Archive
Ballard Restaurant News – End of April/Beginning of May
Four Ballard bars/restaurants are on Seattle Weekly’s list of the 10 Best Drink Menus: Bastille, Moshi Moshi, Paratii, and Hazelwood.
Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery on Ballard Ave should be opening by the end of May from Voracious, My Ballard, and Nosh Pit. Nosh Pit also has staffing news about Hot Cakes Chocolate Cakery.
Le Gourmand delays their closing by a month from Voracious and My Ballard.
Top Pot to open in the Ballard Blocks on June 1, National Doughnut Day from Voracious, My Ballard, and Nosh Pit.
Voracious reviews Golden Beetle.
Voracious discusses coffee shop etiquette with a reference to Firehouse Coffee.
The Stranger’s Chow Bio talks to the owners of The Gerald and Voracious has a drink there as well.
The Stranger’s Bethany Jean Clement reviews Bitterroot BBQ.
Kangaroo & Kiwi to open soon according to My Ballard.
Kitchen & Things celebrates a birthday.
My Ballard reports on Delancey’s new cocktail bar.
Benito’s Chicago Eatery makes Nosh Pit’s list of restaurants to watch for in May. My Ballard reports that Benitio’s Chicago Eatery finally opens.
Red Mill Totem House honored for historical preservation.
Voracious goes to Bastille’s Happy Hour.
The Hi-Life makes Voracious’ list of Seattle’s Best French Onion soups.
A look at the other items on the menu at Ballard Pizza Company.
Volterra opening a second restaurant in Kirkland.
Urban Family Pub House opens their beer garden for summer.
Ballard Restaurant News – End of March
Po Dogs officially opened on March 23. Eater Seattle and My Ballard has the scoop.
Voracious talks beer at Urban Family Public House.
Seattleite Magazine Sloopersizes their Happy Hour at The Sloop.
My Ballard and Seattle Magazine’s Sauced blog talk to the owners of The Gerald.
My Ballard has more information about the renovation of Zak’s Burgers.
The Counter unexpectedly closes. We will really miss their Parmesan French Fries.
My Ballard, Voracious, and Sauced all have pieces about our newest coffee shop, Ballard Coffee Works.
Mike Seely at Seattle Weekly waxes nostalgic about Hattie’s Hat.
Voracious has a nice look at Staple & Fancy during its slow times.
Nosh Pit has a list of places for Easter Sunday brunch which includes Ray’s Boathouse and Belle Clementine.
Speaking of Belle Clementine, Seattle Weekly reviews the food … and the communal dining experience.
Sauced visits Ballard’s newest small distillery, Captive Spirits.
The Stranger’s Chow Bio features MacLeod’s Pub.
Also at The Stranger, Bethany Jean Clement urges you to try Le Gourmand before it closes on June 2 and Nosh Pit gives some hints at what might be served at Le Gourmand before that fateful day.
In their on going list of favorite 100 dishes in Seattle, Voracious includes the chips and salsa at Senor Moose and the beef fat fries at Golden Beetle.
Ballard Restaurant News – March – First Half
Voracious gives one of my favorites, El Camion, a try.
Voracious also reports on Ocho’s happy hour.
RoRo BBQ opens in Zestos old building. The food was certainly a step up from what Zesto’s had served.
Wow. Class Magazine names not one, but four Ballard bars (Bastille, Copper Gate, The Sexton, and Macleod’s Pub) in their list of Seattle’s 12 Best Bars.
Voracious has MacLeod’s Pub serve up a Singapore Sling.
The Seattle Weekly reviews The Sexton. Not that I agree with them about the food.
Seattleite goes the La Carte de Oaxaca and The Amber Den.
Ballard’s outpost of Po Dogs to open soon.
The new restaurant review show, “Check Please! Northwest”, featured Golden Beetle on their inaugural episode.
Voracious talks to Greg Bye, the owner of Ballard’s newest food cart, Streetzeria.
Seattleite discusses pairing food with red wine at Ray’s Boathouse.
Ballard Coffee Works, located next to Cupcake Royal, has softly opened according to Eater Seattle.
Ballard Restaurant News – End of February
Will Louie’s be closing? Who knows? My Ballard has the news and the not so clear clarification on what’s going on.
Turns out that the Ballard Pizza Company, which is going in next door to the Ballard Loft, is the brainchild of Ethan Stowell of Staple & Fancy fame. Nosh Pit reports it will serve New York style pizza.
Ethan Stowell and Staple & Fancy are up for a James Beard Award as Best Northwest chef.
The Daily Meal names The Walrus and the Carpenter one of its top 101 restaurants in America for 2012.
Sauced blog suggests trying one of La Carte de Oaxaca’s rotating aqua frescas if you’re looking for a tasty non-alcoholic drink.
The Gerald, a Mad Men inspired bar located on Ballard Ave down by King’s Hardware and MacLeod’s Pub, is tentatively scheduled to open at the end of March. Nosh Pit has more details about The Gerald.
Bon Appetit magazine declares the Bacon, Oatmeal, and Raisin cookies from Hot Cakes (coming soon to Ballard Ave) as one of their Best Coffee Bar Desserts in America.
According the Ballard News-Tribune, Ballard Coffee Works is scheduled to open on March 24th in the old Tully’s space on the corner of Market and 22th.
The Stranger takes a look at The Fat Hen and the small island of restaurants on 15th and 70th.
Ballard Restaurant News Roundup – Mid-February
Work seems to be starting in the space next to the Ballard Loft. The liquor license application in the window says that the Ballard Pizza Company is moving in.
A neon orange stop work order is taped to the window at the Ballard Po’ Dog location. Looks like we’ll be waiting a bit longer for the restaurant/dance club complex to open.
The Stranger makes a visit to Belle Clementine for a communal dinner.
My Ballard reports on Ballard’s growth as the apparent center of Seattle’s brewery universe.
After 27 years, Le Gourmand and Sambar will close this summer. J and I will be dining there sometime before the June 2nd deadline. Eater Seattle breaks the news. My Ballard has a bit more coverage. Nosh Pit’s take on the unexpected closing. Finally, Eater Seattle has the scoop on the market price for Le Gourmand’s Market Street location.
The Washington State Farmer’s Market Association names Ballard Farmer’s Market one of the best in the state.
Seattle Weekly’s Voracious has a cocktail at Bitterroot BBQ, dinner at Jhanjay Vegetarian Thai, and noodles at Root Table.
Seattle Met’s Sauced blog talks to The Walrus and The Carpenter’s bartender about her signature drink.
Sauced also highlights Urban Family Public House’s long list of rotating beers.
Streetzeria, a pizzia food cart, takes up residence on the corner of 24th and Market.
The Amber Den, on the corner of 17th and 56th is now open. According to the menu posted at their door, they offer a handful of small plates, local beer, and red and white wines on draft.
Finally Ocho, one of our top ten Ballard restaurants, gets some national attention in Travel & Leisure’s “What to See and Do in Seattle, Washington”. Thanks to Eater Seattle for the head’s up about this article.
Ballard Restaurant News – Febuary (First Half)
The beginning of February has been pretty slow on the Ballard Restaurant news front. The few places that are in the works (Benito’s Chicago Eatery and Po Dogs) seem to be in some sort of limbo.
Very soon J an I will start up the real reviews once again with Bitterroot and Belle Clementine at the top of that list.
Nice article about Café Munir, Loyal Heights’ new Lebanese restaurant, in Seattle Met’s, Nosh Pit and Seattle Weekly’s Voracious blog did a review of them as well.
My Ballard has more information on The Amber Den, the wine bar to open next month on the corner of 17th and 56th.
Bastille, Golden Beetle, and Staple & Fancy are all offering special Valentine’s Day dinners. Nosh Pit gives the details.
Seattle Met’s Sauced blog has the inside scoop on Hillard’s Beer, Ballard’s newest brewery.
Eater Seattle as the information on what looks to be a new dessert place coming soon to Ballard Ave.
And that’s pretty much it for now. Good eatings to you all.
Ballard Restaurant News – January
It’s been an exciting week for us. We’ve had two blogs pick up the story of this project and our Top Ten list.
Ballard Restaurant Project picks their top 10 of 2011 from My Ballard.
Couple eats their way through Ballard; reveals Top 10 restaurants in Ballard from The Ballard News Tribune.
A few Facebook pages linked to our Best of and Honorable Mentions lists as well: Tuesdays In Ballard, Cafe Mox, Sexton Seattle (#5 on our Best of list), The Twisted Geeks Postcast, and Card Kingdom.
Thank you to everyone who has spread the word about our project. We really appreciate it.
Zesto’s, one of our choices for worst meals of the project (post coming soon), closed and will reopen as a RoRo BBQ.
The Amber Den, a comfortable wine bar, will open soon just off the east end of Market Street.
A nice article from the Seattle Weekly that gives a more in depth idea of what innovations Belle Clementine is bringing to Ballard’s restaurant scene. Plus, the owner, David Sanford, offers a recipe for Brussels Sprouts and Apple Salad with Caraway Vinaigrette.
To warm up those cold, grey days, Bastille now offers a tropical cocktail menu.
A nice review of one of our favorites, The Monkey Bridge.
Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub will take Carnegie’s space that has been empty for a year.Once they open, cuisines from all the continents except for Antarctica will be represented in the Ballard.
Bitterroot BBQ now open on Ballard Ave and making the street smell like smoking meat. Our review will be coming soon.
Urban Family Public House opens next door to The Sexton.
Yozen, a self-serve frozen yogurt store, opens on Market St.
Our number 10 restaurant, Flying Squirrel Pizza, now offers a delicious looking meatball pizza.I know where we’re eating this weekend.
A nice little piece about Jay Kuehner, bartender at Sambar. Yes, Le Gourmand and Sambar are on the short list of Ballard restaurants outside the Project’s original boundaries that we will review in the coming year.
Another from the Seattle Weekly, a short profile of our number 5 favorite restaurant, The Sexton.
There you go. I’ll try to make this post a weekly thing since Ballard’s restaurant scene is changing daily it seems.
Honorable Mentions of the Ballard Restaurant Project 2011
This list of our next ten favorite restaurants is far more personal than the top ten. The top ten served us our favorite single meals of the project. The Honorable Mentions are a mix of nostalgic favorites, new-to-us restaurants that totally surprised us, and our go-to restaurants.
We love People’s Pub partially out of nostalgia … it was the site of our first date … and partially because it serves good, hearty German inspired food. The sausage plate is one of the most affordable and tasty Happy Hour options in Ballard and the crème brulee is divine.
A nifty idea for a café where you can sit and play any sort of game. Great atmosphere. Creative sandwiches and appetizers made with quality ingredients and one of the best Caesar salads in Ballard.
Our favorite sushi restaurant in Ballard. Fresh fish. Really good gyoza. The best Long Island Iced Tea in Ballard. And the best women’s restroom in town.
Ballard’s best hamburger. A creative list of toppings for a patty that tastes like it actually came from a cow. The sweet potato fries are delicious and every Monday they offer an awesome deal on their tasty buffalo chicken wings.
Tasty, Asian-fusion small plates served with good cocktails.
Great cocktails and bistro fare. The twice-fried French fries with white truffle aioli is divine.
A big surprise. Interesting appetizers … who would have thought that PB & J jalepeno poppers would be good. Really good sandwiches and entrees. Tied for the best Long Island Iced Tea in Ballard.
Another surprise. Delicious, fancy hot dogs with really good fries. A fabulous jalapeno margarita.
Very good Indian food. I put it on this list because I really like India Bistro whenever a craving for na’an and Chicken Tika Masala hits.
Bad Albert’s came back from the grave with an updated interior but most of the old favorites. Great breakfasts with a really good fried egg and bacon sandwich and outstanding huevos rancheros. Lunch and dinner are pretty good as well.
Other Honorable Mentions:
Portalis. The Hi-Life. The Market Arms. The Monkey Bridge. Pho Big Bowl . Uma Thai Cuisine. Staple & Fancy.
Next up: The five worst restaurants.
Ballard Restaurant News November & December
There’s been a flurry of activity in the Ballard restaurant scene in the last few weeks. A couple of places are about to open and one Ballard institution is closing after 10 years.
Thaiku is closing on December 23 after 10 years.
Bad Albert’s opens … finally.
Belle Clementine, a family style, subscription restaurant to open this week.
Golden Beetle starts serving family style dinners.
The Sexton to open in Madame K’s old space this week.
Reuben’s Brews, a micro brewery and taproom, to open in Ballard.
Urban Family Public House to open in Sutter Home & Hearth old space.
A note about the project itself and a couple of restaurant openings. We added The Sexton to the list with the hope that we can get there before the end of the year/project but, after looking at the information for Belle Clementine, we’re keeping it off the current list. It will only be open 5 nights before the end of the year and appears to be more akin to a supper club/subscription restaurant. Granted, once the official project is done, we are going to continue to visit and review new Ballard restaurants as they open so we will get to Belle Clementine eventually.
I’ll post more about our plans once this project officially ends before the end of the year.
Ballard Restaurant Project 