A trip to Seattle leaves our writer dreaming of life in the Pacific Northwest.
I love living in Phoenix. Really, I do. I’ve become an ambassador of sorts for our desert metropolis thanks to this job, which I also love. But when I travel, I often find myself experiencing pangs of what I call “city envy.”
It’s invariably stoked by something we don’t have here – or that I don’t have in my little corner of North Phoenix. Pizza places open past midnight. Dumpling spots on every corner. Widespread and easily navigable public transit. Farmers markets in walking distance. Anything in walking distance.
During a trip to Seattle (with a bonus visit to Seabrook, another Washington gem; see sidebar) last summer, my city envy is so intense I contemplate squatting in my hotel room and starting life anew in the Pacific Northwest. It’s so green here! I marvel to myself, ever the desert girl wowed by the mere existence of trees. There’s water everywhere! It’s September and I need a cardigan outside! (The last bit was particularly gutting, given that Phoenix was in the midst of its record-breaking streak of 113 days of temperatures greater than 100 degrees.)
But what breaks me is the cake. A friend who lives in West Seattle takes me to two standalone cake shops that offer slices of layer cakes with the most imaginative and sophisticated flavor combos. You don’t have to buy a whole cake. You don’t have to preorder. A gorgeous slice of cake on a whim! Do Seattleites know how good they got it?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. My city envy begins much earlier – also with food.
TO MARKET, TO MARKET
I’m not typically one to order a fish sandwich – I’m a McNuggets gal, not a Filet-O-Fish one – but it’s a specialty here at Matt’s in the Market (mattsinthemarket.com), a charming sliver of a restaurant overlooking Pike Place Market. The Fishwich showcases a pristine piece of market fish (halibut on my visit) layered with shaved iceberg and onion, tartar sauce and bacon on a brioche bun. It’s truly a perfect sandwich. With an icy Arnold Palmer and a cool sea breeze coming in from the open tilt-and-turn windows, it’s a heavenly welcome to a coastal town.
This perch also provides a bird’s-eye view of the market, a vantage I didn’t have on my first visit to Seattle more than 15 years ago. I head downstairs to browse the labyrinth of food and drink stalls and lament that the closest thing we have to something like this at home is The Churchill, a 25-minute drive from my house (and much smaller in scope).
I’d walked to the market from my hotel, the dark and moody, rock-star chic Kimpton Palladian (palladianhotel.com), so I set out on foot for my next destinations in Seattle Center (seattlecenter.com), a hub of cultural institutions and event venues. After a stroll through the city’s flagship Nordstrom, I stop for an iced latte at Monorail Espresso (monorailespresso.com), which reminds me of my lunch server’s recommendation to try the elevated train system. The Seattle Center Monorail (seattlemonorail.com) opened in 1962 for the Century 21 Exposition world’s fair and is a zippy way to get from downtown to Seattle Center, with pretty views of the city from above.
Even more gorgeous views await me at the Space Needle (spaceneedle.com), a touristy but no less cool spot that has changed a lot since my first visit. I don’t remember The Loupe (“the world’s first and only revolving glass floor,” the website boasts), the viewing benches or two sky-high bars being there in 2007. Since my visit, dessert shop TipTop Pies has also opened.
After seeing Chihuly Garden and Glass (chihuly.com) from above, it’s nice to explore it on the ground level. Washington artist Dale Chihuly’s massive glass sculptures – displayed inside the museum, in an outdoor garden and in a greenhouse-like structure – are breathtaking. They’re vibrant and wild, yet still so elegant. I hesitate to even share this because it seems sacrilegious, but I find myself enjoying Chihuly’s collection of Indigenous art and textiles even more than his glasswork. You can take the girl out of Arizona…
I scurry back to the monorail and head downtown for a chat and chew with Neal Brebner at City Fish (cityfish.com), the oldest continuously operated fish market in Seattle (established in 1917). Longtime fishmonger Brebner and his partners bought City Fish after working in Pike Place Market for years, and he and his skilled staff walk me through their seafood wares. We taste punchy ceviche, house-smoked salmon and super-fresh oysters. “You guys are truly spoiled with all the fresh fish here,” I say. When I ask fishmonger Stew if there’s any underappreciated seafood in their oeuvre, he shows me lingcod, which he describes as a midpoint between cod and halibut. I order some to be shipped to my house for when I get home.
Exhausted and briny, I walk back to the Palladian and have a glass of wine at the lobby happy hour before feasting on even more halibut and blackened-carrot risotto at on-site Shaker + Spear (shakerandspear.com).
FERRYING ABOUT
I’m up early the next morning for breakfast at Conversation, a beautiful restaurant at the nearby Thompson Hotel (hyatt.com). Then I catch a Lyft – the first time I need a car on this trip – to the West Seattle/Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal (wsdot.com/ferries), where I board a ferry to Vashon Island (vashon-maury.com). Everyone around me is sedate – bored, even. For them, riding a ferry is a banal transportation reality. For a Phoenician whose commute involves bumper-to-bumper traffic flanked by saguaro-dotted mountains, riding a ferry is so novel it makes me giddy. I take 32 photos during the 15-minute journey, including several Puget Sound-backed selfies. Other passengers look at me like I’m insane, but I’m too hopped up on sea air to care.
The intoxication continues as I disembark on Vashon, an island covered with Douglas firs, redwoods, Western red cedars and Western hemlocks. The smell of cold, damp soil mingles with the salty ocean air and the pleasantly musty aromas of the forest. I’m here to visit Venison Valley Farm & Creamery (venisonvalleyfarm.com), a micro-dairy and creamery established by Kelsey and Ben Killian, who each have impressive CVs in food and farming. Their Jersey and Normande cows produce ultra-creamy milk that the couple turns into yogurt, fromage blanc and alpine-style cheeses including the raclette-style Jubilee and the cider-brine-washed Feronia, which evokes a sweet and floral Gruyère.
The Killians and their darling toddler, Darby, treat me to an incredible farm tour and tasting, complete with a dahlia hand-picked by Darby from their garden. I’m blown away by Venison Valley’s mango lassi – lightly sweet from pure mango and dusted with crunchy bits of cardamom. If I lived in Seattle, I would make regular ferry trips to the Killians’ farm stand for this stunning drink and heaps of their glorious cheese.
Fromage always makes me crave vin, so it’s fortuitous that my next stop – back on the mainland – is a wine bar. But Princess & Bear (theprincessandthebear.com) is no ordinary wine bar. Inspired by owners Carol Bailey (the titular “Princess”) and (the “Bear”) Steve Medwell’s travels, P&B specializes in wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. “There is a fresh excitement there for winemaking, with less formality than in other regions in France,” tasting room manager Ioana Bucur tells me. “It’s an Old World region, but with New World energy.”
As I sip Borie la Vitarèle’s Le Grand Mayol, a citrusy, peachy and mineral-rich white made of Clairette, Vermentino and Bourboulenc grapes, I marvel that a wine bar devoted to just one region is thriving in this city. The closest wine bar to my house is about 10 miles away and doubles as a “sports lounge.” My city envy strikes again.
It reaches a fever pitch at dinner at 84 Yesler (84yesler.com), the best restaurant experience I have had in a long time. The location in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood is cool – a colorful mural is my view from the window. The service – led by owner Sam Takahashi, a Seattle restaurant legend – is attentive and kind. And the food. Chef Christina Siegl’s grilled romaine salad and fines herbes pappardelle with lemon, butter and Dungeness crab are sublime. But her Parmesan churros – nestled on smoked tomato aioli and dusted with Aleppo pepper and a snowdrift of finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano – are one of the best things I have ever eaten.
I need to pitch these for Best of the Valley next year, I think, as the second churro absolutely melts in my mouth. Then I remember where I am. My counterparts at Seattle mag had better give this dish the adulation it deserves.
A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE
My city envy disappears the moment I’m behind the wheel of a rental car for my detour to Seabrook (see sidebar). The streets that have been so fun to walk are a nightmare to drive, all twisty, narrow and sloped. I realize, as I do every time I drive elsewhere, that Phoenix’s grid system and flat, wide streets have spoiled me. My frustration deepens as I navigate freeways with on-ramps and exits arranged haphazardly and speed limits that fluctuate based on traffic.
My West Seattleite friend Bre picks me up when I return to the city, and I’m all too happy to return to being a passenger princess. She takes me to her favorite cake spots – Deep Sea Sugar & Salt (deepseasugarandsalt.com) and Paper Cake Shop (papercakeshop.com). Deep Sea’s pistachio-calamansi cake with cream cheese frosting is transcendent, and Paper’s Blube (blueberry, lemon and ube) is as tasty as it is pretty.
For my last dinner in Seattle, I’d hoped to try The Butcher’s Table (thebutcherstable.com), a swanky steakhouse with an on-site butcher shop that has been getting all kinds of buzz for its Mishima Reserve American Wagyu and local seafood. Alas, they’re closed today. Next time.
Instead, Bre drives us (thank goddess) to Haerfest (haerfestseattle.com). Its focus – surprise, surprise – is local seafood, plus a passel of fresh pastas made in-house. Everything is scrumptious: charred carrots with hot honey, crème fraîche and dukkah; burrata with mortadella and grilled bread; a Little Gem salad crowned with fried shallots; and conchiglie rigate with lemon, chives and crab. Haerfest (pronounced “harvest”) was named one of Seattle’s Best New Restaurants in 2024, and it’s easy to see why.
Back at Bre’s, I throw on the Frasier sweatshirt I bought at Simply Seattle near Pike Place. It’s nice to need a sweater. It’s even nicer to eat more cake. I’ll miss so much about this enviable city when I go home tomorrow. Just not driving there.
Seabrook
If I lived in Seattle, my weekend getaway spot would be Seabrook (seabrookwa.com), a New Urbanism community created by developers Casey and Laura Roloff in 2004. Located a few hours southwest of the city on the coast, it’s a picture-perfect little town – the Pacific Northwest answer to Gilmore Girls’ Stars Hollow – where many well-heeled Seattleites own or rent vacation homes.
Three must-dos if you visit:
- Lorraine’s Candle Studio
Pour your own candle at this chic little shop, where friendly “scent designers” walk you through creating a custom aroma and selecting the best vessel for your waxy wonder. Cute gifts, too. lorrainescandles.com
- Spa Elizabeth
Revel in a massage, body scrub or facial at this petite spa. Don’t skip the boutique afterward – it stocks everything from jewelry and hair accessories to scalp treatments and natural deodorant. spaelizabeth.com
- Vista Bakeshop
Pick up a latte and a Paris-caliber croissant at this cute café to enjoy on a sidewalk table while people-watching. You’ll see plenty of pups, too – The Salty Dog pet shop is just across the street. vistabakeshop.com
