I is for Free

J: That's right kids, we didn't believe it, but you should. As if everyone hasn't talked about it enough this year, Il Fornaio is the place to go for free food. It may not be the best food, but it's free and really, who's going to argue with that? There were three of us tonight and we each got a specialty cocktail. I got a Tuscan Lemonade, M got a Mango Mojito, and GM got a Iced Macchiato. Each was good, but not worth the $10 we paid for them. Yes we got free food, but still, if you pay 10 bucks for a drink it takes away from the excietment of free food. The food was a weird mix of things all served buffet style on a table. There was a penne pasta with pesto, bite sized pizza squares that were cheese and pepperoni, toasted bread and some meat/seafood/veggie mix (we couldn't figure out what was on it) and chicken drumsticks. I was suprised by how moist the chicken was considering it had been sitting in a metal food container on a table for who knows how long. There was also salty, cheesy, super thin bread sticks, they were tasty. M and I had tried to go here before (when we didn't know the food was free) and got freaked out by their prices, so we were glad to go back and find that it was pretty good. However I would suggest that you order wine or beer as it is much cheaper ($4). You'll never know what you are going to get, but that can be fun.

Happy Hour from 4:30 to 6:30 Monday through Friday.

Il Fornaio website:
http://www.ilfornaio.com/

M is for Birthday!

J: For M we went to McCormick and Schmicks. It was fantastic. We went twice, the first time was with GJ and we order too much food. But it was super cheap and it all sounded really good. We got Clam strips for $1.95, a quesadilla for $1.95, mac and cheese (with maybe chicken) for $3.95, a burger and fries for $1.95, and a salmon cake for $1.95. The burger and salmon cake were big too, it was a lot of food for three people. I had a cosmimosa ($8.50) to drink, M had a pumpkin drink ($8.00), and GJ got an orange sidecar ($8.00) and an old fashioned ($8.50), which was apparently made correctly and he was very impressed. Granted there aren’t drink specials, but the food is big portioned and it’s good, so really you don’t loose. And the drinks are good, everyone wins. There is also dessert happy hour. We had three options, but we went for the bread pudding for $1.95 and the chocolate moose $1.95, which we ate all of, even though we were all full to bursting, but we love dessert and couldn’t pass up happy hour dessert. It was good too. The second time we went it was for my birthday! Yay! It was a good move on our part. We found seats at the bar (just M and me) and made friends with the bartender (good call). He was cute and very friendly and wished me happy birthday after carding me. I got my drink for free and the crazy dessert sample thingy we got for dessert. Good place to go for your birthday. And the bar is crazy, the bartenders can’t leave from behind the bar. They are trapped. Especially if people are sitting around the whole bar and you can’t lift the part of the counter up that lets them out. Poor guys, it was funny. We also helped the bartender by distributing menus to the people standing behind us who were looking for seats. I know we had crab cakes, not happy hour, but it was my birthday, and M got the salmon burger and we got clam strips. It was a really good birthday.

McCormick and Schmicks Happy Hour from Mon—Thurs 3:00PM to 6:00PM & 10:00PM to Midnight
Saturday 4:00PM to 6:00PM & 10:00PM to 12:30AM
Friday 3:00PM to 6:00PM & 10:00PM to 12:30 AM
Sunday 4:00PM to 6:00PM & 9:00PM to 11:00PM
Food from $1.95 to $4.95

B is (also) for Smoked Ham Strips

J: When we originally did the letter B (Boka) there was a restaurant conveniently located across the street was what had been our other option that night, which was a place called The Bookstore. It sounded good, a place full of books that had drink and food specials, so we had to check it out. Sadly it’s happy hour ended at the same time as Boka’s so we had to return at a later date. We did manage it and were not impressed. First off everything on the menu had bacon in it. Including things that aren’t actually made better by bacon, just inedible by vegetarians. Or at least enough of the things had bacon that that is the one thing we remember about it. Now I like bacon, but M is vegetarian, so it’s a no go on the bacon when we go out. Thus we had to ask for our blue cheese fries to have no bacon on it and it was $5 (as far as I recall, I should remember better, but I put this place out of my mind practically once I left). That and there were no special drinks, just discounted well drinks. Although we felt jipped because we got charged for juice and were not told we would be beforehand. When I complained they explained and took the cost of juice off our tab, which was nice of them. Just the liquor was $4, but with juice it was $6, no good for a happy hour well drink, although really $6 for a vodka/cranberry? At any time of day? Not so much, or it better be fantastic. To give the place some credit the book lined walls are cool, but that's the only real appeal. Feeling completely unsatisfied we went to Contour and had this crazy Basil Strawberry drink, which was interesting, good, but interesting, and some food. That part was the best part of the night.

M: Bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon. That’s all there is to say.

G is for funny national chain stores

M: Gordon Biersch! Good for when you are looking for a very generic bar. Lots and lots of drinks on the menu, not anything super special. Not a huge happy hour food menu, but decent stuff. First time we went there, we ordered the garlic fries, cheese mini pizza, crispy artichoke hearts, and I think J got something with meat in it but I forget what (all $5). It was all pretty good. Convenient location on the upper floor of the Pacific Place mall, right in the middle of downtown. So convenient, we were like "Hey, we want to go to a normal bar" and went there a second time later on. Ate the same food too, minus the meat thing.

They have a little outside patio thingy that you can sit in. But since it's in a mall, it's not actually outside. It just pretends to be.

Dang, I have nothing exciting to say about this place. It is a very generic bar. It is good. Nothing more to add.

J: Good place if you don't know where else to go and if you want to watch people wait in line for a movie, or pretend you are outside when you are not. The food/drinks/prices are all decent, but it's a chain place and not that exciting, but not terrible. granted there is a wide range of food and drink, which is a plus.

Gordon Biersch website:
http://www.gordonbiersch.com/

T is for glowy drinks

M: We went to Thoa's (according to the internet, pronounced "twahz"). It was a sunny day out and our seats were right in a window, so it was nice and warm and felt like summer for a little while. We got the curry puffs ($3), yam fries ($5), and the crab dip ($6). J wasn't super thrilled about the curry puffs, but I liked them, and everything else was quite good. Drinks were... I forget what they were called, but I do remember that they were SUPER BRIGHT AND GLOWY AND HAD TINY PLASTIC MERMAIDS IN THEM. THEY WERE COLOR COORDINATED. We liked them.

Okay, after looking them up on the internet: I had the Tiki Punch, J had the Lala Pop. They were large, and good, but mostly I remember them for being SUPER GLOWY.

We also got dessert- the Cassava Cake ($6). When we first got it, we were a little weirded out by the confetti-looking things on it, and it's definitely not a normal cake, but once we got used to it, we thought it was really good. I would definitely recommend it.

J: So we each wrote separate posts and didn't combine them, so I am just adding mine on to M's. For I we went to this place I though was called the Islander, but it's not, it's called Thoa's. It's Vietnamese (it used to be Hawaiian) and having an identity crisis. The web site says you can see the water, but you can't. Ok, you can, but only over the top of the building that is really what your view is of. However, the food and drinks are good. To drink M had a Tiki Punch and I had a Lala Pop, both for $5.75, both were enjoyable and fruity and brightly colored and came with little plastic mermaids on the sides of the glasses. To eat we had Curry Bites for $3 with sweet and sour pineapple sauce and Yam Fries with Sriracha Aioli for $5, and yam fries are really good. They are sweet and salty and fantastic, I highly suggest it. They had dessert! Excellent! We had the Cassava Cake, which comes with ice cream and and mango syrup. Very spongy texture, that dissolves in your mouth, it was strange, but it was good, I would eat it again. Nothing too remarkable, but a good range of food and we got to try some new things, definitely go for the mermaids and the dessert.

Thoa's Happy Hour Monday through Friday and Sunday 4-7 PM. food from $3 to $6. Beer $3 for a glass $12 for a pitcher. Top Shelf Cocktails $5.75, well drinks $4.00. Wine $3.50 a glass and $12.00 a bottle. Sake $4.50.

S stands for Alligator Print

J: Tonight was a place called Sazerac in the Hotel Monaco. Super cheap, super good. You enter through the hotel and the restaurant is off to the left. The bar area is slightly raised and you can sit where they prep food and make pizza or where they make drink, as well as at the scattered tables surrounding the two. We sat at a thin rectangle table surrounded by four squared red alligaotr print low to the ground chairs. It was like someone took small footrests and used them as chairs because they had run out of real ones. The menus were this deep orange color of alligator skin and M thought they were table decorations. Poor thing, her hunger was making her a touch slow. (Sorry M, but table decorations? really?) Anyways, in the main dining area there were these 5(ish. I didn't count) giant lights, probably should be called chandeliers due to their size that were made of rectangles of this plasticy material that had been warped into organic shapes in a range of purples, oranges and red. I didn't really like them, they were very long and odd. Over the bar there were these great lights. Long, thin bulbs surrounded by solid colored glass. And there were mini chandliers by the tables next to the windows. On to the food. Which is the important part. We had some crazy thing with squash because M is in love with the whole gourd family, but it was good. Then we had these funny truffle potato cheese balls and their white pizza. All for 2 dollars a piece! It's amazing! M had a lemon drop and I had a margarita each for 5. They also have specialty coctails for 5, but I am not a big whiskey fan. It's a great place, most of the food is 2 dollars and they give you a reasonable amount.

Website:

B is for sitting outside

J: So we are definately better at going to bars than writing about them. So I am going to try to catch us up. For B we went to a place called Boka. Crazy, crazy place. The interior was awesome with color changing lights on the walls and some very modern architecture. I also think there was some pretty modern furniture that made it seem as though two interior designers had tried to collaborate, but just kinda pushed their own stuff around, and somehow made it work. Why this hazy recollection on the inside you ask? Well that's because we ate outside. In the cold of November? I think it was November, more likely October though. Anyways there were no seats inside, but there were outside, and as it wasn't a particularly cold night, we braved the great outsoors and huddled under heat lamps. It would be a great place to sit outside at in the summer, or at least a time when you didn't need layers, although I am a weather whimp, so it really wasn't that bad. I drank a white peach cosmo ($9), which was quite tasty and we had the best crab cakes I have ever had. They were fantastic, really, really fantastic. I really want one now. So good, I highly suggest them. We also had our second foray into the world of truffle fries. Which were also good. They cost 5 and 3 dollars respectively. The waitresses were nice, although a little slow, granted they probably didn't want to go outside. Overall cheap food, exspensive drinks, or at least not half off or discounted, but for the food, definately worth it.


Happy hour from: Mon 3 pm-midnight and Tues-Fri 3-6 pm, 10 pm-midnight (drink specials and half off bar menu)

Boka Website:

67 is for Cyborg Trees

M: We went to the 67 Lounge at the Edgewater Hotel and oh man, it was weird. It's worth going here just to see the decorations. Plaid carpets, glowy things, antlers everywhere, a wall of TVs alternating between video of Washington state scenery and psychedelic pole dancers? Also, I shit you not, CYBORG TREES. I could not get over the decorations. The place was like a bizarre hunting lodge randomly placed on the Seattle waterfront.

The food wasn't bad. This place was our introduction to truffle fries, which are awesome. We also had the yellow-fin tuna tacos, which were okay, but small and a little bland.

I had the Homemade Pineapple Infusion Martini. It was good, although I managed to cleverly drop my piece of pineapple on the floor.


J: Yeah, the weirdest decorations I have ever seen. Looks like a robot and a hunting lodge got into a fight. And no one won, they just collapsed on each other and turned into a freaky hotel bar. Truffle fries were excellent and tacos ok, but too tiny. My Pomegranate Martini was good but I, like everyone else, loves pomegranate right now. The people there seem to mostly be staying at the hotel, as it is kinda out of the way for anyone else. Mostly on the more highend side, but it is a waterfront hotel. It took us probably 15-20 minutes to walk there from the convention center, and we walk quickly. If you go, as you should because you just need to see this place, go for the fries and to be super confused by your surroundings.

The happy hour is Sunday-Thursday, from 3-6pm. $5 appetizers, $6 signature drinks.

67 Lounge website:
http://www.edgewaterhotel.com/edgewater_dining.aspx

Two Girls Walked into a Bar

So one day two girls walked into a bar and ended up eating dinner. Had they gone to the bar for dinner? No. They had gone for happy hour. Yet, they had dinner. How did this happen you may ask? Well it happened because they were unaware of the workings of happy hour. That in order to get the happy hour menu you must ask for it. They did not realize how complicated happy hour is. Although they had a very good dinner it was not what they wanted, and it was quite expensive. Now they were bound and determined to do happy hour right and return to the place of their original failure when they had learned happy hours inner workings. How was this to be done? Well the internet is a great place and the Seattle newspaper the Stranger has this wonderful list of place to eat and drink in alphabetical order online, so that is where these two girls started. Their goal now was to go to one happy hour from a bar/restaurant from every letter of the alphabet (and one number) and then return to TASTE the restaurant/bar at the Seattle Art Museum, which was the place of their original defeat.

M: I sorta wanted to go out and wrestle bears as training, but J talked me out of it. Her idea is probably better. More good food and drinks!

The food at the restaurant cost a billion dollars for one tiny plate of mysterious pasta thing with crunchy carrots. It was good, just not what we came there for.

J: And they were out of the flavored lemonade that we wanted. And we didn't have drinks. That happy hour was such a disaster. Expensive food and no alcohol, taught us a lesson. We had the gemelli and cheese with dungeness crab: watercress, truffle, crispy carrots.

TASTE at SAM website:
http://www.tastesam.com/