces at a fraction of the retail cost!
Update May 2: The link has been fixed to the University Farmers’ Market!
Culinary Fool 