FOOD REVIEW: Urbane at Olive 8

More and more local restaurants are offering fresh, local, organic food. Urbane at Olive 8 in downtown Seattle is doing it right. Urbane is committed to sustainability and featuring local ingredients. They source a majority of their raw ingredients from within a 200-mile radius of their restaurant, reducing their carbon footprint.

Summertime BLT with organic mixed greens salad.

I had the opportunity to enjoy a nice lunch at Urbane this week. Their menu offers a great mix of small plates, sandwiches and large plates. I ordered the Summertime BLT with a side salad. The sandwich comes well stacked with all fresh ingredients of bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado on whole wheat bread. The BLT was delicious! The bacon was crispy and it had just enough avocado to give the sandwich some good flavor. I really enjoyed the side salad also, fresh organic mixed greens, radish, Willamette Valley aged gouda and verjusnette.

Sign of a good meal.

As you can see, I really enjoyed the sandwich and salad.

Apples and caramel dipping sauce.

For dessert, I went with the very simple, but very tasty fresh apple slices with caramel dipping sauce.

Oh, so good.

Urbane dining area.

The restaurant itself is nice, clean and minimal. Urbane is one of very few restaurants in Seattle with LEED Silver Certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to provide a standard for environmentally sustainable construction and operating practices. This certification adds to Urbane's commitment of sustainability, not only with their farm-to-table food, but with their day-to-day operations. I'm impressed with their efforts, and I can only hope more Seattle area restaurants take on the same commitment.

View from window towards 8th Ave. and Olive Way.

Urbane is one of over 90 restaurants, wineries, breweries and distilleries that will be participating in the Sunset Supper at Pike Place Market on August 14th. This is one of the best parties of the summer! Proceeds from the Sunset Supper benefit The Market Foundation. Their mission is to end hunger, care for the sick, educate kids, and find homes for those without, right at Pike Place Market. Find out more about the Sunset Supper at their website, and be sure to purchase tickets to the event to sample some of the region's best food and drinks!

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!