Seattle Wednesday: All Tom Douglas All the Time

Wednesday I had lunch alone at Dahlia Lounge, a Tom Douglas restaurant that has been around for 20 years. They are heavy on the fresh and organic with a light Asian influence. Their bread comes from their own bakery next-door, and is really the best thing in the restaurant.

I ordered ” lemon-scallion dungeness crab cake, stir fried long beans, Hong Kong soba noodles, fermented black bean sauce”. I don’t think they realized when they did the plating how much this looked like a giant tarantula. The crab cake was unremarkable. But the sauce was so delicious I wished I just had a giant bowl of noodles and long beans soaked in the black bean sauce.

The Dahlia Lounge is known for its coconut cream pie, and rightfully so. Why didn’t anyone ever think to use shavings of fresh toasted coconut before?

While I was there, I couldn’t help but notice the impressive pizza coming out of Serious Pizza, a Tom Douglas pizzaria next door. I made a mental note. I went shopping at the Elliot Bay Book Company, a fantastic place for obscure and inexpensive new books.

I found a little shop called FIREWORKS that I fell in love with.

Then I just wandered around Pioneer Square, a historic preservation district. Most of the buildings date back to 1889, when a fire destroyed most of the area. Over the next five years, the town was rebuilt. I admired the architecture and the century-old pergola. I love that word. Pegola. Purrrr-goh-laaaaaah.

I called in an order at Serious Pie, and had my taxi driver pull up so I could run in and pick up my pizza. I ordered a white pizza – no red sauce – with roasted chantarelles and cheese.

It rocked my mouth off. The crust – oh my God, the crust – yes they have a bakery that puts LaBrea to shame, but this pizza crust was pure heaven, with huge spongey holes and a crispy exterior. The cheese was salty and just the right texture. I love this pizza. I want to marry it. The pizza with cherry bomb peppers and sweet fennel sausage looked tempting as did the yukon gold potato and rosemary olive oil. I will definitely be back. Plane fares are cheap right now.