We started out at the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co, where we were treated to 2 mini cupcakes baked just for the tour. [OK, so I took a couple bites before I remembered to take the picture]. The right one has a special cream topping, sprinkled with bacon; the left one is Belgian chocolate. I was never too fond of cupcakes, but these were absolutely delicious!
Next we walked to a Tom Douglas restaurant, where we were led to a long table in the kitchen for our tasting. There were 11 people total, plus the guide, Brad.
The special wood burning pizza oven (behind the guy with the apron), is set at more than 100 degrees hotter than normal pizza ovens. They keep the oven going all night, as it will cool down too much if they turn it off, and it won't be hot enough when the next day's lunch comes around.
Next we went into RN74, a railroad themed restaurant. The chef (or manager, since he wasn't wearing a chef outfit) came out and talked about the restaurant.
We were served tomato soup with truffle oil, and maitake tempura with citrus mousseline.
As I requested non-alcoholic service, I was served a pomegranate drink with mint.
The next stop is Pike Place Market's il Bistro, which normally is closed for lunch, but set up just for our group. This is one of the first (oldest) "fancy" restaurant in Seattle, as defined by having white tablecloths. We had risotto with clams and mussels. I was served Pellegrino sparkling water.
And the chef came out and talked about the restaurant and its history.
Next we went to the Pike Brewing Company, right next to the grossest germiest place on earth, Seattle Gum wall. The chief brewer educated us on brewing beer, and after listening to her speech, I was very interested in trying it out myself - even though I normally hate beer.
Unfortunately I had already indicated I was non-alcoholic, so I got an apple-raspberry drink, followed by an apple juice with 2 different cheese pairings. The other people had the "Pike Kilt Lifter", which smelled floral and almost tasted acceptable based on the small sip that I took. The second one was the Pike IPA which again smelled nice but tasted "hops-sy". Even for a beer-hater like me, I could tell that these were artisan beer and much superior than the grocery store varieties.
The next stop was the truffle store at Pike Place Market, where we got to sniff 2 different kinds of truffles (smell, but don't touch). We were served a small cup of potato soup, before and after infusion of truffle oil with the eye dropper.
There were also samples laid out for tastings.
I was so impressed that I bought some truffle salt. It was discounted by 15% because of the tour, so it only set me back about $20 for 2 oz.
Brad the tour guide making sure nobody got lost at Pike Place Market.
Next was Von's GustoBistro, where we were served sour dough flour linguine with an alcoholic based tomato sauce.
We ended by at a gelato place Gelatiamo, where we had an almond and raspberry gelato, followed by coffee. It will be interesting to compare it with the real thing that we will soon be getting at Florence, Italy...
All in all, a most pleasant experience. The 2 best choices voted by the group were the mushroom pizza and the risotto. We also received a 15% discount card at all the partner restaurants and shops, too bad it expires in a week or so. Another disappointment was we did not end up back at the Yellow Leaf cupcake, as I would have liked to purchase additional bacon cupcakes!
