Wright Eats

We sometimes get a bit of neighborhood envy (but hey, not too much – we love our neighborhood!) when we read about all the great new restaurants flocking to Ballard, Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, West Seattle, and really, any neighborhood besides Ravenna.  We’d just like a few more places within walking distance.  Is that too much to ask?

Some locations on 65th have been regular revolving doors with restaurants coming and going year after year.  There’s the place at 65th and Ravenna Avenue which had Shamiana (which we still miss), then Shamiana reborn as World Beat Cafe, then the short-lived Bistro Magnolia, and finally Hot Dish before sitting empty for a while.  That place has a bad luck omen, so we hope that The Himalayan Kitchen, which opened there two weeks ago, fares better.

We went last night to THK, and it was decent, although we were really hoping for better.  They serve Indian, Nepali, Bhutan, Tibetan, and Indo Chinese food.  We tried one Bhutan dish, aima datchi, and another more familiar Indian dish, alu matar paneer.  We both preferred the alu matar paneer.  Although we ordered the mid-range spicy level, the food was quite mild, so we’ll order the hottest level next time.  The naan was tasty, although it was a bit thinner and somewhat crisper than I like.

Just across the street, the windows are papered over but the sign is ready for Da Pino’s to open later this month.  Currently located on Rainier Avenue, Pino Rogano is moving into our neighborhood and bringing what looks like a great menu of sandwiches, pastas, artisan cured meats, gelato, and espresso.  It will be nice to welcome a little neighborhood place like that.

Two blocks up from there is Third Place Books, where we hear that the Honey Bear Bakery will be replaced by a second Vios later this year.  We’ve enjoyed Vios Cafe & Marketplace in Capitol Hill, a family-friendly Greek restaurant with great food.  It’s interesting that the Honey Bear Bakery, which is synonymous to us with Third Place Books, is moving out.  Personally, I never found the Ravenna bakery to be as great as the old Tangletown location from years back, though, so this sounds like a good change to me.

Finally, it looks like Felix and Sarah Penn’s second place, which we mentioned a few months back, is getting close to opening on 55th.  It should be good, if it’s anything like their first place, Pair.

The Himalayan Kitchen
2255 65th Street NE, Seattle
(206) 588-0651

I really like how the folks at Victrola take the time to share their passion for coffee with the public, whether it’s weekly coffee cuppings, or events like this mentioned on their blog:

If you’ve ever wondered what all these coffee roasters are doing when they “go to origin,” please come to the cafe and roastery on Pike and let us demystify! We’ll have our photo show up (well, it’s up now, but it’ll still be up on May 15th), some snacks and coffee from Guatemala, a slideshow presentation of our travels, and maybe a few other tricks up our sleeves.

We’ve attended a number of their coffee seminars in the past and found them to be interesting (and highly caffeinated!).

Up until a few years ago, I didn’t drink coffee at all – drip, espresso, caffe latte, whatever.  That all changed in one night.  We were at a cooking class at Dish It Up! in Magnolia, and at the end of the evening our hosts offered to make espresso for everyone in the class.  As always, I declined.  Dawn took a sip of hers, and insisted I try it.  Now, Dawn had spent years offering me tastes of her espresso drinks, and I had concluded that coffee was just not my thing – I felt perfectly content exploring oolong and pu-erh teas.  But tonight, Dawn was persistent; I had to try this.  Ok, ok, fine, if it makes you happy.  And then – wow, what was this?  The flavor was amazing, complex, rich, intense.  One perfect shot, and I was hooked.  How convenient to be living in Seattle and suddenly loving coffee!  But then I thought of all the good coffee I missed out on during earlier trips to Italy.  Oh, the humanity!  I had a lot of lost time to make up for.

And so began my interest in learning all about coffee – trying new coffee shops every week, discovering what kinds of beans, roasts, and blends I liked, and watching amazingly skilled baristi pour rosetta patterns.  That first fateful espresso was made with beans from a small roaster in Seattle called True North, and we were lucky to find Cloud City Coffee just up the street using their beans.  We hung out at Lighthouse Roasters in Fremont, I dragged Dawn to four months of coffee cupping classes at Victrola, we sipped nutty cappuccini at Top Pot (made with Zeitgeist-roasted beans), and so on.  However, it didn’t take long for Espresso Vivace in Capitol Hill to become my favorite place for all things espresso.  While I like the atmosphere more in their Capitol Hill roasteria, we’re nearly regulars at their new-ish Yale Ave N location, which is a little more conveniently located for us.  I usually get a cappuccino or macchiato on the weekend, while Dawn is a fan of the caffe caramel.

Two years ago, I started making espresso drinks at home, and I like how the northern Italian-style Vita and Dolce blends from Espresso Vivace produce excellent crema with every shot.  I got so much into learning about making the perfect cup of coffee that I even bought David Schomer’s book and video (Schomer founded Vivace), and they’ve been excellent resources.  And we made a new discovery recently: raw skim milk.  We typically use skim milk at home, which definitely tastes different than the fattier drinks we get when we go out.  So when I tried using raw skim milk from Sea Breeze Farm for some drinks, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had a consistency much like whole milk.  Dawn says she’s hooked on this new combination, and I like how it’s made latte hearts even easier to pour!

Espresso Vivace
901 East Denny Way and other locations, Seattle
(206) 860-5869