Following the advice of two friendly employees at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller who lead us around during Matthew's shoot there, we decided to try Athens, a Greek restaurant located just before the bridge into the main part of town. We were a little apprehensive eating Greek in the middle of nowhere, and became even more nervous when we walked in the place and discovered a mishmash of knickknacks thrown seemingly willy-nilly all over walls and every inch of available surface space. Fake flowers, pots, pans, candles, tacky vases ... it looked as if an old lady's attic blew up and all of the contents somehow landed in the restaurant. It was a bit much, as were the scary looking, scantily dressed female patrons with enormous bellies hanging out.
After sitting for several minutes with no sign of water or menus, we briefly debated leaving before a slighty nutty (but friendly) waitress appeared and informed us of the day's special - freshly made moussaka, which we happily ordered along with a hummus appetizer and lamb kabobs. While waiting, we chatted with a local couple who had never been to a Greek restaurant and were quizzing us on what to order. They ended up copying our order exactly. It was rather amusing chatting with them through a thick jumble of silk flowers.
After what seemed like an eternity, our food finally arrived. First the hummus, and then moments later our two entrees, which were served with salad and generous amount of both pita and garlic bread (a Canadian midwestern addition, I gather). We were both happily surprised by how delicious everything was. The moussaka was prepared beautifully, a time consuming dish that kind of looks like lasagna. The lamb was equally as delicious, tender and flavorful. The one thing that kind of suffered, but was still good, was the hummus. I'm a huge fan of freshly made hummus, and order vast amounts of it in New York from the incomparable Hummus Place. They set such a high bar that when I'm served cold hummus that has been sitting in the fridge for any length of time, I'm a little disappointed. But, as I said, it was still decent.
Overall, I give Athens Greek Restaurant a B+ for their surprisingly good Greek food. Even if you're not a fan of Greek fare, it's almost worth the stop here just to peek in at the jumble of crap all over the walls.
ATHENS GREEK RESTAURANT
71 Bridge St
Drumheller, Alberta, Canada
T0J 0Y0
Phone: 403-823-3225
Hours: Open 4PM - 10PM Daily
There's something nice about being assaulted verbally when I'm outside of New York that makes me feel like I'm back home, and that's exactly what happened when I walked into The Elbow Room, where saucy comments from the staff are part of the schtick. The thing that makes this place really rise above the self-imposed kitsch is the food, which is pretty damn amazing.
Everything is homemade and is so fabulous that we ate here every morning for three days straight. You have to try the Big Ass Pancakes, which come in either 6" or 12" sizes. When the waitress asks how big you want your ass, I highly recommend going with the smaller ass - it's a ton of food and you are requested to donate spare change to an AIDS charity if you don't have a clean plate!
Other great things on the menu include the French toast with strawberries, eggs Benedict and the turkey club on cranberry sourdough bread with cream of spinach soup (this might not be one of the soups of the day on your visit, however). The fix-it-yourself tea, coffee and water table is brilliant - not only does it fit in with the faux grouchy atmosphere, but it is easier to fill up your own cup rather than waiting around for an already overwhelmed server to do so.
Other than the food, my favorite part of The Elbow Room is its exceedingly flamboyant owner, who struts around the room cooing, "Hello, Girls!" to each and every table while making funny comments. After paying the bill for my Big Ass Pancakes on my first visit, he snapped, "Girl, you like everything BIG!"
Yes, I do.
The Elbow Room gets an all around A for providing an exceptionally entertaining atmosphere while offering solidly delicious, made-from-scratch diner fare.
Fantastic stop - highly recommended!
THE ELBOW ROOM
560 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 2G4
Phone: 640-685-3628
Hours: Mon - Fri 8AM - 4PM; Sat - Sun 8AM - 5PM
I'm a little sad that I didn't discover Konbiniya before our last evening in Vancouver, but at least I found it at all because I'm obsessed with Pocky and this place is heavily devoted to the Glico manufactered candy and chocolate coated pretzel sticks that come in dozens of flavors, some of which are incredibly difficult to find. I first discovered Pocky way back in 1992 from my Japanese friend Shizuka, who used to eat the chocolate variety nonstop in class and offered me some one day...and I've been hooked ever since!
Konbiniya
1238 Robson St.
Vancouver,
BC
V6J 5L1
Phone: (604) 682-3634
Hours: Everyday 11AM - 2AM
We've been traipsing around Vancouver for Matthew's shoots, and in between working we've been wandering different parts of town just for kicks - mainly to search out mean tasting edibles, and when we walked through the central food pavilion of the Granville Island Public Market, we hit the mother load: Piles of the freshest, sweetest tasting apples imaginable greeted me and I immediately bought five giant Honeycrisps. I also picked up some maple syrup roasted almonds that didn't even survive the afternoon they were so good. But the thing that is haunting me the most are the pumpkin spice donuts at Lee's Donuts.
Covered in a crispy shell of sweetness, they actually crunch when bitten into and quickly reveal their soft, perfectly spiced center that literally melts in your mouth. I can't even begin to tell you how good they are. I think I would kill for one. No, really - they're that good. Unfortunately, they're also only made seasonally - as in NOW...through October 31st - so get your ass there before it's too late! If you're not a fan of pumpkin (gasp!) or you can't make it before the season's up, I'm sure the other varieties of donuts are just as tasty...although, I can't tell you for sure because I couldn't stop eating the pumpkin spice donuts long enough to try any of their other offerings.
The Pumpkin Spice Donuts at Lee's get an A+ for being utterly addicting, sinfully scrumptious and just plain god damned DEE-LEEESH-SHUSH!
Lee's Donuts
1689 Johnston Street
Vancouver,
BC
V6H 3R9
(located in the main food pavilion of the Granville Public Market)
Phone: 604-685-4021
Hours: Everyday 9AM - 7PM
The only thing I eat at Ivar's are the fried clams - I literally throw all of the fries at the crowds of eager seagulls gathered along railings (and sometimes right on my table). The clams are terribly addicting. They are crunchy, flavorful and so, so good. I have many memories of eating at Ivar's when I worked at Argosy Cruises narrating tours around the harbor and through the Ballard Locks. It's not the nicest spot and the food is pretty greasy and not exactly thoughtfully prepared ... but the fried clams keep bringin' me back (not the clam chowder, though, which is too salty)!
Ivar's Seafood gets a B for their crispity crunchity fried clams. Ignore everything else.
IVARS ACRES OF CLAMS
Pier 54
1001 Alaskan Way
Seattle, WA
Phone: 206-624-6852
Hours: Mon - Thu 11AM - 10PM; Fri - Sat 11AM - 11PM; Sun 3:30PM - 10PM
I don't have much to say about Market Grill, a tiny seafood counter located in the Pike Place Market, other than to say they serve up the absolute BEST grilled halibut sandwich found just about anywhere. It's the only thing I've tried on the menu (well, the slaw served on the side - and I usually don't like coleslaw at all - is pretty darn dee-lish as well), but it keeps me coming back every time I blow through Seattle.
Market Grill's fresh halibut sandwich gets an A for being totally fucking delicious.
MARKET GRILL
(in the Pike Place Market)
1509 Pike Place
Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: 206-682-2654
Hours: Everyday 9AM - 5PM
Matthew swears that World Class Chili makes the best chili he's ever tasted, and while we've come pretty close to replicating it at home, we're still missing a secret ingredient that we'll probably never discover because the owner guards his recipes extremely closely. So much so, in fact, that he doesn't even keep them written down in his Pike Place Market shop and makes them all early each morning from memory.
We were so glad that we had the chance to stop here before heading north and were happy that he was still open - he closes by 3pm. Matthew loves the Texas chili, while I lean more toward the Cincinnati. We're hoping the owner seals some kind of deal before he dies to have his recipes published, or at least have someone keep his shop open, because it would be a shame to lose it entirely. He's getting fairly old, and we always wonder between visits if it's still going to be there when we make it back into Seattle. Thankfully, this time it was!
World Class Chili gets an A for serving up absolutely amazing bowls of chili.
WORLD CLASS CHILI
93 Pike Street (in the Pike Place Market)
Seattle, Washington
Phone: 206-623-3678
Hours: Mon - Sat 11AM - 3PM; Closed Sundays
We finally made it to Vancouver. It was a long, loooooooooooong day spent in transit. Our flight from Newark to Seattle was fairly painless, if a bit long and bumpy. I didn't bring my Nintendo DS or any of my other usual distractions, so I listened to music on my malfunctioning iPhone (I've dropped it a few too many times). Flying into Seattle turned out to be a lot cheaper than heading directly to Vancouver, and it worked out for the best: I hadn't been there in a while and it was nice to see the skyline, water and mountains again ... AND we decided to stop for lunch at Pike Place Market before driving north!
I LOVE Pike Place Market. It's home to the best chili, halibut sandwich, mini donuts and (just down the street) Ivar's fried clams. I was in heaven. (I'll recap each spot individually.)
As luck would have it, after driving from the airport through a tiny rainstorm (surprise!), we were greeted by nothing but pure sunshine in the Emerald City and happily ate our way through Pike Place while walking around in between bites. It was wonderful and it almost made me miss living in the Northwest. Almost. The 9+ months of rain truly can drive a person to suicide. And so I left. There really isn't a city that is much more pretty than Seattle on a sunny day though. It shimmers and everything is so green. And the air is so cool, moist and fresh - nothing like New York's dirty excuse for oxygen.
The market itself, outside of my food stops, is so much fun to walk around. The fresh flower stands alone are reason enough to visit. I could never find dahlias so big, beautiful and affordable back home. Next time we head to Vancouver, we'll fly in the same route if the rates match up and stay a couple days before heading north.
