The Twisp River Pub

I recently spent my birthday in the Methow Valley and did some serious research about where to eat on the special night. Unfortunately, it appears the Twisp/Winthrop/Mazama stretch is pretty bleak for good vegetarian food.

I initially got really excited about this: http://www.winthroptipidinners.com/, an unusual (and not corny/cooperate/tourist trap, as the name might make you think) restaurant developed as a life dream by a local woman that revolves around eating artfully prepared, healthy, traditional (local as possible) Native American foods while in a beautiful tipi. In the winter time, there is fire and candle light and and animal skins to keep everything warm. The proprietress, Suekii, cooks everything in a nearby kitchen and brings it via hand held wagon to her hungry guests. I spoke to Suekii about what she does for vegetarians (no bison steak for this birthday gal), and it all sounded wonderful... hummus and pickled asparagus, stuffed squash, emmer farro, etc. But it turned out that the tipi was already fully booked (it only holds 8) on the night of my birthday.

There are other fancy type options in the area, including the Sun Mountain Lodge and the Arrowleaf Bistro, but these have really limited vegetarian entrees that are priced at meat prices. No thank you.

So I went to the Twisp River Pub, where I knew there were decent vegetarian options to be had. My dining companion and I split two things: the Asian salad and a veggie burger with fries.

Based on the menu description, I had hoped that the Asian salad (with rice noodles) would be similar to the contents of a Vietnamese bun. Turned out the noodles were more of a garnish, and the salad was mostly green. I ordered it with fresh tofu (instead of fried), which was possibly a mistake, because it came fully unmarinated (rather than in the sesame marinade the menu describes).

The pub-made veggie burger was tasty, and the fries were excellent.

For my birthday dessert, I ordered a warm walnut brownie with vanilla ice cream. It was delicious.

The Elysian

Sometimes I feel like the sort of celebratory meal that involves dressing up and savoring plates of exquisitely prepared fancy ingredients. And other times I feel like the sort of celebratory meal that involves drinking a 5000 calorie coal dark beer and eating a giant mound of french fries.


The Elysian brewery on capital hill recently colluded with my vision for the latter. True to a typical Seattle brewery, the Elysian has a ton of vegetarian (and vegan, and gluten-free!) options. I chose the black bean burger with pepper jack, red pepper aioli and skinny cut french fries.

It was a Friday night and this place was packed!

Fado Irish Pub

Was recently downtown looking for a lunch spot that could deliver a sandwich and a beer (per the particular cravings of my very hungry dining companion). We were kindly directed to Fado Irish Pub, which I've seen a zillion times and never been to.
We didn't have picture taking capabilities, but there was an unusual vegetarian item on the menu that is worth mentioning: a boxty quesadilla. Turns out a "boxty" is essentially a griddle cooked Irish potato pancake, and Fado uses them in place of a tortilla in both a meat and a vegetarian quesadilla.

The vegetarian one was delightful. It was filled with grilled caramelized onions, artichoke hearts and pepper jack cheese, and then drizzled in sour cream, really tasty marinated cherry tomatoes, a pile of very finely sliced cabbage and one fresh jalapeno ring. I found this to be a delicious use of a potato pancake. My only complaint is that I could have enjoyed a lot more fresh jalapeno to eat with it all.

The menu wasn't particularly vegetarian friendly ratio wise, but there were a few other vegetarian items including a caprese baguette sandwich, a tomato mozzarella flat bread, and a few salads. Vegans would likely be hard pressed to get a satisfying meal.

There was also a dessert that was especially intriguing (but we didn't order it this time): Brown Bread Ice Cream, which involved vanilla ice cream, caramelized brown bread, caramel sauce and whipped cream.

Felt a little spendy (never helps to add a $5.50 beer to lunch), but over all it hit the spot.

Red Hook Brewery

D and I rode our bikes to the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville. The ride was 38.5 miles round trip from where we hopped on the Burke Gilman trail in the U District, and consisted of easy, fun, scenic riding along the Burke Gilman Trail, and then along the Sammamish River Trail.
I was pretty excited about eating lunch at the brewery because I tend to have a strong fantasy about factories, and breweries, and wineries, etc... places where things are made! I always hope that the food is going to be specialized and feel close to the source. But it rarely does.

And this was (as I should have forseen, ARG!) no exception, more like a money trap full of expensive but average pub fare. (Where was the beer battered ____? Or the cheddar beer soup? Or the beer bread???)

I started off sort of peeved in a spoiled way by a detail on the menu: It was possible to substitute a Boca burger for any meat patty on the menu (nice!), but it would cost an additional $1. WTF? There is no way a Boca burger costs that much more than meat. And a boca burger can be frozen for a long long time, making it even cheaper for a restaurant to provide. But the other vegetarian options (salads, nachos, etc) weren't feeling appealing, so I sucked it up and ordered a burger.

And it was fine. Not remarkable in any way really, other than being made slightly unpalatable by the additional cost. I did appreciate the addition of some grapes to the plate.

The bun looks sort of good in this picture, but it was served cold and had that bad cold bread texture

D ordered vegetarian nachos, and got a huge pile that was pretty good. We were able to exercise one of the things I've learned about getting better value (IE: not getting screwed over) as a vegetarian in a restaurant:

If there are two versions of an item on the menu, say:

Nachos 1: Include all kinds of fixins', including meat and beans. Cost= $13
Nachos 2: Includes a subset of the fixins', excluding meat AND beans. Cost= $9

It is almost always a better deal to order the Nachos #2 and ADD beans than it is to order #1 and subtract the meat.

Ok, Nuff said.
They did have a dessert on the menu that was totally intriguing to me: the Blackhook Porter Sundae, and I was quick to forget that I still needed to ride my bike home and decided to go for full indulgence.

It was right up my ally: ice cream made with Blackhook Porter ice cream covered with whipped cream and caramelized bananas, caramel sauce, and candied walnuts. These add up to nearly my favorite ice cream sundae. The Porter ice cream was interesting... I could definitely taste the almost smoky flavour of the beer and it left a hoppy bitter aftertaste. It took a little bit of conscientious appreciation to enjoy, but I did enjoy it and was totally glad to have ordered it.
The whole ordeal, including the bike ride to an indulgent destination and then the ride home that starts with groans (and perhaps a bit of weaving depending upon level of indulgence) but ends feeling awesome, was really fun. What would I do different next time? Maybe (if the weather was nice enough, and it wasn't when we went)... I'd take a picnic and spread out at one of the nearby wineries, and then drop by Red Hook for a beer and dessert. Or maybe for a big pile of chips and salsa. Or a plate of nachos to share with a group. But I probably wouldn't go for the full meal again unless circumstances other than my own dictated the situation.

Red Hook Brewery
Forecasters Pub

(425) 483-3232
14300 NE 145th St
Woodinville, WA 98072
www.redhook.com

Red Door

A recent summer evening with friends left us in Fremont looking for a place that could provide the following:

1. Relaxed outdoor seating
2. Beer
3. Dinner
   

The Red Door sounded like a good bet. We certainly weren't the only folks with this idea, and had to spend some time a the bar (also outside) waiting for a table. No problem, it allowed us a chance to get a start on priority #2.

The menu was large but certainly meat biased. There were indeed some vegetarian choices... a caprese sandwich on a croissant, a veggie burger, a salad or two, but the options were a bit slim relative to the sum of the menu. Good news was that for an additional $1.50, they could substitute a veggie patty (seemed to be Boca) for a meat patty on any of their numerous burgers. I got an avocado burger in this vein. Had the choice of various salads or fries, and choose the fries.

I don't think I read the menu very carefully, and was surprised, pleasantly, to see that my sandwich came on toasted sourdough. It also had melted tillamook cheddar, and smashed avocado.
It also had another surprise bonus: bacon strips. Confirmation that I did gloss over the pesky details in the menu. Pried the bacon out of the melty cheese and gifted it to my friend's bowl of chili. For him, it would be decadent night.

What naughty creatures who poke their tongues at me!

The Red Door provided everything we were looking for. I managed to get plenty full, and my sandwich was good enough, even if I didn't have the world to choose from while ordering. The food served its purpose, but was a secondary to the cold beer and the perch above the street on a warm summer evening.

Red Door Alehouse
3401 Evanston Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 547-7521
reddoorseattle.com

Snoqualmie Brewery

The search for food after hard outdoor recreation is a serious situation, and the easily accessible restaurant selection along I-90 between Snoqualmie Pass and Seattle is not always enticing. We recently lucked out with tip from friends who live in Issaquah that opened a new dining possibility to satisfy the hunger from a day in the mountains: The Snoqualmie Brewery and Taproom.

It is located in the small town of Snoqualmie, which can be accessed off the highway 202 exit from I-90.

The food includes some typical fancy pub type fare, nachos, artichoke dip, etc, but also a wide range of hot and cold sandwiches made on Essential Bakery bread (most of which included meat, but there was at least one hot sandwich that was vegetarian), and most exciting to my particular hunger was the selection of hot fresh pizzas. For $10.50 I ordered a Greek pizza which was covered in pesto, artichoke hearts, roasted bell peppers, olives, feta etc, and was way bigger than I could eat myself. Could probably fill two people, even.

They also make all kinds of good beer, including their own rootbeer on tap, which our underage dining companion sampled and found to be a delicious but very strongly flavored beverage that was quite a bit more intense than what you might usually buy.

I guess the downside to this place was that there was just one waitress/bartender, and she was quite busy and service was thus a bit slow and scattered. But we were all pretty happy to be sitting down sipping our drinks and didn't mind.

Snoqualmie Brewery and Taproom
8032 Falls Ave. S.E.,
Snoqualmie, WA.
(425) 831-2357
http://www.fallsbrew.com