I guess you could call yesterday my Seattle Views day for this year's Birth Week: one of the Puget Sound from the waterfront; one of downtown from a 5th-floor rooftop bar; both very special to me. One was brunch (although technically by 11:00 they were only offering the lunch menu) and one was for an early Happy Hour dinner.
After last weekend being largely damp and chilly, the rest of this week has shaped up to be sunnier and warmer than any other time so far this year: yesterday's high was 67°, warm enough that when I decided to ride my bike down to the Six-Seven restaurant at the Edgewater Hotel on the waterfront for brunch (okay lunch) with Karen at 11:00, I barely needed to wear my red hoodie for the ride.
In the morning, I looked up the last time Karen and I had lunch together in person, which had indeed been at the Six-Seven restaurant:
Thursday, January 23, 2020. Going back and reading that brief account of what was then a very routine lunch with Karen, it's fascinating to view from today's vantage point: there was plenty of discussion about the upcoming, first trip to Australia that year; no discussion at all about covid. It was so close at that point, and we truly had no idea what was coming. None of us did. Probably people deep in health care settings did.
In any case, Karen and I could easily have started lunching together in person more often again up to about a year ago, probably, but she has found the FaceTime lunches to work out well for her, as when she comes to meet me, it becomes around a two-hour absence from her office because of the time it takes her to get to the restaurant and back. So, even though we initially pivoted to virtual lunches because of the pandemic, we just continued that more out of convenience than anything else.
We have talked about starting to meet in person again, if not every time we have our scheduled lunches. Maybe every other one of our biweekly lunches, or even once every other month or something would be fine. We don't have to go out every time, especially with FaceTime as an option. That said, when I suggested meeting at Six-Seven for my Birth Week, Karen jumped at the opportunity, even telling me she had been thinking recently about how much she had missed eating there. So, we finally met there again, for the first time in over three years.
I rode a bit early, so I would arrive at about 10:45, to give me time to take some photos of the exterior of the Edgewater Hotel. Which, incidentally, I discovered yesterday
opened in 1962 to coincide with the World's Fair. This hotel is as old as the Space Needle, and I never realized those two things were thus associated with each other.
Karen arrived, and I saw her out in the parking lot as I had waited outside. I sat down on a red bench chair to kill a few minutes watching some TikToks, and I saw her approaching in her motorized wheelchair. We entered the hotel's front doors together, and the guy who held the door open for us said, "Hi, welcome back! Good to see you again!" We were both taken aback, not just that this guy—who certainly neither of us remembered, but to be fair a little person wheelchair user and a girly-man probably make a more impressionable pair to others—remembered us, but that they evidently still have the same staff in positions like that after all this time.
He wasn't the only person who remembered us. I had an 11:00 reservation, and the young woman at the front podium of the restaurant didn't know us, but the woman who was our server certainly did: "Hi, welcome back! It's been a while!" Damn. I'm heartened that they didn't have to permanently let go of all of their staff during pandemic closures, I guess.
The staff wasn't the only thing that was the same. The menu was almost identical to what it had been three years ago, which was a bit of a surprise. One thing that seemed to be newer was the fish tacos Karen ordered, but the one vegetarian entree remained the same: the veggie gyro. It was presented a little differently, I think, but it was still very tasty. I held this vague hope that maybe they would have their famed mushroom mac & cheese again, but it was of no surprise that they didn't—they stopped serving that dish well before the pandemic. I have long missed it, though; it was so good!
The other great thing, of course, was the view. Karen and I asked if we could be seated next to the window, and they obliged. Although there is a small outdoor seating area between the window and the water itself, the water is still so close in that restaurant that it makes us
feel like we're on a ship. This is especially the case out the windows in the nearby hotel lobby lounge, which is even closer to the water.
As for conversation this time around, it was once again pretty standard—talk of her family's upcoming June trip to Norway, the status of their second house construction up in Tulalip (we
visited their property in September 2021; ground breaking still has not happened and likely will not until this coming September at the soonest). There was also some open appreciation for the weather, though, and the spectacular views from our table: the waters of Puget Sound; the Olympic Mountains in clear relief beyond; even Mt. Rainier was visible from where we sat, although I had to turn around to see it. It really was a beautiful day. I have a dedicated photo album on Flickr just for this visit to the Edgewater, and
it contains 19 shots.
I budgeted estimated costs for both my meals yesterday, and both friends insisted on paying for my birthday. This is not something I ever have in my expectations for my Birth Week, but unlike most people, I also have no issue with accepting such generosity whenever it's offered. Karen beat me to the punch from the start—"This is my treat"—and with Alexia later, I moved to offer my credit card and she said, "I've got it Matthew, it's your birthday!" Well not technically just yet, but okay! Honestly this makes it easier to justify renting a car a second weekend in row for my trips to Everett and Lynnwood the day after tomorrow.
It was about 12:30 when Karen and I finished, and I used the very nice bathroom right outside the restaurant. She commented on what a delight it was to get away from her office for a bit; we should still talk some more about coming up with a new hybrid approach to our lunches, where we meet in person a bit more frequently, and not leave this Birth Week lunch as a one-off. She then drove back to her office, and I rode my bike back home.
Along the way, I passed the distinctive Fourth and Blanchard Building. with its black facades and very different shapes depending on which side you look at it—I remember reading once that when viewed from different sides, it looks like completely different buildings. I think about this often when riding past it when I ride home from work, and have long wanted to take a series of photos demonstrating it. Usually when I think about it, though, I don't have the time to stop and ride around the block taking photos.
I did yesterday!
Anyway, I had a lot of struggles with processing my photos yesterday, because the Photos app on my iMac suddenly decided not to work properly. I found an online suggestion to toggle the iCloud switch off and on again, and as of now it won't let me toggle it back on without selecting an option to pay 99 cents a month for 50 GB of iCloud storage—which, as it happens, I am already doing. So I have no idea if the error I keep getting when I select that option (the only other options being larger memory storage for more money) is because I am already signed up for it (in which case, what the fuck am I supposed to do to get it back on the correct setting?) or because there's just something permanently fucked up with my aging computer. (I've had it for eight years. That's too few to be technologically pressured into replacing it with a new one. Planned obsolescence: fucking pathetic.) Even connecting my iPhone to the computer won't work properly, with it either not recognizing the photos on my phone at all, or only recognizing some, and on the latter case taking an eternity to do so. Holy shit what a pain in the ass.
On the upside, I finally got all the photos uploaded properly to Flickr this morning—after even
Flickr started glitching out, and I had to make four attempts at uploading them, re-adding all the tags each time. Tech bullshit the past 12 hours or so has been truly crazy making. If things had worked properly, I'd have been able to work through the brunch photos before meeting up with Alexia, but alas, that was not meant to be. I had to step away from the computer at 4:20 so Alexia and I could walk downtown together.
So, yesterday I went from lunch with a spectacular waterfront view, to an early dinner surrounded by the Seattle urban density I love so much. I decided I wanted to return to Frolik Kitchen, on the fifth floor of what is now the Hilton Motif Seattle hotel, a 20-story tower built in 1996 and which has had several different hotel names in the meantime. The first and only other time I was at this place, nine years ago in March 2014 it was the
Red Lion on Fifth Avenue. This fifth-floor rooftop bar was still called Frolik Kitchen then, though. Although to split hairs a bit, apparently in 2014 it was "Frolik Kitchen & Lounge," and in 2023 it's "Frolik Kitchen + Cocktails."
By the time Alexia and I were walking down there, she brought a very light jacket just in case it might be needed it, though she assumed she wouldn't—it was a type of a jacket she could just bunch into a little baggie which was then kept inside a small backpack she carried. I, on the other hand, didn't carry anything: it was warm enough that I didn't even bother wearing my hoodie. It was 67° when we walked down, and only two or three degrees cooler as we walked back, at about 6:25—in the shade, I might have liked my hoodie, but by the time we were walking up Pine Street to Capitol Hill there was certainly no need for any jackets.
Anyway, back to Frolik Kitchen. Alexia and I had a hard time deciphering exactly what position the young man serving us was supposed to be in. Was he assisting other servers? Was he in training? He was the only wait staff not wearing a name tag, and he seemed to confer with other staff frequently. He also seemed to think, even though he was always the one who took our orders, that it was someone else's responsibility to
bring us what we ordered, which both Alexia and I found odd. He seemed a little overwhelmed and I felt empathy for him pretty early on, which Alexia took a while longer to come around to. I suppose I have to admit I may have been more prone to forgiveness because, his clear stress levels notwithstanding, he was incredibly cute.
At first he kind of acted like it was our doing that it took so long for us to get our orders. We had been seated at a table in the center of the outdoor seating area that is still under a plastic tent—apparently they were set to take it down for the summer months just
today! As of yesterday, though, it was a warmer day, and that plastic tarped tent became a bit like a greenhouse. Alexia asked to move to a nearby high top that was more shaded as she was getting too hot. The thing is, when we were first seated, very few others had been seated in the tent yet, so it's not like it would have been
that hard to see that we moved. But, the young man said they got confused when our table was vacated and they thought we had just left. I mean, shit, the high top we moved to was all of ten feet away maybe. And Alexia and I had a hard time buying this story, especially given that once our meals were brought to us, my vegetarian "Rain City Melt" sandwich was still very hot, so it's not like it had been sitting out for any length of time.
And then, we had to ask again for our drinks when the food came. And I was nearly done with my sandwich—which, by the way, he brought with fries when I had ordered it with a salad; I decided I didn't want to delay things even further by complaining—before the server came back and said, "Did no one ever bring you your drinks?" Uh. Who else was supposed to? He made some comment about how busy the bar was, but then he came back with our exact drinks, quite freshly made, only moments later. He said we lucked out and he stole someone else's ordered drinks who had ordered the same two drinks. I mean, what are the odds that was what actually happened?
I still don't really trust that this guy was quite doing his job right, whatever that job actually was, nor do I believe it was our switching tables that fucked everything up from the start. Whether it was that young man or just bad management overall (or both?), this place needs serious work in the service department.
On the upside, my Rain City Melt was very good, and the "Frolik OG Mule" with pear vodka was fucking fantastic. Honestly Id go back there just for that drink. Maybe we'd have to just sit inside at the bar. Maybe we can just take our drinks out onto the outdoor patio area, I don't know.
At Stephanie's party in 2014, there was a lot of games like shuffleboard and table tennis out there on the rooftop patio area. None of that now, with the tent set up; perhaps the games will break out as of today with the tent removed. With comparatively limited space in which to do it, once Alexia and I were done with our late-arriving drinks, we walked around the patio area for me to get a few pictures. In the end, my Frolik Kitchen photo album on Flickr
also has 19 shots.
After Alexia and I walked home, we had decided we would have our next Harrison Ford-athon movie night after this dinner, but I came into the condo briefly. Shobhit asked for some feedback on the flyer proof for his Seattle City Council campaign. I also made some popcorn, and then we went over to Alexia's condo next door—Shobhit only accompanying for a short bit, to ask for Alexia's feedback as well. I think I can offer some valuable feedback on these things, but it's always best for him to get feedback from others as well. It usually yields points I didn't think of.
So then, after Shobhit went back home, Alexia and I watched the 1990 Harrison Ford film
Presumed Innocent, which I am fairly certain I had never seen before. We both enjoyed it, although the long explanation of the twist at the end didn't really make a lot of sense to me. Oh well. Moving on!
[posted 11:56 am]
