This looks kind of like a doughnut with a lemon cyclops eye, doesn't it? That yellow dollop is actually the lemon curd filling in the doughnut I had for breakfast with Jennifer and Matthew yesterday, at a place called
General Porpoise Doughnuts.
The place came up when, for reasons I cannot now recall, I mentioned to Karen during our Zoom lunch on Friday that Portland-based Voodoo Doughnuts plans to
open a store on Capitol Hill here in Seattle, "sometime in the first quarter of 2024." It's going to replace Ristorante Machiavelli, the longstanding and very popular Italian restaurant that recently had to close at Pine and Melrose. I mentioned how a whole bunch of people have written off Voodoo Doughnuts as highly overrated (I think they're both good and fun, what's not to like?), and she mentioned General Porpoise, and that they are expensive. I looked up online, saw that their doughnuts are $5 each, and later asked Jennifer and Matthew, "You want to go get expensive doughnuts for breakfast?" They were totally down for it.
Matthew cracked me up when we were there and he couldn't remember the name of the place: "General Platypus? Sergeant Narwhal?" It's
General Porpoise—as Jennifer made clear with the
photo she took of her own latte cup and doughnut bag at our table. (She and Matthew both ordered the coconut doughnut. Yuck!)
We wound up down there at about 8:30 yesterday morning, and Shobhit and I—he's still in India—exchanged a few texts right before the three of us walked down.
We have been there once and I have bought stuff twice, he texted. Oh? I totally forgot. I can't find any photos or blog posts to corroborate this, but whatever. It's the kind of thing I could easily have not regarded as critical to note.
Shobhit seemed to be convinced there was "No place to sit there properly," but he was clearly mistaken about that; there were plenty of small tables to sit at in there, including at an upper landing
in the back, complete with a window overlooking a fairly nice view of
an inner courtyard to the residential building the doughnut shop was clearly a ground-floor business tenant at.
We basically went out to eat for every meal yesterday: breakfast, lunch, dinner—albeit only for a single doughnut each in the morning. This was maybe not the best idea after we polished off two bottles of wine between the three of us shortly after they arrived at about 6:40 on Friday evening. That was the one meal I made at home—spinach and mozzarella ravioli from Costco, with vodka pasta sauce and a few diced and sauteed vegetables I added, as well as chopped veggie sausage. I still have leftovers from that in the fridge. I had to double check with Jennifer because all her life she has had weird things she doesn't like to eat, like cereal, or spaghetti. I messaged her to clarify that she does like other types of pasta, and she said yes to the ravioli.
At first I suggested cocktails, but when Jennifer said something along the lines of meaning to bring wine but they didn't in the end, I was like: red wine, why not! That goes well with pasta, right? It didn't take long for the three of us to finish the first bottle, with just a small second pour in each of our wine cups, and when I asked if they'd lile me to open another Jennifer said sure. when I did that, I didn't bother leaving enough for a second pour and I just poured each of our cups about 4/5 full so the bottle was left empty.
So here was my mistake. I should have known better, but maybe I wasn't thinking because I'm more used to doing this with cocktails than with wine. But, I should have taken some Aleve before bed, and I should have drunk at least two glasses of water at the same time. Because I did none of this on Friday night, I woke up yesterday morning feeling pretty dehydrated, and with a bit of a headache. I took two Aleve and it helped a little, but I already know from experience that getting some protein in me would have made the biggest difference once I was in hangover territory. But, we had already made the plan to go get doughnuts for breakfast, and I didn't want to make some kind of breakfast at home
and do that.
I got ready and showered, etc. I still had a slight headache even by the time we were ready to leave, and I took a third Aleve—even though the label says not to take more than three in a 24-hour period. I was okay thus far, I suppose, but I also knew I was going to be drinking again last night. Oh, oops—I just double checked the label,
and it says not to exceed 2 tablets any 8 to 12 hour period, and I took three within the span of like two hours. Oh well.
Anyway. We walked back to the condo, and when Jennifer mentioned that Matthew had never seen
Mork & Mindy, the Robin Williams sitcom from the seventies, I found it on Prime Video and we watched a few episodes. Robin Williams himself was very funny, but the show is super cheesy and packed with people overacting.
By around 11:00, we headed back out, basically leaving for lunch an hour early so we could browse in a couple of stores we noticed on the walk back from General Porpoise but which did not open until 11:00 am:
Capitol Thrill, where I found a black T-shirt with a gay rainbow Seattle skyline motif that I would absolutely love, but I could not justify spending $25 on a T-shirt. (Maybe another time though. I kind of want to go back and actually spend some money there.) After that we went just another block down the street to
Retrofit Home, which has a lot more stuff than just furniture (for example: the
book Jennifer found called
All My Friends Are Dead.).
By the time we had spent all the time we could browsing there, and meandered our way down to where I suggested we get lunch, we were at
HoneyHole, my favorite sandwich joint. My interest was piqued again recently because of
a sign I saw outside last Monday noting that they were under new ownership. This place has had
quite the saga, with it suddenly closing last year without even employees knowing what was going on, and being left without paychecks. Well, it was reopened with the same menu just recently, so I wanted to go back.
I ordered what has long been my favorite sandwich there: "El Guapo." It was still good, but my only complaint would be that in the past, they fully melted the gruyere and cheddar cheeses so that they covered all the other stuff in the sandwich, and this time it was kind of barely melted, surely not smothering everything. Maybe they just need a bit more time. Jennifer and Matthew seemed very happy with their sandwiches; Jennifer had a French dip, although they call it something else on their menu. Matthew also ordered a shot of bourbon, but I can't remember the maker.
So that brings us to Neko Cat Cafe, where I had booked our three sessions—$25 each! It was much cheaper when I last went—$20 each when I went with Ivan in 2021 (the very first visits back in 2017 were $10 a person; in seven years the price has risen 250%)—although they did specify to us all yesterday that the session prices all go toward the care of the cats, and they had
12 of them in the cat room yesterday. Plus, to be fair to the business, and this is something happening all over, I'm sure they have to raise prices in order to cover both rents that have been stupid-high for too many years, and employee wages, given that as of this year Seattle's minimum wage is up to $19.97 per hour. It's the same reason I can't blame the dry cleaner I've been going to for years for charging $7 per shirt, but I had to finally concede to Shobhit's contention that it was too much for us to pay, so even though I totally get their need to pay that much, I am also trying to save as much as I can, and am returning to the thing I truly hate which is ironing my own button-up shirts.
I discovered recently there is a second cat cafe company in Seattle,
Seattle Meowtropolitan, which charges only $16 per session. The problem with that one is it's located in Wallingford in an inconvenient location for public transit, and I could find no fool-proof easy parking were we to drive there. Neko Cat Cafe is still much easier being within walking distance, so I just decided to eat the extra cost—and I booked and paid for all three of us. As for Seattle Meowtropolitan, that on will take two buses to get to Wallingford, but I may see if Laney wants to go check it out sometime anyway. It'll probably be a while before I go back to Neko Cat Cafe in any case—this was my
sixth visit in six and a half years, after all; I first went with Laney and Jessica in 2017, then went four separate times with Ivan in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. I suppose I should also mention the simple rule of supply and demand: Neko continues to sell out their cat room session bookings, which alone would indicate enough people are willing to pay the price they charge. (It's the same deal with the sky-high price to go to the observatory at the Space Needle.)
All that aside, Neko Cat Cafe was still really fun. My "
Jennifer & Matthew Visit 2024" photo album contains a total of 70 shots, and 25 of them were taken at Neko Cat Cafe alone, which I thus duplicated into
their own photo album, for inclusion in my
Neko Cat Cafe collection. It was by a wide margin the most photos I've taken at any one session there, because I got a lot of really great shots.
The sessions there are 45 minutes long, so we had to leave at 1:45. We just walked back home, as we had basically exhausted all the nearby shops to browse—we had even walked into a K-pop store to kill a few more minutes or so beforehand. That got us back home at about 2:00, giving us two and a half hours to kill before catching the bus at 4:31 downtown for dinner. In the meantime, we watched the last Jim Gaffican comedy special from 2023 on Prime Video, and for a bit Jennifer inexplicably went to the guest bedroom without a word about it, and Matthew just browsed the internet on his phone in the living room with me. When I finally asked if Jennifer was okay, he said she was taking a nap. Hmm, okay.
Clearly we are all getting old. Well, Jennifer and I are, anyway—Matthew still has some time: he's only 31 years old and is 14 years younger than Jennifer (and thus 15 years younger than I am). We had an amusing moment when I was talking about something Jennifer says on one of my home videos from 1992, and Jennifer said to Matthew, "That was the year you were born." I don't know, if it makes any difference, Matthew's so reserved he makes me look flamboyant, and he kind of has an old-man vibe. He and Jennifer seem to work as a couple somehow. That said, he's not having to take pills, like my Aleve for minor hangovers or Jennifer's preventative medication before eating, to combat acid reflux.
I think I already mentioned that I bought an extra spare Orca Card so I'd have one for each of them to use. At first, Jennifer was saying it would "probably be fine" to walk down to the Fog Room for dinner, here I had reservations for four so Laney could join us. But, then Jennifer noted that her thighs were sore from doing yoga, so I was glad I had the Orca Card contingency. I had enough on both cards for three bus rides, and they used two each: bussing downtown, and then bussing back.
So! When it comes to the Fog Room, at on the 16th floor at the top of the
Charter Hotel on 2nd & Stewart, this is now a place I've been to
three times (October 2019, October 2023, April 2024). Again, this was the most photos I've taken at one visit there—
27 shots, the same number in the 2019 album except that one includes four shots Shobhit took and texted me when he was there in July of that year and that was how I learned of its existence. I went with Laney all three times, but this third time was to take Jennifer and Matthew there.
And I have to say: The Fog Room is very expensive, but absolutely worth it. The view and ambience are spectacular, and so is the food, actually. Laney ordered the Bavarian pretzel and I ordered the mushroom quesadilla, and much like Shobhit and I often do at restaurants, she and I split both dishes. Jennifer and I both ordered a mai tai, which cost $19 but damn was it good.
I had budgeted $50 for this dinner, and had I stuck with that order, I'd have met that budget, more or less. But, after Matthew had his bourbon flight he ordered another cocktail; Laney ordered a second beer; and Jennifer decided on a second mai tai. So, so did I—after I made some inaccurate calculations: I added up the cost with a second mai tai, and even factored in the tip, but I didn't factor in the sales tax. Oh, shit. So what I thought would be $14 extra turned out to be just over $20 extra: my total came to $71.51. I hate that they put a 20% "service charge" on all checks without giving us a choice but whatever—there was a lot of discussion about this last night and I am only remembering now that we talked about this when Laney and I went there last October. This time she asked one of our servers if the service charge was their tip, and she confirmed it was put into a tip pool—but which the hotel takes 4% of. What bullshit! Laney even added another 4% to account for that, but my tab was way too high already so I didn't. This weird auotmatic service charge stuff is the one thing I really don't like about this place, but everything else about it makes it highly recommended in my book. I should post a Yelp review with these clarifications, though, as I'm sure other patrons would appreciate being armed with the knowledge going in.
We all took the bus back up the hill together. Laney and I both wore masks, something Jennifer and Matthew have not done anywhere since probably at least 2022. Usually there are multiple other people on a given bus with a mask on even these days, but on Saturday afternoon for most of the way I was the only one. It didn't make me take it off, but it did make me kind of think,
Great, now I probably look like the one nut job on the bus to them. Not that it matters, and they never gave any hint of judging me so I don't know why I worried about it at all. When we got off downtown, I finally noticed one other person, also getting off, with a mask on.
Anyway, Laney got off the bus at Pine and Broadway, then Jennifer and Matthew and I got off at Pine and 15th. We went up to the condo and they both accepted the offer of yet another cocktail. I explained that I'm of an age when I need to stick with one liquor in a given evening, and since I'd had two mai tais, I was going to make a rum drink: my favorite, which was Zevia Cherry Cola with a shot of regular rum and a shot of coconut rum in it. They both said they'd take one of those as well, so that's what we all had. Somewhat to my surprise, Matthew took a drink and declared it really tasty.
I had said that this time I would take at least one Aleve (in spite of having already had three in the morning) and would drink three full glasses of water before bed: one for each cocktail I had consumed. Jennifer kept reminding me: "Don't forget to take your pill!" Eventually I did, and they stayed up with me long enough to get all three glasses of water down. It really did make all the difference: I did still feel only a tiny bit dehydrated when I woke up this morning, but otherwise really felt fine. No headache.
Even though I have eggs at home, I only have a few vegetables, and I technically could have made omelets or something, but it wouldn't have been impressive or anything. I got the sense that they would have liked to go out for breakfast before leaving this morning, and after some consideration, I realized the perfect place to take them: Glo's Diner! A local institution, less than half a mile away, easily walkable. Plus, I knew that the earlier we got there, the better; when I woke up at 6:30 this morning, instead of rolling over to sleep some more, I got right up and went to the bathroom to get ready. In the end we got there at 7:55, all of 10 minutes before their kitchen opened at 8:00, with maybe 10 parties waiting in line in front of us. It was only a couple of minutes after 8:00 when they let us in—note to self, for future reference!—and we all had a very nice, hugely filling breakfast. They both had lattes, so both mornings they bought coffees out, thereby negating any need to have coffee beans out for them to grind and make their own coffee at home should they need to. (They had brought canned lattes with them with the expectation that I would not have coffee for them; then forgot them when they left, and Jennifer asked me to bring them when I come visit or my Birth Week in two weeks.) They also both had crab eggs benedict, and although I was very tempted to get the Eggs Florentine benedict, I opted instead for the biscuits and mushroom gravy—something Shobhit never would have gone for had we gone together to share a dish. It also came with two eggs and hash browns, so it was a shit ton of food, and I wound up taking my second biscuit home in a box and will have that for dinner.
It was still morning when they left, close to 10:00, but we had still spent enough time in the morning to go out for breakfast and come back. I let them out the garage and they left; I then walked to the closest place I could find to park Shobhit's car on the street so they could use our garage spot, three blocks up and around the corner on 18th. I just drove directly from there to PCC so I could get cat food, drove back,
finally got to watch last Tuesday's (excellent, as always) episode of
Shogun, and then sat down to write this post. Oh, I also made myself chai to drink while watching TV and I got on Skype with Shobhit for a bit while I made it. Having no idea when Jennifer and Matthew would go home, I made no other plans today, so this worked out well, and prevented me from having to waste too much of my work day tomorrow writing this.
So: one more visit with Jennifer down. She may come back in the fall, either for the Northwest Chocolate Festival in October (which she was supposed to do last fall but had to cancel because she got covid) or during November when she is considering taking the week off for her birthday like I do (I am an inspiration!). Either way, I'm already starting a list of things to do, as Jennifer noted that she hadn't actually been to Pike Place Market in many years—and it was with me, of course. Oh wait, I just figured this out, it wasn't
that long ago: 2019, five years ago, when she came for the St. Patrick's Day Dash. Well, Matthew couldn't even remember when he was last there, so we might as well still put it on the list for next time.
Right now though, I need to take the guest room bed linens out of the dyer and put them back on the bed, fresh and clean for whenever someone spends the night again.
[posted 3:39 pm]
