— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौंतीस —
I budgeted $50 for Happy Hour with Laney yesterday, at a brand new rooftop bar in Pioneer Square called
Firn—it opened
on May 22—and I wound up spending $54.30. One one cocktail and one appetizer (or, what their menu calls "
Tidbits"). And you know what? This was a very rare case of it being totally worth it.
I went back and forth a bit, between getting the one $8 hard cider on the menu versus the $20 "Old-Fashioned Love Song" (bourbon, banana, demerara, chocolate & aromatic bitters). In the end I let the bartender convince me to get the latter, as Laney and I sat at the bar waiting for a table to open up in the outdoor seating. It was neither as chocolatey nor as banana-flavored as I was hoping, but I could still detect notes of both, and I could really recognize the high quality of the drink. It was good that it wasn't too sweetly delicious, too, as I easily nursed it over the course of our entire time there without ever being tempted to get another cocktail.
Far more impressive, though, was the White Bean Hummus dish that Laney and I each ordered one of (with feta, crudite, crostini). These are seen pictured below, and they were truly fantastic. The selection of vegetables and crostini were all perfect; the hummus was easily among the best I have ever had; I loved how perfectly matched the amounts were—I had just enough hummus for the amount of vegetables and crostini we were given to eat with it. These were $19 each, which was also steep, but Laney and I both agreed it was actually a good value, the quality was so good. A lot of these places charge astronomical prices for no better than average food or drinks. Not the case here.
We had a lovely spot there, once the seating started to open up. The place opened at 4:00 and we arrived at 5:00—we might have gone in earlier, but I had walked from work down the waterfront and Laney had walked all the way from Volunteer Park(!) on Capitol Hill, and was sitting in Occidental Square to cool off. Once we figured that out while exchanging texts, I went to sit with her until she was ready to walk the block or so further to Populus Seattle Hotel, where Firn is located. Anyway, it was packed when we got in, and Laney did say, "I think there's a soccer game today." I then clocked that about half the people in there had soccer fan attire on.
I was on the phone with Gabriel for about 20 minutes this morning. He told me the game was actually at noon, and he even went to it. All the soccer people we saw would have been hanging out
after the game, not getting drinks beforehand as Laney and I were presuming.
Laney and I must have waited half an hour at the bar, and we ordered both our drinks and our food while we were there. We got the drinks at the bar, but the food did not come until after we were seated outside. We left around 6:30, which means we spent a good 90 minutes at Firn, a solid hour out on the corner couch they put us on in the outside seating. By the time we were done, it was kind of astonishing how much the place had cleared out. We thought maybe they were just a super popular place, but it seems clear now that they had been slammed largely because of the soccer game. We might not have had to wait half an hour to get seated outside on another day. But whatever, it turned out fine.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौंतीस —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौंतीस —
Laney and I already knew that Happy Hour yesterday was going to be expensive, so we both decided we would bring an extra drink to have in a nearby park once we finished at Firn.
But! I had
such an insanely busy day on Sunday (with downtown with Shobhit and Alexia; brunch at Lowell's at the Market with Alexia;
Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight double feature with Alexia; final stretch of p-patch shed construction and then dinner at our place with Shobhit and Gina; walk with Shobhit to Seattle Center for the Hot Air Balloon Glow-Up), I hardly had time to think, let alone remember to pack an extra drink to bring along to work with me yesterday. I might have managed had I gone home first, but Firn is in Pioneer Square and I left the office at 4:15 to walk down there as it was.
I texted Laney to say I had forgot to bring a second drink, but I'd be fine (I'M FINE!—I joked). She found this unacceptable and very graciously offered to bring one for me, with her limited but workable options. She really likes mixing her tequila with cinnamon whiskey, says it's very tasty, and offered to bring that with a small can of tonic water. I said that would work great. She asked if I had a cup I could bring—at first I wasn't sure, as I took most of the stuff on and in my desk home weeks ago in preparation for our office move in August. But, I still have both the tumbler I use for tea and the tumbler I use for water, and the latter worked perfectly. I put that in my backpack and I was all set.
So, after Laney and I left Firn, and I got my
exterior shot of Populus Seattle Hotel (you can't even see that there's a rooftop bar up there from the street), we walked over to Occidental Square and found a small table to sit at.
The weather was wonderful yesterday. Occidental Park is almost entirely shaded
by a canopy of trees, and even in the shade the temperature could not have been more perfectly comfortable. If only the entire summer could be like this!
I did steer us a bit away among the tables, from a homeless woman who had a mystifying mask of shocking white on her entire face. I have no idea what it was, and she probably was harmless, but I still preferred to keep our distance. Later, another woman approached us to ask for money. She was very thin and in a very tight outfit, black leggings and an orange top. I half expected her to start miming. She was apologetic at first: "I'm sorry, I know you're talking." And then she said, "I'm just a poor woman—" I had already said "Sorry," as I do to all panhandlers, and Laney apologized herself and said, "I'm sorry, I don't carry cash." The lady even said, "No coins?" Laney said, "I don't carry cash at all."
Anyway. The shots I got from Laney (in a small jar, which made it look
a bit like a urine sample) were a little strong. Not terribly strong, but a little. She noted she doesn't have any shot glasses and so just guessed; she recently ordered some. I'm sure it would have been fine on its own, but after the "Old Fashioned Love Song" I'd already drank, I was pleasantly buzzed by the time we got up and made our way to the ferry terminal so Laney could use the bathroom. Laney said she was too. We both took the RapidRide G line home, and my buzz was pretty much over by the time I got home, though.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौंतीस —
[posted 1:28pm]
