Seattle has so many great restaurants that it’s hard to chooose sometimes.
I could sit here for hours and tell you about memorable meals that Danny and I have shared in little dives and popular places, both. Vietnamese, Northwest cuisine, Ethiopian, and oysters galore — we’ve explored so many that our list of favorite places is long, long, long.
But we’re still exploring. We’ve been finding new eateries and dipping our forks into sauces and salads we didn’t expect. We’ve been sharing some Seattle restaurant finds. We’ll continue in the months ahead.
Still, even so, sometimes it’s good to go back to the familiar.
Last week, we asked folks on Twitter: “What’s the best lunch in Seattle?”
Answers streamed in. Some of them we have explored already. Others are new to us. But a few people we trust wrote the same name: Lola.
Of course. How could we have forgotten?
Lola is one of Tom Douglas’s restaurants. Tom Douglas is well-known, well-loved, and welcome to feed us any time he wants. His restaurants are always changing their menus to suit the seasons, drawing from the strength of small farms and local food producers. The food is impeccable tasting without being fussy. Actually, the restaurants feel like Douglas the person: expansive, voluble, interested in everything to do with food, and hearty good without too much fuss.
Lola is Douglas’s Mediterranean restaurant, drawing its flavors from Greece and Italy, Turkey and North Africa, all while using ingredients from the Pacific Northwest, like razor clams and salmon from Alaska. Really, you can’t go wrong.
When our friend Kristin Korb, an amazing bass player and jazz singer we’ve been lucky enough to know for years, came into town for a few hours before heading north for a concert, she wanted to meet us somewhere good for lunch. “Somewhere where the vibe is chill, the food is good, the space will hold us, you know?” (Jazz musicians really do talk like that.) Lola.
We all loved it. They make great food without any pretension, food you don’t mind moaning about and leaving a crumpled cloth napkin on the table afterwards. I had the pork skewers, bathed in harissa, then grilled. The slight sweetness and then the heat of the harissa melted into the charred edges of the pork and slithered into the juicy flesh.
The smashed potatoes were good too.
We’re going to try making this soon, at home. If we can do it well, we’ll let you know how too.
In the meantime, go to Lola.
Lola
2000 4th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 441-1430
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I miss Tom Douglas… and his restaurants. Palace Kitchen will always have a fond place in our hearts; I feel like we lived there our last year in Seattle! We had brunch at Lola on our last visit and loved every bite. (Their breakfast sausage is ah-ma-zing.)
I remember years ago we were at at a back-room event at Dahlia, eating chocolate desserts, and Cameron mentioned to Tom as he stopped by the table that he thought bourbon was a natural pairing with chocolate. Tom’s face lit up, and he asked Cameron if he wanted a glass of bourbon. (Of course he said yes.) Tom zipped out to the bar and came back with glasses for both of them, so he could try it, too. Such hospitality, such obvious love of food adventure. I’m so glad he’s continued to expand his empire — we love Lola, and Serious Pie, too.