places i’d never been before

One of my unofficial New Years resolutions was to stop going to restaurants and bars that I don’t like and start going to all of the new places that have opened in the last year or two. I had to make a list because usually when push comes to shove I can’t *think* of all the places that I want to go, and I end up at somewhere like List or Ruth’s Chris – ones that I’ve been a million times but aren’t really all that great.

Anyway, my list is 32 places long, and the majority of them are conveiniently located in Capitol Hill, which is fantastic because it will entice people to head over this-a-way. I’ve already made some progress in the past two weeks:

1. Revel - I’ve been reading about Revel for the last year and have desperately wanted to try it, except that it’s in Fremont and was never open when I was in the neighborhood. Kendall and I stopped by the Quoin Bar at Revel for happy hour instead of going to yoga last week, and let me tell you – 90 minutes there was much better than 90 minutes in a Bikram Yoga class. Try the pork belly pancake and the short rib dumplings. No picture available because (shockingly enough) my phone was dead.

2. Taylor Shellfish Farms - this place is delightful! And expensive! But it’s so delightful that I didn’t really care that we paid $20 for some spot prawns that we had to clean once we got home. Because it’s so fun to see the open baskets of shellfish in the middle of the room – ready for you to pick them out. They have crabs and lobsters and GEODUCKS and clams and mussels and oysters and scallops – and a fine selection of wines to pair them with.

3. RN74 – As I mentioned in an earlier post, all the talk and hype around this restaurant, in addition to my experiences in Michael Mina restaurants made me feel intimidated to walk in, but I was pleasantly surprised by their great happy hour. Below, truffle popcorn and tuna poppers.

4. Montana - our new favorite neighborhood bar! It’s a teeny tiny spot on Olive Way, next to Tacos Gringos and The Elite. They have a fantastic little photo booth, a saddle you can sit on as a stool (though I wouldn’t recommend it for an extended period of time) and they’re experimenting with carbonated liquor which meant I had several tasty blood orange tequila fizzy drinks (and then some Bud Light because that’s what Montanans would do). The photo booth also only takes credit cards, which is both awesome and dangerous.

5. The Rock Wood Fired Pizza – hip hip hooray! Our favorite place in Tacoma has now opened up a spot in Queen Anne, attached to the Maxwell Hotel. This means we can have brown-sugar mozzarella bread whenever our hearts desire – that, or the My Generation pizza. OR a bucket of liquor – OR a LAVA LAMP drink in a glass that lights up and has a jello shot in it. I’m collecting the glasses so if you happen to get one, save it for me!