For my last meal in Seattle, I met up with a buddy of mine at a place called DeLuxe Bar & Grill in Capitol Hill. This is not to be confused with Delux in Phoenix, a place known to make subpar burgers. DeLuxe in Seattle has been around since 1962 and serves up some great beers and a variety of bar food to join those drinks. Per usual, my eyes darted to the burgers (all grass-fed on account of being in Seattle) and there was quite a variety to choose from.
Randomly placed in California, Washington and Illinois is a sandwich cafe called Specialty’s. Why it is placed so sporadically throughout the United States is surely a question someone in their strategy team can answer, but for me the only thing that matters is that when I needed a quick bite in Bellevue, Washington, Specialty’s was there for me.
Seattle is pretty far north of the border. The border with Mexico, that is, because Canada is super close. So, when I went to dinner at Casa Rojas on Bainbridge Island, I had my trepidations about the quality of the cuisine. These trepidations were certainly tempered on account of the meal being paid for by an alum, but I was still hoping for something good.
Genuine Turkish food isn’t exactly easy to find. Sure, other Middle Eastern food seems to be everywhere, but it’s not often you come across pide, or the word “kebab.” Cafe Turko in Seattle’s Fremont area though, is one of those places. With a menu that is nearly unpronounceable to an American, I knew I had found a good place. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I was with a Turk who vouched for the authenticity of many of the dishes.
What do you do when you arrive in Seattle’s Belltown in the middle of the night hungry? Why, head to Hurricane Cafe of course! And why Hurricane Cafe? Because that’s the only place Yelp said was open in walking distance. Seriously, after eating there I can’t think of a better reason to go.
Hurricane Cafe is definitely not lacking in character. It has all the charms of a greasy spoon and with a bar attached has subtle, yet distinct scent of stale beer and vomit.
Steak steak steak. Steak steak. Steak. Survival. As far as I’m concerned, these are the thoughts that run through Gloria Gaynor’s head constantly.
At some point, the world decided that the best bagels in the world are in New York. As with the pizza, the claim is that it has something to do with the water. I, however, think this does not do justice to the quality of cooking that goes into the production of these things. Obviously not all bagels and pizza in New York are good, so there is much more going on than meets the eye. In my own search for a tasty bagel, I was sent to Murray’s Bagels in Chelsea.
We can probably all agree that aside from silt, floods are pretty bad. But if there is one thing that can make a flood better, it’s meat. More specifically, moose meat.
New York’s Chelsea Market is definitely a fun place to grab some lunch. It’s like LA’s Grand Central Market, but far fancier. And like any similar market, each food stall has a specialty. Like any good human that has spent a significant amount of time in Southern California, I need good tacos every once in a while and Pittsburgh has not yet delivered. So when I saw Los Tacos No. 1 in the Chelsea Market, I knew I had to make their tacos mine.
After imbibing in a few beverages and wandering the streets of New York in search of ramen to no avail, I found myself at a place called Glaze in Union Square. Contrary to what you might expect, Glaze is not a donut shop. Rather, it is a teriyaki fast-casual concept, the concept being that teriyaki is a glaze. The options for the glaze included more than just your typical chicken and I went for the Hanger Steak.