Eating, drinking and living La Dolce Vita at Mama Melina

Photo credit: Seattle Times

I've really been into this la dolce vita concept lately. Not sure if it's my longing for summer and long loungy afternoons that dwindle into muggy nights on the patio. Or the fact that's it's my chosen wedding theme. This is across the street from the Silver Cloud Inn, my home away from home where I stay when I'm up in Seattle's University District for classes. But when you walk inside you're not in rainy Seattle on 25th Avenue stressing about reading your corporate finance case. You're in a swank cafe in Milan, wearing Dolce and sipping Chianti and greeting your friends, "ciao bella!"

Apparently this "new Mama Melina" is quite the departure from what used to be a down-home little Italian joint where the owners putzed around in the kitchen and sometimes serenaded diners. It's sleek and swanky, with tufted white chairs, sparkly chandeliers, industrial chic concrete floors, penny round tile, and even heated toilet seats (I kid you not). But it's still got the nods to the old world Italian roots, an open kitchen with a stone pizza oven turns out Neapolitan pizzas with perfect chewy crust with just the right amount of char. I am a pretty big fan of the paintings on the ceiling in the bar, which has inspired me to do this in my own kitchen or dining room (one day). It's never empty, and usually just the right amount of crowded. The kind of busy where it's hard to find a table, until you find it just in time. You'll find graduate and professional students mingling with professors, to undergrads out with dates or girls nights out. The after work crowd brushing elbows with the university folks.

The best part is the Happy Hour, Mama Melina has the kind of happy hour that doesn't make you feel like you're ordering happy hour. It's every day from 3-6pm and 9-11 pm. All bar menu items are half off, some of the Neapolitan pizzas are $6, and bottles of wine are only $14. Their bar menu runs the gamut of typical happy hour fare, but it does it well. You'll find the burger, calamari, bruschetta, a few pastas and Caesar salad. It's the kind of place to gather in the bar after class for a drink, or late at night after meetings. The new Mama Melina is the new Italia. It's sleek, sexy, and modern with appropriate throwbacks to the culture that made them.

Next time you're up in Seattle's east side, particularly the U-district, try to stop in. And for just a little while, eat, drink and live la dolce vita.

A wine tasting trip to Willows Lodge in Woodinville Washington

In February I had cabin fever like one only really gets at sea. Terrible gloomy moods, boredom, irritability and all the stuff that just doesn't suit a girl about town very well. Needless to say, no sooner was D home from his month-long trip to India before I was forcing him back into the car for a much needed weekend getaway.

I found our hotel, the Willows Lodge on Jetsetter, the great thing about Jetsetter (aside from its affiliation with the droolworthy Gilt Groupe) is that their staff has actually stayed in all the hotels they feature, and they seem to have pretty good taste!
The Willows Lodge is also dog friendly! Here is my dog about town, Regen enjoying the fireplace in our room. All the rooms are rustic chic, with fireplaces and big soaking tubs. There is even a doggie turn down service, and dog treats on the room service menu. Look at the size of the bathtub! The staff was super friendly, and the hotel is perfectly located for wine tasting. And tasting we did!


The thing about Woodinville compared to Oregon wine country is they don't actually produce wines there. So the wineries are usually just tasting rooms. Unlike Oregon where they are very far apart and you have to designate a driver or hire a tour in Woodinville you can walk!


Next door to the Willows Lodge is the the Red Hook Brewery, a rather large "microbrew" where for only $1 you can take a beer tour, complete with your own Red Hook pint glass to keep, and if you answer the beer trivia questions right, they'll fill up your glass with more beer! In the summer Red Hook is usually hopping, with concerts, movies, and all kinds of fun events taking place on their grounds.

After a quick lunch at Red Hook we walked over to Novelty Hill/Januik. A beautiful ultra sleek and modern building, where we tasted wine as the snow fell on a courtyard featuring traditional stone bocce ball courts. Foursquare told me in the summer they have events and allow dining on the courtyard where they serve wood fired pizzas. We took home a bottle of the Novelty Hill Syrah.



From here we walked over to Chateau Ste. Michelle. Which happens to be the winery that introduced me to wine! The largest winery in Washington (I think) with a huge grounds, that is also absolutely beautiful and probably just as well known for their summer concert series as their Riesling. I don't recommend tasting at Chateau Ste. Michelle since their wines are widely available in most grocery stores, but we walked around the grounds and made a point to find the peacock

After walking Chateau Ste. Michelle we'd processed most of the wine we drank at Novelty Hill, so we headed to Mark Ryan, probably one of the most unique tasting rooms I've visited. Their website does absolutely no justice. They had a rock and roll theme with vintage and modern rock and roll posters and classic rock music playing. I was totally enamoured with those rock and roll posters and now I regularly fantasize about having posters like that in my house. The wines even had edgy names, like Black Love, and Long Haul. I think one of the best parts of this winery, (aside from that gorgeous yellow buffet) is the restored Indian motorcycles on display in the tasting room. I love brands that take two unexpected elements and combine them together to form their identity. The combination of "classy wine" meets edgy rock rebel is looking pretty good so far at Mark Ryan!

Across the parking lot from Mark Ryan is Alexandria Nicole, one of the 2011 Washington Wineries of the Year. Their tasting room is located in the cellar portion of a cool old schoolhouse, giving it a cave-like feel. Apparently Alexandria Nicole also sponsors "glamping" trips in their vineyards. Sneak peek at Glamping in a vineyard. Um, yes please.

If you're the type that likes to mix things up a little bit, you're in luck because Woodinville has a fledgling distillery industry as well. We made a quick pitstop at the Woodinville Whiskey Company. Currently all their whiskeys are still white dog, which means clear and unaged, so it's got a more mild and smooth taste. Great for non-whiskey drinkers.

I'd keep an eye on them. Not to mention, you can buy your own mini whiskey barrel for tabletop aging.

During this trip, we also ate some great food. I'll be sure to post about the restaurants we visited very soon. But in the meantime, check out Willows Lodge if you are looking for a destination hotel in the Seattle area!

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.

Pies and Pints in Seattle

I have a confession to make. I love pot pie. It's terribly unhealthy. Especially the frozen kind from the store. I got one at Costco once and the first ingredient listed was partially hydrogenated oil. So when I met up with a friend after a long day of statistics and corporate finance class and she suggested pot pies, I could barely contain my excitement. Actually I didn't really bother to try and contain it.

Pies and Pints is on 1215 NE 65th St. in Ravenna. It's has an Irish pub feel and is a great place to tuck in some comfort food and a cold beer. The pie (on the right) was chicken in a thyme cream sauce, with a "side" of macaroni and cheese, the cheese had a hint of beer taste to it. Which complimented my beer nicely. ;) I can't attest to the potential levels of trans fat, but it didn't taste like a frozen box to me.

They have a pot pie and a macaroni and cheese of the day. And their happy hour is 4-6pm Monday-Friday and 10:30-close every night.

Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle

You may be asking yourself what this glorious picture is and where you can obtain this deliciousness. If you're often out and about town in West Seattle, you've got to stop at Bakery Nouveau at 4737 California Avenue, right down the street from Cupcake Royale. Like how all my directional references use pastries as landmarks?

This my friends, is a cherry vanilla croissant. The cherry filling paired perfectly with the subtle vanilla flavor in the pastry, it was perfectly flaky, and a teensy bit sticky. But it was really the flavor blend that made it fantastic.


As you can see, their pastries are beautiful. Bakery Nouveau also has a case of handmade french macaroons, which evokes painful memories for me, because I ordered a bag of them and my wonderful dog ate them. No joke. I still haven't forgiven her for that.

I like to think she at least felt guilty about it.