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Good Food
Good FoodCommunity Thrives at Still Life and Swingside
By Zachary D. Lyons
Nov 08, 2001 -- When I first moved to Seattle from Philly in 1985, I used to spend a lot of time in Fremont. Then it was entirely the funky place it is celebrated as being today. You could rent a four-bedroom house two blocks from downtown Fremont for $485 then. The Red Door Ale House was the Fremont Tavern, and the Dubliner was Poor Richard's, and both still stood on the corner of 34th and Fremont with dozens of motorcycles lined up out front. Fremont back then was not even a glimmer in the eyes of developers.The Still Life Cafe and Brad's Swingside Cafe are two Fremont establishments which opened during this time, and which still exude all the warmth, comfort, love and funk from that time before the "hype" for which Seattle in general, and Fremont in particular, became famous.
Susan Jackson and Johanna Rose serve up coffee, pastries and great food at Still Life. |
The Still Life Cafe opened in 1986, when Seattle's folk music scene was raging in funky coffee shops, little bakeries, and cool pubs like the Honey Bear, the Last Exit on Brooklyn and the original Murphy's. The Still Life fit right in, and it immediately drew a loyal following of diners, sippers and musicians. Today the Honey Bear and the Last Exit are gone, and Murphy's new owners moved it a block and expanded it for the UW crowd, but Still Life carries on.
It is November now, and yet people are still sitting out on the sidewalk in front of Still Life as you approach it. Once inside, you make your way past a bench with perhaps the largest selection of free reading material in the city, outside the library, and up to the blackboard menus. In addition to the fresh baked treats in the case, and all of the various hot beverages--including a huge selection of loose teas--the cafe offers assorted soups, sandwiches, salads, a veggie pie, and its signature chili. Vegan fare is abundant and easily identifiable. Just place your order along the cafeteria line, settle up, and grab one of the many odd mismatched chairs at one of the many mismatched tables, spread higgledy-piggledy about the place.
On my recent visit, I simply sat down at a table with a gentleman who was studying. What the heck! I thoroughly enjoyed my 12 Vegetable and Pasta soup with La Panzanella bread while I waited for my half chicken salad sandwich. The soups are made fresh and change daily, and each day the cafe offers sandwich and salad specials as well. My sandwich, a menu staple, was great. I do love a good chicken salad sandwich. Theirs was seasoned with tarragon, making it a unique, and delicious version. And the bread was a nutty, moist whole wheat that complemented its filling perfectly. For dessert, I grabbed a chocolate chip cookie bar--yum!
709 N 35th Street, 547-9850. Open daily, 7:30 a.m. - 9 p.m., Wednesday until 10 p.m. Victory Music open mike is Wednesday from 7:15 - 10 p.m.
Brad Inserra in the kitchen at Swingside. |
If the Still Life does not make you feel enough at home, go to Brad's Swingside Cafe. This little Italian joint, which sits across from another Fremont historical hangout, the Buckaroo Tavern, is actually built into owner/chef Brad Inserra's home.
If the Seattle hype was built on the backs of the funksters, artists and grunge-puppies that defined Fremont, than Brad's back is covered with tread marks. Brad's resume reads like a road map to Seattle's soul. This Pittsburgh boy got his Seattle start at Pike Place Market's famous DeLaurenti Specialty Food Market. He moved from there to the Pink Door, then Julia's in Wallingford, then M & R Produce, which used to be next door to where the Honey Bear also used to be in Wallingford, then to the Honey Bear itself, and then on to the Trolleyman Pub at Redhook Brewery, before he took over the Swingside Cafe on the Fremont Avenue climb in 1990.
Brad's Swingside is the kind of cozy, warm, loving place many of us miss from the "good old days." Maybe a dozen tables tightly packed into two front rooms, one with a window through to Brad's tiny kitchen, where you can watch him try to avoid losing his eyebrows each time he sets one of his pans alight. Out the back door is the Aquarium room, a glass and fishing net-lined room which accommodates larger parties and overflow, and all the way out back are two decks and a patio, where Brad hosts top musicians in concert throughout the summer. A wine cellar, office and prep kitchen hide away in the basement of his house, a walk-in cooler is tucked away in his garage, and expect a visit at some point in the evening from an orange cat or an orange dog, both named Henry.
Actually, Brad is nothing short of a music and wine scholar. In addition to his seasonal concerts out back, the dining room is always awash in wonderful music of every ilk from just about anywhere in the world. And while some large restaurants boast 300 wine labels, Brad's 80-label list is a source of great pride. Having cultivated excellent relationships with wine brokers and craft wineries alike, he is often able to offer bottles of wine you will find nowhere else in Seattle. You will not find a bad bottle in the bunch, so order at will. And maybe later Brad will break out a stray bottle for his old and new friends to sample.
But enough about the culture of Brad's, what about the food?
Well, if the food was the only attribute Brad's had to offer, it would still be one of my favorite restaurants. He spends hours every day developing the sauces and flavors of his regular menu items and his seasonal and nightly specials. I spent some time with Brad on a recent afternoon and watched as he built the sauce for his signature dish, Aglio Olio. The capers, reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes, anchovy fillets, herbs, spices, lemon juice and dry marsala had already been pureed into a thick sauce, and he was roasting whole garlic cloves, smoked chili peppers and hazelnuts in a pot of extra virgin oil. The flavors of the ingredients roasting in the oil would become infused into the oil, then those ingredients would be strained out, and the oil would be added to the already prepared base sauce.
While this dish take hours of prep, his Bolognese and the Seafood Bisque, which frequents his specials list, take even longer. Their bases must be developed. Ingredients must be added at the right time in the right order. The chicken for the Polla alla Brindisi must be smoked. The filling for the Raviolis alla Swingside must be prepared before the pasta can be filled, all before you ever think of ordering your meal hours later.
"I liken it to a Thelonious Monk tune," Brad, the ever-present music lover, says with the grin of a poet. "It's all done in steps."
Okay, well maybe these steps are all done before you ever think of ordering your meal, but I often find myself tasting that smoked chicken melting on my tongue hours before Brad thinks of smoking it. I pine for the rich hazelnutty-ness of his Aglio Olio, topped with fresh dungeness crab and, if I'm lucky, his homemade chum roe, marinated in a reduction of vodka, gin, white wine and various seasonings, which pop in one's mouth with a little explosion of flavor. The rich seafood base of halibut, crab, lobster, and white salmon lives on in my palate's memory for days as it is expressed through the local chanterelle and hedgehog mushroom lucky enough to be chosen to absorb the flavors of his Seafood Bisque.
I will never get away without trying an appetizer, as he has always tossed together some wonderful collection of items to get you started. On my most recent visit, I was bewitched by a plate of prosciutto, Reggiano parmesan, mountain gorgonzola, some Sally Jackson bleu sheep and goat cheese, fresh pomegranate seeds, hazelnuts and a simply divine Comisce pear compote on a bed of arugula. But I would have been equally happy with the fresh heirloom tomatoes and local organic fresh mozzarella.
Desserts are fine. I tend to lean toward the chocolate, but my coconut loving friends go for the coconut cream cake, and if it's berry season...More important for dessert is one of Brad's excellent dessert wines which will finish off your thorough surrender, while you kick back and interact with his charming staff, the table next to you, the cat or the dog, or Brad himself. If you haven't won over the heart of your date after an evening at Brad's Swingside Cafe, it is clearly time to take your swollen heart to greener pastures, 'cause that nut is clearly not for cracking!
4212 Fremont Avenue N, 633-4057. Open Tuesday - Saturday, 5:30 - 10 p.m. He will be open some Sundays during the holidays; call for reservations.
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