Just a little prior warning, this next posting does not have any pictures in it but fear not, after this short interlude we'll be back with some "interesting" photos from the next leg of my journey.
In the meantime.........
Getting to downtown Seattle really is a breeze. For approx $45 you can jump in a taxi to downtown Seattle. Journey time can be about 25 minutes but if you arrive around rush-hour, expect to at least double that. Personally I took the Central Link light rail. Think my ticket to Westlake (the very final stop) was about $2.75 for a single. I then took to the monorail to the Space Needle and walked a few blocks to my hotel.
I stayed in a really cute place called The Maxwell Hotel. I now realise that to the professional traveller I should have stayed somewhere to gather Avios. Something to keep in mind next time I do a TP run but for now, I really like this place and it gets 2 thumbs up! ^^
I arrived shortly after 6pm and I was knackered (considering it was now 3am in Amsterdam and I had been up for 21 hours now). Sleep was screaming at me but I had other plans – I actually did!! Another great thing about FT is the ability to just send random strangers PMs and then garner some fantastic local knowledge. Seeing the location of 2 particular FT’ers I sent PNWBrit and chucko a PM asking for advise on where they could recommend for food. I was only going to have 2 meals in Seattle (Friday night dinner and Tuesday lunch) so I chose 1 recommendation from both of them - and thank you very much for taking the time to get in touch.
PNWBrit recommended Matt’s in the Market and being a Friday night I thought it be wise to make a reservation a few days before my arrival. Admittedly, over the last 18 hours I had eaten enough to feed a small community......alright a LARGE community.......... but having spent many years working in restaurants I know the annoyance of “no-shows” so a quick shower and I was heading towards Pike Place Market.
Matt’s in the Market, as the name suggests, is in the market (well in the entrance way to the market) and is located on the 3rd floor of a building hosting a number of other eateries. It’s a cute little place with approx enough room for 35-40 covers. Being a Friday night it was bustling but I had already booked myself a seat at the bar, having confirmed that I was still able to select from the main menu. In the right hand corner of the restaurant, as you walked in, was the open planned kitchen and there were 3 chefs furiously working. Having “been there and done that” I full empathised with seeing one of the chefs take a frantic swig at a bottle of water whilst moving straight onto the next dish.
There were about 5 or 6 wait staff and I probably stood at the door way for about 7 minutes before someone came over. To be fair, they were busy and having experienced Dutch customer service, only have to wait 7 minutes didn’t really affect me.
I had already told myself that I would only have a soft drink with dinner but the appeal of a locally brewed IPA was too much, so I changed my mind within about 45 seconds of sitting down. I was excited to be in “fresh fish and seafood territory” so decided to avoid the meat offerings and instead went for a starter of “baby arugula and Dungeness crab, avocado, citronette, marcona almonds”. This salad was unbelievably refreshing and if there was any criticism it was the need to wanting more of the delicious crab – kind of blew away the crab appetizer I had at the Concorde Room earlier that day (although by this point it might as well have been a year ago the way my mind & body was feeling)
I decided to try the locally caught Pacific Cod, with fingerling potatoes and pureed fennel. I could tell straight away that the fish was fresh, unfortunately though it was undercooked. I caught the attention of the barman who was doubling up as my waiter and asked him if he could just ask the chef to put it back in the oven for 3 more minutes. The barman explained that this was the way they served the cod. Though I’ve not been working in catering for quite a few years, even when I did I never would share this information when the occasional complaint would arise when dining out at restaurants. I knew this cod was undercooked and was fairly sure the head chef would realise when he saw what I was seeing.
He did, as 30 seconds later the barman now apologised for the fish and explained that they had a new chef working and that they would be cooking the dish again from fresh. Not a big deal as it can happen to the best of us but I appreciated the gesture in starting again.
In fact they went a step further and actually comp’d my beer and salad, which I thought was very kind. By the time I had finished my main course, I knew it was time to say my goodbyes and get a taxi back to the hotel for a well earned rest – possibly just a food coma!
I think I fell asleep within 4 seconds of my head touching pillow, but not before I had set my alarm for a 5.30am start