Seattle-area Restaurants and Food Culture

[reckoner]

ok

[8ball]

Does anyone else think that Fourth and Pike is an odd location for a Michael Mina restaurant? I can't think of any other fine dining nearby except perhaps for Purple two blocks south.

There is no parking in the building. Are they going to offer a valet? His restaurants usually charge well over $100 per head, so I'm fairly confident most patrons aren't going to schlep to that part of town on foot, unless they are counting on tourist traffic?

[jessejb]

Hah..dude that corner is in the epicenter of the city. I'm sure it will do fine. A large percentage of fine diners aren't driving anyways.

I'd be more worried about how long he can stand the riff raff that the city encourages on that corridor.

[Ruffhauser]

I need a Thanksgiving Day dinner recommendation from the board.

My mom is coming out here for Thanksgiving and I want to take her to dinner. Has anyone been to a holiday dinner at any of the nicer restaurants in town and have good things to say?

Thanks.

[jessejb]

Originally Posted by Ruffhauser

I need a Thanksgiving Day dinner recommendation from the board.

My mom is coming out here for Thanksgiving and I want to take her to dinner. Has anyone been to a holiday dinner at any of the nicer restaurants in town and have good things to say?

Thanks.

Check Campagne, ART at the Four Seasons or the Georgian Room at the Fairmont. I'm sure one of them will be doing some fantabulous service.

[CrazyAboutCities]

The Georgian Room at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel is great place to celebrate holidays. They offers great buffets but you need to make reservation early. They usually become full just a week or two before holiday.

[CityView Jim]

Agreed. The Georgian Room is very 'old lady' in every regard (not to categorize your mom or others!).

[Ruffhauser]

Originally Posted by CityView Jim

Agreed. The Georgian Room is very 'old lady' in every regard (not to categorize your mom or others!).

It's cool.

I understand they do high tea there. That's old lady in my book too.

Some of that might be lost on her though; we're pretty simple people.

[CityView Jim]

Originally Posted by Ruffhauser

It's cool.

I understand they do high tea there. That's old lady in my book too.

Some of that might be lost on her though; we're pretty simple people.

I jsut remember taking someone there for a very special occassion (my first and only visit) as I thought it would be the epitome of class.

I quickly learned that there is old class and hip class. I'm more hip class.

[Seasun]

I just tried the new High 5 Pie shop at Madison and 12th. Very tasty stuff.
Walking past the Trace Lofts lobby in the adjacent building (or same building) it was odd to see almost the same antique sewing machine wall display as the new All Saints store. Maybe a fad or something.

[jessejb]

Looks like Amore in Belltown is closing (or remodeling).

[Seasun]

I haven't been there yet but it looks like Lunchbox Laboratory opened this weekend in SLU at what was the Southlake Grill (their old Ballard location closed sometime in the past few months).

Could they have taken all the coolness out of their website? Looks kind of like a template from some web development site - http://www.lunchboxlaboratory.com/ I remember the odd-ball site they had before but at least it brought the "laboratory" aspect of the name into the website.
The video at the site touches on Neighborhood Grills which operates several other local restaurants - all perfectly good place in my experience but I really wonder if any of the funkiness of the old place will carry over to the new and if the original owners/staff are still involved. It was a crazy small dump of a place before but had lots of character. The guy on the video says their burgers are large - they definitely aren't small but I'd say they're not especially large - but really good!

[CityView Jim]

Smart cookie, that Tom Douglas! His 2nd Serious Pie opened today in SLU and includes a small breakfast menu featuring biscuits to cater to the Amazonians in search of quick snack mid morning:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._amazonvi.html

[Seasun]

To clarify, the new Serious Pie (upstairs pizza place) has been open for at least a couple of weeks but the ground floor breakfast part of it sounds like it got going this morning. The bar that serves morning items also does happy hour small bites.

I tried the pizza a couple of Saturdays ago but I have to try the breakfast or happy hour stuff. Great addition to the neighborhood.

[Seasun]

I did the Lunchbox thing tonight - had to try it out. About what I expected - it's still the Lunchbox Laboratory in name only - well, except the plates and some of the menu items are the same as they were.

I just don't quite get it. I did recognize the woman owner/front-of-house manager from the old place and I chatted for a minute. She made it clear their business wasn't viable in their old location and I understand that but I don't get why the coolest things about the old place weren't put into the new version. Even just the stupid - but cool - things like milkshakes served in lab beakers or the chalkboard menu or the unique website bring people into the place for $13 1/4 pound burgers with side included.

What's up with a menu that at the bottom says something like "No Substitutions but please feel free to build your own burger starting with one of the ones described above." Is this a joke? Maybe I don't know what a substitution is in the burger biz.

I almost wish the woman (and whoever else owned the original - I think a man, maybe her husband) could have just gotten some cash for the store name and reputation and done something else. I don't see them being satisfied with this arrangement and I don't think their "baby" has been leveraged to make some money in their new space.

[meku]

I loved the old Lunchbox - sounds like it changed for the worse. I'll have to check them out soon.

[Ruffhauser]

Originally Posted by jessejb

Looks like Amore in Belltown is closing (or remodeling).

They moved to 6th and Wall, on the east side of the former Wall Street Tower(now Archstone). Its kind of a strange spot for a restaurant, and to be honest, I can't remember what, if anything, was in this space previous.

[Ruffhauser]

The New Amore spot:

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[jessejb]

Thats pretty interesting looking... Not how I feel about the location since its in kind of a dead zone.

[Seasun]

I just heard that Tom Douglas' Seatown take-out food place (NOT the adjacent sit-down cafe on the corner) will be shutting down after tomorrow. I was told it's a chance to re-evaluate and adjust the menu/format before summer. It's the one Douglas place that I've actually been to more than once or twice and now it's closing at least for a bit.