portfolio

After going so big on Wednesday night at Canlis, Bell and I wanted to pace down and have one glass of wine with a light dinner. We headed over to a new spot in Belltown called The Local Vine.

Be warned: wines by the glass are not cheap - look for $12-15 minimums. However, every wine they pour is both generous and more importantly excellent. A nice addition to a solid list of wines is the food, which is made by the owners/chefs of Crush. We ended up having some chorizo gulf shrimp with lime and roasted flank steak with blue cheese potatoes. Both come in appetizer-size

proportions. We are looking forward to heading back, but maybe next time with a few more friends to split a bottle.

This past Wednesday was my birthday and Isabell's is sixteen days later. The mere proximity of dates was grounds for a double celebration, so we made a reservation at a Seattle institution: Canlis. The night started out in a surprising and memorable way. We were brought two glasses of top vintage Krug champagne courtesy of our good friend Emily. Excellent stuff! After sitting in the lounge area for about ten minutes we were seated at our table; a place with a great panoramic view of Lake Union.

We began with fresh oysters on the half shell and ordered a bottle of the 2004 Ramey Claret. A silky red that was excellent to drink all night. Bell has the rack of lamb with an Oregon blue cheese risotto and I had a New York strip. Her lamb was fantastic, while my steak was good, but far from the best I have ever had. What was the best I had ever had was the service - Canlis is second to none. Everyone who came by the table greeted us by name and even our car was waiting for us, doors open when we last the restaurant. Canlis is really on top of their game.

Another note: I absolutely loved the architecture. It was built in 1950 in a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired design that is still a classic today. My grandfather was an architect and big fan of Mr. Wright, so maybe some of his appreciation for great form has been passed down to me.

Last weekend Isabell and I decided to try out a restaurant near our new place on the east side of Capitol Hill. We dropped into The Harvest Vine, a great Basque-style tapas restaurant. The place is very small and quickly fills every night, so we were lucky to grab two seats at the copper bar where we could watch and talk with the chefs. It was a lovely evening and a great place to eat - for both food and atmosphere. We dined on great white and red Spanish wines, some of the best cured meats we had ever had, steamed peppers that were the Basque equivalent of edamame, a nice filet of tuna with a vanilla bean olive oil sauce, and lastly a chocolate dessert with some dessert wine. On janari! (good food) - as the Basque would say.

Beautiful day in Seattle. Hot for the northwesterns. For me, it's 'pleasant', so that means it's still a good day for coffee. Right now I am blogging from Fuel, near the new casa on Capitol Hill. It's has a relaxed vintage atmosphere, good size (10 tables), free wi-fi, and nice ambient beats playing in the background. Oh yeah, and the coffee - it's Caffee Vita, but the barista was good; I got a nice little pine tree in my cappuccino foam. Cool.