As our bus was crossing 45th Avenue in the U-District last night, the driver opened the front doors to shout at someone running to cross the street, clearly trying to catch the bus:
Hey, young fella! [pause] Don’t worry, i’ll be glad to wait for you. [pause] You could run a little faster if only you’d pull your pants up!!
Whole bus cracked up. Someone said, “Aww, he just got TOLD.”
So in trying to compile a list of recommendations, i realized that half the time i can’t remember the full list of tasty places in the U-District. There are just so many! (I think.) So for now i’m going to just make this a brainstorming place where i can get my thoughts in order.
It was starting this post the other day that made me realize the incredible sieve-like quality of my memory. Other places that might needed to be added to that list:
Okay, altho’ i recommend these places because they have either awesome cocoa or chai, i’ve also found that if a place can be bothered to do a competent cocoa/chai they usually also have really excellent food.
More to come! Because this is a brainstorming post that will change whenever i think of something.
There are many fine places in the U-District to get a decent meal at a not-outrageous price, but there are only 4 places i would take someone for dinner specifically because they are U-District to me.
Agua Verde’s website says “kayaks, food, ambience,” and that about sums it up. Agua Verde is not only an excellent eatery (for either lunch or dinner) but it’s also a great place to rent kayaks — because they are right on the water of the Ship Canal. But let’s get back to the food! This is Baja / Seattle fusion, which i know sounds weird, but trust me is absolutely delicious. They do get super busy at lunch with the UW crowd, and can also get busy for dinner after about 6pm, so you may have to be prepared to wait. But it’s worth it.
$ Lunch meals + a drink is usually around $10. Dinner entrees are often around $10.
* Vegetarian options are good.
Agua Verde Cafe & Paddle Club
1303 NE Boat Street, Seattle WA 98105
206/545.8570
This Seattlepi.com review pretty much sums it up. Did i say you’d have to wait at Agua Verde at certain times? You will almost definitely have to wait at Thai Tom no matter what the time. And did i say Aqua Verde was worth it? Oh, sweet fancy Moses, Thai Tom is absolutely worth it. Do you like peanut sauce? Get the swimming rama.
> Warning! Thai Tom offers a spiciness scale from 1-5, but even Andy stops at 3. Thai Tom is almost always spicier than you expect it will be — i’ve never known anyone to go higher than 4.
$ Entrees are usually under $10.
* Offers non-meat options, but even the fried rice is always done up with egg.
! Cash only.
Thai Tom
4543 University Way N.E., Seattle WA 98105
206/548.9548
Mamma Melina is one of those U-District institutions that almost everyone knows. For good reason: the food is delicious and reasonably priced. Entrees i’ve had have usually come in under $15. One of our favorites is the gnocchi — i have had dreams about Mamma Melina’s gnocchi. Reservations are not a bad idea, but i’ve never been turned away without one.
$ Entrees are usually $12-15.
* Many pasta options that are easily made vegetarian by asking for no meat.
Mamma Melina
4759 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle WA 98105
206/632.2271
I almost hesitate to talk about Village Sushi to people because i don’t want it to get to0 busy that i can’t get a table anymore, but, fuck it — after 6:30pm it starts to get hard to get a table anyway. One of the things i love about Village Sushi is that it exemplifies one of the fundamental rules of the U-District: you never know what’s going to happen next when any given business closes. The building where Village Sushi is now was a Tibetan restaurant for a few months. The Tibetan place, unfortunately, closed before Andy and i could try it — around the time we said, “Hey, let’s try that place,” Village Sushi was there. And, lo, there was much rejoicing. I’d been hoping for years that a decent sushi place would open in the U-District, and here we go. I have never had better salmon sushi anywhere. The agedashi tofu is amazing. I can barely go a month without either the oshinko (Japanese pickled vegetables) or the ume shiso roll. And i have Village Sushi to thank for my addiction to bubbling sake.
$ It’s hard to price a sushi restaurant because prices for dishes are very ingredient-specific. Some examples: appetizers are $5-9; dinner entrees can range $12-20; sashimi plates top out around $50; ume shiso rolls are around $2-something.
* Many absofreakinglutely delicious vegetarian options.
Village Sushi
4741 12th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105
206/985.6870
I was willing to cut Seattle some slack on the snow clean-up: Seattle’s climate isn’t a snowy one, so i assumed that the city simply wasn’t knowledgeable about how to get back in business after a snowstorm.
Except it turns out that Seattle does know what steps to take to clean up after a snowstorm and it quite simply refuses to use take any of those steps. “Seattle refuses to use salt; roads ’snow packed’ by design” (Seattle Times, tuesday, 23 december 2008). I love the part about how even the police cars are avoiding certain streets and hills because they’re impassable. Welcome to the post-apocalyptic city: it’s a bad time to have a health problem, but a great time for a crime spree.
gnocchi @ Mamma Melina
Originally uploaded by wrdnrd.
When i woke up this morning i wasn’t exactly planning on eating out for lunch — we’ve eaten out twice already this week and not only am i somewhat weary of the takeout containers in the fridge but we also have plenty of delicious things to eat at home. But Andy’s friend Bill is in town (which is somewhat rare), and Andy’s friend Francesco wound up paying (which is exceedingly rare), so we found ourselves at Mamma Melina {4759 Roosevelt Way NE}.
I’ve bummed gnocchi from Andy’s plate several times during past visits to Mamma Melina, so this time i just bought my own plate. (He got the ravioli, which i’d also been eyeing up, and, dang!, i just remembered that i forgot to bum a ravioli from his plate. And of course he had no leftovers.) Mamma Melina’s gnocchi is made from Yukon gold potatoes and is super super smooth and is extremely yummy. Perfect comfort food on a day when a blizzard is predicted.
I think my plate of gnocchi was $9-ish and came with a side of salad (house or Caesar) and soup. And much as i was tempted to eat the whole plate, i restrained myself and have enough left over for 1 lunch.
Day 3 of Seattle’s snowpocalypse, and i am so weary of it all. Not of the snow — i love the snow. I’m weary of Seattle.
Day 1: Seattle was supposed to get “winter weather” on wednesday, but the snow hit everywhere else in Pugetopolis except Seattle. Which resulted in this fantastic article on thursday by AP writer Donna Gordon Blankenship:
Schools throughout greater Seattle were closed Wednesday at the mere threat of snow late in the day, a symptom of the city’s deep phobia of the white stuff and near-complete inability to deal with any significant snowstorm. {“Seattle paralyzed by chance of snow”}
Day 2: Thursday, tho’, we did get hit with a kind of respectable snowfall. I think we had about 3-4 inches in the UDistrict, which is, actually, a lot for the area.
Day 3: Today, because no one here actually knows how to clean up snow, the roads and sidewalks are an icy hell.
Andy has had off work 3 days in a row because, let’s re-cap this:
Here is the best summation i’ve see of how Pugetopolis people usually react to winter weather:
The weather here is pretty screwed up, slush and ice (with a chance of late afternoon blood) which kept us both home today. In Spokane, there would be gravel out and other public safety measures, but when snow falls over on this side of the state people don’t see it as weather, it’s seen as a portent – evidence of an angry pantheon. A single snowflake will fall on their windshield, and they will immediately swerve their SUV into a truck hauling fuel. {Tycho. Penny Arcade news post, 29 november 2006.)
This afternoon i was chatting with someone who asked:
“So, how are you coping with the weather?”
“Oh, i’m from Pennsylvania. This doesn’t scare me.”
“I’m from Minnesota. This is starting to get embarrassing.”
Exactly.