La dolce vita found.

Today I have done nothing but go-go-go. I was on the road at 8am, a box of a dozen Voodoo doughnuts in tow, pedal to the metal to Bremerton, Washington. Then I just barely made the 1:45 ferry to Downtown Seattle for yet another. Then I found myself in one of my absolute all time favorite coffee places ever, Caffe Umbria (doesn't matter the city). The Portland location is in the bottom of The Casey in The Pearl, but in Seattle it's nestled into an old brick building on Pioneer Square. I love this cafe, because aside from making fantastic coffee, it reminds me to live la dolce vita. Work to live, savor the small things, live and love life. So I put my cell phone in my bag, closed my email, stopped working (for a second) and opened my blog, and began to dream about dinner.

In honor of my la dolce vita found moment in Seattle today, I want to tell you all about the place I am dreaming of at the moment, the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar . Like Caffe Umbria they have a few locations, sadly none in Portland. I visited the one in Woodinville on a recent and much needed sanity excursion, aside from the slightly overwhelming presence of wrought iron accessories in the place, it exudes la dolce vita. People are chatting, lingering and savoring. There was a great menu. It was a cold to the bone kind of day when I visited. I wanted warm and filling comfort food, so I got the brie en croute appetizer to start, lobster mac and cheese, and finished with their house made sea salt caramels. On Foursquare everybody was raving about the pizza at Purple Cafe, so D got the Gorgonzola and pear pizza. I'd have to say the pizza was nothing to write home about, but the lobster mac was absolutely decadent, the right blend of cheeses, pasta was perfectly al dente, and it was steaming hot. The sea salt caramels were pretty good too (also a Foursquare recommendation).

Sorry no pictures, they're on my other computer at home! But I'll try to remember to load them in when I get back tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a cell phone shot at Caffe Umbria:

Look at that fantastic marbled foam on top of my latte. Now that's art.