FOOD REVIEW: Brunswick and Hunt

Brunswick and Hunt menus.

This review has been a long time coming. Brunswick and Hunt is one of my new favorite restaurants in Seattle. The restaurant is owned by longtime Seattle restauranteurs and brothers, Barry Rogel and Scott Rogel. The name of the restaurant, located at 70th and 15th in Ballard, has a great story rich in history.

When you enter the restaurant, you will notice the beautiful front bar to the right, made of American oak and birch. There is also an accompanying back bar in front of the kitchen. They were built near the end of the 1800's in Iowa by Brunswick Balke Collender and Company. In the early 1900's, the bars made their way to Winlock, Washington. That's where Barry and Scott found them. They had the bars moved to Seattle for a complete restoration. Opposite the front bar is a massive landscape painting by RJ Bocense titled, "The Hunt". As the story goes, The Hunt was painted as a companion piece for the "Brunswick", the front bar. The bar and painting have been together for over 100 years. The brothers had them both installed in their restored glory in the aptly named W.E. Hunt building in Ballard, and Brunswick and Hunt was born.

Heavenly Brunswick fried chicken with slaw and potato salad.

Brunswick and Hunt prepares fried chicken, one of my favorite foods, to perfection. The portion is generous with a breast, the leg and thigh joint. The chicken was juicy with a crispy, golden brown skin that is drizzled with truffle-honey. I could have easily ordered another helping. It is accompanied by a delicious coleslaw and a purple potato salad.

This ain't your Grandma's cornbread!

My friends and I also ordered the corn bread with honey butter to share. That is some seriously tasty corn bread.

Open kitchen offers great views of food preparation.

Brunswick and Hunt offers seating at the back bar that faces the kitchen. I love restaurants that allow you to watch the chefs in action. You get to witness all the fresh ingredients that are combined to create their delicious dishes. Not only is it entertaining, but you can learn a few things in the kitchen!

Brunswick and Hunt delivers farm-to-neighborhood food, and they do it right. I'm looking forward to many more visits to try out all of their other tasty offerings!

FOOD REVIEW: Skillet Diner's Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Skillet Diner's Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Friday night I tried the grilled pork tenderloin at Skillet Diner in Ballard. It was delicious! It is herb crusted and comes with parsnip puree, cider demi, scapes, and white bean ratatouille. The pork itself was very tender and juicy. The flavors of the puree, demi and ratatouille were a perfect combination with the pork tenderloin. I was surprised by the large serving I received. I could have easily saved half to take home for lunch the next day, but it was so tasty I couldn't stop eating. This dish could easily be shared between two people, but I was a pig and ate it all myself. No regrets! I must also comment on the excellent service we received. We had 12 in our party, and our server was amazing! A must try are the made-to-order doughnut holes. You get 6 per order, and they come out piping hot!

REVIEW: Golden Beetle

I finally made a visit to a restaurant I have been wanting to try for some time now. Golden Beetle is located in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. It is owned by Maria Hines who is the winner of the 2009 James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest. In 2005, she was named one of Food and Wine magazine's 10 Best New Chefs. Maria has competed on "Top Chef Masters" in 2010, and also appeared on Food Network's "Iron Chef America". Maria's first restaurant, Tilth, which opened in 2006, was named one of the top 10 best new restaurants in the country in 2008. Because of all of these great credentials, I had high expectations for my visit to Golden Beetle. I was not disappointed. First off, I loved the décor of Golden Beetle. It has a Mediterranean vibe with a lot of Moroccan-style lights throughout the restaurant.

 

Now for the food. I started with the Summer Greens and Pickled Cherry Salad. The salad was a generous portion of greens with sumac vinaigrette, feta cheese and chopped hazelnuts. This salad had the perfect flavor, and I really enjoyed the pickled cherries, something I had not previously had on a salad. 

 

Summer Greens and Pickled Cherry Salad.

For the main entrée, I tried the Fire and Honey Chicken. At first I thought this might be too hot for my liking, but I was feeling adventurous. To my surprise, it wasn't all that hot. It had the right amount of heat to make the dish very enjoyable and flavorful. Not to mention that the chicken was cooked perfectly and topped with some Freekah. The chicken came with a side of lemon cucumber and some greens. I would definitely recommend this entrée on your next visit to Golden Beetle.

Fire and Honey Chicken

For dessert, I tried the Chocolate Truffle Torte. All I can say about this dessert is that is was delicious. Just go in and try it for yourself, you won't regret it.


Chocolate Truffle Torte

I'm looking forward to my next visit to Golden Beetle. I also want to visit Maria Hines' other two restaurants, Tilth and Agrodolce.




OPENING: Peddler Brewing Company

Peddler Brewing Company is opening in Ballard on March 8th! As you can tell by the name and the logo, the owners of this brewery are really into bikes. The brewery will feature 8 taps with a few rotating seasonal taps. They also plan to have a guest tap or two of other WA state brews or ciders. If you ride your bike to the brewery, they will have an indoor bike rack that holds 9 bicycles. They will also have a bike tune-up station to make any repairs to your bike.

Find out more info on Peddler Brewing Company: Website, Facebook, Twitter

REVIEW: Maritime Pacific Brewing Company

Over the weekend I paid a visit to Maritime Pacific Brewing Company in Ballard. It was such a nice day, we sat outside at one of the picnic tables located out front. Plus we had a dog with us, so she could enjoy the nice weather too. When our server arrived we all ordered our drinks. I went with the Islander Pale Ale. As the picture shows, it's a beautiful golden-blond color. Like their brew list describes, "it has a gentle malt flavor and subtle hop character." This brew definitely hit the spot on a nice, warm, sunny day. It was light and refreshing. Like you would expect, Maritime Pacific offers a full range of brews, from a Pale Ale to a Porter.

Islander Pale Ale

Fried Pickles

If you go to Maritime Pacific Brewing Company, you have to try the Fried Pickles. These spicy dill pickles are lightly breaded and fried to a golden crisp. Seriously tasty!

Field Greens Dinner Salad

I love salads, and MPBC did not disappoint with their Field Greens Dinner Salad. The fresh organic field greens are tossed in a tamarind-ginger vinaigrette. It's topped off with cherry tomatoes, goat cheese (YUM!) and candied cashews. If you like salads, you must try this! Even if you don't like salads, you must try this!

Lil' Veggie Slider

I wanted to try a sampling of the sliders offered, so I started with their vegan slider. It's made with black beans, hominy, onions, garlic and spices. You can choose from any of their house made sauces to top your sliders. The sauces they offer are: Jolly Roger Habanero BBQ, Nightwatch Stone-ground Mustard, Scotch Bonnet Rasta Remoulade, or Smoked Sweet & Sour BBQ. I went with the Nightwatch Stone-ground Mustard for this slider. This vegan slider was very tasty! Definitely a good choice for vegetarians or vegans. I would order this one again!

Double Lil' Jollys

For the meat-eater inside me, I went with the Double Lil' Jollys. It's plain and simple: meat + bun. I chose the Smoked Sweet & Sour BBQ sauce for this slider. This one was good, nothing too exciting, but good. Personally, I like the veggie slider better. It has a little more flavor.

Lil' Mahi's

Finally, I chose the Lil' Mahi's slider. This one is made with fresh, pan seared Mahi-Mahi. It's topped with roasted jalapeno tartar and shredded savoy cabbage. This was my favorite slider of the three I tried. The fish was cooked perfectly, and the tartar was the perfect sauce to finish this one off.

I highly recommend heading over to Maritime Pacific Brewing Company on a nice, sunny afternoon or warm evening to try one of their many brews and some tasty pub grub!

FOOD NEWS: Congrats to The Walrus and the Carpenter in Ballard!

Congratulations to Ballard's The Walrus and the Carpenter for being chosen by Bon Appetit Magazine as one of the Best New Restaurants of 2011!

FOOD NEWS: Maria Hines of Tilth to open 2nd restaurant - Golden Beetle

James Beard award winner and Iron Chef Champion, Maria Hines, will open her second restaurant, Golden Beetle, in late February. Maria is the chef and owner of Tilth restaurant in Wallingford. Tilth, which features New American cuisine prepared with certified-organic ingredients, was called one of the best new restaurants in the country in 2008 by the New York Times.

According to the official press release, Golden Beetle will be located at 1744 NW Market Street in Ballard. The new restaurant will focus on the flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean. Hines prides herself in serving locally organic and seasonal products. Her current restaurant, Tilth, is only one of two Oregon Tilth certified restaurants in the country. This certification ensures that 95% of what is purchased will be organic. Golden Beetle will seek this certification also. It is said that the menu will focus largely on small plates.

The press release states that the name, Golden Beetle, comes from a 27 ingredient spice mixture from Morocco, ras al-hanout, which includes dried golden beetle, a Spanish fly that is considered an aphrodisiac. Keep an eye out for more news on Maria's new restaurant in February.

Anita's Crepes

Anita's Crepes used to sell their crepes at Farmer's Markets until last year when Anita opened her own restaurant in Ballard. Anita turned what used to be an old vaccuum repair shop into a cozy, little French crepe bistro. The space is a vast improvement from its prior tenant. The space is now filled with little, square tables and leather chairs. The restaurant has nice hardwood floors and an open kitchen. I really liked the simplicity of the place.

I ordered the wild mushroom and spinach crepe. The crepe had cooked spinach in the crepe and fresh spinach on top. The best part was the mushroom sauce surrounding the crepe. Whenever I eat a crepe I never think it's going to fill me up, but this crepe was very hearty and just the right amount of food for lunch.

My friend ordered the Raspberry freezer jam crepe. His crepe was very tasty. It was like eating dessert. It was topped with powdered sugar and whipped cream. This crepe was also a generous portion, and was a good size for lunch. It came with eggs and sausage.

Anita, the owner, was working the day I had lunch. She was great. She always has a smile on her face. You can tell her staff really enjoys working there too. They were all very nice. As we were finishing our lunch, one of the cooks asked us if we would like a small complimentary bowl of lobster bisque. Of course we're not going to refuse free lobster bisque, so we happily accepted. The bisque was delicious! I'd definitely come back and pay full price for it, and I will also come back to try some of the other crepes on the menu. Anita's Crepes is definitely a bright spot on an otherwise dreary Leary Way in Ballard.

I give Anita's Crepes 3 out of 5 crepes.