The Apartment

AK, AD, Duwardo and I headed to The Apartment for happy hour fun.  AD and Duwardo orderd the “Dirty Monkey,” AK had some sweet drink that we found a hair in….and I had the rasbperry shortcake.  I didn’t care for my raspberry shortcake too much (champagne , vodka, with raspberry puree) as I thought it was too dry.  AK’s drink was pretty good, until we found the hair.  AD and Duwardo loved the Dirty Monkey.  They thought it was absolutely fabulous and enjoyed every drop of the drink.  It was described as a white russian…with a banana twist and so good.   After drinking this, they even wanted to go to the liquor store to try to find banana liqueur and godiva chocolate liqueur to replicate this drink.

Overall, it was more pricey for martini drinks, but it’s the only place we’ve found a Dirty Monkey.

The Apartment Bistro, 2226 1st Ave, Seattle, WA

Karma Martini Lounge & Bistro

A group of us decided to get together on Friday to go to happy hour.  We had originally wanted to go to Happy Hour at Cascadia, but when I got there at 5:05 the hostess had just seated the last table.

We ended up stumbling across Karma Martini Lounge and decided to give it a try.  Within the group (AK, AD, Duwardo and I) we had a raspberry infused martini, pineapple infused martini, strawberry infused martin, and blackberry infused martini.  The raspberry infused martini was hands down the table favorite.

We also ordered the short ribs, chicken satay skewer, and beef satay skewer.   The short ribs were so good!  I’m usually a neat eater and avoid picking up food with my hands, but it was so good that I just picked up my rib and devoured it completely.  YUM.

Plus everything was $4…not bad at all.

Karma Martini Lounge & Bistro, 2318 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA

Ray’s Cafe

Duwardo and I went here to celebrate his birthday.  He loves Ray’s Boathouse and we found out that Ray’s Cafe offers a free lunch to anyone with a birthday.  So we decided to try the place because we were sure the food was going to be good.

We got seated by the window (I had asked for it and stated it was a special occasion) and I mentioned to the waitress that it was his birthday.  She quickly got us the birthday menu that consisted of clam linguine, grilled mojito marinated chicken,  blackened red rockfish, and ahi tuna nicoise salad.  He picked the clam linguine and a spinach & roasted pear salad and I ended up getting the grilled top sirloin steak and the upper deck mixed greens.

The spinach and roasted pear salad was DELICIOUS!  One of the best salads I’ve had.  The upper deck salad was pretty good, but paled in comparison to the spinach pear salad.  The clam linguine was pretty light and yummy as well.  My steak started out as a bust.  I had ordered it medium rare, and my first bite into it came out medium well.  I was pretty upset.  However, Duwardo noticed that the other side seemed thicker and juice was running out of it.  I turned the plate and it was a delicious medium rare.  YUM!

I had a glass of Fat Bastard “shiraz” and thought it might be similar to the syrahs I love so much.  I did not really care for it, but it did get peppery/spicy paired with the steak.  Duwardo had a pretty good sparkling wine, I don’t remember the name though.

We opted to share a dessert and got the blackberry strudel pie.  That was really delicious.

Overall, it’s not as good as Ray’s Boathouse, but it’s still pretty yummy.  It was raining when we went, but I’d love to go back when it’s sunny and get a seat on the deck.

Ray’s Cafe, 6049 Seaview Ave NW, Seattle, WA

Osteria la Spiga

This was my favorite restaurant in Seattle before it moved from the cute little Broadway location.  Last night Duwardo and I tried out the new location to see how it measured up to the old place.

We walked in and the rustic little place we had known and loved had now transformed into this huge open space that I have to admit did look beautiful.  The high ceilings gave it such a spacious feel.  Although I miss the rustic hole in the wall feel that I used to have, this new layout gives them about 4 times the space they used to have and creates more of a fine-dining experience.

We were placed in the corner of the room and were slightly worried about whether the servers would remember we were there, as the old la Spiga did not have the greatest service.  However, with the new and larger space it also comes with a lot more servers and I do not think my water glass was ever low.  There was this great girl that kept coming back and peeking in on us every 5 minutes to make sure we had everything we needed.

I as also happy to see that the prices hadn’t changed and they had added new things to the menu.  However, I am never going to stray from my beloved gnocchi al pomodora.  I live for this stuff, and I’ve never been anywhere outside of Italy that has made such good gnocchi before.  So I was excited to order it.  Duwardo ordered the roast pork dish and we shared an appetizer of the a piadina with mozarella, prosciutto and truffle paste.  The appetizer was still delicious, although a bit too much mozarella this time, but not horrible.  The gnocchi and pork came out and I looked at my plate and said “They didn’t give me as much as they used to give me!”  Duwardo tried to convince me that it was a larger plate and so it looked like a smaller amount.  Notice the tried…I was never convinced.  I know my potato gnocchi intake and surely I was getting less here.  Another difference between the gnocchi was that they weren’t all the uniform size that they used to be.  There were some big pieces, there were some super small pieces.  Duwardo stated “at least you know it was handmade.”  But here’s the thing, I never doubted that it was handmade…but now it just makes me feel like there was no care in making my gnocchi.  I took a bite and it didn’t taste as good as the old gnocchi.  One bite was really chewy, the next bite was really soft.  It wasn’t consistent throughout the plate.  By all means, this is still better than the other gnocchi I’ve had in Seattle…but it was no longer the best I’ve had outside of Italy.  That title goes only to the old la Spiga now.

Duwardo’s pork was cooked to perfection and he loved everthing about it.  I had a quick bite of it and it was moist and juicy and quite delicious.  I’ve said this before…I’m not usually a big fan of pork because most people (myself included) cannot cook it well so that it maintains the moisture, but that was a great piece of pork.  We shared a great bottle of chianti wine with our meal and overall had a great time.

Here’s the thing, I may sound critical of the changes that have occurred, but it’s still a great restaurant.  Osteria la Spiga may no longer be my favorite restaurant in Seattle and I truly miss everything about the old place (the ambiance, the food, and yes even the slow service….but I mean that’s Italy, you stretch out your family meal).  However, Osteria la Spiga is still going to be one of the best places in Seattle to get Italian food.  I’m just sad that my favorite hole in the wall restaurant is now gone and I’m sad that other people will not get to experience the beauty of that place.   I still will return to this place…it may not be 3-4 times a month like I used to, but I’ll definitely still return to eat my beloved gnocchi and hope that maybe last night was an off night and they’ll go back to making the brilliant poofs of potato goodness that I love and know they’re capable of making.

Osteria la Spiga,  1429 12th Ave, Seattle, WA

Trophy Cupcakes and Party

I’ve been wanting to try this place for a while so Duwardo and I finally headed out to Wallingford and gave it a shot.  We opted for the Red Velvet and the Snickerdoodle.   The little displays of cupcakes are really cute and the place is super clean looking.

Anyhow, the red velvet…the cupcake was very moist and delicious, but the frosting was a bit lacking.  I wish I could take the cupcake from Trophy and the frosting from Cupcake Royale…that would be the ultimate cupcake.  YUM.  The snickerdoodle, however, was FANTASTIC!  Everything about it was delicious.

I’m definitely going to come back here and I’m looking forward to try the other flavors they offer such as lemon strawberry and triple chocolate!  Overall it was a great experience and I can’t wait to go back.  Yay for cupcakes!  Oh and they have a bunch of cute party favors as well here that they sell.

Trophy Cupcakes and Party, 1815 N. 45th St, Ste. 209, Seattle, WA

Katy’s Corner Cafe

This place is fabulous.  DY and I went her today to work on a project together and we were here for about 7 hours and we never felt like they wanted to kick us out.  Katy, the owner, was super nice and made me a delicious sandwich.  I’m still thinking about the sandwich right now and it’s making me hungry!

DY and I got there and she had a mocha and a bagel.  I had an italian soda and apple cinnamon scone.  YUM!  The italian soda was delicious too, they didn’t skimp out on the syrup.  The place has free wi-fi so that was great and we were able to get our project done.

For lunch I had the turkey cranberry sandwich.  This was seriously one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in a very long time.  I’m not usually a big fan of sandwiches as I often find them boring, but man this was great.  DY had the tuna pita and she said it was perfect because there was just the right amount of mayo where it didn’t feel heavy.

The best part about this place is that everyone that came in knew Katy and Katy knew them.  I was completely amazed at how she was able to talk to all of them and they would respond with “I’ll just have the usual” and sure enough she’d whip up the usual for them.  It was very cool.  I think I was the only person that walked through that door that Katy did not know.

Oh and another cool thing.  Katy was sitting there handwriting Katy’s and little hearts on all of the to-go coffee cups.  The thing is…before I saw her writing them herself, I thought they were printed on there!   It’s details like this that makes this place stand out above all of the other coffee shops I’ve been to anywhere.

It’s a great cozy place and I definitely will return to this place.  Very very cool.

Katy’s Corner Cafe, 2000 E. Union St, Seattle, WA

Brouwers

This is our go-to bar.  It’s a Flemish style bar and everything about it is pretty great.  The atmosphere, the huge 60+ draft beer selection, the huge 100+ bottled beer selection, Mike the hot bartender, the food…everything here is great.

The beers on tap change, and every March they seem to have a cool barley wine festival.  I personally am a big fan of the lambics, but that’s just me.   MW loves the mussels there and gets them whenever he can.  I love the beglian waffles…I love them so much that I make Duwardo take me to Brouwers just so I can have one.

They have a fairly decent happy hour with a delicious cheese plate that we get every time.  It’s fabulous cheese with rosemarry flatbread.  YUM!

My only complaint I have with this place that it’s so great that sometimes it’s hard to find a table.

Brouwers,  400 N. 35th Ave, Seattle, WA

Chapel

A funeral parlor now converted into a bar?  Awesome.  $4 martinis from 5-8pm?  Even more awesome!

This was the last leg of the AK birthday happy hour tour…and it was a good stop.  The list for martinis is very long and I hope to go back to try the peach (I was DD this round, so no drinking for me, only a taste of each drink).

Duwardo had the vanilla.  It was pretty sweet, but you certainly tasted more lemon than vanilla.  AK had the cambrie or something like that.  It was pretty alcoholic tasting but very sweet also.  AD had the black haus.  This was pure alcohol…or as we put it, more bang for your buck.  The whole thing was made of blackberry  liquer, vodka, and one kiwi slice.  It definitely tasted of blackberries though…but more of alcoholic blackberries.

They’ve done a great job transforming this place into a bar.  It’s really cool and definitely somewhere we will return.  There are no food discounts, so that’s a minus there…as the food was a bit expensive.

Chapel, 1600 Melrose Ave, Seattle, WA

the Capitol Club

Second stop in the AK birthday happy hour tour was the Capitol Club. This place has a really cool upstairs bar/lounge area that even has a little deck for you to go outside to get some fresh air (unless you’re a smoker, it’s actually probably there for the smokers).

AK and I shared the “romero” cocktail. It was pretty tasty, but we were also a bit disappointed because it was advertised as having lemon and rosemary muddled in gin. We tasted the lemon, but there really wasn’t any hint of rosemary…we think they forgot that part. Duwardo and I shared the arugula pesto and formaggio pizza and the entrana tacos. The tacos were delicious! The pizza was pretty flavorful and tasty, but a little bit on the oily and salty side as well. The bar treated us to a plate of bruschetta because one AD’s dishes came out a bit late. I didn’t get a chance to try the bruschetta, but it looked tasty and everyone else said it was tasty. AK had the 10 ounce kobe beef burger to which he stated it was ok. Drinks were fairly tasty, but the food was certainly better here.

This place definitely had a good vibe to it and I liked the upstairs lounge area. There were a few tables that were surrounded by benches and pillows.

Happy hour time: 5-7 pm

the Capitol Club, 414 E. Pine St, Seattle, WA

Tango

It was AK’s birthday today so we all decided to go happy hour hopping around Pike/Pine.

We started the evening at Tango. We ordered the mojito, sangria, and the tango margarita. All were fabulous! MW even said that this was the best mojito he’s had in Seattle…and the portions were generous. We ordered the Carnitas del Puerco to munch on and it was really tasty. AK and AD had the Spanish Coca and it was quickly eaten as well, so I can only assume that it was just as tasty.

Overall this was a great place for happy hour with great drinks. I can’t attest to the actual restaurant, but from the tastings we got from happy hour, it was definitely a good place.

Happy hour times: 4:30-6:30 pm

Tango, 1100 Pike St, Seattle, WA