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Served: Getting Served in Seattle

Posted by Hannah Howard, August 26, 2008 at 8:30 AM

I blog by day and wait tables by night. I'm excited to bring you Served, dispatches from the front of the house. Enjoy!

Getting my Saturday shift covered was my last order of business before packing my bags and leaving for Seattle. I cut it close enough to worry a bit. When I got a text from A. that he could indeed work for me at our restaurant, I ceased feeling nervous and got excited. Vacation! Seafood! Music! Microbreweries! Coffee!

Seattle Welcomes Us

I've been in this stunning, rainy city for two days. Like any diligent serious eater, I have spent much of that time contentedly tucking into something delicious.

We got off our plane, made our way to our hotel, stashed our bags, and headed straight to the Pike Place Market. As a ardent market-lover, Pike Place was paradise.

We wandered around in an excited stupor, tasting blood-red cherries and white peaches, huckleberry popcorn, and spicy pepper jelly. We dipped just-baked bread into musky white truffle oil and caramelly aged balsamic. We shared a piroshky, the Russian buttery pastry stuffed with sharp, melted cheese and barely-cooked spinach. We admired monster diver scallops, fat, fatty sausages, and the cute boys throwing salmon over their heads. Within minutes, I knew I liked this city.

Girls Go West

I met my good friend and fellow traveler, J., when she was the chef at my restaurant. These days, she is a buyer at an awesome specialty food/cheese/beer store. We weren't fast friends, but before we knew it, we had logged many big hugs, long talks, whiskey sours, stories, and fits of unstoppable, ferocious laughter.

I knew J. would make a perfect travel companion: she is adventurous, open-minded, loving, fun, responsible and can dance all night long. (I, on the other hand, might require her to scrape me off the floor. She hasn't needed to perform this duty yet.)

On our first night, we trekked all around town, up an eternal Seattle hill, and found ourselves ravenous. A burrito joint looked promising because, well, can a burrito not beckon when you are starving? But also because the music was streaming onto the street, as was the boisterous crowd. And a pitcher of sangria sounded great.

It tasted great, too, and did a stand-up job washing down our giant tortilla filled with everything, our taco salad filled with everything, and a plate of nachos piled with everything plus a fistful of fiery jalapenos.

We Stick Together

As food/restaurant people, we both appreciate and sometimes befriend our waiters, bartenders, and anyone who might sell us food (we must talk to the fish-throwing guys before we head home!).

We liked the waiter who brought us our Mexican feast and congratulated us for tearing a sizable hole in our humongous order. He was genuinely impressed. He advised us to check out the semi-hidden downstairs—a cavernous, popular, and trippy bar, with ceilings covered in sombreros and Christmas lights,

On just two hours of sleep and many of travel, I was seriously sleepy, but J. dragged me out for one more drink. We found a rad place—a bar inside a gallery. Both the cocktails and the art were funky and cool. The big space was nearly empty, though, and the bartender gave us a friendly discount on our Dark and Stormies. Upon news that we were brand-new to town, he pulled out a pen and paper and got to work recording the names and locations of his choice bars, and the names of the bartenders who worked there.

"Tell them I said hi," he instructed, and wrote down his name and number. In one swoop, we had places to go, people to see, and maybe even someone to come along with us for the ride.

My Favorite People in Seattle: Sky and Dallas

We slept fabulously, waking up ready to explore more neighborhoods. And explore we did, eating as we went. Stone fruit and lattes from the market to start our day; single origin chocolate from Africa; a salad with gorgeous tomatoes, ribbons of red onion, and white-fleshed prawns.

As evening fell in Ballard, we wanted a glass of wine. Like magic, a swanky wine bar materialized. We sipped our Washington State red and sopped chorizo and tomato broth with crusty bread from a bowl of briny clams.

We chatted with the bartender, Sky, about Seattle and neighborhoods and where to go next. We were planning to continue our tour to Fremont. In that case, he said, we had to visit his friend Dallas who worked at a fun bar. Perfect.

We went in search of Dallas and his fun bar. Sky had advised us not to walk to Fremont, but we felt brave. After traversing big hills, more big hills, and eerily dark suburbs, we got on a bus and crossed our fingers that it would take us in the right direction. It did, sort of, and after quizzing people smoking on sidewalks and working in restaurants, we found Dallas behind the bar.

Dallas was rocking a goatee and flannel shirt. "Sky says hey," we said, and explained our wandering ways. Dallas, seemingly happy to see us, told us music would be starting soon. We wanted something else to eat before we started drinking seriously and dancing the night away, so we asked his advice.

Dallas slipped out from behind the bar, walked us outside, and pointed us in the direction of great sushi. When we came back—bellies full of spicy tuna—he let us stow our stuff behind his bar.

The band was everything we could have hoped for, so much fun and so good, wailing away on sax and keyboard and rap and reggae and a crowd of all sorts, wriggling and grooving. The bassist played better with his mouth than most with their hands. A big woman with even bigger hair's scratchy voice sent shivers down my spine.

We drank a lot of gin and tonic, but Dallas charged us for nearly nothing. "Have fun," he bid us goodbye. If only he had known how much fun we had already had.

Good Karma

I am not used to such unabashed generosity, hospitality, and friendliness, and it feels wonderful. Part of my job that I love is my ability to help people have an awesome night. It is great to be on the other side. These bartenders have made our trip.

We've only just arrived in Seattle and so many people have directed us towards fun, and shared it with us. Is it this city? Is it that we're on vacation? Is it the cosmic bartender community?

Either way, thank you, amazing servers and bartenders for sharing the love.

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Tags: Seattle, Served