In November, Erin and I went to Seattle with no other mission than to eat, drink, and buy lots of shoes. We had some difficulty with the eating part – two of the restaurants we had really wanted to go to turned out to be closed or shut down for good – but with the drinking part of the mission we succeeded effortlessly.One of our restaurant searches left us eventually at the Metropolitan, on the advice of our cabbie. I wasn't really in the mood for steak, but I liked the classic, authoritative feeling of the place. And we got to sit in a really cute mini booth. But the best part was the sommelier. He was inspirational enough to make it into my sketchbook. As you can see above, he was a cute old man with short gray hair, glasses, and a bow tie. And, he loved his job, I noted. He drifted from table to table, always smiling. Their wine list was seriously long. So we needed his help. I managed to narrow it down to a riesling, and he matched us up with the J. & H.A. Strub Riesling Kabinett, 2005. And we loved it. The wine guy rules.
Other notable discoveries on our drinking tour of Seattle:
- We enjoyed another Riesling the night before – American Thanksgiving, when the only restaurant open and not serving turkey was the 24 hr 13 Coins – Chateau Ste Michelle Columbia Valley Riesling 2006. This was preceded by Kim Crawford Pinot Noir from New Zealand, and followed by oversized bottles of Miller High Life...
- At Vons, the only bar we could find open at 6 pm on Thanksgiving, Erin had a glass of beer that was practically as tall as her and I tried one of their variations on a Manhattan – a Southern Grandfather: Jim Beam + Amaretto + a cherry. Yum.
- I tried Tuaca for the first time: a lightly sweet, amber Italian liqueur based on fine, cask-aged brandy, possessing a rich fruit-like flavor of vanilla and citrus. Mixed with Gin and garnished with an orange slice, I'd drink this again for sure.
