Seattle is a great food town, but it has not traditionally been a great town in which to find a full menu after 11 p.m. In honor of Night Kitchen — a restaurant only open for late-night dining that closed its doors indefinitely this past summer — Dining Out With Schwabe salutes the late and all-night dining options.
Nothing is more frustrating than finding yourself hungry for a full meal and not being able to find an open kitchen. These are our solutions to your late-night eating dilemmas.
Open ‘Til Midnight or 1 a.m.
Want access to a Tom Douglas restaurant after seeing a play with a client? The Palace Kitchen (2030 Fifth Ave., Seattle; 448-2001; tomdouglas.com) is open until midnight. While The Palace may print up a fresh menu every day and it has a good variety of local Northwest-style food, it is well known for its “Palace Burger Royale.” You can expect the chef to do a good job on your steaks, too. Like most any other Tom Douglas restaurant, save some room for the coconut cream pie for dessert.
Another client-friendly, midnight kitchen for the post-theater crowd is Ten Mercer (10 Mercer St., Seattle; 691-3723; tenmercer.com), conveniently located by McCaw Hall and the Seattle Repertory Theater. We recommend taking anyone here who has a gluten allergy, as the restaurant has a separate, gluten-free menu. Try the fresh halibut on udon noodles with a Szechuan broth for a tasty meal.
Want a cheaper, edgier, likely client-free, post-theater location? Try Café Mecca (526 Queen Anne Ave N., Seattle; 285-9728). On all nights but Friday and Saturday, the kitchen is open until 1 a.m.; it’s open all night on Friday and Saturday. It’s a quick walk from Seattle Center to this bar-and-restaurant combo where the corned beef hash is surprisingly memorable, even if parts of the night that led us there might be hazy.
2 a.m. to 4 a.m.
A few years ago, after striking out trying to find a full kitchen open, we discovered that much of the International District kept its kitchens open until 2 a.m. One personal favorite is Sea Garden (509 Seventh Ave. S., Seattle; 623-2100), serving a full menu until 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights.
There are many excellent seafood items, but try either the prawns or the Dungeness crab in black bean sauce. You can probably pick the crab you want from the fresh tank. Late dining in the International District does not draw a different crowd or provide an ambience different from earlier evening dining, and there is ample late-night street parking.
Remember earlier this year when we reviewed Meander’s Kitchen (6032 California Ave. S.W., Seattle) in the “Dining Alone” column a few weeks after the diner opened? Since then, Meander’s has taken off. Still nestled below the old Chinese restaurant sign, owner Miranda Krone expanded the 13-seat spot to include the neighboring space after winning Seattle’s “Favorite Diner” in Seattle Weekly.
Now, Meander’s is also open from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. It is a fantastic time to try our favorite item, “The Red Eye”, and savor some cheese grits on the side.
Finally, check out Lil’ Woody’s (1211 Pine St., Seattle; 457-2128; lilwoodys.com), reviewed last month, as it intends to open late-night hours in the future (promising “soon” to be open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights).
Open All Night
The classic all-night option in Seattle is 13 Coins, with locations in Seattle (125 Boren, 682-2513) and SeaTac, conveniently near the airport (18000 International Blvd., 243-9500; 13coins.com). This is usually the first option to come to mind for dining after midnight, to the point that you may have quite a wait if you have not made a reservation.
You can get a private, high-backed booth or sit at the bar to watch the chef prepare the made-to-order hollandaise for the “Dungeness Eggs Benedict” — a favorite for out-of-town clients if you are picking up or dropping off at the airport. The “New York Steak and Eggs” is also a perennial favorite.
Beth’s Café (7311 Aurora Ave. N., Seattle; 782-5588; bethscafe.com), a favorite of the Travel Channel, “does not close.” It is open 363 days a year, 24 hours a day; closed only for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The breakfast menu is available 24 hours a day.
Beth’s is both an after-hours destination and an experience. No doubt most of those who read this article will have visited Beth’s Café at some point or another. This will not be new to you. However, for those of you who have not experienced Beth’s yet, it is worth the wait, and wait you will. At 12:45 a.m. on a Sunday morning, there was a wait. Driving by at 10 a.m. on Labor Day morning, there was a line of at least 30 people waiting to get into the café.
There is much to tempt you on the menu, but Beth’s claim to fame is the omelets. Two sizes only — six or 12-eggs, the latter accompanied by all-you-can-eat hash browns (as seen on “Man v. Food’s” Seattle edition). I mean really—who EATS that much? Apparently everyone. While I sat waiting for my breakfast burrito, those omelets were coming by me faster than a Labrador at a dog park. The breakfast burrito was HUGE, spicy and delicious, accompanied by the bottomless hash browns.
Then there’s the atmosphere: Where else can you enter a literal modern art gallery and order greasy hangover food any time of day or night? This is definitely a place to bring newcomers and visitors to Seattle, as it is a Seattle institution and deserves the status.
The Hurricane Café (2230 Seventh Ave., Seattle; 682-5858; hurricanecafe.com) is perhaps Seattle’s quintessential 24-hour locale after a night of serious drinking. The music is loud and the food is a blocked artery waiting to happen.
All around, The Hurricane Café is exactly what it is supposed to be: open in case one needs food to soak up one too many drinks from the firm’s holiday party or a night reliving one’s youth. The diner fare has all the classic breakfast options; our personal favorite is undoubtedly the biscuits and gravy.
Dining Out With Schwabe has a confession: At all hours, we are a little enamored with The 5 Point Café (415 Cedar St., Seattle; 448-9993; the5pointcafe.com — not to be confused with the Five Spot). Maybe it’s the catchy slogan — “Alcoholics serving alcoholics since 1929.” Maybe it’s the very public battle its owner had to obtain outdoor seating on the outskirts of Tilikum Place Park in Belltown.
Whether it’s while grabbing an early breakfast on the way into work or late-night drinks and diner fare, The 5 Point is, frankly, just interesting. During the 2010 primary election, we spotted Congressman McDermott celebrating with folks from the political blog Publicola and the civic engagement organization The Washington Bus. Earlier this year, we spotted news crews speaking with owner Dave Meinert — organizer of the Capitol Hill Block Party — about what we presumed to be the city’s late-night initiative.
The full menu is served 24/7 and the chicken-fried steak weighs 11 ounces (translation: It’s heavy; perhaps the largest in town).
Also open all night, Randy’s Restaurant (10016 East Marginal Way S., Tukwila; 763-9333; randys-restaurant.net), previously reviewed in our “Scary” article [Bar Bulletin, July 2009: https://www.kcba.org/newsevents/barbulletin/BView.aspx?Month=07&Year=2009&AID=diningout.htm].
Next time you are suffering from insomnia, working far too late or just simply suffering from Night of the Living Dead Syndrome, you don’t need to drive around looking for a place whose kitchen is still open.
Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt is a multiservice, Northwest regional law firm with offices in Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and Bend. For comments on this article, or to share your favorite places to eat or drink with the Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt attorneys, contact Christopher H. Howard at choward@schwabe.com; see also www.schwabe.com/dining_out.aspx.
Originally published in the October 2011 issue of the King County Bar Bulletin. Reprinted with permission of the King County Bar Association.
