The Hooters on Lake Union in Seattle has been ‘closed for remodel’ for months now. I suspected it was a permanent closure since they didn’t seem to be doing any actual work on the place, and felt certain of my suspicions when they missed the memorial day weekend. Looks like I was right.
OK, they actually say they serve “burger, ice cream, and more”, but the phrase isn’t “wtf bicm”.
I say “say they serve”, because, despite having an open sign up and two people there, this new restaurant on a barge that opened up near work didn’t seem to be interested in actually selling anything. They had the gate to board closed, and when I started to ask the woman moving tables around, how to get on, she just turned her back on me and walked off.
It’s an annoying pity, since burger choices have been limited in their neighborhood for a while now. I guess I’m still going to be making the longer walk to Blue Moon Burgers.
Finally, a Tom Douglas creation I can get behind, Dahlia Workshop. At least in the morning when they are serving biscuits I’m happy. I’ve only tried the Fried Chicken biscuit, without egg-extra, so far, but I have tried it twice. =p
The biscuit is very tasty despite it’s square shape; nicely browned on top, creamy bready goodness on the inside. Add on a healthy chunk of fried chicken, and smother it all in spicy gravy, and you have the best breakfast I’ve had in Seattle for quite some time.
If there’s any complaint it’s how inconvenient the hours are, at least for an early riser like myself. They don’t start serving till 7am on weekdays, and 9am on weekends, which is 2-4 hours after I’ve gotten up most days, making it 1-3 hours too late for me to wait for breakfast.
The sausage biscuit looks very tasty as well, must go back and try it too. There was somebody there this morning that ordered one that was neither the chicken nor the sausage, looked to be some sort of hoity-toity northwest veggie-grilled-concoction, so worry not foody-snobs, there’s still some more Tom Douglas-y fare available as well. =p
For April’s Fools Day, someone put a joke card on my kanban, “Get Coffee”. Today as I was getting ready to pull the card from my WIP, our group lead stopped me and said we were going to make it a real card and our manager was taking out out for coffee.
When we got to the nearest Starbucks, I was wondering what I would order, given the lack of decent hot chocolate at Starbucks now, when I noticed 3 little lollipop looking things in the food case. On inspection, it turned out they were something called “Cake Pops”, presumably a tiny bit of cake on a stick, covered in a frosting/candy shell. I got one of the tiramisu, and it was pretty much as expected. Very sweet, and the cake was on the underdone side. It was OK for free-to-me, but not as a paid-for item.
I don’t get my co-workers obsession with Tom Douglas’ Serious Pie. It strikes me, like a lot of what I call “Seattle’s nouveau riche cuisine” (all the Microsoft millionaires feel somehow obligated to upscale their food choices), as something more akin to a dare than a dining experience. I personally can’t stand the place. It’s not that the food is bad per-se, just so not my style that I feel like I’m wasting my life choking down something I’m not interested in eating, just to prove something? There’s not a single style of pie with pepperoni, only one with a sausage, and lots of expensive mushroom and veggie options, if you are into that sort of thing. The potato pie is the best one, but there’s never enough of that one to go around. Even when someone else is picking u the check, I just don’t feel like it’s worth my time to go with.
On the plus side, Asylum Street Spankers are playing at the Triple Door.
On the down side, it’s a farewell tour, and doesn’t include Wammo.
On the plus side, it is the Triple Door, so the food will be good, and I’ve got a reserved ‘table’ spot for the front row.
We’ll see how the music turns out….
Spent last week on a whirlwind tour of all the Disneyworld parks in Floirda, and the Universal Studio’s Orlando parks as well. Didn’t do any of the waterparks, it was only 80.
Day 1 started with the Magic Kingdom. Stop one was Space Mountain where the regular wait time was listed as only 10 minutes; if probably took most of that just walking through all the empty switchbacks. The ride itself was all the fun I remembered from Disneyland 20+ years ago. Definitely going to go back and volunteer for a lights-on ride =) On the way to Space Mountain, Mom pointed out the Stitch’s Great Escape ‘ride’, warning that you got spit on and how disgusting it was, so of course I had to check it out. You go into a ‘stage’ with a group of people, with animatronic robots cracking wise for a 5 minute ‘show’, then move on to the real show, where everyone gets seated around a central column. When it comes, the ‘spit’ is light but unexpected.
Next up was Big Thunder Mountain railroad, a more recent ‘classic’. A traditional steel tube rollercoaster, again with a really short regular wait time. We did that one twice in a row, the line was so short. Small World was a nice relaxation break, wait time 10 mins. Then on to Pirates and the Jungle Cruise, not in that order. This mid-week, off-season stuff rocks, both rides less than 10 min wait times. Still haven’t needed to use a FastPass yet.
Mom had something to do, phone calls to make or something, and she skipped out on Haunted Mansion, another classic just as I remembered it. We had a couple of times where they had to stop the ride (wheelchair people getting loaded, and then unloaded) that meant I got a good look at a couple of place you normally don’t have enough time to study.
All the important rides hit up once, it was on to Epcot for the second half of the day.
I was majorly psyched to find out that Captain EO was making an encore appearance. I have no idea how faithful the theater and pre-theaters were to the original, but the movie itself was untouched, as I understand it. It isn’t too long before you realize that the Borg were ripped off from this short film. It’s a strange moment when the Queen comes down from the ceiling in all her tube-y glory and you have that WTF moment of recognition.
We hit up Soarin’, which had the longest line of anything that day, somewhere around 25 mins as posted. That is one impressive ‘ride’, reminding me of Cirque du Soleil’s KA in terms of the engineering required to hold up so many people on a moving platform. The screen had some really noticeable dirt streaks on it that my mom says aren’t usually there. I had a nasty stopped up head, but she says there’s scents as well.
Test Track was our last in-park activity, and had the second longest line of the day at 20mins. It is an OK roller coaster. No loops or swirling really, just speed and bumpy bits.
Day 2 started in the Animal Kingdom, with 3 back to back rides of Everest. There was a moment of surreality on our last ride, when mom and I noticed a group of 20 Buddhist monks in orange robes, waiting for their turn on the ride. We did the Safari ride, saw lots of animals, including an ostrich that started to follow our truck.
We checked out the Lion King musical show, which was quite acrobatic.
Lunch was had at the Rainforest Cafe; the soup is tasty.
Afternoon two was Hollywood Studios. Starting with the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a fun ride if the line is short, a too-short ride if the line is long. We did the backlot tour, getting to take part in the filmed ‘scene’ as Wild and Wacky Deck Crew. We also checked out the stunt car show. It was impressive and ate up a fair bit of time.
After a quick ride on the Rock n’ Roller Coaster, did another couple rides of the Twilight Zone, then off to dinner on top of the Contemporary, with an excellent view of the fireworks. And a birthday cake.
(see next post for days 3 and 4….)
I finally stopped in the new iBurger & Shake restaurant. It’s been calling out to me on the way home from work for months now, but the location just isn’t ideal, and I’m usually not really ready for dinner right then anyways. On Saturday, I dropped by for a late lunch. The place seems to be staffed by an asian family, very polite and a competent hand at the grill. I got fries and burger, no shake this trip…perhaps next time. The burger was brought out fairly quickly, and was the just-right kind of messy goodness a burger should be. The fries were thin style, cooked to a proper crispness. Seating inside is limited and cramped, but functional and clean. They have some outdoor seating as well, but this is not prime season for outdoor dining, and your view is the scents and sounds of a major highway, so…
Overall, a perfectly cromulent meal. If you are hungry for a burger and nearby, might as well stop by.
I had intended to hit up this place that bills itself as Seattle’s best little italian restaurant, but they didn’t open for another 15 minutes, and the menu outside Hunger looked interesting, so I went there instead.
There were three customers there before me, vs 5 staff in the front, and who knows how many in the kitchen, but they are new. Since July I think is what I overheard a waiter say to someone else who asked if reservations were required for a Saturday night (recommended but not required). I ended up trying a gnocchi small plate. The sauce was perfect, savory and rich, the right thickness to allow dredging up a little extra flavor before each bite. The gnocchi was gnocchilicious, but the star of the dish was the little chunks of veggie (I think it was pumpkin, some sort of squash)…usually I’m not a big fan of gourd-fruit’s texture, but this was cooked perfectly, not too firm, not too squishy. It worked a great counter-point to the softness of the gnocchi. I ended up way stuffed with half the dish left, so can only wonder what a big plate dish there entails. I had them box up a tart to go, ate half this morning, also very delish.
The place has a full bar, and I think I saw something about absinthe fixins. I know they have a bottle of everclear in the middle of the bar, something you don’t see too often in Washington, much less in a fancy restaurant.
Staff was friendly and attentive, but then again, I was the only customer in the place by the time my food arrived, so….
Recommended
UPDATE: I’ve been past later in the evening, and it looks like the crowd picks up.
