One of our favorite places to go for Happy Hour in Seattle is Maximilien in Pike Place Market. The waiters are snarky…French or at least the way that Americans imagine the French to be, but the food is fabulous and the happy hour, one of the best deals in Seattle. Happy hour is usually held in the upstairs bar area which is cramped and cozy, a perfect place to get together with two or three friends and enjoy a glass of house red, succulent mussels and crisp frites. Yummmm… Other happy hour selections include Salmon Coulibiac, which is salmon baked with goat cheese in a puff pastry covered in mustard sauce and mini Croissant au Jambon, a small croissant filled with cheese and ham…delicious!
This past Friday we blew in from the rain anticipating a nice dry booth in which to enjoy some wine and appetizers…not so. A private party was taking up the bar area, so happy hour was being served outside…in the rain. Each table had an umbrella over it and some of the umbrellas didn’t overlap as well as others so waiters were constantly darting in between tables trying not to get wet…it would have been comical had we not been cold and damp as well. Kamil suggested that we pretend we were in a monsoon climate. Monsoon climates are generally warm though and we were too far from the heat lamp to keep up that illusion for long. Three glasses of wine and 8 appetizers later we were beginning to be chilled to the bone and left in search of more hospitable climes.
We discovered one in the form of the White Horse, which is a small hole in the wall in Post Alley by Kell’s that boasts Books, Ale and Wine on its sign board outside. Three things I enjoy, so I had been wanting to check it out for a while. They had a small selection of Wine and Ale. For wine, they had a white, a red and a port and three kinds of bottled beer as well as one cask beer. The inside was dark and the walls lined with books. There were three patrons: one, a girl reading a book and sipping a glass of red on a couch by the door and the other two were an older couple sitting at the bar chatting with the bartender who looked like he was straight out of the 30s, sporting a tie, a clean white apron and a pleasant smile. In short, it is the perfect place to relax with a glass of wine and a good book and be transported back 80 years. I will definitely be going back!
Adventures of a Hungry Ginger 