Sauced

Happy Hour In Seattle: Cheese Plate Edition

Five Seattle spots for getting stinky (in the best possible way) at HH.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 15, 2011 at 12:33PM 3 Comments

The cheese of La Mancha

Cheese is a food that makes you want it so bad, it has been compared—by scientists, no less—to morphine and heroin. In fact there was a heroin-based drug going around Texas a few years back that mixed the deadly narcotic with over-the-counter cold medicine. That drug’s street name? Cheese.

But unlike hard drugs, cheese is easy to consume in moderation. Especially during happy hour, when smaller sized samplings of the world’s best dairy products are doled out at a discount. Here are some of Seattle’s notable HH cheese platters. Consume with caution.

Tucked into a few narrow rooms of a Madrona bungalow, with white-washed walls and a chalkboard menu and the cutest owners—a very young couple who wouldn’t know pretension if it smacked them across the face with the last issue of Wine Spectator— Bottlehouse is a total charmer. During a daily happy hour from 5 to 7pm, cheeses are $3.50 per ounce or $10 for three. On offer: fleur d’aunis, a lovely semi-soft with a distinctive nutty flavor; a Gouda-style goat cheese; and the decadent Pierre Robert triple-creme.

I like to pop into Fonte from time to time after work and order up the $6 cheese plate during the daily HH from 5 to 6:30pm. It’s chef’s choice but often includes one of my favorite cheeses, tomme de savoie, plus a healthy hunk of funky blue. It comes with a few slices of bread and, for garnish, golden raisins, cranberries, Marcona almonds, and two mild peppers.

Toulouse Petit has seven cheeses on the HH menu from France, Switzerland, and, in the case of saveur du maquis, Corsica. Saveur du maquis is a sheep’s milk cheese with a rind coated in herbs like rosemary and juniper along with maquis, an aromatic plant indigenous to the storied island where it is manufactured. Amazing. These cheeses are three for $7.50 or five for $12 during happy hour.

I have a theory that the powers that be at Maximilien assign servers to the happy hour shift upstairs as punishment for serving the potage in the wrong bowl or something. In any case they are often in a bad mood, acting every bit the surly French waiters of legend. Such abuse is endured in order to get a nibble of the assiette de fromages, a selection of French cheese arranged on a platter like numbers on a clock face. This generous treat is just $7 during happy hour—5 to 7pm on weekdays and Saturdays from 8 to 10pm.

When I lived in Spain I was tasked, by the university I “attended,” to read Don Quijote in Spanish. That took me nearly all of my six-month stay there (long book, foreign language, cocktails to drink) but when I did hand in my final paper—which I’m sure was a fascinating read indeed—some friends took me to La Mancha to celebrate. I came back to Madrid with a tiny ceramic windmill and a big barny hunk of Manchego. The sweet memory of that cheese I relive at Lecosho, where Manchego is drizzled with honey, accessorized by Marconas, and sold for $7 during HH. Spring for a demi-baguette of Columbia City bread for $3 more.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Lower Queen Anne, Downtown, Madrona, Cheese, Seattle Happy Hours

Full Sail Beer and Cheese Pairing at Urbane

Five dishes for $17, no reservations required.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 29, 2010 at 09:53AM 0 Comments

Beer and cheese, an easy pair.

On August 27, Urbane is throwing a beer and cheese party from 5 to 9pm, and it’s a pretty good deal: For $17, you get five cheese-based dishes paired with beers from Full Sail Brewery, an Oregon craft brewer whose expertly balanced ESB is a fridge staple chez moi.

No need to make reservations with Urbane or arrive on time, just show up between 5 and 9 and start sampling.

A thought on beer pairings: I love beer—with pizza, with spicy food, with nachos, on it’s own—but if we’re really talking palate talk, I have experienced few beer pairings that came close to a really good wine pairing. I’m not saying it can’t be done, I’m saying it’s difficult to do. Cheese, however, is an exception. Cheese and beer make for easy pairing, as any Belgian will tell you.

A thought on wine versus beer when pairing cheese at home: I like to think about where my cheese came from. Wisconsin and Vermont are beer-making meccas, and Wisconsin and Vermont cheddars tastes great with beer.

If the cheese is St Marcellin from the Rhone region of France, however, it’s Chateauneuf du Pape o’clock. Though, come to think of it, St Marcellin would probably taste pretty good with beer….

Have fun at the party.

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Tags: Tastings and Classes, Beer, Cheese, Craft Brewing