Jun 8, 2011

About an hour ago, I was walking through Westlake Park when I noticed a crowd gathered near the corner of 4th & Pike. I walked toward the group, and when I arrived, I found that a brand-spanking-new eatery had opened up on 4th Avenue. It’s called “Potbelly Sandwich Shop”. I entered the store, surveyed the scene, and even though I was not hungry, I...

Jun 7, 2011

A few weeks ago, I flipped on the television to watch Lisa Van Cise gripe about the weather (“I wanna kill myself cause it’s sooo clowww deeee!”) when something unexpected happened. The newscast cut to a live feed of an airplane landing, and I assumed that a VIP was arriving. Was it Barack? Was it Sarah? Was it Anthony Weiner coming to do...

May 13, 2011

I grew up eating pizza. A lot of pizza. Tons of pizza. I also grew up on two distinct styles of the food. Not a lot of people realize this, but “DC-style Pizza” does exist. It can be found in places like Trio Pizza at 18th Street & Columbia Road. DC-style pizza is pizza which has little or no uncovered crust at the edges, has a thin-yet-firm crust...

May 9, 2011

Because I am so fond of Pike Place Chowder’s clam chowder and seafood bisque, I often don’t bother to try other soup offerings in the Pike Market environs. Yesterday, however, I decided to expand my horizons a bit. While walking through the market, I decided to get a 16oz cup of clam chowder ($6.50) at the Market Grill, and I am certainly glad that...

May 1, 2011

Before Donkey Kong, before Asteroids, before Pac Man … heck, before Pong … there was pinball … genesis of mainstream electronic gaming. Few people are aware of this, but ever since I was a young boy, I played the silver ball. From Soho down to Brighton, I must have played them all. However, I’ve never seen anything like it in any amusement...

Apr 25, 2011

Late Saturday morning, before heading up to Cal Anderson Park, I decided to snag a couple of slices of pizza. Since it had been a long time since my last visit (I think the last time I ate here was sometime in the 90’s), I decided to re-acquaint myself with Hot Mama’s Pizza on Pine Street. I tried to have lunch here a couple of weeks ago, but when I walked...

Apr 20, 2011

For lunch yesterday, I decided to patronize two businesses on Broadway … one of them new, one of them brand new. Z Pizza opened up on Capitol Hill last August, and I finally got around to checking out the joint myself. I ordered the lunch special consisting of two slices and a fountain drink for $6.26. My first slice was a pepperoni, and my second slice...

Apr 18, 2011

From 1991 to 1994, Nirvana ruled the airwaves, Seattle became the capital of the universe, and the world hasn’t been the same since. In my opinion, it’s been all downhill from there. A video at the EMP this weekend said something to the effect of “There hasn’t been another geographically based music genre to emerge since grunge. We’ve all been...

Apr 14, 2011

Over the past two days, I have consumed the best donuts I have ever eaten in my life. I say this without an ounce of hyperbole. I like Krispy Kreme, and Dunkin’ Donuts are just fine, but both Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts and Mighty-O Donuts are true “gourmet” doughnuts that stand head and shoulders above the national chains. After eating...

Apr 14, 2011

Another day, another donut shop. Today, my goal was to complete the shootout for best donut in Seattle … and by proxy, best donut in the solar system. After yesterday’s trip to Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts, it was time to go to the Food Channel’s winner for Best Donut Shop in the USA … Mighty-O Donuts. At around noon, I hopped on my...

Apr 13, 2011

Not long ago, two donut shops in Seattle were in the running for Food Network’s “Best Donut Shop in the Nation”. Those two shops were Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts and Mighty-O Donuts. Mighty-O prevailed. Story: http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-mighty-o-donut-duel-20110411,0,4776001.story Now, personally, I don’t eat a lot of sweets. At ...

Apr 12, 2011

Built in 1985, the Columbia Center is the 7th tallest building in the USA, and at 932 feet, it is the tallest building in the entire Pacific Northwest. The building has 76 floors, 46 elevators, and the antennas on the roof bring the total height to 967′. While the Space Needle is Seattle’s Statue of Liberty, the Columbia Center is our Sears Tower. ...

Apr 9, 2011

I’m not a big hot dog fan. I’m not sure why, I just never developed a taste for tube steak, but there was one exception. When I used to go to Toronto back in the 90′s, there was a hot dog cart downtown that made what I thought were the best hot dogs on earth. They put a dog in a pretzel bun, smothered it in sauerkraut, and laced it with...

Apr 8, 2011

Today was a day unlike most others. Today, I did something I rarely do. Today, I spent the day in Bellevue. Fortunately, I lived to tell about it. I suppose it comes as no great shock, but the Eastside is a place I have never personally cared for. I simply could not fathom living so close to Seattle but not living in Seattle. To use an analogy I have used...

Mar 31, 2011

At about 9am this morning, I left home with my family en-route to Broadway Market for a little pre-weekend grocery shopping. Weekday mornings are prime if you hate standing in line, and standing in line is something that I detest more than anything. As we were climbing Mount Pine Street, led by two sherpas, I checked my Android to see if anything interesting...

Mar 26, 2011

With the exception of Subway, I greatly dislike fast food. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell … it’s all kind of gross to me. The last time I ate fast food was at a Taco Bell in SoDo, and they didn’t bother to cook the beans in my burrito. They were still powdered, and it was so nasty that I vowed to never again darken the doorstep of a national...

Mar 22, 2011

As you may or may not know, I am an Android geek of magnanimous proportions. I would go so far as to call myself an unabashed fanboy. This is somewhat ironic given that I HATED Google before the development of Android. What can I tell you, they won me over. Competition, the Linux core, the developer program, Google’s Android Market, programming...

Mar 15, 2011

Bellevue is full of soul-less, wannabe-urban losers who compensate for their small weiners by driving Aston Martins. Renton is full of suburban soccermoms whose closest encounter with culture is driving to the Olive Garden in Federal Way. Aberdeen is full of redneck loggers who drink all day, beat their wives, and jerk off to trailer trolls in Field and Stream...

Mar 5, 2011

For a few weeks now, I’ve been wanting to try the new Dope Burger in Belltown. Why? Because of a scathing review in the Seattle Weekly. When I first read the above piece, something about it just seemed wrong. The writer had nothing good to say about the place, and the entire segment seemed like a hissy fit of self-indulgent faux-intellectualism (a niche I...

Mar 4, 2011

Belltown. Some call it Smelltown. Tenderloin North. The Space Needle up, Financial District down, Puget Sound to the west, The Moore Theatre, The Crocodile, and the best black tar heroin America has to offer. I’ve always loved this place. A place of contrasts where high-tech yuppies, homeless amputees, runaways from Montana, crack whores, and college kids...

Mar 1, 2011

Last week, after picking up a few things at the QFC on Broadway & Republican, I walked out to the bus stop for the quick ride home. While I was standing there, a man walked up to a fellow bus rider and asked “Has the 49 come yet?”. “No, it’s due in about 10 minutes”, replied the rider. “Thanks, I have time to run inside”, replied the...

Feb 19, 2011

I like the Pike/Pine area of Capitol Hill. It’s got a “Brooklyn on a Hill” thing going on. It’s dense, it’s walkable, it’s reasonably affordable by inner-city standards, it’s just dirty enough not to feel sterile, it’s not so filthy as to feel Mott Haven-y, and the views of downtown are great. Were it not for...

Feb 16, 2011

I remember when I reviewed things back in Vegas, people would sometimes email me and say things like “Rex, I’m not sure if I can trust your judgement because it seems as though you like everything you review”. Heck, people even made this comment to my face a couple of times. Unfortunately, this is another area in which I am simply...

Feb 3, 2011

People coming to this article via search engine are going to be so disappointed. I was sitting in my nerd cave this morning, when all of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with a sudden urge for beef. What can I tell you, I’m a lot like your mother. I went through my mental rolodex to figure out where I would procure my meat, much like your m … never mind...

Jan 25, 2011

Yesterday, I was in the mood for some pizza. Of all of the food to crave in Seattle, this is probably the worst thing to crave. For a Downtown that’s a slice of Manhattan, pizza in Seattle’s core is a slice of food court. This is a seafood town and the pizza here is weaker than in most large cities. There just aren’t that many restaurants to...