Soft opening, but all seemed calm in the kitchen, with Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette fame) in a long apron and her husband Brandon Pettit slaving in front of the Italian-imported hand-built pizza oven.

Three words: Billy’s padron chiles. Like the best roasted green chiles from New Mexico. With a bit of Grana Padano, and an amazingly crisp yet tender charred crust. Cobe says, “best pizza ever.”

Official opening August 12th.

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Delancey

Ballard
1415 NW 70th St
Seattle, WA 98117
www.delanceyseattle.com

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After hearing from cakespy that Cupcake Royale had changed their recipe, I decided to give them a second chance. It was cobe’s birthday, after all. And he loves red velvet.

The word is that Jody Hall of Cupcake Royale was so distressed about reports of dry cupcakes that she brought in the heavy hitter—Sue McCown of Coco la ti da—to futz with the recipe. The whole story is in Rebekah Denn’s smartly written prose here.

The end result is that after batches and batches of cupcakes, they have something that can last the day without getting dry. I put this to the test, arriving at 5pm just in time for “cupcake happyhour”—6 for the price of 3. Dangerous when you are a little pregnant lady.

I am obsessed with chocolate these days, so I got 2 each of the triple chocolate, red velvet, and the new chocolate scorcher which features Theo’s own ghost chili chocolate.

First off, definitely moister. In fact, really quite nice. I am a dense cake person, so I like my cake even moister than these were. A thicker crumb, if you will. But I would chalk that up to personal preference.

The flavors were charming. I loved the red velvet, with its touch of cinnamon sprinkles. The triple chocolate was almost too chocolatey, but to be fair I had it without milk—a rookie mistake. The chocolate scorcher had a buttery smooth frosting with just enough chili to give an edge.

I can safely say I would bring these cupcakes to a party. Especially since they look all pretty in their fancy box. Score one for research.

Next up: Yellow leaf and their infamous tomato soup cake

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Cupcake Royale
www.cupcakeroyale.com

Ballard

(206) 782-9557
2052 NW Market St
Seattle, WA 98107

West Seattle

(206) 932-2971
4556 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116

Madrona

(206) 709-4497
1101 34th Ave
Seattle, WA 98122

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Plaka Estiatorio was full of life last Saturday.

It probably didn’t hurt that the table next to us contained the owner’s family eating, drinking, and socializing. At one point we looked up and found the owner facing us, camera in hand.

“Can I take your picture?” he asked, “for the website.”

We smiled for the photo and then he wandered around taking pictures of the rest of the guests. The waitstaff and chefs posed too. It was like a birth.

Plaka’s interior is homey, with artistically exposed bricks, photos of the old world, and a lot of wood. The lighting’s so bright it’s like a deli, but somehow it didn’t detract. It just made it feel that much more like a family place.

They’ve gone with a classic greek menu–lamb, octopus, grilled seafood, spanakopita, and greek salad. But there are some rarer greek specialties on there too, like grilled haloumi (a cheese that stands up well to the fire), loukaniko (greek sausage), and yigantes (slow braised beans).

A greek salad was the first to arrive and it blew us away, with peppers and cucumbers that tasted straight from the garden. Even the tomatoes weren’t half bad. It felt like summer, with a topping of feta and sharp olives.

Roasted beets had a rustic simplicity, just tender and with a whiff of garlic.
The beet greens served alongside were long-cooked and silky.

Lamb chops were good quality, but needed more flame, they were missing that crispy char. The vegetables that came with were a mastery of the slow braise—onions and celery with a meaty richness, tomatoes that were fall-apart tender.

We were most disappointed by the papousakia, roasted eggplants stuffed with lamb and covered with béchamel. It was more creamy than we expected and missing the punch of the lamb.

As we sat there watching the tables around us cavort and drink wine, we felt totally at home. It would be a great place for a family dinner, or for someone’s birthday. And it was fairly crowded, for a place that’s just opened. We’ll be back. Next time I’m trying some of that grilled seafood.

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Plaka Estiatorio
(206) 829-8934
5407 20th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
www.plakaballard.com

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I used to live in Phinney and in the few years since I left it has sprouted. The little strip on 70th that used to house nothing more than a yoga studio now has a bar, a few cafes and this cute little place.

The pastry case is teeny in that perfect little french way. They have croissant and quiche and macarons in pastel colors and these perfect little canele, a pastry so rich it is rumored to stave off desire in nuns. We decided on spinach gouda quiche and a salty croissant (koenig? I didn’t quite catch the name).

The quiche was warm and creamy with gouda, the crust that perfect mix of crunch and substance. The croissant was sadly not warm, but it was light flaky and enrobed in a delicate salty caramel. Salt and sweet is a favorite taste combination for me.

This place is tiny though. There are 6 stools and a few chairs gracing the front. Not bad for a nibble, but it began to get crowded and we were still hungry so we decided we would do a little french bakery taste-off at Besalu.

Once you’ve started on pastries, it seems a shame to stop.

Besalu is just a few blocks away and usually has lines out the door. Luckily by the time we arrived it was near 1pm so we slipped in and even found a table.

The atmosphere at Besalu matched our mood. Peach colored walls, Billie Holiday on the stereo, tiled floors and the smell of pastry—the perfect place to wile away a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Sheela was excited by the well-stocked pastry shelves. Pear tart, apple danish, several quiches, croissant and cardamom pretzels, not to mention a beautiful checkerboard black and white cookie.

In the back a serious frenchman rolled pastry dough, his apron dusted in flour.

We felt we should do a head-to-head quiche comparison so went for the spinach, which proved a mistake as it was slightly overcooked and the crust almost tasted burnt. Sheela liked it better, declaring it more substantial, but I found it too solid. But then, I like my eggs a bit runny. I also missed the gouda.

I’ve had their quiche in the past and the crust is better when perfectly cooked. Perhaps we should have tried the leek.

A lemon tart had a rich custard but was so big it could’ve fed 10 frenchman. Perhaps it was meant as dessert for a crowd and we mistakenly shared it. We had no problem finishing it. The pate sucre was perfect.

The cardamom pretzel is Sheela’s favorite, a bit of savory with the sweet. Again it would have been better warm, but the light flaky pastry competed with that of Honore’.

In the end? They both win. On this day the pastries at Honore’ were slightly better, but the atmosphere at Besalu really won me over. Twist my arm, I might have to go back to both and compare again.

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Honore’
1413 NW 70th St
Seattle, WA 98117
(206) 706-4035

Besalu
5909 24th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
(206) 789-1463

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A foggy day in Seattle is like a dream. The sky and water disappear…you can barely see 2 feet in front of your face. Sunday was like that, so Sheela and I wandered off to Ballard market.

We found it in full swing, kid’s dancing to trombone players, chihuahuas wearing fleece sweaters and hordes of uber-cool couples in their 30s. Ballard is so upscale these days. We were tempted by Veraci’s pizza oven, but we wandered over to the tamales.

Sheela’s a vegetarian and we were drawn in by the man sauteeing the big pile of greens. We had to wait in line for nearly 20 minutes for the promise of green chile tamales with veggies.

They were sadly not all that. The corn was too mushy, like cream of wheat rather than tamales. And the filling was nearly nonexistent.

“It makes me miss southern california,” Sheela said frowning.

The side of greens suffered from a lack of TLC. I was hoping for melt in your mouth greens, the kind I had at Dorcas on whidbey, but these were roughly chopped with thick red onions and beet slices and undercooked. They tasted brutally healthy, and not in a good way. They even lacked salt.

I like greens, so I crunched through them anyway, mixing in a bit of the hotsauce to give it flavor. It made me sad that vegetarians would treat their vegetables so badly.

They have quesadillas there too. Hopefully they’re better than the tamales.

I needed some redemption from bad food, so I walked over to Anita’s crepes for nutella and banana. They were a bit light with the nutella, but the crepe was perfectly cooked, and folded over just so. It made me happy.

As we were walking out of the market, we saw this woman with “hot cakes.” She looked very french with this handmade scarflet wrapped around her neck, and made these tiny cakes full of rum and pears, or chocolate ooze. So so good. You should try them.

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Anita’s Crepes
Ballard Market
beware…the urbanspoon reviews are for the freestanding place at 4350 Leary which apparently has some troubles. It is new though. Be nice.

www.anitascrepes.com

Patty Pan Grill
Ballard Market
Reviews below are also for the real restaurant:
5402 20th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107

http://www.quirkygourmet.com/

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