In August 2005 I moved from northern California to Seattle, a 25-year-old radio news reporter starting a new job at KIRO Radio. My first visit to the city had been only weeks prior, when the company flew me up for an interview, a true coming-of-age experience that made me feel like I was cosplaying a Real Adult. After the interview, I went back to the hotel (only Real Adults get put up in hotels!) and peeled off the fancy Hillary Clintonesque skirt suit I’d bought for the occasion. There’s a 68% chance that pantyhose were also involved.
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Eager to check out the city, I walked up Denny Way to Capitol Hill, stopping to ask two older, grizzled, jackhammer-wielding construction workers for directions.
“I’m looking for the cool street with all the cute, funky shops, cafes and record stores!” I chirped.
“Just keep walkin’ ’til you see all the FREAKS!” The men looked at each other and burst into maniacal cackles, Statler and Waldorf in neon orange net vests and hard hats.
The street I was looking for was Broadway, and in 2005 it was still home to “the Freaks”: the artists, the gays, the unfriendly baristas with the pierced faces and sleeve tattoos serving lattes and Americanos to young socialists, hipsters, musicians and street rats who spent hours sitting, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes (you could still smoke inside!).
This month marks 20 years since I moved to Seattle and, coincidentally, also commemorates the last time I wore a pair of pantyhose!
To celebrate my 20th Seattleversary, I spent last weekend doing a bunch of new-to-me Seattle things. Here’s what I did on one of those days:
Lunch at Athenian Seafood Restaurant & Bar
The Athenian is an iconic Seattle restaurant. Opened in 1909, it’s Pike Place Market’s second-oldest remaining restaurant (Virginia Inn opened in 1903, making it older than the market itself), and Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner sat at the corner of the bar discussing dating and tiramisu in Sleepless in Seattle. Look for the red TOM HANKS SAT HERE plaque if you want your butt to touch the same stool that his butt touched in 1993!
I was lured in by the history, the culture, the sparkling Puget Sound views; but admittedly had very low expectations of the food. Located in the hustle and bustle of a high-traffic Pike Place Market corridor, The Athenian is a prime tourist destination. But The Athenian surprised me! The platonic ideal of clam chowder arrived, volcanically overflowing from its bread-bowl crater, filling the porcelain bowl underneath. The lid of the boule was toasted, a thoughtful detail. My friend and I shared two salads and marveled that the greens were perfectly dressed, in a world where restaurant salads are often drowning in dressing or spritzed with a careless whisper of vinaigrette. The grilled seafood salad features a silky filet of salmon, red snapper and perfectly snappy shrimp, and The Athenian salad, mixed greens tossed with blue cheese, green apple, spiced Oregon hazelnuts and a citrus vinaigrette, was super-fresh and balanced.
Oxbow Park
We hopped on our bikes in Magnolia and rode down to Georgetown, an experience that has been mightily upgraded since 2005 thanks to the new gorgeously landscaped, super-smooth Alaskan Way bikeway. According to Seattle Bike Blog, this is the first time in Seattle history that there’s “a complete and connected bike path on its downtown waterfront.”
This was my first time visiting the famous Hat ’n’ Boots, which the Internet says is the largest hat and cowboy boots in America. Fun fact: Hat ’n’ Boots appeared in the opening credits of National Lampoon’s Vacation.
Mezzanotte
It’s hard to decide what we liked best about Mezzanotte: the delicious handmade pastas, the cool and friendly servers or the highly Instagrammable disco bathroom, complete with its own danceable soundtrack.
We sat in the sunny courtyard and shared a chicory Caesar salad and a couple of pastas – delicate handcut tajarin with sage butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano clinging to every strand and a creamy cacio e pepe with bucatini.
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Have a food- or drink-related question? (Need a restaurant rec? Have a mystery that needs solving?) Send me a note: rachel.belle@cascadepbs.org
XO
Rachel Belle
