Saturday, June 11, 2011

5 Spot - Seattle, WA

On my return flight to Minneapolis, I intentionally booked a long layover in Seattle so I could hang with ChickenLittle and his fiancé WNMFCL (Will Never Make Food Coach Likes). Shortly before leaving for China, I got a message saying my afternoon arrival was now going to be in the ass-early zone about 5:30am. I was SURE ChickenLittle would LOVE to meet me for breakfast on his day off of work. Thankfully, he DID!!!

I got to hang with ChickenLittle and WNMFCL for part of the morning and even shower at their place and hang with their awesome dogs. Then, when we had waited enough time for the rest of the world to wake up and get moving, we went to a place both of my gracious hosts knew I would love – 5 Spot (also known as Five Spot).

The thing about this restaurant is they have a "roaming menu" where they change the theme of the restaurant based on their mood. This apparently happens every couple of months. This time around was a tornado-themed menu and a portion of their sales go to help support tornado victims in Alabama. Good food with a good social awareness. With the tornado theme, they had a giant tornado statue that looked like it might rotate if it wanted to. I’m guessing these folks go all out when they change themes.

The menu looked amazing. They have a very thorough breakfast and lunch menu and I wanted to order one of everything. Lots of fun thing and fun combinations of non-normal breakfast food. That’s the kind of thing I like – and of course ChickenLittle and WNMFCL knew this. This place also has an awesome late night happy hour menu with crazy deals and what I assume is equally amazing food. I can’t wait to get all drunked up and go to 5 Spot after I run my mouth to a bunch of flannel-wearing dirty hippies and get my ass handed to me by dirtbags who haven’t bathed in 10 years and smell like patchouli.

I eventually decided on the Porkopolis Scramble - house-cured pork belly lardons and thyme and red peppers with scrambled eggs and cheddar, served with Twister-spiced red potatoes and a biscuit. And a glass of milk.

I can’t rave enough about this food. The pork belly was absolutely brilliant and I could have ordered a second helping of this. The thyme was there, but not overwhelming and the potatoes were quite good. I think I had an entire potato that had been fried and seasoned in some spicy magic dust on my plate when they brought it out. This was perfect. The biscuit was light and fluffy and the real butter I slathered it in made the whole thing melt in my mouth.

After breakfast, we went and hung out by the water. Literally sitting on the dock of the bay –which is appropriate because ChickenLittle absolutely knocks Otis Redding out of the park at karaoke. (Which slays people because ChickenLittle is one of the most painfully white people they’ve ever seen – but the kid’s got soul under that comic-book-nerd exterior). It was a perfect day in Seattle. Word on the street is that it’s NEVER this perfect in Seattle. Hahahahaha.

Do yourself a favor and go to 5 Spot.

Top 5-Spot things about 5 Spot
1. Porkopolis Scramble
2. Regularly-changing fun themes (When Pul-Chevy went there, there was a Simpsons theme)
3. Very awesome breakfast menu
4. Equally awesome late night menu
5. Watching ChickenLittle meltdown under pressure while trying to reverse-angle park the car

Bottom 5 things
1. This place makes me miss the Uptown Diner in Minneapolis
2. WNMFCL refused to let me pay, even though I made them get up super early to meet me
3. I wanted to order soooooo many things on the menu (again, not a bad thing, but it still bummed me out)
4. ChickenLittle complains that no place in Seattle gives free pancakes with every meal like they do in the Quad Cities – 5 Spot is no different – no pancakes unless you order them
5. Apparently, the Rattlesnake All Beef Chili contains no rattlesnake (or it wouldn’t be all-beef, would it?)

www.chowfoods.com/five/index.aspx

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