Category Archives: Food and Drink

Food and Drink

Hot dog! Late night food outside the pub

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There's a large variety of condiments to dress your sandwich or sausage. Photo by Jason.
A large variety of condiments to dress your sandwich or sausage. Photo by Jason.
We mentioned it before, but tonight was the first night I’ve dropped by to sample the new hot dog cart on the sidewalk just outside the Beacon Pub, near Beacon Avenue South and South Hanford Street. (It’s not the first time we’d tried — our last two attempts were coincidentally just after they’d closed for the night under their old hours.)

From the cart, you can order up hot dogs, bratwurst, hot links, italian sausage, veggie “sausage”, italian and beef sandwiches, tacos, grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, meatball subs, sliders, black bean veggie burgers, even pasta. An entire table is packed with condiments from ketchup to cream cheese and everything in between. Also available are nachos, pretzels, chips, popcorn, candy and pop.

Kris & Laurie. Photo by Jason
Kris & Laurie. Photo by Jason
When I stopped by tonight, Kris Coty was working the grill. She and Laurie Lusko run the operation. Laurie owns the pub, too. She’s had the place for the last twelve or so years.

Being outside the pub, it’s okay to come with the kids, and it’s a great way to satisfy a late-night hot link craving. Maybe stop in and play pool or belt out a song on karaoke night, too.

Hours:
6pm-1am Thursday
3pm-1am Friday
1pm-1am Saturday
11am-8pm Sunday

BH in the News, Clean and Green, Food and Drink

Beacon Hill plum tree is front-page news

Nearly half the front page is devoted to the Risses' plum tree. From the Seattle Times front page PDF.
Nearly half the front page is devoted to the Risses' plum tree. From the Seattle Times front page PDF.
Heidi Risse pointed out their plum tree’s front-page appearance on today’s issue of the Seattle Times. The Risses’ tree, with a bumper crop of plums this year, is featured in an article about City Fruit (previously mentioned here), an organization formed earlier this year to not only help harvest urban crops, but to assist and educate tree owners in pest control, pruning and processing. Check out City Fruit’s calendar for classes on canning and more.

Find out how the 75 pounds of bounty will be put to use in the article at the Times.

Food and Drink

Light Rail restaurant review: Baja Bistro

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Happiness is this tasty margarita, just consumed at Baja Bistro. Photo by melissajonas.
Happiness is this tasty margarita, just consumed at Baja Bistro. Photo by melissajonas.
Baja Bistro and Java Love are actually conjoined twins: a bar on one side and a coffee shop on the other, sharing a kitchen. There are a few tables and chairs outside and small seating areas in both restaurants.

Baja Bistro has a full liquor license. They sell a limited number of bottled beers and probably have some wine–but the reason we go here is for the margaritas. Whether you go for traditional lime or upgrade to a house pomegranate-lime blend, you will not be disappointed. Drinks are served in pint glasses and balance great taste with moderate alcohol–and they’re within walking distance of my house!

I also rave about the tacos patatas–potato tacos. Trust me, they are incredible! Crispy, filling, but not greasy or heavy. Perfect with a margarita or other summer beverage. Also be sure to try the fish tacos, the mole enchiladas, and the incredible tortas (bolo sandwich with rich avocado and mayo spread). The homemade chips and salsa are also a treat, or you can upgrade to nachos.

Service at Baja Bistro is sincerely friendly. Everyone is made to feel welcome. Everyone on staff seems to enjoy being there and it’s clear they expect you to linger for a while. Service is quick, but the atmosphere encourages hanging out and enjoying a conversation (or a book). Baja Bistro is also kid friendly, at least on the Java Love side. The owner lives on Beacon Hill and received an award from The Stranger for being one of “Seattle’s Sexiest Baristas”. Someone should really nominate his younger brother for the award next year…

Regular prices are reasonable (meals for two are generally around $20-$25, more if you order drinks) and Happy Hour prices are very happy: $3 tacos and $5 margaritas.

Thanks to Link Light Rail, people who aren’t fortunate enough to walk to Baja Bistro will be able to take the train. Baja Bistro is two blocks north of the Beacon Hill light rail station. Come on up and enjoy some good food, great drinks, and outstanding company!

They close at 5:00 pm on Mondays, and stay open until 9:00 pm Tuesday-Friday. Enjoy breakfast and other items from 9:00 am-3:00 pm on weekends.

Neighborhood: Beacon Hill
2414 Beacon Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 323-0953

Food and Drink, Local Business

Light Rail restaurant reviews: La Cabaña

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La Cabaña recently repainted their cheery sign. Photo by Wendi
La Cabaña recently repainted their cheery sign. Photo by Wendi
La Cabaña is Tex-Mex style cooking: lots of gooey cheddar cheese & smothered stuff. It’s not health food, but it is delicious!

Family-run and super friendly, this is where we take visitors when we want to spread out and enjoy a lot of good food without spending very much money. Portions are LARGE–you’ll have enough for lunch the next day. Dinner for 3 usually totals about $35, including drinks.

Try the mole enchiladas, the tostados, and the tamales. Rice and beans are basic and good. Two kinds of salsa and all you can eat chips (with ongoing refills) come with every meal. My niece loves the horchata (sweet rice drink) and my sweetie loves the Negro Modelo beer. I stick with water or occasionally a wine sangria. No hard alcohol here.

It’s almost always empty, but they’ve been around forever. The booths are roomy and the staff are always happy to see groups with kids. Decor is kitschy, in an adorable way.

I love La Cabaña. If you live on the Hill, walk on down. If you’re visiting on the train, it’s just a couple of blocks from the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station.

La Cabaña
2532 Beacon Ave S
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 322-9643

Food and Drink

Light Rail restaurant review: Thai Palms

Every so often, we drive along MLK to observe light rail construction progress. It’s been really fun lately to see trains running. We went out to Kubota Gardens a few weeks ago and stopped off at Thai Palms on the way home.

Thai Palms is located on a busy stretch of MLK, near the Othello light rail station and not far from Holly Park Greenhouse & Nursery.

The restaurant is clean and comfortable, decorated with wicker and bright flowers. Our server met us immediately at the door and was attentive and polite. He brought two delicious iced coffees immediately. My dining companion was disappointed to hear there was no beer–Thai Palms doesn’t have a liquor license yet.

We were impressed by the extensive menu–at least four pages listing everything from Thai standards (phad Thai, Lard Na, Tom Yum) to items I didn’t recognize and can’t remember how to spell. If you have a favorite Thai dish, they probably make it here.

We started with fried egg rolls. They were fine–nothing special, but hot and brought out quickly. Next time, I’ll definitely go for the fresh rolls and/or the salt & pepper tofu as a starter.

I ordered a Massaman curry and jasmine rice. The curry was rich with coconut milk and spiced just right. 3/5 stars was perfect here–warm enough to make my nose tingle, but not so hot I cried. Shane enjoyed his Phad Thai, which contained traces of tamarind and shrimp paste and lacked the ketchup-induced sweetness and pink hue so often found in that dish.

Service lagged between our egg rolls & the main dishes. I couldn’t tell if it was simply because the main dishes were being fresh made, or because there was a shift change. We would have appreciated drink refills and some idea of when our food was coming out.

Overall, I recommend Thai Palms. It was tasty, inexpensive (less than $30 for two entrees, coffee, and an appetizer), and nearby. Once the trains start carrying passengers, we’ll venture down again.

Neighborhood: Rainier Valley
6715 Martin Luther King Jr Way S
(between Holly St & Willow St)
Seattle, WA 98118
(206) 721-7777
thai-palms.com

Food and Drink, Local Business

Lunch Counter, Swinery follow Culinary Communion to oblivion

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Culinary Communion House, in happier days. Photo by Wendi.
Culinary Communion House, in happier days. Photo by Wendi.
The Culinary Communion/Swinery/Lunch Counter saga continues. Last month, Culinary Communion, the cooking school located at 2524 Beacon Avenue South, announced via a farewell letter from owners Gabriel Claycamp and Heidi Kenyon that they would be closing because of a combination of the bad economy, and permitting issues with the city involving required exits in the basement. However, at that point the Swinery and the Lunch Counter (both located in the same building, and also owned by Claycamp and Kenyon) were expected to stay open. (The Swinery, however, has had its own run-ins with regulators, including a recent situation involving Swinery meat being supplied to a Fremont restaurant without proper permits in place for doing so.)

The “dramatic tale of oh!”, as Nancy Leson put it in her All You Can Eat blog at the Seattle Times, was not yet over. This week Claycamp sent out an email stating that King County has now given him permission to sell the Swinery’s bacon legally. But on the other hand, they have now lost their lease and “will be for sure out of the building by the end of the month.” Lunch Counter? Closed. (That was fast.) Swinery? Sort of closed, but they say they have “24 days to make and sell some bacon,” along with t-shirts that read “BACON PIMP.”

And this is where the situation gets even more convoluted. While the Swinery now has a permit to sell bacon (and only bacon, no other cured meats) legally, the annual permit to run a restaurant/food establishment from the Culinary Communion House on Beacon Avenue expired on March 31. The bacon-selling permit assumes that the bacon will be sold from a legally-permitted establishment, which CC House is not. Unfortunately, the fees to renew CC House’s restaurant permit are not pro-ratable, so Gabriel and Heidi would have to pay either a year’s fee or a six-month seasonal fee to be able to sell bacon they plan to sell for the rest of April.

Claycamp has also withdrawn his application to sell at farmers’ markets, so the Ballard Farmers’ Market sales mentioned on the Swinery web site won’t be happening, nor will any other market sales.

There are more messy details, both in Leson’s story and from Rebekah Denn in Eat All About It.

The one result we can be sure of at the moment is that the Culinary Communion House on Beacon is going to be very vacant, very soon. Perhaps a nice pizza restaurant could open there instead?

Food and Drink, Local Business

Weekday lunch counter opening at Culinary Communion

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Culinary Communion front steps. Photo by Wendi.
Culinary Communion front steps. Photo by Wendi.
Adrienne at Culinary Communion writes:

Culinary Communion is going to begin operating a weekday lunch counter. While the official grand opening isn’t until April 1, we will have a “soft opening” during the month of March and will be open for business on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (with a few exceptions – please check our website at www.culinarycommunion.com) from 11am-2pm. We will offer a variety of sandwiches – using the Swinery meat (when available) and homemade bread –- plus, a salad, soup, and hot entrée of the day. Menu items will be priced between $6 and $9. Lunch is available to eat-in or take out. No reservations necessary. Questions can be directed to info@culinarycommunion.com or 206.284.8687. Look for more information about the grand opening soon!

Culinary Communion is located at 2524 Beacon Avenue South in North Beacon Hill.

Food and Drink

Street food market site sought; could this be the place?

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Skillet serving meals in the Queen Anne neighborhood last summer. Photo by Benjamin Hollis.
Skillet serving meals in the Queen Anne neighborhood last summer. Photo by Benjamin Hollis.
Skillet, the folks who serve bistro cuisine in an Airstream trailer, have an idea:

Hey skillet nation !!

an idea……

we have an idea we would like to implement. Seattle doesn’t have enough street food, and we want to help change that. We are toying with the idea of creating a weekend street food market. We would like to have a parking lot of some kind perhaps in a neighborhood say ballard, fremont, cap hill, udistrict, beacon hill etc…where us and maybe 5-10 other street food vendors could set up for a saturday and sunday during the day and perhaps even into the evening. I believe it could be a great experiment (and successful) and perhaps couple it with some farmers, musicians etc…anyways…if you have any suggestions or perhaps a location…please don’t hesitate to email me (josh) at eat@skilletstreetfood.com…

and thanks…we want to make seattle the epicenter of street food..!!!

Beacon Hill currently lacks a farmers’ market. Something like this would be an interesting alternative. Perhaps at El Centro, next to the train station (once it’s opened)? An event like this would draw visitors to the neighborhood, potentially helping the Hill’s economy, as well as giving us something interesting to do on the weekends. However, it’s possible the local restaurateurs would feel threatened by potential weekend competition. Have an opinion? Let Josh know at eat@skilletstreetfood.com.

Thanks to Slog for the heads-up.

Food and Drink

Bourbon Bar Night and Beacon Hill resident discount at Culinary Communion

Bourbon photo by Tom Parrott.
Bourbon photo by Tom Parrott.
Culinary Communion is hosting a Bourbon Bar Night tomorrow, Friday, February 6 from 9:00 -11:00 pm. Here’s what they tell us:

“After our Bourbon Tasting class, we’ll open up to the public and have our first bar night serving bourbon elixirs from $8 each and wine by glass for $5. We’ll offer a sampling of appetizers, as well.”

They would also like to announce a Beacon Hill Resident discount for their hands-on cooking classes. To get the 10% discount, use promo code BHN10 when calling the office to register for a class. The Culinary Communion house is located at 2524 Beacon Avenue South, and their phone number is 206-284-8687.