It used to be I thought that any place north of the Montlake Bridge was full of sea monsters, I’d not venture there without the Sea Witch at my side to protect me with spells and amulets. I’m long over my provincial hangups, plus, people act like our West Seattle home is somewhere beyond Hawaii, so reluctant are they to make the crossing. We understand how you feel, far flung neighborhoods, and we won’t make fun of you anymore.<\/p>\n
Today’s errands found us in Wedgwood and when we’re there, we like to snack it up at the Grateful Bread bakery on 35th and 70th. It’s right across the street from a newish Top Pot<\/a> donuts, but while we can get our hipster donuts downtown, we can’t get our hippie lunches there, at least not in that “you might be in Eugene, Oregon but that doesn’t mean you have to eat vegan food” sort of way.<\/p>\n We shared the chicken and red pepper pannini – a mighty serving of sandwich it is, easily big enough for two – fresh and delicious, stuffed with plenty of greens and other filling, and on house made bread. We followed that with coffee and a cinnamon roll. My sidekick is on something of a quest to try every available cinnamon roll in the greater Seattle area. He’s given the green flag to hardly any of them, the Essential Baking Company<\/a> version doesn’t have raisins in it, the one at the Original Bakery<\/a> is actually more of a donut, the Grateful Bread one is too doughy, the only one that’s up to his exacting Austrian standards is the Bakery Nouveau<\/a> rendition and they don’t have them in the case often enough.<\/p>\n Never mind. I like the quiche at Grateful Bread, it makes a nice lunch, as do their big sandwiches, and I like the way the staff is mellow even during the lunch rush. It’s almost always crowded in there, meaning you have to double up and share tables (this means you too, wi-fi users), and I like that too. Today we overheard a little girl asking her mom about the existence of pirates, which the mom denied. We had enough restraint to not dive in with horror stories of modern buccaneers on the high seas, but we wish she’d said that yes, pirates still exist, even if they’re only the Seafair Pirates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps our decision not to breed was a good one. Our choice of lunch stop, though? Not bad at all.<\/p>\n