sē·ăt′·əl

Back from a much-needed mini-vacation to the Pacific Northwest.  Seeing family and exploring the city was marvelous.  With me I brought back 1. a cold, 2. some pretty cool photos, 3. a crackbrained idea that I too can win the jackpot at the penny slots, and 4. an unhealthy longing for coffee and triple coconut cream pie.

…and pizza, and crumpets, and Greek food, and salumi, and brioche breakfast buns, and coffee.  Did I mention the coffee?  Ya, it’s cliché, but they make outrageously good coffee in Seattle.  Maybe overcast weather is conducive to good coffee.

The afternoon we arrived, cousin Roxy and her fiancé Joe took us for lunch to Dick’s.  Dick’s, they described, is Seattle’s version of In-n-Out.  The menu is pretty purist – burgers, burgers with cheese, fries and drinks.  Dick’s was pretty good, but it ain’t no In-n-Out!  I’m biased, sue me.

Trying to get some sightseeing in before meeting up with the rest of the family that evening, they took us to a park in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle which had a spectacular view of downtown.

Roxy and Joe!

We went and paid respects to the master and his son.  The buried at Lakeview cemetery have the most rockin’ view evah!  Visit sometime, you’ll see.

They took us to the Pike Place Public Market.  I vaguely remember visiting this place when I was younger.  This time around, we came with a laundry list of food to try.

I wish we had something like this close to home.  And looking at the photo above, I wish I had more of an upper lip, but I digress.  Back to the food.

Beechers.  Great cheese.  That is all.

Piroshky, Piroshky… I was not impressed.  But maybe it was because we ordered the wrong thing or was just too full from breakfast at the Crumpet Shop.

Speaking of…   They are sort of like English Muffins, with nooks and crannies, but are made with a batter instead of a dough.  The crumpet-maker dude at The Crumpet Shop was so awesome.

Behold, the first Starbucks.  This is the first one – of 16,635 stores in 49 countries.

Brioche buns and a Caffé Vita soy latte at Belle Epicurean just a block down and over from our hotel.  The best breakfast known to mankind.

We spent most of our money on food at Tom Douglas’ restaurants.  We ate at…

Lola.  Greek food.  Late night menu is awesome.  I ache for their pork honey-harissa kebabs.

Dahlia Bakery.  Things to try:  house-made donuts, fried to order with dipping sauces and the triple coconut cream pie.  That pie will make you think you’ve died and gone to heaven.

And Serious Pie.  And they are exactly that.  Seriously.  Good.  Pie.  That there is a guanciale, soft egg and arugula pie and their cherry bomb peppers and sweet fennel sausage pie. Excuse me while I wipe the drivel from my chin.

Over at Pioneer Square, we made a pilgrimage to Salumi.  People, believe me when I say that you’ve never tasted salumi until you’ve tasted Armandino’s salumi.

The made us a Moffo.

And it made our tummies happy.

Then we went to Zeitgeist and had another latte.

A trip to Seattle would be incomplete if you don’t stop by the Space Needle.

And you should definitely visit the Experience Music Project.  That there is a tornado of geetars.  And I guess a keyboard accidentally got sucked in.

And since Jimi Hendrix was a Seattle native, they had a bunch of his stuff.  This is his address book.  Crazy.  Jimi had pretty good penmanship.

We had an absolutely wonderful time there.  More [non-food-related] photos here and a video here.  Now off to find a good latte in LA.  Ta ta for now.