Seattle Trip Report - 9.10.15-9.14.15

Seattle is one of those cities we have been meaning to visit for a number of years and just never got around to it. I think maybe we get into a rut going to Las Vegas frequently and we forget to consider other locations.

We flew out of terminal 2 at MSP and breezed through security as we had first class tickets (more on that later). We started with breakfast at Cocina Del Barrio, the Barrio outpost at the airport. We both had the bacon and egg sandwich topped with salsa and avocado. The sandwich was quite good. We've eaten here in the past and found everything to be delicious.

We flew on Sun Country airlines because we had both gotten their credit card and by spending $600 on the card we both earned enough miles for a free first class round trip ticket. It was our first time flying first class and we both enjoyed it a lot. The first benefit was skipping the long security lines. It was also nice to be served food and beverage on the flight and to have additional seating space on the plane. We also got to board the plane first and get off first.

lots of legroom!

Crackers and cheese plate

Surly and mimosa to drink

roast beef pita, soup, garlic toast and potato chips

warm chocolate chip cookie

Our flight was great and we really enjoyed the first class amenities. We were picked up at the airport by our hostess for the weekend Kris, my husband's friend from Belfield, ND. We've been meaning to go visit her for ages, though she is often in Minneapolis because her best friend Jenny lives in the area. 

Our first stop was the Pike Place Market for some lunch. We ate at Cafe Campagne for a late lunch.

I had an amazing croque madame sandwich, lots of cheese and a perfectly cooked egg!

John had the calamari

french fries

quiche and a salad

John and Kris at the gum wall. 

We walked around Pike Place Market, watch them toss the fishes and looked at the scenery. Seemed like there were a lot of tour groups being led around with flags. We also stopped at Kells Irish Restaurant for a drink on the patio. The weather was amazing while we were in Seattle, only one cloudy day I think.

John wanted to try a few local breweries, so our first stop was Holy Mountain Brewing Company. It was in the back of an industrial building along some railroad tracks, in a location we never would have found if we had not been with a local.

We stopped at Kris' apartment in Upper Queen Anne and dropped off our bags and freshened up a bit. We took an Uber over to Rooftop Brewing Company and sat on the patio for awhile. Our next Uber driver was a guy in a huge Ford F-150 crew cab truck. He was from Arizona and very nice. He even had bottles of water available in the truck. No wonder he was rated 5 stars in Uber.

We had a late dinner at Mezcaleria Oaxaca in Upper Queen Anne. We started with some chips and guacamole, and the guac was pretty spicy actually.

barbacoa cabrito (goat) for John 

tacos pescados (halibut) for me

The food and drinks were very good. We walked down the hill back to Kris' apartment and called it a night.

beautiful view from her dining room window

We walked back up the hill in the morning and went to 5 Spot diner for breakfast. Here is John's 5 Spot breakfast.

I had the Baby Goat special, which was scrambled eggs with goat cheese and spinach with a side of smashed potatoes and sourdough toast.

and a side of bacon because it is vacation

We headed downtown and took a Duck Boat tour of the city. This is a photo of gas works park form the Duck boat.

downtown Seattle

We're on a boat, or a Duck boat, that is. 

The tour was a good way to get an overview of the major sights in Seattle. 

Stopped at RN74, mostly because we needed to use the restroom. It is a Michael Mina restaurant and it was happy hour, so we stayed for a few snacks.

watermelon smash

The pretzels and tuna poppers appetizers were both really delicious. 

Next, we walked down to Pioneer Square to make happy hour at Taylor Shellfish. John was excited to have a lot of west coast oysters

bread and oysters round 1

Geoduck sashimi. It was interesting to try it, don't think I loved it, it was just OK. 

more oysters and prawns

even more oysters

oysters marco, baked oysters. Not bad. 

Pyramid brewery for a little tailgating before the baseball game. 

Mariners game at Safeco Field

The stadium was very nice. I felt like Minnesota's Target field took a lot of inspiration from this stadium as they felt similar. After the games we headed back to Kris' place and hung out for awhile before going to sleep. Busy day!

Saturday we were off to a bit of a slow start. We went to Chuck's Hop Shop and had lunch from a food truck I can't recall the name of. Chuck's really did have a thousand beers I bet. Lots of bottles to take home and many on tap to enjoy on the patio out front as well.

burger and fries

After Chuck's we headed down to Woodinville to do a bit of wine tasting. It was a pretty drive about 30 minutes of of town. Most of the tasting rooms are grouped together in what looks like industrial parks to me, so the tasting rooms are not anything fancy really. No estates here, those are in eastern Washington.

Elevation Winery

 Upland Estates

 The last one sampled Bunnell and Upland wines. 

We ordered a meat and cheese platter for a snack at Upland. 

It was fun to try a few different wineries in one day, but we ran out of time as most of them closed at 5 or 6pm.

sunset from Kris' place

We stopped back at Kris' before heading down the hill to Umi Sake House for dinner. We met my co-worked Jenny and her husband for dinner here. They recently relocated from Minneapolis to Seattle for his job. 

lots and lots of sushi

I think we over ordered 

house sashimi 

After dinner we went across the street to Ohana. At least I think that is what it was called. I had a huge drink there from what I can recall.

Streamline Tavern

Then a late night snack at Dick's.

The burger wasn't great, kind of like a McDonald's burger. 

The fresh cut fries were excellent however. 

Sunday started out rainy and foggy, but it cleared out somewhat by the time we got down to the Space Needle for brunch at Sky City restaurant.

We took an express elevator to the restaurant, so we got to skip the lines, which was nice. 

view from the dining room

yogurt, berries and fresh fruit

blueberry pancakes, sausage, bacon and potatoes

bread pudding

cobbler

We walked up to the observation deck to look around a bit.

No hamburgers allowed outside on the Space needle people!

The Chihuly Garden and Glass museum was right next door the the Space Needle, so we went through that next.

I have lots more glass pictures I could post, but I am trying to keep this somewhat brief. The museum didn't take very long to go through, but the pieces were all very beautiful.

We took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. It was interesting as cars can take the ferry as well, so loading and unloading was a very specialized process.

nice view of the city

We stopped at Alehouse on Winslow, walked the main street and had a glass of wine at Island Vintners.

on the ferry back to Seattle

We went to dinner at Roux, which had French creole food. All of the food was amazing, I highly recommend Roux.

hurricane to drink for me

The shrimp and grits was fantastic. The sauce was amazing and the grits were perfect. The bread was needed to enjoy all of the great sauce.

jambalaya for John

ribs

jalapeño and cheddar hush puppies with amazing honey lemon sauce

beignets for dessert

Last day, time to pack up and get ready to go, but first one last breakfast at 5 Spot for all of us.

5 Spot breakfast

Sonoran scramble breakfast for me with cheese and avocado. The salsa was really good as well. 

After breakfast Kris gave us a ride to the airport and we buzzed through security with our first class tickets, which was great as the lines were quite long.

The flight home was much like the flight out and very nice, relaxing and uneventful. I could get used to flying in first!

We had a great time in Seattle! Thank you to our hostess with the mostest Kris for taking care of us and letting us stay with her and shuttling us all over the place! Loved your adorable apartment! Can't wait to come back again soon!

Butcher Salt food truck

I visited the Butcher Salt food truck last summer when it was fairly new. I went back recently to try their topped hash browns. I think I need to continue to work my way through their menu as everything is really very good.

The topped hash browns include hash browns, bacon, pepper jack cheese, rosemary, sautéed peppers, onions,  tomatoes and an over easy egg. There is a lot of stuff going on here but it all works great together. The hash browns were a nice mix of crispy and less well done and the toppings were cooked well, not over done at all. I was not sure I’d be filled up after eating just this, but I was. It is a great selection if you want to share or are not that hungry. It would have been way too much with a slider or something else.

Here’s a link to my previous post, it still pertains as the menu is essentially the same:
http://whereshouldwegomsp.blogspot.com/2014/08/butcher-salt.html


Butcher Salt truck
Twitter: @ButcherSalt
http://www.butchersalt.com/

Serum's Good Time Emporium

We visited Serum’s in Anoka after seeing them listed on a best wings list in a local magazine recently. Plus, it is not too terribly far away and the parking is a lot easier in Anoka than most parts of Minneapolis.

They offer a wide variety of wing sauces, but many of them are simply mixtures of a couple standard sauces. We ended up waiting quite awhile for our wings, though the server let us know in advance. We ordered the Wild Wing Sampler with 25 wings and 5 sauces for $21.99. We got the medium, hot, garlicilada, Thai and spicy Szechuan sauces. The medium was really, really mild, the hot had some heat and was OK, but garlicilada was probably the best of the bunch, with a nice garlic flavor. The Thai were quite good with lots of peanut flavor and the spicy Szechuan were not good. The problem with the wings was that they seemed to be overcooked. The meat was dried out, flavorless and not moist at all. It seemed like they were not very hot when they arrived either, like they had been sitting for awhile before they were brought out to us.

The fries were nothing special, but definitely solid crinkle cut fries and the portion was generous.

I’m not sure we’d go back for the wings. I don't see how these wings made any "best of" list. Maybe we were there on a off day but they were nothing out of the ordinary and certainly not worth the trip out of your way to Anoka. If you are in the area or live nearby it might be a decent choice for your average bar food though.


Serum’s
213 Jackson St
Anoka, MN 55303
(763) 421-7522
http://serumsanoka.com/

Hello Pizza

We’ve been making an effort to try some different places lately. We visited Hello Pizza for some quick slices. It was not busy at all when we arrived, only one other couple was there on a Sunday around 11am.

We both had the Hello Trinity pizza, which is topped with red sauce, mozzarella, house-made fennel sausage, natural casing pepperoni and crimini mushrooms. The pizza was hot and fresh when it arrived and tasted great. The slices are quite large and one was enough for me. It is definitely along the lines of a New York style of pizza crust. I love their pepperoni and how it gets crisped at the edges.

Hello Pizza is not full service, you just order at the counter and your food is brought out when it is ready. The dining room is very cute though. It is a great place to stop in for a quick meal and we will certainly come back again.

Hello Pizza

3904 Sunnyside Rd

Edina, MN 55424

(952) 303-4514

http://hellopizza.com/

Minnesota State fair - second visit 9.6.15

We made it back to the Minnesota State Fair for a second visit this past Sunday. It was a bit overcast when wee arrived, but the morning rain has passed. I was hoping the rain would keep the crowds and the slow walkers and moseyers away. 

transportation hub entrance

 

We started with some Big Fat Bacon. Yum! 

 We tried to win some Vikings swag, not much luck this time. 

John got a fresh peach from the Produce Exchange stand. Very juicy and fresh. 

Original Fudge Puppy; it is basically a chocolate covered waffle on a stick, quite good actually. 

The weather cleared up around noon, but it clouded up again and rained more later in the afternoon. 

This is an apple rollover from the MN Apples stand in the Agriculture Horticulture building, a new item for 2015. Very light and flaky with lots of apples inside and a lot of icing on top. 

I tried a Gizmo sandwich at the recommendation of Andrew Zimmern. It is hamburger and sausage with marinara and cheese on a toasted bun. I thought it was a large and filling sandwich, but I am  not sure I'd order it again. It was just too much food and it was a bit bland.

S'mores beer from Giggles Campfire Grill

Buffalo'd Bones from Famous Dave's, new item for 2015 as well. These were quite good; very tender ribs and the buffalo sauce was spicy and flavorful. 

This is Not Your Father's Root beer, an adult root beer with 10% alcohol. It apparently has some kick, but certainly doesn't taste like it. Tastes just like regular root beer. Very good stuff! 

French Fries from the Fresh French Fries stand. These were quite good, but I think we liked the fries from our first visit from the World's Greatest French Fries stand a little better.

We bought some ride tickets so John could do the baseball pitch. We also rode the Ferris wheel and played the water squirt guns and I won a Minion at that!

I tried the Pineapple Wheat beer at Ballpark Cafe made by LTD brewing. It was OK, not sure I'd get it again though.

 I managed to have some more Grain belt Blu beer, wish they bottled this stuff! 

I got some macaroons from the Salty Tart. Very good. I swear there were 4 cookies in there last year. I also got some Sweet Martha's cookies, just a cone. Very good also, especially when fresh. 

We had a great day and got a lot of walking in an also collected some nice freebies. The fair was pretty busy even though the weather wasn't great. We even made it home before the next round of rain arrived later that night. I hope everyone had a chance to visit the fair this year and I can't wait until next year as always! 

Bep Eatery

Bep eatery is another recent entry in the skyway dining scene. It seems like there have been a few new openings recently, which is kind of exciting. Bep eatery has Vietnamese street food and offers pho, banh mi, spring rolls and vermicelli noodle salads built to order in the Chipotle style of ordering.

packaged sandwich

trying to show the generous contents of the sandwich

I ordered a banh mi with pork, veggies, herbs, peanut chili dressing and jalapenos. The pork was excellent! It was large pieces of pork, seasoned and grilled. The meat was very tender and there was a lot of it in the sandwich. The vegetables were also very fresh and good and I really liked the peanut chili dressing as it added a lot of flavor. The bread was fresh and crusty on the outside and light and fluffy inside. This was an excellent sandwich and I need to go back very soon and try their other meats with different combinations.

The line moved quickly. You go down the line and select your topping and pay. There is some seating available inside the restaurant, but it looks like most people grab and go back to work. The banh mi was $7.95 plus tax, and it was a large sandwich, so the price seemed fair to me. It is a little out of the way in the Fifth Street towers, but it is certainly worth your trip!


Bep Eatery
100 S 5th St #210
Fifth Street Towers (skyway level)
Minneapolis, MN 55402
(612) 338-5189
http://www.bepeatery.com

Schram Vineyards & Lola's Lakehouse - Waconia

Stephanie and I decided to go over to Waconia for one of our girls nights out. Since Highway 5 is closed going to Waconia we got to take a bit of a detour on some gravel roads. During a bit of a downpour. Fun!

First, we stopped at Schram Vineyards, which is a winery and brewery outside of Waconia. It is in a very nice setting near a small lake. They have an indoor tasting room and an outdoor tasting room. Sampling flights of both beer and wines are $10. It was pretty busy even though the weather wasn’t great and they had a food truck on site, in addition to the winery offering cheese and crackers and some other light snacks.

I wasn’t overly impressed by the wine or beer, but was very charmed by the setting and what they are trying to do here. It was fun to visit and try the offerings. The Bumbley Blueberry was probably my favorite wine, it was a bit like a prosecco or a wine cooler, very light and sweet.

Next, we headed into Waconia to go to Lola’s Lakehouse for dinner. We’d been hoping the weather would be nice so we could enjoy the great views on the lake front patio, but it was still raining a bit when we arrived. It wasn’t that busy, but we had a reservation anyway and were seated right away.

We started with the ahi tuna crisps appetizer, which was sesame seared tuna, nappa slaw, ponzu, wasabi aioli on wonton crisps. The tuna was very fresh and light and the portion was quite generous. We both liked this dish a lot.

Stephanie had the grilled chicken club, which is one of her favorite items to order here. It is marinated chicken with Swiss, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo served on a focaccia roll with a side of fries.

I had the diver scallops, which are seared scallops, cauliflower puree, prosciutto, little neck clams, roast asparagus, pomegranate reduction. The dish was on the sweeter side, but the scallops had great flavor and the asparagus was cooked perfectly.

We had a couple of desserts, because that is what we do. First, the key lime pie. This was a good version of key lime pie; just the right amount of tart lime flavor and a bit of sweetness form the graham cracker crust.

The second dessert was the chocolate lava cake served with warm vanilla bean ice cream, house whipped cream and chocolate fudge. It kind of looked like a Hostess dessert. It was very chocolatey, but the ice cream helped tone it down a bit.

I thought the menu at Lola’s had a wide variety, with lots of non-seafood items, like steaks and burgers. The service at Lola’s was very good on this visit. I don’t think we waited long for anything at all. We had a great time at Schram and Lola’s and we will certainly be going back.


Schram Vinyards
8785 Airport Rd
Waconia, MN 55387
(952) 442-5105
http://www.schramvineyards.com

Lola’s Lakehouse
318 E Lake St
Waconia, MN 55387
(952) 442-4954
http://lolaslakehouse.com/

Minnesota State Fair - First visit 8.28.15

We visited the Minnesota State Fair on Friday for our first visit. We plant on getting another visit in over Labor day weekend. I wanted to share a few photos while the fair is still going on.

I was not very excited about new fair foods, so we stuck mainly to old favorites. A lot of the new foods simply didn't sound appealing or worth the money.

I started with a Schell's blueberry beer with frozen blueberry foam. This was new in 2014 and I had hoped it would be back again this year. Still good!

 pronto pup, far superior to the corn dog in my opinion!

 Beer flights from the MN Craft brewers sampling booth. 

 John with the mascot of the MN United Soccer team. I think we need to try and attend a game. 

 Fries from World's Greatest French Fries were very good this year, very crisp and fresh. 

 We seriously only drink RC Cola at the State Fair.

 Sweet corn from the MN Corn Roast stand. Excellent as always. 

 John's favorite Turkey to Go turkey sandwich. 

I tried one new item, a blueberry and apple pie from the new stand Sarah's Tipsy Pies. The pie would've been better if served warm, and the drizzle of liquid didn't add much to it, though the drizzle was not generous either. The crust was crisp and it tasted fresh though. But, I'm not sure I'd go back.

We had a lot of fun walking around and looking at people, places and things as usual. We have a lot more items left to sample, so look for another installment next week! In the meantime, have a great time at the Minnesota State Fair if you get a chance to go!