Goodbye, East Side. I Loved These Places…..

By Somer

In 12 days I leave the West coast to return to my beloved East coast.  I’ve lived here for 3 1/2 years.  I can’t say that I’m sad to be leaving.  I’m going home.  Things that I’ve seen and experienced here have not all been the enlightening and culturally diverse things that I expected when I first moved out here.  As a newcomer, it’s hard to find that charming, small-time, artistic subculture that one expects to find out here on the West coast.  There’s a lot of corporate glam, a lot of money, and a lot of need to be trendy.  These things I am not.

Eventually, though, we found those small places.  Those charming places owned by local joe’s who greet you as you walk in the door and wave to you as you leave.  Those charming places with menus sitting on the narrow but loving shoulders of only one or two people.  Those charming places that serve warmth and that one-of-a-kind spirit that makes them a million times more special than any pretentious restaurant that has the audacity to charge astronomical amounts of money for cocktails and even more for their cream-soaked mediocre food.

Today, I took my husband out to lunch and we visited a couple of our favorite places.  We went to the Santorini Greek Grill in downtown Kirkland (very close to the waterfront of Lake Washington).  This place is a teeny tiny little joint that stops you in the street as you walk by with the seductive scents of Greek meats.  Lamb for lunch?  Oh sure, why not!

The gyros, salads, Souvlaki, baklava, falafel, and service are all TERRIFIC.  I love this place.  The food is served up lightening fast and on real plates to boot!  Usually is itty bitty places like this, you get plastic forks and paper plates or baskets.  It helps to eat off of a plate with a metal fork.

In a small funky place like this, I was worried that the decor was going to be really kitschy and scary like off of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Luckily, it’s not like that at all.  All over the neutrally painted walls, framed photographs of different regions of Greece hang in a very cool and very West coast manner.  It’s lovely.

The one piece of kitsch was this hilarious tidbit right by the entrance/exit.

This restaurant is even featured in Zagat.  That means nothing to me, it’s just amusing that Zagat and I agree for once.

After our Greek lunch, we went a couple of doors down to the Seattle area’s best coffee shop.  No, it’s not Starbucks.  Out here, I’ve found that there are two very opinionated groups where Starbucks is concerned:  those who are proud of it and those who hate it for being a corporate crap shoot.  Now, I get Starbucks every once in a while simply because they are literally on every block in this area.  But if I had my choice, I would go to Cafe Ladro.  This place is what a Seattle coffee shop should be.  Small.  Friendly barista who doesn’t have a painted on fake smile.  Fair prices.  And in their goddamned iced chai lattes, there is more latte than ice…unlike how Starbucks serves them….assholes.

Sorry about that outburst.  But Cafe Ladro is a superior coffee shop.  It’s a small place, it’s mellow instead of that fake rushed sense that you get when in a Starbucks.  It’s a cool and industrial look that is oddly more soothing than that manufactured and fake look that Starbucks is trying to sell.  The coffee is BETTER.  The pastries are BETTER.  All of the drinks are BETTER.

Look at that understated logo.  It’s perfection.

The station was very simple.  In fact, I had a nice little conversation with the barista about the movie Zoolander as she filled our order.  Nice lady.

Some other East Side places that I loved while here:

Momoya Sushi and Sake House

Dick’s Hamburgers

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue (even though it’s a small chain)

Beth’s Cafe

I realize that we’ve barely chipped the iceberg and I have regrets about that, but our time here is up and I look forward to getting to know a new city.  But if you ever make your way out to this area, check these places out and have some great food without worrying about an offensively huge bill.

A Lovely Seattle (East Side) Hole in the Wall

By Somer

On the outskirts of Seattle, in the city if Kirkland, WA is the most wonderful little hole-in-the-wall sushi place in the entire area.  If nobody points this place out to you, you would never know it’s there.  It’s hidden in a small strip mall next to a Pet Smart and a head shop.  The tiny sign reading “Momoya Sushi and Sake House” is all that  can tip you off.  If this tiny sign should happen to catch your eye, then for the love of all that is holy STOP your car and go get some sushi!

I got a Tuna Roll and a Cucumber Roll.  I know that this is painfully tame to some of you, but I love these rolls and that they are so gorgeous in their simplicity.  I was a happy girl.

Of course this came with green tea (flavored with dark sesame oil for a smokey taste) and a salad and miso soup.  I love miso soup!

My husband got a gorgeous Bento box.  Of course I nibbled a little bit of everything from this meal and it was all delectable and perfect.  Seriously, this sushi man knows what the hell he’s doing.

Since we are leaving the Pacific Northwest in August, we thought it would be a good idea to try a local seafood called Geoduck (pronounced “gooey duck”).  It’s basically a clam that looks….uhhh….like a certain part of a man.  It’s a freak out, but they are supposedly sweet and great for sushi.  Unfortunately, Momoya did not have this native mollusk so we decided to try another fresh seafood.  We tried raw Sea Urchin.  Let me be straight with you.  This Sea Urchin was FRESH FRESH FRESH.  The taste was sublime.  It’s everything good about the ocean and seafood wrapped into one.  HOWEVER, it is the consistency of peanut butter.  Some people call it the Foie Gras of the sea, and I can see that.  Despite the taste being as heavenly as it was, the consistency just freaked me out a little bit and I couldn’t help but gag.  I did that the first time I tried raw oysters on the half shell too…but now I’ll suck down raw oysters with the best of them and slurp the liqueur like it’s mother’s milk.  (Sorry I didn’t get a picture of it.  I was too excited and my phone was in the hands of a phone-happy toddler.)

The best part about this last trip to Momoya’s was that our soup and salad were given to us on the house.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because we were the first dinner guests?  I would have happily paid!  And when we ordered the Sea Urchin, we were given a hand roll, also on the house.  I would have paid for that too!  This place is fantastic.  It’s tiny, family owned, friendly, and completely non-pretentious.  I wish I could take it back East with me.  I will miss it.