Our gift to my brother for his birthday other than the 6 bottles of wine (thanks Chris!) was a dinner to anywhere he wanted to go within reason (a.k.a. flying to Paris for a 15 course meal, yeah not so much). It took Jody a while to figure it out, but in the end he decided he wanted to go to this gastropub named Quinn's (
http://quinnspubseattle.com/) on Capitol Hill.
Chris and I immediately go to the webpage and check out the menu. Ok, so it was admittedly not impressive in the sense that there are no fluffy descriptions. "Bone marrow", "Fried Frogs Legs", "Rabbit Pate" - sounds neat and cool, but where are the adjectives, right? Plus Capitol Hill isn't exactly close (hey we live on the 'Eastside' now) and parking there is nearly impossible. But you know, you just got to do what you got to do. :)
Jody and Sakeneh come over, we carpool to Quinn's - and within 5 minutes of looking we found a parking spot - which was the was the first of many amazing features of the night. Walking up to Quinn's you first notice the extremely large and clean windows - and that the place is PACKED! It was overcrowded, loud, and freakishly Robson Street-esque. People of all ages wearing various stages of what they considered going-out-on-a-Saturday-night attire. Of course being Seattle and Cap Hill various couples and families as well, man/man, woman/woman, man/woman?, you get the point. The hostess had matching circa 1982 Barbie Pink sunglasses, undershirt, and belt with the Flashdance sweatshirt and leg warmers on and happily told us that a table would be about 30 minutes. Sitting in the entryway we were admiring the loft-garage feel, the hardwood ceilings, the brick and concrete pillars, and that the bar and tables looked inviting.
I don't think it was 30 minutes, maybe more like 15 and we were at our table - center front of the bar and next to the windows. We ordered some drinks. I know that Jody and Chris had quite a few types of beers, I am not a beer expert but I can tell you that they were all good. Jody is into home brewing and he and Chris were really enjoying each beer as the meal progressed. I ordered a drink made with rosemary bitters (yum) and later a Ginger beer. Sakeneh ordered a bourbon drink with cinnamon bitters that we sent back. The cinnamon bitters cocktail was the most disappointing thing of the entire evening. We did not let it hinder our excitement though.
Snacks were up first - chicken liver croquettes and spicy peanuts. Both delicious beyond belief. I don't know how much of it was because we were pretty hungry - but man I have got to figure out what was in those croquettes besides the liver. The nuts were so good we ordered another serving. I think the nuts were coated in a lightly beaten egg white with the seasonings -- THEN fried or pan fried. There was this awesome sweet-spicy crunch and the nuts were not greasy. The croquettes had a not-too-thin-not-too-thick crispy coating which contrasted nicely with the yummy filling.
We were hungry now. Our waitress who I wish I knew her name - she was very awesome and treated us well, she spaced out the rest of our order so that we had time to savor, enjoy, and digest everything. Up next was the Fois Gras. Remember how I said there were no adjectives on the menu? Well I think I know why...because there wouldn't be enough room to put all of the words. Seriously people, this fois gras was...good, delicious, savory, buttery, texture-perfect, colorful, seared in the most awesome way, served at perfect temperature...yeah you get the point. It was served on this broiche which was springy yet crunchy and an apple-walnut sauce. I need to stop thinking about it because now I want some.
Next up was the grilled romaine salad with olives, tomatos, vinegar-tasty-red onion pieces, also the fanciest poutine ever -- hand cut fries with melted fontina and chives sitting in a pool of demi glace (feel your arteries hardening yet?), AND a salted cod-mashed potato dip served with homemade thin potato chips. It was after this that I felt full and 4 out of 5 doctors would say "stop eating", but since we were with a doctor and he was still eating it was obviously OK to continue (haha).
Bone Marrow was next. With these little amazingly hot yet soft and toasted pieces of baguette. We were all expecting the generic little 1" pieces of marrow that we would need to pick up and suck on. Nope, not at Quinn's. The bone was at least 4" in length. Served with this citrus jam on the top minced to perfection. Delicious is all I can say. And yes, still feeling full, but again, kept on truckin'.
Butternut squash soup with curried croutons, endive salad with salted pork nestled at the bottom, and a fried sunny side-up duck egg. The soup was perhaps the only other disappointment of the evening (besides the cocktail with the cinnamon bitters) if you can call it that. Accompanied with all of the foods we had been eating it was a good comparison to help your palette recover from the flavors and fats and salts, but if I were to order it all by its lonesome I would probably not enjoy it nearly as much. The croutons on the soup were also a little soft - which I don't know if it was because we waited to taste the soup after we had the salad, but again croutons were more untoasted than toasted. The texture of the soup though so amazingly light and airy. The endive salad was amazing - the salted pork was crunchy and captured the flavors of american bacon and the chinese style of making "crunchy" fat pork without all of the 5-spice seasoning. The apples were just right and not too sweet and went with the fennel and endive pieces. The fried duck egg came a little late, but believe it or not was a great mouth feel with the salad.
My stomach was wishing I had worn elastic pants by this point, but nonetheless we had more food to consume. And we had all commented at this point that the remainder of our meal would be a true test to how good the food was - because we were all so freaking full that the food would need to be amazing.
Well...the food was amazing. Steak tartar - impressive that it was served on a chilled plate. The crostini that came with it were still warm and crispy but not brittle (awesome). The tartar had a lovely olive oil feel and which allowed you to appreciate the tomatos, chives, and black pepper. Then the mussels with chorizo - amazing sauce which I think was a whole stick of organic butter along with garlic cloves and flat leaf parsley. These mussels had a great sea-water flavor. I think the cooking time was from when the chef placed the liquid into the cast iron pot, covered it, and then the waitress brought it to us table side and uncovered it -- so perhaps a matter of 2 or 3 minutes?
Believe it or not it had been almost 3 hours by this point...still unrooted from our table we said what the hell let's have dessert. We asked for the menu to look at dessert (apparently after 11pm the menu switches to the late-might menu) and decided against the Whoopie Pie because hey there is only so much one should eat (haha), but had the apple pie with their homemade cinnamon-brown-sugar ice cream, chocolate pudding with a blueberry compote and a pile of whipped cream, and Bailey's irish cream brulee. The top on the brulee was a little thick and burnt, but the custard part was excellent, smooth and not too cold with the irish cream flavor throughout. The chocolate pudding was very chocolately without being scary dark or milky sweet. The pie was well good pie and the ice cream was a good compliment to the thick crumble crust. Accompanied by three double-espressos and a latte (mmm...Caffe Vita) it was now that I realized that I have to come back to Quinn's again, and also try Restaurant Zoe (
http://restaurantzoe.com/) -- both are owned and operated by the same people.
In case you were wondering we went to Quinn's with the sheer idea of trying all of their small plates which we successfully did. I think if our stomachs could endure more food we would have ordered some large plates too - the wild boar sloppy joe, or the fish and chips, or even the steak with frites (yes, more frites). I am determined that the large plate items would be just as high quality as the small ones were. When I go again it has to be with another couple so that we can order and taste more items. I am sure that Jody and Sakeneh would be up for it!
All in all - Quinn's was a great place. Would I bring an 8 year old here? No. But Quinn's isn't designed for people with small appetites, small children, or people unwilling to try new things. Ok let me clarify... Quinn's seems like it would be a great place to stop in for a quick bite, but let's be honest - you are going to want more than one item from their menu, so don't cheat yourself out of something to the point of regret you owe it to yourself to try as much as you can handle, and then go for more. You can bring children here as there are signs that clearly mark where under 21 year olds can and can't be, but since when was the last time you knew of an 8 year old that would put up with a 3 hour meal? :)
Quinn's was also not grossly overpriced. The quality of food outshines the sometimes too loud Ska/Off-pop music that pumps out of the speakers. The price of this food is also amazing which I think is essential for places in Seattle these days. We consumed all of what you just read, at least 3 or 4 split-bottles of ale, cocktails, etc. -- 4 people for $250 TOTAL. AMAZING.
My only wish is that Quinn's would relocate to Kirkland or someplace with more parking. :) Ok, now I am beginning to sound like my parents...(haha) I am looking forward to my next trip to Quinn's (
http://quinnspubseattle.com/).
Labels: family, food, happies
