MARCH 2023 BAR BULLETIN
Stone House, 9701 Rainier Avenue, info@thestonehousecafe.com, 206.397.4102, is a fun location for brunch or lunch (it closes at 5 p.m.) in South Seattle. The picturesque location, across the street from Lake Washington, was a gas station from 1926 through 1963. The restaurant opened in 2015. The building is very distinctive for its “stacked rock” exterior. The dining experience is very informal — you wait in line to order as you enter, get a beeper for when your food (or drink) is ready, and then go find a table, either inside or on the year-round porch (covered and heated in the winter), and then you bus your own table when you are done. We opted for the porch and found it adequately warm on a winter day and we got to enjoy the view of the lake. The menu is rather typically diner (think chicken fried steak and biscuits and gravy), but with some of the harder to find extras like a Monte Cristo sandwich, and, of course, omelets, scrambles, salads and sandwiches. For a specialty item we tried the Fried Chicken Sando, fried chicken on a brioche bun with a choice of heat (we took Cajun which was not too hot). Everything on the menu looked good if you are in a diner type of lunch mood. We will return for a future biscuits and gravy taste-off issue.
Stone House also features a full bar (served in plastic cups) with a few customized old favorites like the Salty Dog (gin, grapefruit, lime with mint) which we found to be a very appropriate brunch drink to go with the chicken sandwich. There certainly were Bourbon Lemonades and Stone House Mules being enjoyed all around, also. Reservations are accepted for special events only. Expect to stand in line to order, but after that there is ample seating. This is certainly a place to add to your brunch list when you are in South Seattle.
Kedai Makan, 1449 East Pine Street, http://www.kedaimakansea.com/, closed in October and reopened with new owners in a new location at the Southeast Corner of Pine and 15th. This is a familiar location (previously home to Le Zinc, Adana, Money Frog and Remedium). Despite the historic turnover at this location, based upon the crowds when we were there, Kedai Makan is busy — consider reservations as they were full by 5:30 on a weeknight. (And that is with no happy hour.) We tried a good assortment of their offerings, including the Kerabu Timun Nanas, a pineapple and cucumber salad in fish sauce with basil, onions, peanuts and dried shrimp, the Roti Jala, a nut bread served with dahl curry, the Sayap Ayam Pedas, spicy chicken wings, the Larsa Lamak, rice vermicelli noodles in a coconut-based broth, and the Nasi Goreng, which is a sweet fried rice, in our case with the lap xuong pork sausage added. We enjoyed all of them, leaving surprisingly few left overs (having ordered all of those dishes for three people). Two dishes stood out: the chicken wings, which were quite meaty and flavorful with a moderate burn, won over even our chicken wings avoiders; and, the fried rice was our favorite and a dish we plan to order whenever we return. The menu is well labeled for gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options all of which were plentiful.
Kendai Makan’s cocktail menu contains many interesting twists on many standards, giving them an Asian or even a Polynesian hint, along with a few interesting custom items. We have sampled only a few of their featured drinks so far, including the Jungle Bird, rum, Campari, lime juice and pineapple, and the Kendai Sling, gin, Benedictine, lemon, (house made) grenadine and pineapple. In both cases, if you like a Mai Tai, you would probably enjoy either of these drinks. They also feature shots with “medicinal infusions” of ginseng and Chinese herbs as well as other health-oriented ingredients in their drinks, including some non-alcoholic options.
Kedai Makan is rumored to be opening for lunch at some point soon and we intend to go back to try that out, especially if they have the fried rice for lunch.
We checked out another fairly new addition to Capitol Hill, Fern Thai Eatery, 1400 10th Avenue, https://www.fernthaioncaphill.com/, 206.858.6655. Fern Thai opened last September in a location that had been another, but unrelated, Thai restaurant pre-covid and its menu covers Greater Bangkok (Central) Northern, Southern and the Northeast (Esaan) regions. Given the dietary preferences of one of our number, we sampled the Pad Thai Boran with Chicken, a stir fry with rice noodle accompanied by a banana blossom (which looks surprisingly like an artichoke, but different parts are edible) and the Garlic Lovers Chicken, a garlic pepper stir fry with broccoli and pineapple with brown Rice. Both were very good, but what set the visit aside was the very prompt, attentive and helpful service — among the fastest and friendliest service we have had at a Capitol Hill restaurant. They have a full bar but we did not take sufficient advantage of that to review it this time.
Fern Thai prides itself on recipes that have been passed down through the family for generations and on preserving historic cooking methods for their dishes. We barely scratched the surface of the menu items and we will need to return to explore more of them. There is also a Fern Thai in Bellevue at 10134 Main Street, 425.326.1624, https://www.fernthaionmain.com/, for those of you for whom that is more convenient.
Next month we hope to get some more distant locations reviewed.
Christopher Howard has recently retired from Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. For comments on this article or to share your favorite places to eat or drink, you may contact him at 206.669.5956 or CHH@f2t.com.
