Tom Won't Let Me Down! {Seatown Seabar & Rotisserie}

I love it when the meteorologists' mistakes are in our favor. I shouldn't call them mistakes, really. It must be nearly impossible to forecast the weather in this city with its multiple personalities.

I awoke Sunday morning expecting to see overcast, heavy skies and rain much like we had on Saturday. Instead, we got this!

It's not exactly a cloudless sky (and it was pretty chilly), but beautiful! B suggested we venture out for lunch. I can rattle off 25 amazing places for dinner in our area in under a minute, but lunch is a different story. Since we don't work close to home and don't eat lunch out often on the weekends, I always have a hard time finding inspiration when the mood strikes. Yesterday, though, I had the perfect place in mind!
If there is one guarantee in Seattle food, it's Tom Douglas. In addition to being the mastermind behind many of Seattle's best restaurants, he is a practical Seattle icon and James Beard award winner with a product line of cookbooks, spice rubs and even cooks tools. That last part would normally make me a bit nervous. I'm always leary of "celebrity chefs" who become more about building their financial empire than about adding aspects to their business model that really reflect a love for that they do. Now, I don't know Tom. I've only seen him in person once from a distance, but that's not my impression of him. He's passionate about Seattle and he owns an amazing, diverse family of restaurants in the city. I mean, really, how can you go wrong with a man who once beat Masaharu Morimoto on an episode of Iron Chef America?

His newest creation, Seatown Seabar & Rotisserie is located right on the edge of the Pike Place Market next door to one of his first restaurants, Etta's. We've walked by it more than a few times now. It's always been either too late for lunch or when we were on our way to dinner somewhere else. Yesterday was a perfect opportunity.

We arrived about noon, so the brunch rush had already passed and we had no trouble getting a table. We had our choice between sitting at the counter or near the window. Given the sunshine, we chose the window. We'll definitely return for dinner some night and sit at the counter, though. It's beautiful.

The brunch menu isn't extensive, but it all sounded so good. I had a terrible time choosing.  After changing my mind at least four times, I settled on the Coddled Eggs Benedict with braised collards, chantarelles and sauce cheron. B opted for the Fried Egg Sandwich with smoked bacon and Beecher's jack cheese.

I was only able to eat half (B said he could have eaten another of his sandwich), but I loved every bite! The service was also really quick. They weren't fast in a way that made you feel like they wanted you to eat and get out. They were just really efficient.

After brunch, we spent some time in the Pike Place Market, but I will save that to share tomorrow. I have a feeling this whole NaBloPoMo effort is going to force a bit more restraint than I'm comfortable with. Worrying about not having enough topics to write about for 30 straight days started a flood of ideas. The big challenge is making it all relevant. Getting out of one's comfort zone is what it's all about, though, isn't it?