Jan31

Drinking and Eating in the Pacific Northwest

This will be a short update, as I’m about to go bottle Voyager gin at Pacific Distillery, but let me start out by saying that Seattle is wonderful.

Friday Night

Our crew consisted of a fashionable array of cocktail and food lovers: Paul Clarke of Cocktail Chronicles, Stevi Deter author of Two at the Most, Rocky Yeh, a vast wealth of knowledge on food and drink in Seattle and quickly becoming a great new friend (his love of offal might have something to do with this), and Gwydion Stone, inventor and distiller of Marteau absinthe and head of the Wormwood Society.

Barrio

We started off the evening at Barrio where Keith Waldebauer was behind the stick mixing up magic. I started off with the Adios mi vida, a mix of anejo tequila, brown sugar, cream sherry. Sweet, and tasty. Then I pretty much put myself in Keith’s hands. Next was a fun deconstructed Ti Punch, which he seemed happy to not have to explain what to do with. Finally a Gansevoort Fizz before we moved on. Keith was a delight to finally see behind the bar.

Lark

Our main food destination for the evening, Lark serves small family style plates that surely delight. We went with a healthy selection, prompted by the protesters outside: Foie gras terrine with kumquat vanilla bean marmalade, Snake River Farms beef tartare with raw quail egg and onion crackers, Bluebird Grain Farms farro with salsify and black trumpet mushrooms, a selection of cheeses including Crater Lake blue cheese, which was creamy and wonderful. By far the best, however, was the marmalade. We were all debating the magic component that made it so good, and once I declared it everyone laughed in agreement: Entemann’s icing from their raspberry streusel!

Vessel

Next stop was Vessel, where I got to try their “Not a Manhattan.” Basically a carbonated cocktail. I’m sure someone can chime in with the exact name of the device. You basically take a regular cocktail and infuse it with delicate, long-lasting bubbles, making an insanely quaffable beverage. An original Marteau cocktail was next that used thyme and St. Germain. Quite delightful. More to come; Stevi is here to pick me up for a Japanese dinner.

Update to the Liquor Cabinet

  • Luxardo Fernet
  • Averna Amaro
  • El Dorado Golden Rum Cream liqueur
  • El Dorado 3-year white

2 Responses to “Drinking and Eating in the Pacific Northwest”

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Comments to “ Drinking and Eating in the Pacific Northwest”
  1. You went to Lark and didn’t stop next door at Licorous?!

  2. ConnorNo Gravatar says:

    Went to Barrio last night and the same drink caught my eye- I’ve been screwing around with a lot of cocktails containing sherry lately; I also was curious how they were going to make it work as an actual cocktail and not as liquid candy. Well, the flavors were really nice together, I just think it should come with a voucher towards your next dental appointment. Talk about a recipe that needs drying out. Going to try it at home with a dry sherry.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

 

About

Kaiser Penguin is a cocktail blog featuring original recipes, homemade ingredients, classic cocktails, and tiki drinks.

Why on Earth did you name your blog “Kaiser Penguin?”

It is a well-known fact that penguins are members of high society and enjoy fine cocktails. Our very own kaiser penguin would like me to mention that he also enjoys various treats from the sea.

Contact: rick@kaiserpenguin.com