One of our favorite, but fairly recent, traditions as a couple is to travel over Thanksgiving. I hate turkey (unless it’s deli sliced on my club sandwich) and neither of us are particularly interested in the holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I believe strongly in gratitude, but the holiday itself… meh. So, usually we travel internationally or to a city that doesn’t sleep.
Neither of us had spent time in Seattle before, so we thought – hey! Let’s take a weekend getaway to Seattle and then head up to Vancouver, B.C. For the weekend! Fantastic! Well, not quite as fantastic as we thought when it comes to timing…
Did you know that Seattle, being part of the US, celebrates Thanksgiving as a national holiday just like Southern CA and is therefore pretty much closed down on Thanksgiving? Did you also know that at that time of the year, the Northwest is pretty darn rainy and cold? Ahh… you did? I probably should have thought of that.
Well, we secured the only dinner reservation in the entire city I could find on Thanksgiving, I packed my Hunter boots and we sprayed some waterproofing formula on a new pair of shoes for the hubs, and off we went!
First stop: a family friend’s restaurant
Yeas Wok
https://www.yelp.com/biz/yeas-wok-newcastle?uid=zilGin0P2xZVN0K_Unxg7w&utm_source=ishare
This popular spot is a Taiwanese/Chinese restaurant and is outside the city a ways in a town called Newcastle.
I feel like we ordered the whole menu… and enjoyed it, too! It’s a decent-sized place but even close to 8 pm it was still really busy. Quite a few people order take out as well.
After a hearty and filling meal, we turned in for the night at our hotel – a Hilton on 6th street. It was a good location and within walking distance to most of what we did in Seattle. They also had great service!
Starbucks Reserve Roastery
The next morning was Thanksgiving! And with almost nothing open, our hotel suggested we check out the Starbucks Reserve Roastery.
When we went, there were only 4 of these in the world. Now they have 6: Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York, Tokyo & Chicago. The Reserve Roasteries are unlike any other typical Starbucks. They show off their roasting process, they have highly trained craft baristas, and mixologists that create unique cocktails. They also have food – oh, do they have food – and all chock full of wheat.
We enjoyed the Siphon flight at the coffee bar downstairs. It was a really neat experience and the coffee was really tasty!
We enjoyed the environment so much, we ended up going back later the next night for drinks! The bar was packed, but we found a little section of a high table and ordered a few things. We were both pleasantly surprised with the drinks and food. Again with the wheat, but I’ll admit that my little taste of it was so delicious!!
The rest of the day was pouring outside, so our hopes to enjoy a park were destroyed. Instead, we borrowed a deck of cards from the hotel front desk and taught ourselves how to play cribbage while we watched football.
Rider
https://www.yelp.com/biz/rider-seattle?uid=zilGin0P2xZVN0K_Unxg7w&utm_source=ishare
Many thanks to Rider for accepting our desperate reservation for Thanksgiving dinner. We refuse to eat turkey on Thanksgiving, and this place had great options! We LOVED the Kohlrabi salad (recommended by the server), the Trout and the Rock fish. We spent about $100 for dinner, which is about average for that type of restaurant. We were very happy with the table we had as it allowed us to see the open kitchen. The service was very good as well!
Pike Place Public Market
The next day, with the prospect of open stores and restaurants, we were ready to explore Seattle! So we headed down the street to the Pike Place Public Market, one of the only things open. (Actually, we watched a few minutes of the Macy’s after-Thanksgiving parade first, which is apparently famous and no longer happening! It was definitely a parade… music, animals, marching…)
Pike Place was actually a lot smaller than we expected! You don’t need a ton of time here, but there are a couple key places to check out.
Mee Sum Pastry (Chinese bakery)
https://www.yelp.com/biz/mee-sum-pastry-seattle?uid=zilGin0P2xZVN0K_Unxg7w&utm_source=ishare
Mee Sum is pretty popular and we’d heard a lot about it, so we decided to make it our first stop for breakfast. We would definitely recommend the pork hom bow, but do NOT get the truffle Siu Mai. They look good, and it sounds so good, but they were really disappointing.
Piroshky, Piroshky… (Russian bakery)
https://www.yelp.com/biz/piroshky-piroshky-seattle?uid=zilGin0P2xZVN0K_Unxg7w&utm_source=ishare
This is just a few shops down from Mee Sum and was highly recommended to us by friends that used to live in Seattle. The line was not as bad as we’d heard it might be, although we did wait a few minutes. Our friends had said the smoked salmon was a must, and we follow directions well, so we got it. Oooooooooooo yum! You won’t be disappointed.
Pike Place Chowder
https://www.yelp.com/biz/pike-place-chowder-seattle?uid=zilGin0P2xZVN0K_Unxg7w&utm_source=ishare
Next stop: 3rd breakfast (or 1st lunch?) at Pike Place Chowder. We learned from a food vlog that they get a line quickly, and that there’s really nowhere to sit inside when it’s busy. So we got there at 10:45-ish before they opened and we were 4th in line. We were luck to only wait about 2 mins when they opened, and also nabbed a seat inside! By the time they opened at 11, the line was well over 30 minutes long and none of those folks were going to be lucky enough to sit inside on that cold day!
In all honesty, I wouldn’t bend over backwards to eat here. It was good, but San Francisco rivals it easily. If you do go, get the sampler. We wish we would have done that because others there said they were glad they did.
The view below is gorgeous from the deck that’s on the far side (north?) of the Pike Place Public Market along the coast. Same spot – day and night!
Seattle Fish Guys
https://yelp.to/qTKq/V8ucgEUdtS
We were stoked for 2nd lunch: Seattle Fish Guys. Featured on Mark Wiens’ food vlog, I’d been drooling for months to get my hands on their poke and grilled fish. This was not walking distance, so we took an Uber/Lyft.
Their poke combo has so much food (you could share it) for about $12! It felt like a steal. I also recommend ordering the black cod and/or salmon belly depending on what they have available that day. The hubs also had to have the Uni, but I will tell you that it was so big, and we had so much food, that we didn’t even finish it!
Gas Works Park
After lunch, we took a ride to Gas Works Park to walk off the previous 6 hours of eating. I liked it! Bobby thought it was stupid (I think he was mad at the weather). If it’s a nice day, you could absolutely enjoy a picnic lunch. The park has an area to sit and relax.
I was a little bummed that the view of Seattle wasn’t great with the weather, but it was still a nice little walk around and a really interesting park!
R&M Dessert Bar
https://yelp.to/qTKq/lNkKAEvetS
If you know my hubby at all, you know he has a sweet tooth. So on our last night in Seattle, we were on the Yelp hunt for some good dessert, and we came across R&M. It wasn’t far from he Starbucks Reserve Roastery, so we know it was walkable and headed up the hill.
The place is tiny but so cute… kinda romantic even? We went late just before they closed and talked to one of the owners for a while – Rod I think. Rod and Marc are the owners and I believe many of the desserts are family recipes.
Ummm… R+M has some YUMMY dessert. Icing on top? They have both GF options and wine!! Their Cinnamon Bun popcorn (not shown below) is also a must. It was a perfect snack for later and can be a great gift if you need something.
The next morning we headed out to take the train to Vancouver, B.C. You’ve GOT to check out the views from that train!!
As we left Seattle, full and happy but bummed about the weather, we decided that we would definitely come back (just not in the winter!) And as you’ll learn soon… we felt the same way about Vancouver. Lesson learned!
XO,
J
