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Where to Drop While Shopping

Lecosho

Image: Anne Dixon

YOU’VE GOT SHOPPING to do! Where better than downtown, which this solstice month manages to be starlit and twinkly night and day. Below, a few festive spots to give your belly a worthy nosh and those barkin’ dogs a break.

Andaluca The glossy, cushiony dining room of the Mayflower Park Hotel is open for all-day Mediterranean fare. Great salads, a tapas list, and a long gluten-free menu. 407 Olive Way, Downtown, 206-382-6997; andaluca.com

Belle Epicurean The patisserie near the Fairmont Olympic gives you a little butter with your butter: luscious brioches and croissants with Caffé Vita by morning, soups and salads and baguette sandwiches all afternoon. 1206 Fourth Ave, Downtown, 206-262-9404; belleepicurean.com

Fonte Café and Wine Bar Off the new Four Seasons at First Avenue’s southern approach to the Market. Perfect coffee, terrific wine, sophisticated nibbles, Euro vibe. 1321 First Ave, Downtown, 206-777-6193; fontecoffee.com

The Georgian For High Tea. Sure it’s spendy, Scrooge—but the $35 spread of civilized sweets and savories, served 11:30 to 2:30 weekdays (from noon on weekends), has made generations of grandmas very popular this time of year. 411 University St, Downtown, 206-621-7889; fairmont.com/seattle

Lecosho Foodie darling Matt Janke just opened this sexy urban lunch/dinner joint on the Harbor Steps, which starts its happy hour every day at 3pm. Beef short ribs for $7. Enough said. 89 University St, Downtown, 206-623-2101; lecosho.com

MistralKitchen The casual front room is just the refined, designed place to pause for an unstuffy lunch—wood-fired pizzas, strip-loin sandwiches—from one of Seattle’s finest chefs. Cocktails ain’t too shabby either. 2020 Westlake Ave, South Lake Union, 206-623-1922; mistral-kitchen.com

Purple Café and Wine Bar There’s a reason this soaring wine bar is always packed—it’s downtown’s number-one crowd-pleaser, with a genuine comfort-food-for-everyone menu. Kids, too. 1225 Fourth Ave, Downtown, 206-829-2280; thepurplecafe.com

Sip Wine Bar and Restaurant See Purple—only on Fifth Avenue, not Fourth, with a decidedly more singles-y gleam in its eye. 909 Fifth Ave, Downtown, 206-682-2779; siprestaurant.com

Steelhead Diner It doesn’t get more Pike Place Market than the dead-central diner with the sweeping view of Elliott Bay. Lots of fresh local seafood done to creamy N’awlins specs. 95 Pine St, Pike Place Market, 206-625-0129; steelheaddiner.com

Taste After the Picasso show, pause for a nibble at Seattle Art Museum’s dining room—don’t miss dessert!—then knock off the rest of your gift list in the city’s best museum store. 1300 First Ave, Downtown, 206-903-5291; tastesam.com

Published in the Our Best High Schools issue of Seattle Met.











Kathryn Robinson
Kathryn Robinson
Senior Writer Seattle native Kathryn Robinson, award-winning restaurant critic and senior writer at Seattle Met, has been anonymously reviewing restaurants for over 30 years—first as editor of the Best Places guidebook series, then as staff critic at Seattle Weekly and contributing critic at The Seattle Times and Seattle magazine.  Midcareer she spent a year-long sabbatical studying comparative religion as a Knight Fellow at Stanford University where she had been an undergrad 10 years earlier, gaining a knowledge base she now calls upon for her monthly “Back Fence” column on our collective urban existence and the meaning it holds for our personal lives. In her off hours she is a partner and a parent—which means she has no off hours.