Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [264]
You must get a cinnamon roll at the Maltby Café, but there are some other terrific meals, too, and while none is quite so flabbergastingly immense, they are satisfying in the extreme. The Maltby omelet, for example, is another plate-filler, loaded with ham, beef, peppers, and onions. Maltby oatmeal is served with melted butter running all over the top of the bowl; the French toast is double-thick; and—lest we forget—the strawberry jam on every table is homemade.
After breakfast, there is lunch, which looks good…although we must admit that cinnamon rolls and omelets have pretty much put lunch out of the question for us. The menu includes pasta plates, homemade soup, and a piled-high hot Reuben sandwich.
The Maltby Café is a most unusual place (a former school cafeteria) in an amazing little town of nostalgic mise-en-scène that includes strategically situated old farm machinery, a few windmills, and uncounted number of vintage gasoline station signs. Other than the café, the town has a few knickknack shops and a drive-through espresso stand shaped like a big gulp cup.
Mike’s Chili Parlor
1447 N.W. Ballard Way
206–782–2808
Seattle, WA
LD | $
We salute Gregg Simonsen of WhereGreggEats.com for tipping us off to Mike’s, which is one of an endangered breed of restaurant, the urban chili parlor. Other than in Cincinnati, where chili culture still thrives, there are precious few good proletarian eateries where chili is king.
Outfitted with a billiards table, a few video games, an ATM station, and pull-tab lotto, decorated with beer signs and festooned with announcements warning that only cash is accepted and touting such specials as a Big Ass Bowl of Chili, this joint is the real deal. Seats are available at a couple of communal tables in the center of the room, at the counter and in a few booths. Customers are a ragtag bunch and the staff doesn’t bow and scrape, but we felt completely welcome and well taken care of.
As for the chili itself, let us simply say that this is not gourmet–yuppie–celebrity chef type chili. It is rugged beef with plenty of savory fat—delicious even if nutritionally incorrect. Beans are optional, as are grated cheese and chopped onions.
An old article posted on the wall describes Mike’s chili as “Mexican with a touch of Chicago and a pinch of old Greece.” The Chicago touch is evident in the item listed on the menu, strangely, as chili pasta: chili served atop a bed of limp spaghetti noodles, a gloss on the Windy City’s chili mac. Greek spice pervades the meat, which is more Mediterranean sweet than Mexican hot.
Mike’s hamburgers looked great in a hash-house way, and next time we intend to try some. Meanwhile, we recommend the chili dog topped with cheese and onions. And to drink, if beer is not your choice, have some lemonade. It’s fresh-squeezed!
Pick Quick Drive-In
4306 Pacific Hwy. E
253–922–5599
Tacoma, WA
L (closed in winter) | $
Here’s a roadside blast from the past (1949 to be precise), especially alluring in nice weather when you can sit outside and enjoy a triple cheeseburger, chili fries, and milkshake—all of that still in the single digit price range.
The hamburgers, though not contenders for our Best of the Northwest burger awards, have a nice savor from the well-aged grill and come dressed quite royally with mustard, mayonnaise, relish, pickles, onion, lettuce, and tomato. Of course, bacon, cheese, and grilled onions are options. French fries are very good and the milkshakes can be extraordinary, as they are made from fresh fruit in season—strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, raspberries. Any time of the year, you can have fresh banana added to your shake or malt.
Pick Quick is a minuscule establishment that originally served as the canteen for a now-defunct drive-in movie theater. There is plenty of dining room in the great outdoors with picnic tables of all shapes and sizes.
Red Mill
1613 W. Dravus St.
206–284–6363
Seattle, WA
L | $
A diner called the Red Mill opened in Seattle in 1937 and survived for thirty years. Twenty-seven