Wingzone

The weather changes and makes it hard to leave the house and face the cold pouring rain to get dinner. This time of year is when I go into my kitchen and open the junk drawer and pull out a stack of delivery menus. The choices are quite slim so we occasionally check the world wide web for some restaurants who might have decided to deliver to cap hill. L. started talking about how much he loved eating Wing Zone back in the day...he even told me a funny story about how he and J. sold a cd to a delivery driver to cover the cost of their meal. Awesome. I had Wing Zone wings once back in the day when I worked in the U-District, but I had never had the sandwiches.

L. claimed the grilled chicken sandwiches were BOMB. So to our surprise we are able to order a few online. I kept waiting for them to call us after we ordered to give us the bad news that we were out of the delivery zone. But that call never came. My favorite thing about these sandwiches is that you get to choose from 26 types of flavors. Options include BBQ, Blue Cheese, Cajun, Teriyaki and on and on. I had the Thai Chili sauce on grilled chicken and it was really good. You can also go with a fried chicken sandwich if you are feeling like going there. Because I wasnt sure if the thai chili would be hot we also ordered a side of their house hot sauce. All sauces were fantastic. The standard sandwich comes with a side of wedge fries but you can sub a salad, onion rings, mushrooms or mozzarella sticks. The sandwich comes on a soft bun and the lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, mayo, ketchup & pickle spear are on all on the side.





Wing Zone is a chain but it is the only on on the west coast. It is quick delivery to the hill from the U-District. The food although it comes in styrofoam is very warm and perfectly cooked. The chicken sandwiches set you back only like 8 bucks and once you get delivery they give you coupons for some amazing deals on your next order. I will certainly rep Wing Zone for a quick, lazy dinner brought right to my door. You have lots of options so check them out! Hamburgers, Chicken Fingers, Salads, Buffalo Shrimp, Wings, 2Liters and Brownies!


5042 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

Monday-Wednesday: 4:00 pm–1:00 am
Thursday-Friday: 4:00 pm–2:00 am
Saturday: 11:00 am-2:00 am
Sunday: Noon–Midnight

The Other Coast Cafe

"East Coast Sandwiches. Northwest Attitude." My guess is what they mean by that is you can get a deli style sandwich that wont cost you 20 bucks. Or that they use New York founded company Boars Head deli meats. Or maybe Northwest attitude means the staff have red hair and lots of tattoos.

Carbo was pretty excited to take me to a place I have never been so we hit up The Other Coast Cafe after one of our day long shopping trips to Target. I love sandwiches. When I was a veggie I had a hard time ever getting the kind of sandwich I truly desired. This place makes great hot sandwiches and also offered some classic cold options including Tuna, Bologna, Italiano and Roast Beef.

Carbo went for the Reuben which featured thin sliced pastrami, swiss, sauerkraut, mustard, and thousand island dressing on rye bread. The 6" set her back $8.25.

I went with what apparently is the most popular sandwich the Rajun Cajun. Thin sliced "cajun style" turkey, pepper jack cheese, tomato & onion with homeade spicy salsa mayo on a fresh crispy on the outside but soft on the inside roll. The 6" was

I hear they have another location downtown, but I think Carbo told me it wasnt as good... I will certainly go back if I ever get to Ballard before the sun goes down.


Mon – Fri: 10:30 am - 6:00 pm
Sat & Sun: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
5315 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
Phone: (206) 789-0936

A Tangletown (wtf?!?) Gem

this post is a long time coming, but i have no shame in publishing two-month-old pictures! my visit was in the heart of the summer and in the middle of a sweaty, 20 mile bike ride, but this dive is just as great on a rainy sunday evening as a hot summer day.

leny's tavern is just about the nicest dive bar i've ever had the pleasure of spending 6 hours at. the bartender, willow, was super friendly, sarcastic, and even changed the channel for us while (olympic) rhythmic gymnastics were being televised. we went there with a couple friends who swear by this spot (it sponsored M2.'s flag football team) and it's leny's larges, aka 33.8 ounce, four dollar beers.

i've found that a good guage of a bar's well-roundedness is the bloody mary. any bar can throw together a whiskey soda or pull a beer. not every bar(tender) can create a stellar bloody mary. lenys' is the shit. seriously. they make their own mix, dress it with pepperoncini, a pickle, olives, and lemon and spice it up to your liking. it was perfect...dill-y, tangy, spicy; i can't laud willow enough.

the menu is, as one would expect, mostly burgers-and-fries type stuff, but they also offer chili cheese tots, blackened cod, fish and chips, and all manner of fried accoutrements. all of my compatriots ordered the dock street burger (standard burger w bacon and "dock" sauce). M. accompanied his with salt and vinegar fries (bomb).

M2. got the onion straws, which are basically onion rings but, you got it, not rings. those were the shit, and after a few hours of swilling leny's larges and rounds of jaeger, we ended up ordering a basket of onion straws, which was a homerun.

lastly ms. pesca ordered the blackened cod sandwich which was the shit. the fish was great, salty, and "cajun-spiced" with paprika, chili, etc. i subbed in fried zucchini instead of regular fries, which were cornmeal battered, hotter than a motherfucker, and awesome.

since this initial visit, i think we've gone out of our way to tangletown (stupid name) at least 3 times. we even went on a rainy sunday night, had a few larges and shots and somehow made it to work feeling "decent." hit up leny's tavern, even if you're not in the neighborhood. it's a great place for pool, e-jukeboxing, buck hunter, burgers, and bloody mary's.


Leny's Tavern
2219 N 56st St
Seattle, WA 98103
206.632.9175

Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream

Out of all desserts, I favor ice cream more than any. I actually enjoy frozen custard more than ice cream but lets not go there right now. About a month or so I was out to dinner in Wallingford with some friends and we drove by Molly Moon's. 40 or more people were lined up around the block to get in. My friend driving informed me that they supposedly had the best ice cream in town, I immediately became impatient and wanted to get some for myself but we were off to a show so Molly was going to have to wait.

One afternoon a few weeks ago L. and I took the bus to Wallingford to visit our friends and wanted to also grab some brunch (which reminds me I need to write about that place). We ate our brunch and started heading towards our friends house and there we have it...we walked right by Molly Moons. It was the middle of the afternoon and there was still a damn line. We got in the back and waited our turn with the other intersted parties. Just looking around, I was plesently surprised by the selection of ice creams and the simplicity of the space.

As we waited we were able to see and smell one of the employees making fresh waffle cones. Having the waffle irons right out at the counter most likely increases sales, we both got waffle cones.


I went with the Salted Caramel (reminicient of the taste I had from Mark's amazing fudge cake with salted peanut ice cream at Spring Hill) and L. went with the Vanilla Bean.This ice cream was really good it was rich and tasted very fresh, creamy and natural.

If I remember correctly some of the other options that day included Chocolate, Basalmic Strawberry, Maple Nut, Raspberry Sorbet and a limited edition flavor...Baracky Road. Upon reviewing the website, I noticed you can also request flavors! I think someone should make an ice cream that tastes just like Jell-O's pistachio pudding. All of the ice creams are made from local and organic ingredients and the cups are compostable, this place is so green. The place was packed so we had to take the ice cream out onto the street which was fine because all of the screaming kids were a bit too much to take anyway.

I think Molly found the perfect place to set up a place to get ice cream in a community that needed an ice cream shop. By the way, Molly Moon is a real person and she writes her own blog about her ice cream business experiences, check it out!


1622 ½ N 45th St
Wallingford, Seattle 98103
206.547.5105

Open Noon to 11pm
Everyday

1616 Eastlake Ave E

so the title....yeah, i know it's about as boring as it gets, but i just thought it was funny because one of my labs is actually in this building, thus i reference this address all the effing time at work. anyhow, on to more relevant matters...namely the food!

grand central bakery and i have a long, delightful history. when i was in middle school, i would take the bus to pioneer square with my friend to visit her dad's office (which was right above the og GCB) and oggle the stationary at long-gone Paper Cat next door. every time we went, we'd get a hot ciabatta square for $0.69 and fill it with two squares of melting butter. ah, the memories.

fast-forward to my new location in south lake union, and the GCB at 1616 is a mere 3 minute drive from my office (or 5 minute Trollop ride).

i always like to try seasonal specials and signature dishes, so i ordered the Tomato, Sweet Onion, and Avocado sandwich. i mean, the title says it all. the sandwich was slathered with house mayo (uh, YUM), kosher salt and peppered, and finished with a little romaine. it was bomb. and of course, since GCB is a bakery after all, the bread was blue ribbon banging.

i also ordered a bowl of the soup of the day, which was an indian spinach and lentil with tofu (i assume a vegan substitution for paneer). it was pleasant...nothing special, but i did finish it all.

grand central bakery is a nice, area lunch option, though a touch on the pricey side if you get a whole sandwich and soup. there are locations scattered around seattle and portland, so they have the northwest covered.

Grand Central Bakery
1616 Eastlake Ave E
206.957.9505

M-F: 7-5
S/S: 8-4:30

st demetrios greek festival

last weekend A. called me up asking if i wanted to go to st. demetrios. i replied, "for what?!?" every september st. demetrios (a greek church in montlake, btw), holds a greek festival as their major, annual fundraiser which includes food, music, dancing, a "this-and-that" shop, and other greek groceries. i thought it would be fun, so M., A., and i were off to soggy montlake in the rain.

as soon as we walked in, i purchased 30 tokens to use at all the different food stalls under the big top. M. and i started with dolmades, spanakopita, and a simple salad. everything was good, but nothing was superb. i didn't have super high expectations since i knew it was a fundraiser, and it would be food prep on a huge scale. i enjoyed the comforting grape leaves, tangy salad (high on the cheese quotient!), but the spanakopita was a little sad. it could have used a little bit of salt and a lotta bit of crispness. it was soggy, and that wasn't ideal, but it didn't stop me from finishing it, oh no.

A. got the souvlaki, which came with a little bun to eat the skewered lamb with. apparently there was a vat of oil and sauce that the server dipped the skewer in right before serving, and A. went back to the stall to ask for a little dish of that sauce. instead he returned with a bun dipped in the sauce. why? i'm not quite sure.

M. also tried the gyro (it was either that or a lamb sandwich). it looked pretty damn good. they had quite the machine of younger boys assembling those jammies with toasted pita, sauce, tomato, onion, and gyro patties.

right before we left, i had to snap a picture of the whole lamb they just put on the spit to roast. epic!

after we wandered around the church grounds for a little bit (A. bought a bag of olives and a block of cheese), we ended up at the dessert station. we went with the kataifi, which is basically a nest of phyllo threads wrapped around walnuts and sugar, then flooded with honey. i also chose the standard baklava, just because i had to. the baklava was intensely buttery, a little soft (i think in part due to the humidity), but the kataifi was insanely sweet. there was far too much syrup on the bottom, so i just avoided that part.

thanks for the greek tastes last weekend, st demetrios!

chilies: so undercover it's not even googleable

this tiny hole-in-the-wall joint is sri lankan/indian party in the front and cold beer/convenience items in the back. chilies is a great little place next to pam's kitchen on 50th and the ave which serves a very limited, but tasty, menu of curries, soup, samosas, and dosais.

A. and i stopped here for lunch the other day. there's a bit of a language barrier, so be confident in what you're ordering and just insist that that is, indeed, what you want. while we waited at the card tables in the back for our food, we laughed at the random drugstore items on shelves, like the "macho" aftershave and "stick" deodorant.

for a tiny place, they had quite the selection of microbrews, domestic beers, and malt liquor. it was interesting watching people come in solely for the convenience store aspect of chilies.

this soup came with my dosai, but A. also ordered it a la carte. it's a tangy, tomato-based soup of potato, cilantro, cauliflower, and carrots. there was definitely black cardamom, fennel seed, and some other tiny, black eyeball-looking spice floating in it. whatever it was, the combination was tasty. my only complaint is that it wasn't (temp) hot enough.

A. also ordered the vegetarian samosas, which were bangers. the pastry was tender, and the filling was warm, comforting, and well-spiced. what really made the dish, though, was the mint chutney. i don't really know if it's technically a chutney (what is, technically, a chutney?!?), but it was grassy, fresh, and bright. though they look a little sad here, don't trust the picture. they were great. and cheap ($3.25)!

i ordered the masala dosai, which is a crispy crepe wrapped around masala-spiked onion, potato, and garlic. the dish is super simple, fast, cheap, and satisfying. the dosai also came with the mint chutney as well as some finely-grated radish...at least i think it was radish...it was white, a little fibrous, and cold. to be honest, it wasn't especially flavorful, but i ate it all anyways. my favorite part of the dosai ie the crepe's ends since they're so crispy and taste great dipped in the tangy soup.

i also snagged a pack of gum for the road (yeesh, garlic potatoes), and including the $.50 fee for using a card, my total was $7.06. thanks for lunch, chilies! if you're in the market for a 22 of camo ice and a plate of lamb curry, hop into chilies. it's seriously the shit.

NB: tip of the hat to Nancy Leson at the seattle times for these tidbits: 1. the cool, white relish was grated coconut, and not radish! interesting. and 2. it is, in fact, a mint chutney!