Food is comfort. Restaurants provide the comfort food and warm environment. As with my eldest when he went to college in Iowa, for four years we established places that we loved to visit when we went to see him. We always tried new things when we would head to Davenport, but we had a couple mainstays that just make our four years there special.
Now my youngest is painfully far away from us in Seattle. For context, we live in a little lake town northwest of Chicago. She is 2/3’s of her way through her freshman year at University of Washington. I definitely found my happy place in the Seattle food scene. We first found SWeL. when I took her out last spring to see the school. It was a chaotic little last minute visit. It was the tenth and last school in which she was accepted and it was a bit of a wild card for her. She was looking at all schools Northeast. But when she got in, we quickly made wayyyyyy too expensive last minute plan flights, I found a pineapple-themed hotel blocks away from the campus and off we went. It was a 60-hour turnaround and we were feeling the heat. A 5:00am flight from Chicago, five hour layover in Denver, landing in the never before-seen beautiful Seattle, Uber to the pineapple hotel and by 4pm ,we were walking on the beautiful campus in the middle of the stunning CHERRY BLOSSOMS.
Sold.
No seriously, we were not scheduled for the official tour until the next morning, but let’s just say, we were already buying swag. We desert-crawled back to the hotel, hungry and exhausted. I was tempted to order a pizza to the room and call it a night, but we were, after all, in one of the top foodie cities in the country, so we needed to make the effort. Not going to like, I Yelped. I love Yelp. Literally never had steered wrong. Searched something like “Top 10 restaurants near me”. SWeL. popped up right away. I saw yummy martini’s, a great vegetarian selections for my daughter, the reviews were super positive and I think it sold me almost immediately at “Come feel cozy…”
SWeL. is in the Fremont district. We didn’t know what that was. (It’s now our favorite area and we have stated there twice in VRBO’s.) We fell in love the minute we walked in, because it’s SUCH a vibe. It’s lush and romantic with the appropriate mood lighting. The owner greeted us and he was charming. There is some fun and suble tongue and cheeks nods on the menu, which I appreciate, and the food was spectacular. I had an excellent French 75 and we shared one of the best calamari dishes I’ve ever had. My daughter loved her shitake pappardelle and I was equally obsessed with my pork chop. Of course we had to end with the homemade chocolate chip cookies!
Special mention, and this feels a tiny bit weird saying this, but they had the best smelling bathroom I have ever been in and I tried to figure it out, but I couldn’t figure it out Was it a candle, soap, magic? I’m going back a fourth time in June, so I am going to get down to the nitty gritty.
Yes, we went back a second and a third time. When it was time to bring my daughter in September for her freshman year, my husband and another one of our children came with me, and I insisted we go back to SWel. First we went with with the kids and everyone loved it as much as I. The calamari was as excellent as before, the expresso martini’s were next level and other highlights were the beet salad, pancetta pizza, a delicious fish special and the chicken breast. Someone ordered the cookies and the gelato was a huge hit. My family was successfully sucked in as well.
A couple months later, we headed out in November for UW parent’s weekend. This time we came with another one of our kids. After a huge day of sight-seeing, our son was exhausted, so my husband took just me back to SWeL. for a great date night. We actually walked from our VRBO and we had the best Black Manhattans. We had a romantic and lovely meal at the bar, the staff as kind and accommodating as all the other times. We look forward to going back next month and making it a staple for the next four years our our Seattle experience. 200 out of 10 stars for us. Thank you, SWel and see you in June.
HEATHERLAND 