George's Bakery

 

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookie

George's Bakery, $1

A disc of buttery shortbread and a dollop of fudgy icing:  sweet, simple, and satisfying out of all proportion to its size.  The same could be said for just about anything from George's Bakery.  

Founder George Marcis was born in Greece in 1933 and immigrated to the US as a teenager; he learned English while studying at Seattle's Broadway Technical School.  In 1964 Macris and his wife Jean opened their bakery on the main street in North Bend, a small mountain town in the Olympic mountains east of Seattle.  

Until the 1978 bypass, Interstate 90 ran past the front door, delivering hungry skiers and hikers to and from the mountains.  Macris' work day started at 3am, and one North Bend resident described seeing him work "like a buzzard" to keep his cases stocked with fresh baked goods:  cracked wheat, cinnamon nut, and rye bread, danishes, doughnuts, cinnamon twists, peaked "Mount Si" loaves, and boozy rum balls.  When there weren't enough chairs to go around, patrons would happily sit on the floor with their pastries and coffee.

The Macrises commuted into Seattle to attend the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, and George's Bakery played an active role in producing goods for the annual fundraiser bazaars; in the days before an event, the bakery would host a revolving army of volunteer bakers, trying their best to meet the public's lucrative demand for specialty breads and pastries.  

Macris retired in 1993, selling the business to Greg and Cornelia Cordova.  In 2008 the business passed to current owners Kathleen Stokesbury and Joe McKeown, a third-generation baker from Pittsburgh who had previously run Seattle's Greenwood Bakery.  By all accounts, they've done little to change the formula that made George's Bakery a neighborhood hub:  the decor is still comfortably kitschy, the cases are still filled with familiar favorites. 

Macris passed away in 2008 at the age of 70; North Bend's mayor honored him with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award, citing his unwavering support for community members and events. 

George's Bakery

127 W North Bend Way  

North Bend, WA
425/888-0632

 

Other North Bend sources of notable sweets include Twedes's (below left), home of the "damn fine" cherry pie immortalized in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, and Scott's Dairy Freeze (below right), home of some damn sweet signage.   

Boehms Chocolates

Cherry Cordial (left)

Motzartkugel (right)

Boehms Candies

Calling all producers of romantic biopics:  wake up, smell the chocolate, and give the late Julius Boehm the big-screen treatment he so richly deserves!

Born in 1897, Boehm was a Swiss-Austrian who represented Austria in the 1924 Paris Olympics and was a torch-carrier in 1936--the same year he fled the Nazi invasion by skiing over the Alps to Switzerland.  Boehm eventually immigrated to the US and arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1941.  

As if all that weren't epic enough, Boehm was also the grandson of a confectioner, from whom he learned a thing or two about treats.  In 1934 he and a friend opened the Candy Kitchen in Ravenna, a quiet residential neighborhood on the north side of Seattle.  In 1956, Boehm moved his business to Issaquah, where the surrounding Cascade range recalled the mountains of his childhood.  Next to the shop he built a replica 12th century Alpine Chapel, dedicated to the memory of lost mountaineers.  Boehm himself was one of the lucky ones, safely summiting Mt. Rainier for the third time at the age of 80, just three years before his death in 1981.  

The business Boehm built thrives to this day, cranking out an enormous variety of filled and flavored chocolates.  For the cherry cordials, ripe cherries are soaked in brandy for nearly a month, then double-dipped in milk or dark chocolate.  Mozartkugeln are Boehms' signature sweet, a dollop of soft marzipan blanketed in creamy chocolate ganache, encased in a chocolate shell, and dressed in foil imprinted with Mozart's silhouette.   Honoring the centennial of the composer's death, the Mozartkugel was invented in Salzburg in 1890 by one of Julius Boehms' ancestors, and could itself be the subject of a pretty gripping movie; the confection was a fad that has since become a classic--and the subject of lawsuits, industrial innovation, and consumer obsession.  

Boehms Candies

255 NE Gilman Blvd

Issaquah, WA

425/392-6652

Triple XXX Rootbeer

Rootbeer
Triple XXX, from $2.75

Although "root beer" is catchier, "root-bark-herb-and-berry beer" would be more accurate; the first commercial recipe, launched by pharmacist Chester Hires at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, called for more than 25 different flavorings. 

Just after the turn of the century, the Galveston Brewing Company introduced a range of "XXX" soft-drink syrups, including ginger ale and root beer.  During Prohibition, Galveston supplied its syrups to more than 100 licensed franchises around the country.  Among them was Renton's Triple XXX Rootbeer, the first drive-in restaurant in the Pacific Northwest when it opened in 1930.  

The Issaquah branch--in its current location since 1969--and one in Indiana are the only surviving outposts of the XXX empire, but only the Indiana restaurant still uses the original XXX syrup; the Issaquah XXX sources its syrup from Coca-Cola, which uses a 1930s recipe.  

Although Triple XXX is no longer a drive-in, the parking lot is often lined with classic cars, whose owners gather at the restaurant for monthly shows and swapmeets.  Customers head indoors to order--and to ogle the accumulation of vintage memorabilia that clings to every wall and surface.  The root beer comes in "regular" or "supersize" glass mugs covered in velvety frost; it can also be ordered without ice, for an additional charge.  And of course there are root beer floats, made using Darigold ice cream.  

Triple XXX
425 NE Gilman Blvd,
Issaquah WA
425/392-1266

Chimacum Cafe

Chocolate Cream Pie

Chimacum Cafe, $3.22

The "prize-winning" pie at this vintage diner just about swamped me in waves of nostalgia. The chocolate cream pie, to an eerie degree, was just like my grade school cafeteria used to make: a blind-baked pie shell filled to the brim with instant chocolate pudding and topped with whipped cream and a few chocolate chips.  I've certainly had more adventurous or flavorful pies, but this wins my prize for affordably priced time travel.

Chimacum Cafe

9253 Rhody Drive
Chimacum, WA 98325

360/732-4631

Don's Pharmacy

Don's Pharmacy Soda Fountain 
Cherry Lime Phosphate (above)

Chocolate Milkshake (below)

Head past the world-class soap selection, gardening tools, and racks of novelty greeting cards to the back of Don's Pharmacy and you'll find a soda fountain installed in 1962 and untouched by the intervening years.  Seating is at your choice of booth or counter stool; service is quick and sassy--but completely genuine, like a sharp-tongued big sister rather than a gum-smacking, beehived retro cliche.  
The waitress is happy to explain some of the menu's more archaic items ("Brown Cow" is a Coke float, "Green River" is a lime soda) and to make recommendations.  She makes milkshakes (below) as thick as spackle from milk and hard-packed ice cream, with an entire second shake in reserve in the mixing cup.  

You can also get a made-to-order phosphate, a tart relic from soda's early days.  Although pharmacists initially introduced soda fountains as a way of making medicine more palatable (see my earlier post on the 1850s soda fountain at New Orleans' Pharmacy Museum) the public soon developed a taste for sweet syrup and fizzy water, minus the medicine.  The addition of phosphoric acid to drinks created a puckery sourness that found many fans; phosphates were a popular and prominent soda fountain offering from the late 19th century through the 1930s.  

Today many so-called phosphates, including those served at Don's, are made with citric acid rather than the harder-to-get phosphoric.  Although the citric acid gave my cherry-lime faux phosphate a deliciously sharp edge (waitress:  "Like drinking a sour patch kid!"), phosphoric acid aficionados claim that nothing matches the experience of genuine article.  

Don's Pharmacy Soda Fountain
1151 Water Street
Port Townsend, WA
360/385-2622

1151 Water StWA 98368

(360) 385-0969

Better Living Through Coffee

Peanut Butter Cookie

Better Living Through Coffee, $2.25

Seemingly stapled onto the backside of a building that fronts historic Water Street, Better Living Through Coffee juts out over the narrow beach and hogs one of Port Townsend's most mesmerizing views.  The light bouncing off the water gives the coffee shop's single room a hazy quality that underlines the vintage feel; not much about the wood-framed room would raise the eyebrows of an 1960s hippie--or even an 1860s settler.  

BLTC specializes in "Organic Fair-Trade Coffee & Nutrient Dense Food."  The coffee is locally roasted and dripped-to-order in a rack of standing filters.  The baked goods are made with organic ingredients and unrefined sweeteners, and some, like this light and melty peanut butter cookie, are also vegan and gluten-free.

Better Living Through Coffee
100 Tyler Street  
Port Townsend, WA
360/385-3388

Courtyard Cafe

Cinnamon Roll

Courtyard Cafe

A family-run restaurant in a old house just off the waterfront, Port Townsend's Courtyard Cafe radiates at least a dozen kinds of warmth.  Although no one actually lives in the canary-yellow building, it has a lived-in hospitality that makes customers feel thoroughly welcome, with comfortably worn furniture, mismatched china, hand-me-down newspapers, and local musicians jamming in the living room.  When the couple behind the counter flirtatiously pelt each other with croutons, it's easy to imagine that you're just a friend of the family, dropping by for brunch.  

The sweet treats include hearty pastries, rustic fruit pies, meal-sized desserts, and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows toasted tableside with a creme brûlée torch.  Owner Will makes the cinnamon rolls himself and takes great pride in the rapidity with which he goes through sacks of cinnamon; the spice is used so generously that it forms a distinct layer, side by side with the buttery pastry.  

The day-old baked goods are a steal at around $2 for a huge bag; Will's wife Heidi says the cinnamon loaf makes fantastic French toast.  Closed on Tuesdays, the Courtyard Cafe donates Monday-night leftovers to the Port Townsend Food Bank, another sign of this small business' big heart.  

Courtyard Cafe

230 Quincy Street

Port Townsend, WA

360/379-3355

Countryside Donut

Maple Bar and Old-Fashioned

Countryside Donut, $.85 each

For a donut-maker to hand over your order packed in a brown paper bag is a bit of a gamble. Will you make it out the door before fryer grease mottles the bag with disfiguring stains? Will you be down the block before the bag corrodes into oily pulp?

Or, if you've stopped by Countryside Donut on the way to the Edmonds ferry, will you get most of the way across Puget Sound before even a hint of oil stipples your to-go bag?

Husband-and-wife team Sokgim Lim and Youkhun Taing (below, left) came to the US as refugees from Cambodia, with a young family and no resources. After years of saving, planning, and looking for opportunities, they bought the Countryside Donut House, a new business in a small Mountlake Terrace strip mall. Absolutely the only thing they knew about donuts was Americans really like them.

Twenty-five years later, they know a whole lot more. The first months were rocky; the Taings lost customers and trashed unsatisfactory batches as they struggled to master the unfamiliar process. But being self-taught turned out to be a huge asset, with the Taings developing their own techniques that make their ordinary offerings (fritters, old-fashioned, glazed, etc) extraordinarily light and flavorful.

In addition to being not at all greasy, the old-fashioneds (above, front) combine crisp edges and a cakey center, while the maple bars (above, back, and below right) are airy and delicate, made with a slightly tangy dough and a mildly sweet glaze.

Countryside Donut House

21919 66th Ave W #1

Mountlake Terrace, WA

425/672-7820

Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal

Conchas
Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal, 3/$1.00

Seattle's South Park neighborhood has always been something of an outlier. In the late 19th century the expansion of downtown Seattle pushed Italian immigrant George Colello off his original farm at what is now First and Jackson; Colello became one of the first of many farmers, mostly Italian and Japanese, to raised produce in South Park for sale at stalls in Pike Place Market.

Ironically, the area's industrialization during the 20th century left South Park dangerously polluted. Over the years the neighborhood has also struggled with crime and gentrification, and as if all that weren't enough, the bridge that had been South Park's most direct connection to the city since 1929 was closed in 2010 and its replacement is still under construction.

So it's both a wonder and no wonder at all that in 2007 master baker and Mexico City native Fernando Marquez Galicia looked around South Park and saw both a market and a need. As he told the Catch the Culture website, “South Park has lots of Latinos, lots of good people, and South Park needed a bakery.”

Today Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal is an aromatic neighborhood hotspot. The fresh-daily treats run the gamut from simple sweet breads (pan dulce) and pastries to fancy desserts. There's creamy caramel-topped flan, empanadas filled with fruit jams, jiggly gelatinas in colorful small cups, and pastel tres leches, a cake bathed in three kinds of milk (evaporated, condensed, and cream).

Conchas (above) are light buns topped with a soft sugar paste; before baking lines are stamped or raked into the paste, giving the bun a vaguely shell-like appearance. I also tried buns filled with custard (below left) and cream cheese (below right).

La Ideal is cash-only, but almost everything is between $0.50 and $1.00. So much about visiting South Park seems a little like traveling back in time--including the opportunity to gorge on fresh baked goods after spending only the small change scrounged from the floor of the car.

Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal
8909 14th Ave S
Seattle, WA

206/767-4002

Penland Gingerade

Gingerade

I've been attending residential art classes at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina off and on since 1996. What with juggling 24-hour studio access and whatever work-study job I've been assigned, I tend to push myself hard while I'm there, often teetering on the edge of what could be a disastrous illness.

Gingerade to the rescue! Over the years, the Penland Coffee Shop has migrated and mutated, but this spicy, invigorating brew has been a blessedly constant presence on the menu. I can't begin to calculate how many gallons I must have bought.

Now I make this versatile tonic at home, bringing a little bit of Penland magic to whatever creative or physical challenge I happen to be facing. Wretched winter cold? Hot with extra honey, and maybe a touch of whiskey. Demoralizing summer cold? Full-strength over ice. Looming exhibition deadline? Fancied up with seltzer and a lime wedge.

Gingerade

(As written the recipe recipe makes 2 quarts, but it's easy math to scale up for bigger batches.)

1 c peeled and thinly sliced ginger

1 t whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
2 whole lemons, washed and quartered with peels left on

2 quarts water

Combine the above ingredients and simmer for 2 hours. Strain out the chunks and while the liquid is still hot add 2 cups of orange juice and 1 cup (or to taste) of your favorite sweetener (honey, agave, sugar, brown sugar, or succanat work fine). Stir until the sweetener is dissolved. Serve hot or cold, straight or diluted with still or fizzy water.

Pierogi

Pierogi

Polish Home Association, $16 all-you-can-eat

"Pierogi Fest" is the major annual fundraiser for Seattle's Polish Home Association, drawing huge crowds for food, beer, and Polish entertainment. A $16 ticket gives you the right to elbow your way through to a long table lined with steam trays; hunted-looking ladies in festive costume periodically restock the trays with pierogi, plump hand-crimped dumplings stuffed with hearty combinations of sauerkraut, potato, cheese, and meat.

For dessert, there are sweet pierogi filled with cherries, blueberries, or plums (an advertised "sweet cheese" pierogi was sadly absent during my visit); they're dense, slippery, and bursting with juice. It takes a little experimenting to figure out which are best topped with sour cream and which with sweetened whipped cream, but with unlimited buffet privileges, there's nothing to stop you from trying every possible variation.

Cranachan

Rhubarb Cranachan

Cranachan is an old Scottish dessert designed to insulate against grey days and damp winds: hearty toasted oats are stirred together with cream cheese, whipped cream, honey, whiskey, and fresh raspberries (for the vitamins, presumably). Rhubarb cranachan is a modern reworking from Niki Segnit's inspiring Flavor Thesaurus (a kind of culinary choose-your-own-adventure book).

When the cranachan recipe is stripped down to its five main themes (sweetness, cream, acidity, booze, and crunch), even more variations start to suggest themselves. Later in the summer I plan to try a Georgian version, with ripe yellow peaches, Southern Comfort and toasted pecans.

Niki Segnit's Rhubarb Cranachan

Chop 6 stalks of rhubarb and toss with 3/4 c sugar; bake in a covered, buttered dish for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then let cool. In a heavy skillet, toast 1/2 c oats until golden, then let cool. Whip 3/4 c cream into stiff peaks, then fold in the rhubarb, 2 T amaretto, 2 T honey, and three-quarters of the oats. Serve chilled in small glasses topped with the remainder of the oats and toasted, sliced almonds.

Verdens Beste Kake

Verdens Beste Kake

Scandinavian Specialties, $3.75

Too many hours of cooking shows have trained me to equate quality with complexity: flavors aren't flavors unless they're squired by at least a dozen partners, textures aren't worth their weight unless they're tussling against crunchy toppings, runny reductions, and chunky compotes.

This might be why a particular item at Scandinavian Specialities pulled me up short. Verdens Beste Kake translates to "World's Best Cake," but it wasn't the boast alone that got to me: it was the combination of superlative and simplicity. As the menu sums it up, Verdens Best Kake is no more or less than "Almond meringue with vanilla cream." Baked in large sheets, the crunchy almond-topped meringue becomes the "bread" for this simple sandwich, slathered with at least an inch of thick, cool, sweetened cream.

The cake first appeared in northern Norway in the 1930s, and was then known as Kvæfjordkaka, after the local fjord. From there, the recipe gained ground and popularity, earning first its impressive new name, and then, in 2002, recognition as the official cake of Norway.

Scandinavian Specialties

6719 15th Ave NW

Seattle WA

206/784-7020

Gjetost

Gjetost and Waffle

Scandinavian Specialties, $0.75

Known in its native Norway as brunost (literally, "brown cheese") and in the US as gjetost (just say,"Yay, toast!") this cheese-like substance has more than enough personality to merit two names. Goat milk, cream, and whey are boiled down until the dairy sugars caramelize, giving gjetost a rubbery consistency, golden color, and trademark flavor. Eating gjetost is one of those call-and-response experiences in which two tastes engage in debate inside your mouth; in this case the goat milk's pungent tang adds some edge to the toe-curling sweetness of the browned sugars, while the caramel, in turn, rounds out the goat's sharp funk.

At Scandinavian Specialities, small slices of gjetost are served on top of tiny waffles.

Scandinavian Specialties
6719 15th Ave NW
Seattle WA
206/784-7020

Coco Rico

Coco Rico

As a genre, "tropical" drinks tend to feature a half-dozen garish flavors skewered together by a tiny umbrella (real or implied). Not so Coco Rico, a single-note coconut soda so stripped down it's almost shy.

First produced in Puerto Rico in the 1930s, Coco Rico is clear but creamy, fizzy but soft, aromatic but without suntan lotion overtones. Singles are $0.89 at Rising Sun Produce in Seattle.