B and I are both creatures of habit. Living in New Mexico, I definitely had my habits, but they weren’t driven by anything specific… except occasionally by trying to establish some normalcy within a totally erratic work schedule. Since we’ve been in Seattle, though, a lot of our habits are driven by seasonal and weather patterns. I suppose it’s all about taking advantage of what’s available. Summer is bike rides, spontaneous happy hours and lots of time on restaurant patios and in the Pike Place Market. Winter is cozy neighborhood bars, restaurants with comfort food and icy cold walks. We eat more brunch in winter when we’re more grateful for the daylight. We’ve had such beautiful weather (albeit freezing) these past few days. There’s a lot of daylight to be grateful for.
Tomorrow, we return to the office. I’m really, really not looking forward to it. Since we’re lucky enough to have today off, though, we turned yesterday into second Saturday. We slept late and ventured into downtown for brunch and a trip through the Pike Place Market. We decided on Seatown Seabar & Rotisserie for food.
Today was our third visit. B commented that every time we visit, we decide to return soon for dinner, but we haven’t made it just yet. Honestly, it’s hard to turn down their amazing Eggs Benedict and breakfast sandwiches. As usual, we were more than perfectly happy to sit at the counter and enjoy the incredible food Seatown has to offer. I had the Eggs Benedict with ham and lemon Hollandaise. B had the chorizo and eggs breakfast sandwich. B didn’t disappoint and came through with his usual “I could eat two of these sandwiches” comment after finishing his. We each also enjoyed a Western Mimosa (grapefruit, Prosecco, Elderflower and gin).
After brunch, we wandered through the Pike Place Market to all our usual stops. I have an irrational fear of cooking seafood. I’m convinced we’ll both get really sick, but I love looking at everything the seafood vendors have to offer. I was particularly enamored by the giant oysters for sale in bags of five dozen. I’ve been on an oyster kick for months, though. We perused the produce and made a trip to the lower arcade to visit B’s favorite Market comic book store.
We also made a stop at Uli’s Sausage to pick up some brats for dinner. One of these days, we’ll stop at Uli’s Bierstube and actually eat there. They have the cutest little space and the sausage sandwiches sound amazing. For this visit, though, we took home a pound of brats to eat for dinner (which turned out to be two dinners) with some shrimp we picked up at Whole Foods on Saturday.
The brats came out surprisingly well. My first few attempts at making them left something to be desired, but I was pretty happy with the way these turned out. After dinner, we headed for IMAX. B really wanted to see Tron a second time since first seeing it on opening day. I finally relented and off to IMAX we went. From a visual standpoint, it was really was a beautiful movie, but I’m afraid I can’t say a whole lot for the story. By the time we were headed out of the theater, I was ready to be home. B, on the other hand, was ready for another stop. Tini Bigs was next on deck.
Upon arrival, we were the only patrons in the bar except for one woman who stood briefly at the bar. It quickly became obvious, though, that the bartender, Mike McSorley, wouldn’t let us leave feeling as if we’d spent the evening in a dead bar. When all was said and done, our planned one drink was a two and a half hour visit.
We’ve been to Tini Bigs quite a few times in the past, but it had been awhile. On past visits, they’ve always been super busy. A few times we’ve set out to visit, but haven’t because it looked so packed inside. Tonight we sat at the bar and enjoyed cocktails expertly crafted by Mike. B had his first real Old Fashioned and I had a Burning Man (Mazama pepper infused vodka, chocolate liqueur, float of sweetened heavy cream, coco rim and a dried Thai chili pepper). I also had a prosecco based cocktail that Mike “threw together” for me. It was delicious.
By the time we were ready to head home, two more had joined us at the bar. Seattle isn’t a city known for sincere or friendly residents. There are always exceptions, of course, but the Seattle Freeze is very, very real. That’s part of the reason it was such a pleasant surprise to find sincere and interesting conversation with our bar mates and with Mike.
Second Saturday was a decided success. Here’s hoping second Monday is just as kind.
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