Seattle Real Estate & Neighborhood Blog

Friday, January 9, 2009

Capitol Hill -- Volunteer Park Cafe

We discovered Volunteer Park Cafe while helping one of our clients get his townhome on the hill last summer. Larry took me to the Park itself, (here's our tour of that landmark if you need a little bit of last summer and some flowers to look at), and since we were hungry we thought we'd try this little place we saw in the neighborhood on the corner of Galer and 17th. I think Larry will have his own words about this place, and the food, but I'll do my part now.

Best for you to just know that it's there, and really worth visiting for breakfast,

lunch or dinner. Every time we go it's so delicious. For instance, we had a pear and chevre cheese pizza along with a salad that was just a perfect accompaniment. We look forward to some weekend morning when they serve Pear Brioche French Toast. Doesn't that sound great?

It was a grocery store in the day with delivery service, now a bakery and restaurant with lovely wait staff, great chefs and a menu that refreshes seasonally. Not your garden variety cafe. They grow their own produce in their backyard as well as buying local. They have a definite commitment to community, utilizing local sources as well as providing a local community place to meet and enjoy food. The center table in the place is one long table that can seat several parties, which encourages conversation, and there are tables around the perimeter as

well as outside in good weather.

Nice!

Lynette Hensley
Associate Broker, Realtor

Labels: Capitol Hill, food

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Fremont, an Area and a State of Mind

Fremont,

Any trip to Seattle deserves an excursion to Fremont The self proclaimed Center Of The Universe(vers,ers,rs). Just thumb through these pictures or follow these links to get only a glimpse of this funky, eclectic, eccentric borough of Seattle or just use a map and find your own way to and through.

Fremont The Chamber of commerce site
A map of (note the intersection of N 36th and N 34th which in some galaxies would be im-possible ... Not here!

(ok so a closer view shows N 36th merges into Fremont Ave N, but where more appropriate for a tesseract than here) in Fremont!

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

Dusty strings--
Along Fremont avenue you will find a stairwell and signs pointing to Dusty Strings, if you like American folk instruments Do Not miss this. In business since the 1970s they are manufacturers of fine folk harps, hammer and mountain dulcimers, and they have one of the most playable guitar walls I have ever seen Martin, Taylor, and Collings, to name a few
Dusty strings http://www.dustystrings.com/

The solstice parade --
Every year on the Saturday of the solstice week a mini Mardis Gras takes place. Inventive irreverent, (body painted bicyclers are a regular attraction), expression for the eccentric, happens here.

Fantastic eclectic food--

Some of the great grubb in town is found here also, Jai Tai, Costas Opa, Café Ladro, to the south across the bridge to the Nickerson Street Saloon or Ponti (bring your gold card) or venture north up the hill to Swingside Café (a quaint name for one of the Finest Rotating menus in Seattle)

Antiques and Arts--
Fremont is Funky Urban Art, and many artists and galleries flourish here and intermix with the charm of a settlement grown from an 1880s milltown to an artists enclave in the 1920s to the present, reflected in the antique shops scattered about. Monuments from Rocketships to Trolls and Karl Marx in-between, the sign post to the Center Of The Universe, and stainless steel vines climb a building at the corner of 34th and Fremont.