22 January 2009

lola

Lola is one of the Tom Douglas restaurants in Seattle, a locavore-ish restaurant "in the Greek spirit" named after his grandmother.  When we left Seattle in 1999, Douglas owned Dahlia Lounge and Etta's.   Now he runs Dahlia Lounge, Etta's, Lola, Palace Kitchen, Serious Pie, and the Dahlia Bakery.

On the night before we left Seattle, Marni said, "You know what what we need to do?  We need to go downtown and get a piece of coconut cream pie from the Dahlia Bakery."  Whenever Marni says, "You know what we need to do?"  you should listen.  Marni always knows what a person needs when a person is in a gloom, which I certainly was because my laptop had been stolen hours before.  I was in a traumatized state.

So on Saturday afternoon, we headed downtown to Dahlia Bakery, only to find they had no seating, just take away.  Dahlia Lounge was closed until dinner, so we walked across the street to Lola, which didn't have coconut cream pie on the menu, but the server kindly procured a piece for us from the bakery (the server was weird and awesome.)  Here's what we ate (the best parts were the mushroom kebab, the homemade hamburger bun, and the tamarind ketchup):

*Portabella Oyster Kebab with Lemon Thyme
*Spreads and Pita:  Sweet Red Pepper, Kalamata-Fig, Cauliflower-Anchovy
*Anderson Valley Lamb Burger with Spicy Lola Ketchup and Chickpea Fries
*Chocolate Cashew Tart with Poached Pears
*Coconut Cream Pie

Thank you, Marni and Greg, for always putting us up when we're in town and taking the time to play with us!

13 comments:

GrittyPretty said...

i love reading about your food treks to such amazing restaurants. may we soon have something comparable here! (crossing fingers and drooling until then.)

also, have you heard of hugh fearnley-whittingstall? my new food guru.

GrittyPretty said...

oh and sorry about your laptop. that hurts.

i'm going to look up tom douglas now.

lara said...

no--i'm looking hugh fearnley-whittingstall--i already know i'll love him for having such a beautiful name!

GrittyPretty said...

tom douglas has a blog!

hugh left london ten years ago to forage wild foods throughout the british isles then he bought the cottage river farm and has become a phenomenon. there's a tv series that chronicles his adventures, entertaining enough for prime time.

oh and he's friends with jamie oliver.

i wish the walden school would watch the series. very clever. they would LOVE it.

lara said...

I just checked out the website--can we get all year round hampers made in Provo?

GrittyPretty said...

ha! maybe if we assemble them ourselves. what exactly would you want in one?

Oh! Oliver found a chacuterie in Seattle (they also sell a bit at liberty fresh market). and then he found out that the Italian immigrant master artisan searched everywhere for a home base and chose SPRINGVILLE, UT. So he's popular in Seattle with his prize winning four hundred year old recipes, but he's local. isn't that great?

lara said...

REALLY? can we get his stuff? This guy in my neighborhood is a chocolatier and has a factory by the freeway. He's pretty new, but his chocolate has been picked up by Chez Panisse, Bouchon, and French Laundry by their pastry chefs. You can buy his chocolate at Liberty heights.

Hamper wish list:

Cheese
butter
cream
charcuterie
bread
honey
dried cherries
smoked trout
smoked game
chocolate
mustard
vinegar
pine nuts

i don't know what else--what are your ideas?

lara said...

http://www.amanochocolate.com/retail/

GrittyPretty said...

COOL! I want some chocolate! I just finished reading "girl without a shadow" the sequel to Chocolat. i am so happy to know we have a local chocolaterie!

cheese- Redmond Heritage Farm that owns Real Foods Market makes cheese, raw milk, real salt, and they sell eggs (or cliffords, you already buy from them i think).
bread from crumb brothers? is there anyone closer? maybe who makes a good traditional sourdough?
honey is easy. you've got stan moulton just fown the street from you. he'd probably supply chicken as well. vinegar- we used to get it from native wines in san pete. they closed shop but i'm sure they still have lots of wonderful vinegar they would sell i.e. rhubarb apple vinegar, etc.

what else...
does the chocolatier sell through his factory?

lara said...

Thanks for all of this info. I'm thinking about assembling hampers now. . . .

lara said...

btw, is the springville salami maker salumi?

Marni C. said...

Did you check out the photos on my blog? What could be more fun than hanging out w/you?

M

GrittyPretty said...

cristiano creminelli. he's been here for a year and a half. oliver is familiar with salumi but it's not him.