By Christopher Howard
There are a lot of new restaurants opening in town — but most of them do not seem to be open for lunch. For this issue, we wanted to focus on new lunch options. The ones we found were a short bus ride away from downtown, on Capitol Hill.
Pizza for Lunch Until Late at Night
There seems to always be a new place for pizza in Seattle, and we tried another one: Roma Roma, 1610 12th Avenue, 843.580.2990, . Featuring a naturally leavened sourdough crust, the “Roman-Style” pizza spot opened earlier this Spring in the 12th Avenue Arts Building, a location previously occupied by Rachel’s Ginger Beer.
Roma Roma sells rectangular pizza by weight with a quarter pound minimum. They will cut your piece to order. We tried several of the available options: their meatball, the potato and sausage, the potato and garlic, the asparagus and goat cheese, and what they called the “white hot,” a vegetarian slice with mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, and parmesan chili crisps.
We liked all of them. Surprisingly, our favorite was the meatball on which the sauce was both sweet and spicy. The potato and sausage and the asparagus and goat cheese were our runners up. We would order all three of those again. Their offerings change so we know we will have more from which to choose.
We accompanied the pizza with Italian sodas, specifically the morello cherry kola nut and the blood orange fennel. It is a matter of taste, but we liked the blood orange option a little better. They offer granitas, but their machine was not working the day we visited. They also offer several pre-mixed cocktails on tap, so for dessert we sampled their Negroni. The Negroni was good for the price and for a pre-mix, but slightly sweeter than we prefer.
Roma Roma allows one to order full pies to go. And they are open late; the “pizza for lunch until late” is their saying. They do not offer a gluten-free pizza crust, but their three-day fermented sourdough sup
posedly has converted most of the gluten — not enough for a true gluten-free diet, but for a gluten-avoiding diet. Roma Roma is both cash-free and a no-tip establishment, the latter we find quite refreshing.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill
We continue to await the opening of Fire Taco at the old Coastal Kitchen location on 15th East. They inform us they have been held up with the permitting process.
Across the street from the pending Fire Taco Cap Hill location, we quite literally stumbled upon the newly opened Afghan Café, 206.422.8295, (no web presence that we could find) which opened in April in a space that had been an unusual general store. And the décor continues that unusual tradition — set up to look something like a coffee stand in a playground, chain-link fence and all. They also have a stage with instruments and they informed us there would be music on occasion.
On their advice we tried the Bolani and Doogh. Bolani is an Afghan stuffed flatbread, in this case made with potato filling, and served with a slightly spicy sauce. They clearly made it fresh when ordered and it arrived very hot. Doogh is a salty, slightly minty yogurt drink served over ice. It was a very nice alternative to sweet beverages and it accompanied the Bolani well. This was a fine snack. If one wants something more filling, they offer an Afghan burger that optionally comes with fries. Their menu is quite limited and they said the offerings would increase with time. We tried to go back to sample the burger, but the sign on the door said the restaurant was closed until June 1, and promised to reopen with music on the premises.
Given the closure of Seattle’s best known Afghan restaurant, Kabul, last December, maybe there will be some pent-up demand to help Afghan Café get started. Its current location is slated to be demolished, along with the old QFC building on 15th East, within the next two years, so they can look forward to moving.
Back on Broadway
Close to Broadway we found Café Lolo, 806 East Roy, 206.468.4721, , which just opened in April. Café Lolo occupies a space across from what was the Harvard Exit — for those of you who have been in Seattle for decades.
The location has housed many restaurants going back to 1932, including the Russian Samovar, which explains the Russian artwork that is still on the walls. Lolo opened in April and we found it already doing a fairly brisk lunch business mid-week.
We split the marinated beets, the egg and greens sandwich, and the house porchetta sandwich. The beets were served with pickled habanero, beet agrodolce (a traditional Italian sweet-and-sour sauce), toasted hazelnuts, and cilantro — very good and less sweet than many other beet dishes we have tasted. Both sandwiches were excellent with a lot of flavor. The egg and greens sandwich was served on a ciabatta roll with cheese, spring greens, and smashed (four-minute) egg. The porchetta was served on rye focaccia with garlic aioli, spicy pickled cabbage, and sliced apple. We look forward to ordering all three of these again.
For beverages, Lolo has an eclectic selection of wines, beers, teas, the full range of coffee drinks, and an assortment of pre-mixed cocktails. We tried their mezcal paloma made with fig wood vodka, mezcal, and ruby red grapefruit juice, as well as their white tea made with only buds, no leaves. Once again, we will be back to order both.
Lolo serves lunches on Thursday and Friday, brunches on the weekend, and dinner Thursday through Sunday. They also have a grab-and-go happy hour while the kitchen is not open. They focus on local farm-to-table, including the grains which are a major focus of their menu.
They mill their own grain, bake their own bread, and make their own pasta, all in-house (and they warn any customer with celiac that there may be grain dust in the air). Customers ordered at the counter, but the owners mingled with all the patrons while delivering orders and bussing dishes. The atmosphere was incredibly friendly and welcoming.
Parking may be a little tight in this neighborhood, but this is one new restaurant that is definitely worth a detour to Capitol Hill. We know we will be going back.
Next month we will check out new dinner options.
Dining Out is brought to you by Christopher Howard with the help of friends and family. Comments and suggestions are welcome at chh@f2t.com or 206.669.5956.
