baby back ribs at the beach

We’re at the ocean, far away from Seattle and the madding crowd. (And in fact, we’re backdating this post and publishing it after we returned. No internet service for three days! What a relief.)

Some dear friends of ours are getting married. Their tw0-year-old daughter, who is our daughter’s best friend since birth, is part of all the festivities. There was no rush on this weddding. Instead, our friends wanted to have days with the people they love, family and friends alike, to gather, play games, and eat great food.

Sign us up, of course.

We’ll tell you more about what we ate — this was a pork crowd — in the next post. But first, we have a recommendation for you.

Our friends chose to have this party at Seabrook, a recently created beach community on the Washington coast. All the cottages have a similar feel: large, spacious, sort of New England/Cape Cod, sort of west coast cool. There’s a large village green where our friends will be married, a bike rental place, and a steep walk down stairs to the expansive beach below. Everything is new, clean, and very inviting. (When we first walked into the house where Q and A are staying, we stopped in our tracks at the kitchen. Huge, lots of light, an island in the middle for gathering. One of their friends was carving a barbecued pork loin as we entered. Nice way to start the vacation.)

Seabrook also has its own little grocery store, community center, and cafe. The Front Street Cafe is a little like a pub, a little like a corner cafe, and a lot like the place you want to be at the beach.

When we walked in for our first meal of the trip, our waitress said it was Happy Hour. No drinks for us but the prices were reasonable. What do you recommend, I asked her.

Oh, definitely the ribs, she said.

Once I found out they were gluten-free as well, I said yes. You don’t have to pull my arm.

The sauce was just thick enough, well spiced (enough for a bit of a kick but not enough to tear off the roof of my mouth), and sufficiently sloppy to make it a rib-eating experience.

This was the start of a beautiful vacation.