Sometimes referred to as “The Emerald City,” Seattle adopted that moniker in the 1980s as a reference to the city’s lush evergreen forests, although it’s not unusual to hear Seattleites speak of their city as “a magical place,” which evokes another Emerald City altogether.
With a history built on gold rushes (and busts), Seattle is both the mythical city at the end of the nation’s rainbow and a haven of sustainable idealism. This, after all, is a city that banned plastic shopping bags and passed Initiative 502, which legalized the possession of marijuana.
Green is the name of the game in Seattle – and apart from the forests and the projected $2 billion from the upcoming sale of cannabis, Seattle‘s booming “green” economy includes such major players as Amazon, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Costco, Nintendo, and yes, that little homegrown coffee chain called Starbucks.
A city of “brainiacs,” Seattle has one of the highest percentage of college graduates in the US, which probably also explains the equally high rate of atheism alongside one of the lowest rates of church attendance in the nation.
Big things keep happening in Seattle, which is a city that understands turning adversity to advantage. The 2001 earthquake, for example, compromised the Alaskan Way Viaduct enough so that its replacement with a two-mile-long tunnel is imminent. The result will enable the historic Seattle waterfront to become more accessible and pedestrian-friendly.
Often considered a “chill” city, which is both literal and metaphoric, Seattle‘s most clement weather occurs between May and September. Regardless of when you visit, you might avail yourself of the city’s most popular attractions by using Seattle CityPASS.
In the meantime, here’s a list of ten delicious reasons to whet your appetite for a visit to Seattle.
(Source: BOKA restaurant + bar)
BOKA restaurant + bar at Hotel 1000: Chef Peter Birk has family history in southern Missouri, so it’s not surprising to find the celebrated chef utilizing ingredients from the South in his acclaimed restaurant BOKA restaurant + bar at Hotel 1000.
Creamy grits and hominy, for example, prove to be a delectable complement to New Caledonian blue prawns, thereby creating a Seattle equivalent to that Southern staple “shrimp-n-grits.”
Birk’s innovative cuisine pairs nicely with the contemporary dining room’s colorful decor. Gougères come in a trio of cheeses, while the pork belly is served with fried okra and collard green slaw – and Birk’s southern fried Stokesberry Farm chicken with green beans and bacon and cream gravy is the sort of meal that reminds every transplanted Southerner of the region’s culinary bounty.
Located off the lobby of Hotel 1000, BOKA restaurant + bar is an amalgam of restaurant, bar, and lounge with handcrafted cocktails from Chief Mixologist Mi-Suk Ahn.
What BOKA restaurant + bar – and Birk’s cuisine – does so well is remind patrons of the breadth of the Pacific Northwest’s bounty and the region’s numerous culinary antecedents. Scallops come from Alaska, while the oysters are harvested from Puget Sound and the mussels from the waters of Hood Canal in Washington.
BOKA restaurant + bar‘s focus on history – both family and regional – serves as a delicious reminder of the nation’s culinary heritage and to whom we owe gratitude.
A variety of cupcakes from The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co., including their signature flavor pancakes n’bacon, as well as chocolate peanut butter. (Source: MRNY)
Taste Washington: Imagine a football field filled with food and wine from Washington’s best vineyards and restaurants. Imagine tables laden with smoked octopus, salted caramel butterscotch pudding, sea urchin mousse, oysters on the half shell, Dungeness crab salad, chocolate chili cupcakes – and more.
Then imagine being able to eat and drink to your heart’s content. That’s Taste Washington, the city’s annual oenophile and culinary smorgasbord, which has become the nation’s largest single-region wine and food event.
Since 1998, Seattle has celebrated the advent of spring with more than 4,000 food and wine enthusiasts from around the world, partaking in the privilege of more than 200,000 pours from 750 Washington wines.
The logo for Taste Washington showcases a wine bottle, with the aphorism
“Drink. Eat. Learn.” While there is no question that Taste Washington is a wine festival, the food from 65 of the Pacific Northwest’s most acclaimed restaurants makes Taste Washington a foodie heaven.
Oh, yes, and also, prawn and Berkshire pork dumpling with pickled vegetables – and pastrami-cured king salmon with truffled asparagus salad on soft pumpernickel.
Make plans now for Taste Washington in the spring of 2014.
Tasting and dining room at Woodinville’s Village Wines (Source: MRNY)
Woodinville Wine Country: A mere thirty minutes northeast of downtown Seattle, there exists an oenophile’s paradise. Located in the bucolic Sammamish River Valley, Woodinville is a rural wooded community notable for more than 90 tasting rooms for Washington vintners.
While you won’t encounter any grape vines in Woodinville, you will, nonetheless, taste the bounty from numerous Columbia Valley vineyards located just over the Cascade Mountain range in Eastern Washington.
Woodinville took off as a wine destination in the 1970s, when Chateau Ste. Michelle’s palatial estate opened to the public. Since then, nearly one hundred second-location wineries and tasting rooms have welcomed the public. The benefit for a true oenophile is the easy proximity to so many celebrated wines.
Most of the tasting rooms are located within a five-mile radius and easily accessible by foot from “downtown” Woodinville. As idiosyncratic as the wines, Woodinville‘s tasting rooms feature an array of interior design styles: from bare-bones industrial chic to posh private clubs. One room is called The Library, while another includes a ping-pong table and offers movie nights.
Willows Lodge is the de facto clubhouse for many wine tourists, offering a series of wine-related events throughout the year, as well as the region’s two most celebrated restaurants, The Herbfarm and Barking Frog.
For a restorative weekend retreat, head to Woodinville.
“Hammering Man” by Jonathan Borofsky in front of SAM (Source: MRNY)
SAM (Seattle Art Museum)/Olympic Sculpture Park: In Seattle, everyone knows SAM, which happens to be the acronym for Seattle Art Museum. If you’re walking downtown, you won’t miss SAM. Look for the “Hammering Man” or the SAM signage, which is more prominent now, thanks to artist Doug Aitken’s urban kaleidoscope. Aitken’s “Mirror” utilizes LED display and thousands of hours of video footage to create a museum facade that appears to pulse and breathe with life.
One of the best ways to experience the museum and local culture vultures is to attend SAM Remix, the Friday night downtown party that happens four times a year, coinciding with the change of seasons.
SAM maintains two other facilities around the city: the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Capitol Hill and Olympic Sculpture Park along the waterfront. Few things in Seattle are as romantic as a summer stroll at gloaming through the nine-acre sculpture park that features magnificent pieces by such illustrious sculptors as Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Serra, and Louise Nevelson.
Seattle’s culture mavens turned out in droves for the recent unveiling of Aitken’s “Mirror,” which was marked by a block party “Happening” complete with music by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra as the sun set over Elliott Bay.
Play it again, SAM.
Exterior of Hotel 1000 in downtown Seattle (Source: Hotel 1000)
Hotel 1000: Who doesn’t appreciate a welcoming glass of Champagne upon check-in, served with a smile and genuine hospitality? That’s the Hotel 1000‘s style of service, which pervades the entire 120-room boutique hotel in downtown Seattle.
Guests at Hotel 1000 are treated as residents of Seattle’s first residential-hotel complex, which extends to the generously-sized rooms that are the equivalent of pied à terre apartments.
Hotel 1000 bathrooms are celebrated for their floor-to-ceiling vistas of downtown Seattle and Elliott Bay, as well as for the waterfall bathtubs where water flows from the ceiling.
The use of a car and driver is offered to Hotel 1000 guests for rides within a two-mile radius and Studio 1000, the lobby lounge, serves complimentary coffee and Mighty-O Donuts.
A member of the Preferred Hotel Group, Hotel 1000 has received numerous awards from various periodicals since its 2006 opening and is listed on Condé Nast Traveler “Gold List” and Travel + Leisure as one of the best hotels of 2012.
Centrally located within easy walking distance of Seattle’s major attractions, a respite at Hotel 1000 makes you feel as coddled as a film star and as happy as a Seattleite.
Seattle skyline from the Bainbridge Island ferry (Source: MRNY)
Bainbridge Island: If you were filming a Hollywood rom-com in Seattle, then at least one character would live on this bucolic island, just across Elliott Bay from the city’s waterfront. According to one fourth-generation local, the 35-minute ferry ride serves as “decompression time” from the big city – and there’s no question that the ride across the water rewards photographers with resplendent vistas of the Seattle skyline ringed by snow-capped mountains.
Home to a number of notable authors, politicians, actors, and musicians, Bainbridge Island has been voted by several periodicals as one of the nation’s best places to live.
There are many good (and tasty) reasons to board a ferry to Bainbridge Island – but certainly one of the best is the insanely quaint and quirky Blackbird Bakery. Since 1999, Blackbird Bakery has been both a bakery and an unofficial community center, and on weekends, you can expect to find at least two booths occupied with cribbage players, while the bakery buzzes with activity as the door bangs open and shut.
Calling Central Casting: one character in that rom-com is a baker at Blackbird Bakery. (Insider tip: Helen’s French Roll, a buttery muffin rolled in cinnamon sugar is sinfully delicious.)
For a lively Bainbridge Island brunch, consider Cafe Nola, which has been featured on Food Network and does a commendable job at packaging the island’s charms into a bistro setting that serves classic cocktails and local fare with a European twist. Truffle cheese fries, for example, and a Dungeness crab melt will make you toast to the joys of Bainbridge Island.
Seattle’s Great Wheel (Source: MRNY)
The Seattle Great Wheel: If you still recall with fondness the scene in E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” when Fern and Henry Fussy ride the Ferris wheel and stop at the top, then the newly-opened Seattle Great Wheel has your name on it.
Built in less than a year and opened to the public in the summer of 2012, the Seattle Great Wheel is the largest observation wheel on the West Coast with 42 fully-enclosed gondolas that soar into the air high above Elliott Bay.
Located along the Alaskan Way on Pier 57, Seattle’s historic 1896 Gold Rush pier, the Seattle Great Wheel is illuminated in the evenings with enough psychedelic LED lights to resurrect Jimi Hendrix.
For those fearful of gale force winds, Seattle Great Wheel shuts down if winds reach 55 MPH or higher – which means that yes, Seattle Great Wheel might be more of a thrill ride on windy evenings.
And not to worry, each gondola can hold up to 1300 pounds – so you’re safe, even after eating a dozen of Seattle’s lip-smacking Mighty-O Donuts.
And if, like Fern and Henry Fussy, you find Ferris wheels romantic, the Seattle Great Wheel is perfect for sunset marriage proposals – and especially in the luxury gondola outfitted with leather bucket seats and a glass floor.
Seattle Art Museum (SAM) is just down the street from Hotel 1000, where Mighty-O Donuts are served in the Studio. (Source: MRNY)
Mighty-O Donuts: While the rest of the nation succumbed to the Krispy Kreme craving, serious bakers in the Northwest were honing their donut recipes, perfecting the cake donut. The results are in – and Seattle is a donut capital, with Mighty-O Donuts the top contender.
First sold at a street fair in May 2000, Mighty-O Donuts has been baking in their own Wallingford bakery since 2003. Made from scratch, Mighty-O Donuts contain no chemical preservatives, no trans fat, no artificial flavors – and, perhaps best of all, no animal-derived ingredients, which keep the donuts cholesterol-free. In other words, we’re talking vegan donuts that are a culinary revelation: healthy and delicious.
For those staying at Hotel 1000 in downtown Seattle, Mighty-O Donuts‘ are served in Studio 1000, the hotel’s lounge off the lobby. Some of the more addictive flavors include Nutty Chocolate, Cocoloco, Don King, Vanilla Sprinkles, and Mighty-O Donuts‘ very first flavor, Vanilla Cake Cinnamon Sugar, the donut that started the revolution.
Since Mighty-O Donuts does not ship their donuts, there’s no other choice but to get thee to Seattle, where donut aficionados gather over coffee and Mighty-O Donuts. One bite – and you’ll be smitten for life.
A late spring snow fell on the pergola outside Barking Frog. (Source: MRNY)
Willows Lodge: It’s possible that as soon as you pass through the massive portals of Willows Lodge and enter into the timber-lined lobby with its stone two-sided fireplace, you’ll sigh with relief. The sense of calm and well-being is pervasive throughout Willows Lodge, which is located a mere 25 minutes from Seattle – and yet it seems like another country, one notable for its serenity.
The luxurious lodge encompasses five acres of landscaped gardens with gazebo, outdoor Jacuzzi, Asian zen garden, as well as Barking Frog, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most acclaimed restaurants, helmed by Chef Bobby Moore, with a sun-dappled pergola for dining al fresco during clement weather.
Each June, Woodinville turns out for Willows Lodge‘s signature competition, the Iron Vintner Challenge, where four Washington winemakers face off to create a winning entree and appetizer utilizing a secret ingredient that changes annually.
A member of the Preferred Hotel Group, Willows Lodge is listed on Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure as one of the nation’s best hotels of 2012.
According to Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, a barking frog is a sign of peace and harmony with nature. Willows Lodge is a testament to a heritage of natural bliss.
The original Starbucks opened in 1971 in Pike Place Market. (Source: MRNY)
Pike Place Market: Apart from the Space Needle (which was built for the 1962 World’s Fair), Pike Place Market is, arguably, Seattle’s definitive tourist destination with more than 10 million annual visitors.
Open since 1907, Pike Place Market is a nine-acre historic district that is home to more than 200 small businesses, including a farmers market, bakeries, butchers, and fishmongers, all buzzing with caffeine energy, which is to be expected at the home of the original Starbucks, which opened in the market in 1971.
While the fish throwers at Pike Place Fish draw crowds and cheers, there’s always a line in front of the country’s first Starbucks where caffeine addicts line up to take photos of the original signage with its original bare-breasted logo.
Open for nearly twenty hours a day, Pike Place Market gives you plenty of time to buy some double daffodils, sip a latte – and smile for the cameras.
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