Cafe Presse

After months of waiting, Cafe Presse finally opened in its South Capitol Hill location.  I stopped by today, being the rabid francophile that I am, with my high expectations tempered only by tepid feelings for Le Pichet, the proprietors’ other downtown establishment.   Twenty minutes later, I was pretty confident that this smart bar will be my new haunt for the summer and beyond.

I can’t comment too much on the decor; I met a friend who I hadn’t seen in ages, and we got down to catching up.  I noticed pretty quickly that the tables are much closer together than most Seattle establishments – instantly calling to mind the countless times I’ve snaked my way past lunchtime business dealings and afternoon romantic couplings over coffee in New York and Paris.  Minus the cigarette smoke, of course.  If the front room with its bar and tables is full, stroll to the back room, where the high ceilings lend a sense of space to the tables sitting under large, plate-glass windows.

The menu is divided into small bites, salads, and entrees.  Small bites included lots of baguette-based options (one was simply chocolate and baguette… do want…), sandwiches (croque madame and croque monsieur!), and other small French appetizers.  They are mostly priced around $4, making quick stops for snacks, coffee, and wine as easy on the wallet as stopping by the market.  Three visits per week should let me sample all of the appetizers by mid-July or so.

By all means order yourself some wine – with good options by the glass, half-pichet (1/4 bottle), pichet (1/2 bottle), and bottle, you can drink exactly the amount you want at rather reasonable prices.  We split a pichet of competent Cotes du Rhone ($16) which slaked my thirst just fine.

Salads appeared, with my friend’s tomato/tapenade plate far outrunning my arugula greens in taste and color.  The tomatoes were tasty, the tapenade rich.  Highly recommended.

Of course all of this was just a prelude to the mains.  You’ll not be surprised I had the hanger steak ($16), which came out gloriously rare, just the way I like it, surrounded by sauteed onions and a pile of crisp, hand-cut fries.  After one bite, I knew this would be my new hanger steak standard, dethroning Cremant’s excellent dish.  My friend’s steak tartare was equally tasty – with complex taste from the steak mixed with red onion, capers, fresh pepper, and a couple mystery herbs (tarragon?).  I demolished the steak, the fries, and the wine, and could easily have ordered another course (or two) – it was that good.

Service was unobtrusive and perfectly adequate considering their just-opened status.

I stopped at the small newspaper rack at the front and was pleased to see a copy of Le Monde on the wall.  I can see myself sitting at the bar, eating a baguette, drinking coffee, and reading the paper.  Life won’t be too bad.

The next day I have free is Thursday so perhaps I’ll return then.

Lola

Today was an epic day from start to finish. Exciting, thrilling, at times trying, it’s one of those days I hope to remember for a very long time.

Highlights of the day included pastries and coffee at Essential Baking Company, cramming a record five people into a Mini Cooper, jaywalking in front of a police officer (as if he would have arrested me at a parade), and getting a table for 10 at Lola.

I’ve eaten at Lola several times, but always for lunch and dinner. Today they were serving brunch when we walked in (shortly after 1.30p) and I knew I would have my chance to taste the much-touted Tom’s Big Breakfast. From their menu:

Tom’s big breakfast: grilled pacific octopus, pork belly hash, bloomsdale spinach, feta, olive oil fried egg

I can tell you that the dish lives up to the hype. The octopus was fleshy and tasty, grilled perhaps 2 seconds beyond my preference, but quite a minor quibble. The pork belly hash was chunky and rich – less a classic hash than a small handful of cubed delight. Eating a piece of octopus, a small pork belly piece, and a mouthful of egg with its blissfully orange/yellow yolk… paradise.

Let me also sing the praises of the bloody mary; it was the best bloody mary I’ve had in Seattle, hands down. Hallelujah! What was it around the rim? Sea salt, to be sure, and something that added a smoky flavor to the drink. Smoked paprika? No idea. We’ll have to go back and check; we were all laughing too hard by the end of the meal to suss out the ingredients.

Of course I couldn’t stop there. The woman sitting next to me ordered pork kebabs with harissa and honey. Can we talk about the pork for a minute? Grilled to perfection, tender, bursting with smoky, piggy flavor. A slightly spicy sauce (the harissa) had been added, balanced with a brush of honey. How do I know this dish so well? After finishing Tom’s Big Breakfast, I ordered a plate of the pork kebabs. And another bloody mary. Yes, an entire second meal. People were staring, perhaps appalled by my gluttony, but I didn’t care. This was a meal that deserved to be consumed with gusto, and I did my level best.

This hedonistic brunch for 9 came to around $210, tip included, although one person (I won’t say who), with his voracious appetite for food and drink, probably accounted for much more than his share. I’ll be returning as soon as I possibly can.