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On my way over to class last Thursday at Seattle U I spotted a new coffee shop: Stumptown Coffee Roasters. I made a quick trip over during a break from class and decided to try it out. The verdict: excellent coffee! The atmosphere was what I call modern-attic - urban, industrial, but comfortable too. Perks include free wi-fi and daily cuppings (tastings).

After doing a little research I found out that Stumptown is a Portland boutique coffee roaster that has garnered a ton of accolades from the likes of Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, Entrepreneur Magazine, and USA Today. Good to have another quality coffee company in Seattle!

Last Friday was Isabell's birthday and we already had plans to have a little party at our new place. So that meant that I needed to find a good lunch spot to take the place of a birthday dinner. Neither of us had been to Tom Douglas's Dahlia Lounge, so we decided to give it a shot. The food was classic Douglas: northwest fare with interesting sauces and fantastic desserts. More on that later... Lunch rules be damned, we both had a glass of wine: Bell had a nice Cotes du Rhone that really came alive with her spicy pork and rice dish; I had a viognier that was very nice with Tom's classic crab cakes. But the real wow of the meal came at dessert. We had a pear tart with caramel sauce. Good food, good wine, good company, good times for Bell on her birthday!

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.

Last night Isabell and I went out with our very good friend Emily - current assistant director of Seattle's biggest indie movie company, absolute wine stud, and major foodie. We started the night at Seattle Cellars for their Thursday night tasting I mentioned in an earlier post. We have a flight of wines from Goose Ridge Winery here in Washington - good stuff. From there we walked down to a favorite of all three of us, Matt's in the Market. The restaurant recently re-opened after closing for several months and expanding. The new place is twice as big, views are even better, and the food still fantastic (Isabell had some amazing scallops). We scored a nice off-the-menu pinot noir from Belle Ponte in Oregon. After dinner we strolled over to Tavolata (pictured above) for one more drink. This is a great Italian restaurant and really cool space.

It really doesn't get any better than good food and wine with great friends.

This post is coming live from my second coffee shop review: Cafe Dharwin on North Capitol Hill. The place is tiny (4 tables), but the barista was really nice and my cappuccino excellent. Like many places Cafe Dharwin serves Caffe Vita, but that's fine by me. Other notes: free wireless (why has Starbucks not caught on to this yet?) and proceeds of all sales go to a school in Africa. Nice work.

As last weekend drew to a close and Bell finished her third day of work at the hospital in a row, we agreed that we needed a date night. She did a little research and came up a cafe on Phinney Ridge called Stumbling Goat. Weird name, good food.

All of the food is organic and produced at small farms. The menu even lists the origin of the food. It is worth noting that we had a great wine too: Cadence - a red blend from Washington. We agreed that we will definitely stumble into this place again.

Isabell had to work today so I decided to join my good friend Celeste, a University of Washington med student, at the law library at Seattle U for some study time (I needed to write a paper for my MBA class). When lunch rolled around I walked over to a new Parisian-style cafe called Presse. The place is the latest venture for the owners of Le Pichet downtown. I had sat at the bar, had a great little lunch, read the paper, and watched the first half of the Brazil - Argentina futbol match. All-in-all it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

It would be a valiant effort to try and write about all the coffee shops Seattle has to offer in a single post. So instead I am going to keep a running diary of the places I drop into.

Today it's a great spot on Queen Anne called El Diablo. Highlights: the free internet and Mexican hot chocolate. Great stuff.

Isabell and I are moving into a new place on Capitol Hill in a couple of weeks, so our time in the Eastlake neighborhood of Seattle is short. There is not a whole lot in Eastlake when it comes to food and drink, but it does have some great spots.

We noticed that in the July issue of Food & Wine magazine the country's top new chefs were listed and one was from Seattle. His name is Matthew Dillon and his place is called Sitka & Spruce - which just so happens to be one block away. It is a great little eatery with a menu of fresh local foods that changes daily. We have only been there once, for dessert and coffee, but it was enough of a teaser to make a trip back soon for the whole thing.

I have only lived in Seattle for a couple of weeks now, but have come across a great wine shop. My definition of a great wine shop is one that carries a range of wine (in a global sense), leans more towards wines you would not normally find elsewhere, and has an attentive, fun, and helpful staff willing to work with whatever parameters are given them. Seattle Cellars in Belltown is a great wine shop. In addition to excellent selections and a helpful staff, they have tasting every Thursday from 7-9. I know where I'll be spending many of my Thursday evenings...

On the one hand it feels overwhelming trying to cover every place I might go out in my new hometown of Seattle; however, I am taking some solace in the fact that this will be more of a running dairy instead of a city guide of sorts. That said, on to installment #1...

Bell and I decided to buck the Seattle casual trend, dress up a bit, and hit a restaurant we have never been to: Purple Cafe. The restaurant was big, with a pretty cool interior. Overall I liked the scene, but it was also quite loud. Food: average, but we agreed that our crab cakes appetizer was excellent. We have a nice bottle of French wine from the Languedoc Roussillon region called Soulenes. Honestly, there were many good options, as Purple Cafe is really part wine bar, part restaurant. But we literally chose the wine by picking it without knowing what to expect. Needless to say it was a pleasant surprise.

After dinner we headed over to a going-away part of a friend of mine at Twist. This was a pretty cool lounge, with a few good areas to sit with friend. The problem was that most of the lounge seating was along one wall - pretty touch to talk to multiple people when you are all lined up in a row. That said, it was a pretty cool scene and worth a return visit.