Seattle Day 1: Burgers and Cupcakes

July 23rd, 2008

I was getting all crazy about my first post because why? I am pushing myself over the wall of crazy and just jumping in. I hope it doesn’t hurt too much. 

Since everyone reading this knows us I am assuming it’s also known that we just got back from a 2 week trip to Vancouver. More on that later. While we were there we drove to Seattle for the weekend to see good friends Jessica and Mark. We stayed at their awesome house on the top of a mountain about 20 minutes from downtown and silently (okay vocally) wished we lived there about 72 times in the 2 days we stayed there. They have wifi and chocolate milk. We almost moved into their guest room. 

We arrived Saturday around lunchtime ready to eat. Jess directed us to Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard. Although I am not a huge burger fan Matthew is so it was pretty exciting stuff. When Jess brought it up he was sort of faking ambivalence but I knew inside he must have been all “OMG!OMGOMG!!TOTALLY!OMG!” Matthew and Mark both enjoyed their prime rib cheeseburgers and Jess and I split a regular burger and some fries. The place is adorable, tiny with mostly outdoor seating. I chatted for a few minutes with the owner who was astounded at how busy it has gotten but seriously, she cuckoo crazy cause its super awesome. Basically you choose your meat, then cheese and other toppings and sides. Then you um…choose your milkshake. Mark is obviously the smartest guy around because he ordered the nutella milkshake and choked back every last bit. I stuck with root beer because I knew where we were going after burgers and didn’t want to be too full. Very big mistake. I am still regretting that decision. NUTELLA! MILKSHAKE!

After we finished our burgers we had a bit of a back and forth about WHICH cupcake place to try. Jess recommended Trophy Cupcakes in Wallingford but I rallied for (and won) a visit to Cupcake Royale in Ballard which I had heard about a bazillion times. Ballard is a bit of a destination and is billed as the “Brooklyn of Seattle”. We walked around and window-shopped a bit and Jess talked me out of getting a green shellacked rock tea light holder as a souvenir of Fakewestcoast Brooklyn. As for Cupcake Royale…YUM! It definitely passes the delicious cupcake test. I was getting kind of worried about the West Coast after the Sprinkles debaucle of April ’08 but they were really really delicious. I’m not usually down with such a tiny icing-to-cake ratio but meh, what can you do. I totally forgot to get a photo of the storefront, or inside, or the cute tshirts, or us in the shop but here are the cupcakes!

 

So although Ballard is no Brooklyn it is definitely cool and I can’t wait to go back. While walking around we stopped into one of the galleries and Jess went all nutty-nuts over some Cakespy display. Apparently Cakespy is a thing I have never heard about. I quickly fell in love with her little pictures of cupcakes out and about and Jess bought me one to replace the green rock disaster! More pics to come on that and the rest of our exciting weekend. 

Tags: cupcakes, hamburgers, seattle, travel

Entry Filed under: On the road