SEATOWN.

 

besides being a common nickname for our new city, seatown is a restaurant near pike's market. thanks to a heads-up from my friend ben, we recently watched an episode of anthony bordain's the layover, which featured good eats around seattle. b put seatown's crab breakfast sandwich on his bucket list, but i talked him into going for dinner last week to celebrate my good news. 

we grabbed a spot in the window with no wait... and with this little buddy right over our shoulders.

 

our waitress was so wonderful. i mean, service can make or break a restaurant, am i right?! and she made our night. she recommended the blood orange margarita, and it was a good decision. {though, it's rare that the margarita is ever a bad decision.}

so. what to even say about this? b decided he was going to go all out and get "the full crab dinner". i mean, crab is one of my very favorite foods. but, when they brought this out, i almost cried. his little face is just looking at us! sigh. i may or may not have later investigated whether that walrus up on the wall was real or not, then.

but, clearly worth it for the pure joy that it brought him.

it took him about 30 minutes to finish the full thing, and yes, finish it he did! after finding out it was his first full crab, the waitress was so impressed with his eating skills that she brought us free dessert.

now we can check seatown off our seattle restaurant to-do list. only 13,407 to go!

END OF DENVER: TAG BURGER BAR.

ohmygosh, these are the blurriest photos i have ever posted on the blog. not this one, or even the next one, but around photo four you are going to feel like i took these at warp speed.

too bad for your viewing pleasure. but, i still wanted to share, because this was a great meal with even better friends.

i had been to tag burger once during lunch with my favorite coworkers. it was quiet and the service and food were amazing. i thought i had found a little undercover gem. suffice to say i was a bit surprised when we walked in last week and it was bumping. advice to denver people that want to eat there for dinner: make a reservation.

our waitress was awesome! i got the cocktail she recommended - the black rose, a blueberry/prosecco mixture - and the burger she said was her favorite - the colorado proud. i loved both very much.

duck fat fries. addictive.

and because, when in rome, deep fried oreos with nutella topping! they were as bad/good as they sound.

aand, apparently it only took one drink for me to get the blurs! but, look who it is: andy and anna!

tag burger bar: a great choice for our last night in the mile-high city.

END OF DENVER: LINGER.

linger is one of the hottest denver restaurants right now. so hot, in fact, that you can't even get a reservation. typically when a place gets that big, it has to be overrated. so, i wasn't interested in rushing there, until i knew we were moving. then, i knew we had to try it before we left.

the earliest reservation we could get in the weeks before we head to seattle was at 8 p.m. i'm not going to lie, i am sometimes in bed by that hour. but for the amazingness that we had heard linger is, we took the 8:00 reservation. by the time they brought out the complimentary ranch popcorn, i knew we had made the right decision. {popcorn is a top 10 favorite food for me.}

check out our coat check ticket: lucky number 13! i got "the rum diary", which was fantastic. i hate sweet drinks, so this was perfect. it's a mix of liquor with some lemon bitters.

linger is known for small plates. we basically ordered one of everything, so prepare yourself for food photos. these were the sweet potato fries with chipotle ketchup, which were wonderful. we couldn't even finish the serving.

scallops with acorn squash. i'm not a fan of squash, but b really loved it.

felafel! coincidentally enough, the last time i ate felafel was in seattle in 2009. this was incredible - one of my favorite bites of food from the evening.

 

saving the best for last: mongolian bbq duck bun. i haven't had a desire to have duck since eating it for the first time in china, but this was mind blowing. just, so perfect. sigh. i could eat a million of these mini buns right now.

linger: housed in an old mortuary and killing it with their food.

END OF DENVER: PEAK'S LOUNGE

this weekend we got to check something i've had on my denver to-do list for a long time: peak's lounge.

the bar is ranked as one of the best places to see the sun set in the city. here's the view when we first arrived, around 4 p.m.

pear martini, a house specialty, for moi and a dark beer, per usual, for b.

pretty sky, just 30 minutes later.

this good-looking man. dressed up in christmas presents from his momma.

dessert splurge. a lemon meringue, a guinness with caramel and a maple with chocolate-covered bacon. 

goodnight beautiful city.

LOWRY BEER GARDEN.

to celebrate our official move in, we spent saturday evening at the lowry beer garden. first, it's within walking distance to our new place. automatic two thumbs up. and, it's located inside an old airplane hanger. {lowry is the old airport base. more about our new neighborhood coming in a post soon!} and, they serve soft pretzels, a personal fav.

it was 90+ at 6:00. forgive the frizz hair. i am also whiter than i have ever been in my life because i am scared to leave the house without sunscreen. i'm sure i'll thank myself in 40 years. {i hope.}

dun dun dun dunnn, soft pretzel. really good, plus spicy cheese. nom.

the beer garden is known for their burgers. b agreed that they are fame-worthy. 

a night at the beer garden was a great welcome to lowry - we are so happy to be here!

DENVER BISCUIT CO.

warning: this blog post contains highly graphic, obscene amounts of food. don't read while hungry, while eating, if you just ate or if you ever want to eat again. 

i think it was b who first heard about the denver biscuit company. {he has a thing for biscuits so intense i can only assume it was passed on in his blood from his southern mother.} after a quick look at the menu online, i was sold - even though it is situated on the sketchiest road in denver. the reason i wanted to visit? they serve vegetarian biscuit and gravy. super rare, and very delicious from my personal denver brunch heaven, jelly.

so imagine my surprise when the waitress tells us they are out of veggie gravy for the day. i recovered from my distress with the help of a bloody mary.

b is on a coffee kick. he has been drinking approximately 6 cups a day at work, too, so if the next time you see him he has shrunk a few inches, don't be surprised.

alright, here is where the food extravaganza begins. i ordered a regular biscuit with an egg in lieu of the vegetarian option. 

his choice: the cordon bleu. it was huge.
 

to split {even though i don't like sweet potatoes} sweet potato fries. these actually turned out to be amazing, and again, sweet potatoes are not my thing. 

and, the grand champion of the meal: the biscuit french toast. some of the best french toast i have ever had - and that is saying a lot.

although we only ate half of our biscuits, took the sweet potato fries home and then didn't eat for the rest of the day, even looking at these photos i still feel overly full. but, the huge servings, flaky biscuits and sign that said "hey, y'all" was enough to make me feel like i was back in nash for the afternoon. and that makes the carb indulgence worth it.

BUSY SUNDAY.

sunday we decided to get up and go! after our morning walk, we grabbed a groupon now deal. it was for a little coffee shop in my dream neighborhood, congress park. very similar to my nashville love, sylvan park. under the umbrella cafe had great reviews, so we were excited to try it out.

90+ degrees. weather be damned, he was having coffee.

giant breakfast burrito. b gave it two thumbs up. as you can see, the silverware were making their way in, barely waiting for me to snap a shot!

the mexican. green chiles, turkey and pepper jack. delish.

next door is the daily scoop. we saw the owner giving out dog treats and being generally really friendly, so we poked our heads in. i have never had frozen custard before and i am a hardscoop ice cream supporter all the way, but this was amazing. we got snickers on top and it was perfection.

next stop: the denver art museum for the yves saint laurent retrospective! i've been wanting to go since we moved. it's extra special that denver is the only place in the u.s. where the exhibit will be shown.

no pictures allowed inside. woh, woh. my favorites included video of women marching in france and referencing wearing pants. can you imagine wearing pants being controversial?! we got to see amazing outfits and listen to saint laurent speak on his designs. my favorite quote was, "the most beautiful clothes that can dress a woman are the arms of the man she loves. but for those who haven't had the fortune of finding this happiness, i am there." isn't that romantic?

on the love theme, he sent out valentine's day cards every year. the art museum is selling postcard versions of them and i just had to have some.

a surprising hit: the madeleine albright exhibit. actually, it was an exhibit of her brooches! in her role as secretary of state she chose what pin she wore every day based on her meeting or her mood. she wore some in foreign countries, had one made out of pieces of the berlin wall and was given a pin by a young man whose mother had died in hurricane katrina. she has a truly amazing story. i want to read more about her. i'll add it to the summer to-do list!

oh, you know, just some cows. more of denver's public art on our way out.

fancy wasn't my name, but this dinner was.

for my birthday, we went out to the fanciest, most well-reviewed restaurant in denver: the palace arms.

it's located inside the brown palace hotel, downtown.

right inside the lobby. we could hear the pianist playing all the way in the dining room.

photo thanks to one of our four waiters.

i just realized we didn't take any food photos. hmm. most memorable courses included: the amuse bouche of foie gras, which i was not about to try. i encouraged baker to eat it, though, which resulted in tears, the most sour/smush face he has ever made and choking down a whole glass of water. i'm laughing just remembering it. at least he can say he had foie gras, though - he's fancy now! another favorite was one of their well-known tricks: making salad table side. we got to watch another of our waiters make caesar dressing and mix up all the ingredients. very cool. 

birthday dessert special! with a candle. very cute. ALSO: free dessert plate included a MACAROON. #fancy. which, i had put on my before-26 goal list and totally forgot about. luckily, palace arms helped me get it in just under the wire.

to prove their fanciness, a private well. my coworker filled me in on this little secret. the hotel has been around so long that it has it's own well, pulling water from the local mountain springs. since it was warm out that night, the fountain water was warm. straight from the mountains.

it was delicious!

and very fancy.