uncommonly common [xxx root beer]

The place to go for root beer.

Do you like root beer? I mean, do you really like root beer? Because XXX Root Beer is some of the best in the country. Do you also like 50's nostalgia, car culture and burgers the size of your head? Then stop reading now and head to Issaquah!

Still here? Ok. I guess I'll have to finish the review.

Did I mention the root beer? This is really good root beer. And it comes in massive, frosted mugs. I must say that the massive, frosted mugs will set you back $3.25. And if you ask for no ice it'll cost you an extra 95 cents. It says so right on the menu. Good root beer doesn't come cheap.

That's a lot of root beer!

There's a reason you'll be needing such a herculean beverage, though. It's to wash down those burgers. The ones the size of your head. These incredible portions date from the 50's, when, as everybody knows, the Greasers only ate once a week. They always ordered things like the Triple XXX burger; a burger the size of your head with THREE patties.

And, incidentally, the only thing on the menu with out a reference to car culture in the name.

All the rest of the stuff is named after car stuff. You might get a 58 Impala, a burger with cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mayo and XXX dressing. Or a Low Rider which is a burger with bacon, grilled onions, mayo and the ubiquitous XXX dressing.

I had eaten only a few days before my visit, so I got something lite. A Hubcap. See? Car name. It's a chicken sandwich.

Q: how do you know when you're at a greasy spoon?
A: when even the bread is greasy.

Now, this is a Diner/Drive In. Unlike most modern Diners, XXX has not updated it's food for the modern, health conscious consumer. Instead, it chooses to remind us why diners used to be called Greasy Spoons. You expect maybe the fries are greasy. The onion rings; that makes sense. But the bread? What do they do to the bread? Do you see the sheen?

This is not necessarily a bad thing.

But on the other hand. The food is not that interesting. Grease, on it's own, isn't much of a flavor. It is filling though. And that is why I don't have a review of the Root Beer Floats for you. No Room. One day I'll get back to Issaquah and let you know.

When I go, I'm sitting outside. The clutter of random 50's junk and car parts on the wall is just a little too much. And I'm speaking as someone who loves random 50's junk and car parts.

it's not half cluttered.
no. it's all the way cluttered.

It's a good place. An experience. The root beer is awesome. Go very hungry, or just for desert.

Seattle Cheese Festival

I wouldn't be a Seattle Food Blogger if I didn't make it to the Cheese Festival. It's the second year I've gone. It seemed more crowded than last year, even though there were less people. Maybe it was the umbrellas.

People and Cheese

Look at these crowds. They're too big to be fun, really.

More People and More Cheese

What was fun was the "Cheese Nun" movie (scroll down to Friday Afternoon at the Movies). The Cheese Nun, Sister Noella Marcellino, was there to answer questions.

Sister Noella Marcellino, the cheese nun
(sorry about the poor quality photo)

I thought she was just a nun that made really good cheese. It turns out that her desire to make the best cheese she could for her cloister took her to University, where she ended up getting a Doctorate in Microbiology. From there it was off to France to work with cheese researchers. It's a neat story.

So next year I'm just going to the special events. That's where the fun is. The giant crowds around the free cheese tables just aren't worth it. Think about it. How are you really going to appreciate a fine cheese while you're getting elbowed in the face?

TASTE Café

Looking at art is hungry work. That's why it's so great that the Olympic Sculpture Park Café has such good food. It's not even that expensive. I was kind of surprised.

mmmmm. salad

Let's be clear. It's not a destination that's about the food. But the food is good. The 'grown up grilled cheese' sandwich is exceptional. Rakka and I have tried to copy it, but it's just not the same. The salads are really good too.

there it is, the grilled cheese with green apple, caramelized
sweet onion & sharp white cheddar on potato bread

One of the coolest things, other than the actual food, is that most of the containers are are compostable. Even the plastic ones. The cutlery is made of renewable bamboo. That's pretty darn cool.

airy, open, but please, no food in the art

So, go see some sculpture. And get a sandwich.

bamboo garden

I have a lot of favorites. Bamboo Garden is one of them. It's a cheap, all vegan, Chinese restaurant, and easy to get to.

the sign comes with real bamboo!

Strangely enough, pure vegetarian restaurants are rare in Seattle. So, pretty much every vegetarian in town knows about this place already. But it's not all about the tofu and TVP. A lot of omnivores are down with BG too. This may be because we're even shorter on good Chinese food than the vegetarian.

friedee balls (Mandarin Chicken)
a great bet for non-vegetarians

I don't know why this is. We can hardly walk down the street without tripping over Thai, Teriyaki, Phở and Sushi places, most of them good. Why is it so hard to take Chinese beyond overly MSGed Fried Rice? The only places that seem to be able to do it are the vegetarian ones. Bamboo Garden is on the top of my list of proofs, along with vds and teapot vegetarian house.

Crispy Fried Taro Root Patties

Not that I want to imply that BG is super fancy. It isn't. And it's not authentic either. Well, not authentic to China anyway. It is authentic American Chinese food. Fans of the genre need no further explanation.

Kun Pao Chicken

What it comes down to is good, American-style Chinese food at a fair price. The vegetarian thing is just a bonus. Just go for something fried or plain veg if you're not a fake meat fan.

oh, what a perfect day [Lockspot Cafe]

it's soooo saturated

Yes, the perfect day is lunch from the Lockspot, at the locks, in the sun. I don't think it gets better. Life peaked at lunch last Friday; it's all down hill from here.

You might think that I'm exaggerating. Annnd, you'd be right. But it was the high point of the week. Seriously. Lunch, outside with flowers and boats? Seriously. High point. Seriously. Especially since Friday was one of the first days that really felt like spring.

simple, to the point, sponsored by snapple

Lunches at the Spot Stand are basic. Fried fish. Fried potatoes. Malt vinegar or ketchup in individual packets. One plastic condiment cup full of tartar sauce. It's on the cheap end* of Seattle food. Since it's a bit of a dive, that's all right and proper.

It hits the spot. The Lockspot!

It's not what I'd call healthy food. It's deep fried everything. As much as you might want to, you probably shouldn't go every day. So don't move in to those apartments across the street, because you will go every day!

and the sammich form

Oh, wait. It can be healthy. The sandwich comes with lettuce, maters and onion. That totally negates the deep friedness of everything else. In fact it makes the fries burn calories. That's 100% fact. Also, I have some ocean front property in South Dakota. I'll sell it to you for a song.

hey guys, is that my lunch you got on that boat?

I suppose I should mention that there is a dining room too. And you can go sit in your silly low backed western bar chair, under the shade of a carven wooden seaman and eat the same food you get at the stand. You'll look out across 54th street at the Taco Time and it will feel like vacation. But it won't feel as much like vacation as taking your fish out to the locks and watching the fishermen bring your next meal home.

*Anything under ten bucks counts as cheap in this town. Unless you consider taco bell. Which I don't.

[update: More pictures]

McMenamins

McMenamins Queen Anne location sits in a nondescript condo building surrounded by Seattle Center parking lots. Don't let that stop you. It's probably my favorite chain in town. Maybe because it's not a chain exactly; the individual locations are siblings, not clones. Or possibly it's because the food is good. But most probably it's because they make their own beer, and they do it really well.

turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce

I usually go to the Queen Anne location because it's an easy walk from my house. But they run several other establishments in town. Dad Watsons is in Fremont, and the Six-Arms is in Capitol Hill. They have other locations spread throughout Washington and their home state of Oregon. A lot of this post probably applies to most of the pubs (they have hotels and junk too), but I can only vouch for Queen Anne and Doc Watsons.

Rakka loves the turkey sandwich (above) with cranberry sauce. Says it's like thanksgiving in sandwich form. Which I suppose may be true. I really dig the mac and cheese, which is almost as good as Beechers. The high pasta is pretty good too.

chicken enchiladas

The chicken enchiladas are universally considered excellent, but sometimes a bit small. The tuna sandwich is tasty but not earth shattering. Rather like the fries, which I like but aren't the best in town. I won't comment on the burgers since I always order a gardenburger patty, which are the same ones you get in the grocery store; I can't really hold them accountable. They actually give the vegetari a choice of two brands (the other is boca), which is pretty cool.

I don't like nuts in salad usually. I'm told this makes me, um, nuts. The brewer's salad proves my sanity. It has lots of nuts. They're toasty warm, and the blue cheese and the marinated onions... Damn! it's good.

brewers salad

Speaking of good, let's talk about Beer. It's good here. Really good. X and K, who showed me the place, actually took me for the beer. The food was incidental. Personally, I'm a huge IPA fan, and it's great. But all of their beer is great, so maybe that's not a huge chunk of news. The beer is micro brewed. To the best of my knowledge the stuff served at the Queen Anne location is brewed right there.

The atmosphere is dark and cozy. Really dark and cozy. To the point that I had to bring a flashlight to get the food pictures. If you get there near sunset you'll actually notice them turning the lights down as the evening darkens. It's like they don't like contrast. But it's fun in that feeling-your-way-to-the-door sort of way.

dark and cosy

In conclusion, I like it. As if you couldn't tell. I don't go all the time. Not because it's not good enough, but because it's too good. Whenever they come round and ask "Another IPA?" I've said yes before I even process the question.

road food (oregon coast trip)

My so and I went on a Goonies trip this week. That means driving up and down the Oregon coast, which is fantastic. Since this isn't strictly a Seattle food blog you get to hear about it. The food parts anyway. (If work is really boring today, you can read more about the Goonies parts)

Astoria, OR. Home of tasty mexican

We learned that Astoria sports some incredibly tasty Mexican food at El Ranchero Dos. Of course, it was about 3pm and our first meal of the day. Our judgment may have been... off. I think I would have enjoyed eating a phone book at that point.

Pizza a Feta (Cannon Beach, OR) makes crab pizza

Cannon Beach (home of Haystack Rock, the famous 'Goonies Rock') is an 'upscale resort town', so it's full of over priced surf and turf restaurants. Like Doogers. Which I went to once, and that was enough. Instead Rakka and I wandered around until we found Pizza a Feta. We fell prey to the Coastal Seafood Fever, or CSF, and ordered the crab pizza. Rakka loved it. I thought the crab was good and the pizza was good, but they didn't much meld together. The crust was fantastic.

This is where cheese comes from

Since it was only another 30 miles south (of Cannon Beach) we just had to go to Tillamook, home of Tillamook cheese. They don't have factory tours, they just have a factory with windows. You can walk around the observation deck and watch what goes on. Of course, most of the stuff was closed down for maintenance. They were doing some packing though. I got some video of the magic cheese rotator.



They also have free samples, and a store. At the store you can buy Tillamook cheese at grocery store prices. In other words, no factory special discount.

free samples! the extra sharp cheddar is the best!

Of course, Tillamook also makes ice cream. Since we were on the Goonies tour we got some rocky road.



Oh, and there's a cafe.

the ice cream counter is in the background

I got the grilled cheese. (what else?)

grilled cheese, a pickle and some chips. classic.

Rakka got the 'gobbler', which was a grilled cheese with turkey on. I think she was expecting some fancy stuff like lettuce. It didn't happen. But it was, what, four bucks. Mine was the best grilled cheese I've had in a while. The homestyleness was refreshing after the fancy grilled cheese sammiches that Seattle is famous for.

To sum up, the Oregon coast was not only fun and beautiful, it was tasty too.