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3 Seattle Blocks, 3 Happy Hours

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Today I’m happy to have a guest post from Haley Shapley who blogs at Girl About the World. Here’s what she has to say about happy hours in Seattle:

They say there’s a Starbucks on every block in Seattle, and, well, that’s pretty much true. But a jolt of java isn’t the only beverage you’ll find on every corner — if you’re looking for drinks of a stronger kind or just reasonably priced food (or both), downtown Seattle offers a veritable smorgasbord of happy hours.

The options just along 1st Avenue are boundless. An easy walk from the ferry and not far from the train station, these three picks in a three-block radius will hit the happy hour spot:

McCormick & Schmick’s

McCormick & Schmick’s

1st and Spring

Renowned for their happy hour prices, this seafood-serving staple offers up ample selection. The menu rotates regularly; right now, you can get garlic bread or nachos for $1.95, the famed half-pound cheeseburger for just $2.95, smoke salmon and chili verde sliders for $3.95, and thin crust pizza and mussels for $4.95, among other choices. Drinks include a $3.95 Coors Light Pilsner, $5.95 red or white wine, and $6.95 fruity cocktails. The service here is consistently strong, and the price/quality ratio with the food can’t be beat.

Happy Hour food at Boka

Boka Kitchen + Bar

1st and Madison

Tucked into the sleek Hotel 1000, this equally fashionable dining venue wins raves for its truffle fries, which are, in a word, addictive. Equally compelling for the carnivores in the room is the $9 Boka Burger, stacked with Beecher’s cheddar cheese, house-made pickles, onion jam, and a side of those delicious fries. All the plates are $3, $6, or $9, and they have a large array of signature cocktails at a discount ($6 to $9). The Red Carpet, with Ciroc Red Berry, black currant puree, house grenadine, and a lime splash, is especially refreshing.

Contour

 

Contour

1st and Marion/Columbia

A dance club by night, happy hour hot spot by early evening, Contour has one of the widest selections of happy hour choices in the downtown area, with more than 20 dishes to decide among. Indulge in tomato honey basil soup for $2, Mediterranean chicken skewers for $3, Northwest oyster stew for $4, or Gruyere macaroni and cheese for $5. But what really sets Contour apart is its hours — happy hour runs until 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 9 p.m. on Fridays, so you can enjoy the discounted dishes much longer than elsewhere.

Northwest Trek: Where Everyday is Different

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One of my favorite outings has got to be Northwest Trek, our 725-acre wildlife park. On any given day you may spot bighorn sheep, deer, Roosevelt elk, caribou, mountain goats, bison or other animals in their natural habitat. This is not a zoo, by any means.                                            

Instead, you hop on a tram that navigates roads through lakes trails and meadows that are home to more than 200 free-roaming North American animals. You’ll only see the animals that feel like being seen that day. But some of them often block the path of the tram to get a closer look at you.

Every season brings a different look to the landscaping as well as to the animals that might be visible. With spring comes lush greenery and baby animal season, in summer the calves and fawns are much more prevalent, come fall and you’ll hear bugling as that’s considered rutting or breeding season and in winter the place is quiet and even muted should snow decide to fall.

 

Besides the wildlife viewable from the tram, grizzlies, black bears, wolves, bobcats, lynx, cougars, owls and more have taken up residence in some very natural exhibits.

Events ‘r us should be the nickname for Northwest Trek, because something is always going on. Next up is Trek Trails Weekend on June 4 and 5 where they open their newly renovated trail system. Along with that, the staff has come up with a Quest-like scavenger hunt. Follow clues to find letters and when done, unscramble the letters to discover a surprise at the end.

My Favorite Miniature Golf Courses

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I love miniature golf. It’s the only kind of golf I’m halfway decent at playing. Maybe it’s because of our weather, but we don’t have some of the dynamic and fun creations other places do in their mini-courses. Below I’ve listed my favorites and some of our best.

Mike n’ Terrys Outdoor Fun Park in Puyallup. They also have go-karts and batting cages.

Riverbend’s 18-Hole Course in Kent with bunkers, water hazards and lights for night play.

 

Icicle Junction Activities Center in Leavenworth offers an 18-hole Bavarian-themed course.

Willows Run in Redmond puts challenges in your path like tunnels and rivers.

Enumclaw Holds Some Luscious Secrets

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At a conference I attended recently, Julie Johnson who works for Visit Rainier (the mountain) told me about a plethora of things to do in Enumclaw, which is the last major town (on one of the highways) before you head up to the mountain. You can approach the mountain from several sides.

A true spaghetti critic

With my daughter and grandchildren we set out looking for some of those not-well-known places in Enumclaw. In the past the town has been called “Enumscratch,” it smelled of dill pickles through and through until Farman’s moved its operations and it was home to the King County Fair in mid-July. I never thought of this rural community as a place to spa, sip wine or martinis and shop in boutiques.

Today we discovered two of those places that made the 25-mile ride totally worth it. We liked the choices on the menu posted outside Café Panini (1537 Cole St.) so we decided to lunch there. Fantastic pick. Their Italian cuisine rocked. The minestrone soup was brimming with chunks of vegetables, but also a variety of different meat slivers and pasta. If you choose any of the salads, you can add egg, chicken breast or shrimp, so I ordered the House Pasta Salad with chicken and I was not disappointed. Filled with diced roma tomatoes, black olives, toasted pine nuts and creamy pesto, it soothed my hunger. The portions were large so we had boxes to take home.

Café Panini also has a large selection of homemade pies, created and baked right on the premises. I got a taste of the cherry pie and it was mighty fine. Only one of us had room for pie, so we walked up the street and got some dessert to take home.

Julie had told me Sweet Necessities (1215 Griffin St.) makes their own caramels and I’m a caramel fanatic. And then when they come with coarse sea salt and fresh out of the pan – words fail me. Melt in your mouth seems so mundane and overused – these candies flavored your mouth and glided down like water down a slippery slide.

Sweet Necessities also has more than 100 flavors of loose tea, Kookaburra licorice and Snoqualmie Ice Cream.

Enumclaw has become much more than cowboys and biker bars, although they still have those, too.

Camano Island Coffee Roasters Just Keeps On Giving

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In the year 2000 Jeff Ericson created Camano Island Coffee Roasters so he could combine his passion with sustainable practices and responsible purchasing.

In simple terms, that means the company makes darn good coffee and also gives back to the growers. Because Ericson wanted to create change in the world he partnered with Agros International. For every 3-lb. bag of coffee a consumer buys, $1 of that goes to Agros International. Agros, was founded in Seattle in 1982, so that rural Central American and Mexican families could leave poverty behind by purchasing and working their own land.

Agros trains people in their country and when that training is completed lends them money to buy land and then teaches them how to work the land so they can pay back the loan. Many of these people grow coffee, which Camano Island Coffee Roasters buys – but only if their beans meet Ericson’s standards. Otherwise the company helps them sell their coffee elsewhere.

Camano Island Coffee Roasters offers not only a delicious cup, but numerous shopping opportunities and even more shopping during the November-December holidays. Leashed dogs are welcome on the premises. This business is located at:  848 N. Sunrise Blvd. on Camano Island.

Washington State Tourism Shutting Down

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I don’t often go all political, but the fact that our governor, in her infinite wisdom, has decided to eliminate our State Tourism Department to help save money on her budget really frosts me. As of June 30, 2011, the department will be history. Tourism in this state brings in $14.2 billion each year. The group is making money for us, so why let them go?

The governor also decided that she should suspend the $2 million that is given annual to fund 70 different county, community and youth fairs. Then cut that amount to $500,000 for the next two years. How that is going to help balance a multibillion dollar shortfall, I’ll never know.

It looks to me like our governor doesn’t want people to have any fun. But she has the money to make her own fun because she is the tenth highest paid governor in the United States.

As our local talk radio hosts say repeatedly, “Our state doesn’t have a funding problem, it has a spending problem.”

On that we are all in agreement.

A group called the Washington Tourism Alliance has been formed to try and take over where our tourism department leaves off. I really hope they can, but the people who I’ve talked to in the travel industry seem doubtful.

What craziness has your state government done lately?

A Food Find in Puyallup

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Filet mignon medallions with a pear=balsamic reduction and grilled zuchhini

Stuffed chicken

“Look at this,” said my son, the chef, pointing to the ‘2 for $20 dinners on Takeout Tuesday’ sign as we exited the restaurant. “That’s a great deal for excellent food.”

That’s when I knew I’d picked a winner for dinner last night in the HG Bistro on East Main Avenue in Puyallup (pronounced pew-all-up).

Even though we hadn’t made reservations, we were seated immediately. Later in the evening the scenario would have been different, but we were early – around 5:30 p.m. Our server said the specials wouldn’t be ready until later.

I scanned the room to see if I might spot what I wanted to order on someone else’s plate and noticed the gentleman dining next to me had left nothing on his plate – it looked as though it could go right back on the shelf without even being washed. Whatever he had must have been good.

Then the crackling of fire drew our attention to the server carrying the S’more plate to another table behind us. I should have stolen a dessert menu so I could tell you what was in the dish, but it certainly was an attention catcher.

The four of us settled in with our drinks and read the menu several times before we decided on our entrees – Two steak-type dinners, a stuffed chicken and one Dungeness Crab mac with three cheeses.

I opted for the 5-ounce Top Sirloin with mashed russets and grilled broccolini. This entrée was as comfortable as a well-worn recliner. Potatoes with good flavor don’t need garlic or shreds of peels or anything else in them and these mashed gems brought back memories of simpler times. My teeth slid through the steak (I love that they have several sizes to choose from) like butter. I ordered an extra of port demi and gorgonzola, which blended into a gravy that added a savory touch to the potatoes.

My son, his wife and my husband all raved about their choices, too. And like the diner I mentioned before, we all became charter members of the clean plate club.

Raspberry Panna Cotta

For dessert we shared a raspberry panna cotta, the perfect palate cleanser to end the meal.

My Favorite Farmers Markets

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The local farmers’ market season has officially arrived. Nothing tastes better than freshly plucked vegetables and fruits so I look forward to this time all winter. Although I’ve not been to all the markets the state offers, and there are a ton of them, I do have my favorites locally.

Pottery at the Olympia Farmers Market 

Farmers Market of Olympia:  About an hour south of Tacoma and well worth the drive. Besides produce, vendors regularly sell meat, seafood, eggs, baked goods, herbs, cut flowers, plants and honey. Local artisans and live entertainment make this market the biggest and it’s open Thursdays through Sundays and is under cover.

Porctor Market flowers

Proctor Farmers Market in Tacoma opens the earliest of them all in March. Add cheese and grass-fed meats to the regular market bounty and you should visit this market at least once. Located in a very walkable and fun neighborhood, you’ll want to spend extra time in the boutiques and grab a bite at one of the many restaurants. Saturdays 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

South Whidbey Farmers Market:  In its 40th year, locals gather here for chatting and shopping. Their 11-acre sustainable agriculture campus allows you to view their on-site growing operations, which features an earthen pizza oven, gardens, orchard and a native plant nursery. Sundays from 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Remlinger Farms in Carnation is much more than a market. Besides the produce and the u-pick fields, their family fun park offers steam train rides, pony rides, farm animals and live entertainment. Market open everyday from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

All of the above markets are open now. We have others that don’t start business until June. I will talk about those then.