Watts Grocery

Last week we made our way to the well-known and highly rated Watts Grocery in Durham.  The restaurant has come highly recommended to us by several people and offers sustainable fair from local farms.  Colin was really excited when he saw they had chess pie on the dessert menu online, so we decided against an appetizer so we could save room for dessert.

We were a bit worried that we would need reservations, since the restaurant seems to be very popular, but when we called there was only an opportunity to leave a message. We took our chances, hoping that a 5:45pm dinner on a Wednesday night would not be a popular time.  Upon arrival, there were very few people dining and plenty of open tables. The space was larger than I anticipated with quite a few tables and a bar area.

Shortly after we ordered, we were presented with four very basic dinner rolls and butter. I'm guessing the butter was local and maybe the bread was baked in-house, but Colin was expecting more.  He commented on expecting who grain rolls, or some sesame seeds, and maybe some olive oil and vinegar, or chive-butter.  The dinner rolls did not match our expectations for a pricey, sustainable restaurant.

Since the restaurant sourced it's meat locally, we decided to try the steak and the chicken.  The Pan Roasted Chicken Confit came with yellow grits and butterbean and pea succotash.  I had to go back to the menu to know what the butterbeans were because they were so soft and very rich. Originally, I thought they were pork fat.  The dish was very flavorful, maybe a little too rich and flavorful.  After a few bites, I was already full (well, saving a little room for dessert).

The Grilled Hand-Cut Angus Ribeye came on smoked tomato and bacon braised collard, and with broccoli and Four Leaf Farm pea shoot butter.  It's too bad we didn't have the butter for the bread! Neither of us used the butter with the steak dish, which was also very flavorful. The meat was very tender and cooked perfectly to Colin's liking (medium-rare).  The collards, in their smoked tomato and bacon sauce were a bit too rich for me, but Colin was a huge fan.  While the steak did not beat his favorites in NYC (The Post House, Strip House and Angelo Maxies) or the amazing steaks we ate in Aruba, he thought the meat was the best we've had in the Triangle.  His highest marks went to the collards, which he'll likely try to replicate at home.

Both entrees tasted amazing as leftovers (especially since I could cook the steak a little more to my liking)!

Pan-Roasted Chicken Confit

Grilled Hand-Cut Angus Ribeye

Once Colin got his heart set on the chess pie, he had me convinced we had to get it for dessert. So when the waitress came over to ask if we were finished, and we requested a box to pack up our leftovers, Colin immediately ordered the chess pie.  Imagine the letdown when the waitress explained that the dessert menu had not been updated online in awhile!  Oh boy were we disappointed.  It pretty much ruined the whole experience for Colin.  We were brought the updated menu and couldn't find anything on it that remotely resembled the chess pie, so we paid for our bill and left.  

On our way out of Durham, we stopped to get dessert at Dulce Cafe.  There were only a few varieties of desserts to choose from (but had lots of each dessert).  We had been preparing for chocolate so we went with the chocolate cake filled with a cherry filling and a chocolate/chocolate cupcake.  We brought it home to enjoy in the comfort of our sweatpants!  The desserts were good, but certainly nothing to rave about. I doubt we will make a trip out there for desserts again.

Chocolate cake with cherry filling (L) and chocolate cupcake (R)

Where can we get amazing chess pie in the area?  

Now we just can't seem to let it go!

Food and Fun Adventures in Seattle

Beware! There are lots of food pictures in the post.  If you are already hungry, you may want to save reading this post until after you eat!  While in Seattle, we did a fair amount of eating. Thankfully, the weather was fantastic, so I justified all the eating because we did a lot of walking.

When we first arrived in Seattle late Friday night, after seeing Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier, we made our way to the area known as Capitol Hill.  We used yelp to find someplace to eat and found ourselves at a fast food diner called Dick's Drive-In. At 3.5 stars, it was the best we could find in that area late at night. The place was packed, but the burgers were extremely disappointing.  To me, they tasted a lot like fast food burgers you could find at any chain across the country

Unsatisfied with our burgers, we decided to get a vegetarian meal at HoneyHole, a 4 star restaurant on yelp.  We had never heard of Tomato Field Roast, a meat alternative, and decided to order the vegetarian Emilio Pestovez made up of that ingredient.  Our second sandwich was the vegetable-only sandwich, El Guapo. We were both pleasantly surprised at the Tomato Field Roast, which after investigating the product on the internet, I found to not be made of soy.  I like vegetarian meals, but don't like that most vegetarian meals seem to include a soy-based meat alternative. It's nice to see other products out there that taste good.  After our disappointing burger at Dick's, we were so happy to have a delicious meal at HoneyHole.  If you were wondering, we didn't actually eat our entire meal after each having a burger. We each took half of our sandwiches back "home" with us and ate them for breakfast the next morning.

Our HoneyHole sandwiches, salad, and bean soup.

Our first stop Saturday morning was to the farmers' market in the area of Seattle known as the University District.  There, we gorged on some local berries, and stocked up on a lot of fruit for breakfast and snacks for the upcoming days.  The market was packed with shoppers and musicians, and most vendors still had a lot to choose from at 11am.  

University District Farmers' Market

In the University District, I was also inspired to try a vegetable smoothie, aka "juice."  I recently saw the movie, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, where an Australian guy does a juice fast for 60 days to cure a skin condition and lose weight. He is successful in his endeavor and manages to get others to join him on his journey.  While I don't think juice fasting is a long term solution to an obesity problem and I do think there are other more effective (and enjoyable) ways to get healthy, I like the idea of juicing raw fruits and vegetables into a smoothie as a way to increase intakes of these wonderful foods.  I have tried making two juice recipes at home and neither tasted very good. So, I thought I would try a juice bar in the University District of one of the hippest cities in the country.  The Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe had good reviews on yelp, and the atmosphere was inviting as we approached, so we stopped in.  Unfortunately, the most popular "green cleanse" juice (cucumber, celery, kale, parsley, spinach, and lemon) tasted awful! I really struggled to finish the $6.50 6-oz beverage.

From the University District, we made our way by car to the Queen Anne District, where we could park on the streets for free and make our way downtown by car.  The first stop on our journey was through the Seattle Center, the area that boasts Seattle's most visible feature, the 605-foot-high Seattle Space Needle.  It was a great day to go to the top, and we inquired about buying the City Pass to see several museums and go to the top of the Needle, but with the gorgeous weather, we decided to stay outside and continue exploring.

The Seattle Space Needle on a clear day

We had a little trouble making our way down to the waterfront, but once we arrived, the views were fantastic.  The area reminded me of the West Side Highway and Hudson River in NYC, except that instead of looking across to more city buildings in NJ, we were looking out onto mountains and more expansive waterways.

Looking north on the waterfront, near Sculpture Park

The views reminded me of NYC's West Side Highway

By the time we reached Pike Place Market, we were ready to eat.  Colin found a place called Pike Place Chowder that had over 1000 reviews claiming that the very small restaurant deserved 4.5 stars.  We miraculously secured a seat in the restaurant, and enjoyed an award-winning clam chowder in a sourdough bowl.  The chowder was really good and I was very impressed that the restaurant won Newport's (RI) chowder festival almost every year in the past 10 years!

Clam Chowder at Pike Place Chowder

We took lots of photos in the market, but let me just hit on the highlights of our experience.

Several people bought fish at the famous Pike Place Fish Market

so we got to see fish being tossed and caught a few times!

The line was too long to go inside the very first Starbucks Coffee

but we did catch a glimpse inside

For dessert, we had a divine brownie at 

Three Girls Bakery

Colin got a kick out of comparing his height

to that of the World's Tallest Man

Once we had enough of the crowds in the market, we decided to get out on the water. The least expensive way ($7.70 r/t each) that we found to do that was to take the commuter ferry across Puget Sound.  We opted for the longest ride, to Bremerton, in the hopes we might see some pods of Orca.  We were not lucky enough to see any whales, but we did enjoy 2 lovely hours on the boat, alternating between being out on the windy, cool deck and enjoying the warmer comforts inside.  The views of Seattle and Mt. Rainier were pretty awesome.

One of the many beautiful views of Mt. Rainier from the boat

Experiencing fantastic views of downtown Seattle from the boat

Of course it was time to have another snack when we got off the boat, so we made our way through downtown to The Chocolate Box for a rich cup of drinking chocolate.  Last winter, my friend in NYC introduced me to The City Bakery in NYC and I in turn introduced the chocolate shop to Colin.  Since that time, he's been obsessed with finding rich drinking chocolate.  We were rewarded in our search at The Chocolate Box with a 4-oz cup of chocolate, split in two cups. I enjoyed mine with whipped cream, while Colin drank his straight.  It was delicious, but not quite as good as The City Bakery.

A 4-oz cup of drinking chocolate for two from The Chocolate Box

From downtown, we tried catching the free bus back towards Seattle Center.  After waiting 15 minutes and not seeing a bus, we decided to walk the mile and a half back through Seattle Center and to our car.  It was nearing sunset, so we rushed to get to the top of one of Seattle's hills to catch a view.

Seattle sunset from atop a Queen Anne hill

Since it was after 8pm, and metered parking no longer required payment, we made our way back into downtown with the car and parked near Pioneer Square, the city's oldest neighborhood.  Here, we decided to find dinner (yes, I told you this post included a lot of food!!).  It was challenging to find a variety of options, but we settled first on a Mediterranean deli to split a falafal and then to Calozzi's for a huge Italian cheese-steak.  A few bites into the cheese-steak and I was done eating for the day! 

Falafal from Mediterranean Mix

Cheese-steak from Calozzi's

Nearing 10pm, we decided that after our full day of exploring, it was time to get back to our airbnb accommodations  located 15 minutes south of downtown in an area called Columbia City.  The "room" we rented was actually a furnished basement with a bedroom, sitting area, and huge bathroom.  The shower was probably the largest I have ever used in my life.  We had tried to stay on east coast time, going to bed early and getting up early, but it proved to be impossible once we were in the cities and had so much we wanted to see!

Sunday morning, we took our time getting up, packing up and getting out the door.  Because Seattle is known for its coffee and coffee shops, I knew I needed to get a cup before we left.  We took the advice from our airbnb host (which was also confirmed by yelp), and went to the Empire Expresso Bar in Columbia City.  As I enjoyed the most beautiful coffee I've ever had, we planned out some things we wanted to do in Vancouver, and used the free wifi to download maps and articles to our phones.  Leaving the U.S., we were unsure what cell phone charges we might incur, so we decided to restrict data on our phones as we neared the border.

My fancy coffee in Seattle

Stay tuned for the next post on our experiences in and around Vancouver!

What is your impression of the meat alternative Tomato Field Roast? 

Was it a mistake to not go to the top of the Space Needle on a clear Seattle day?

Tell me what you think!