Veg Places in Seattle, plus other questions.
Posted by veggiemonster on Apr 13, 2007 · Member since Nov 2005 · 19 posts
Hey everyone, I am moving to Seattle, WA in a month and I was wondering if anyone can suggest some good veg restaurants/co-ops/groceries, etc. Also, please include some info about where they are located. I hear Seattle is the second most Veg friendly city in the US so I shouldn't have any trouble finding things on my own, but i am just curious about what places people on this board like best.
I also wanted to know if there was any way to search this board (besides going through each page and doing the ctrl+f). I am new to the board and don't want to ask a question that's been asked/answered a million times.
Another thing, I keep seeing "SAD" in posts, is that an acronym for "Standard American Diet"?
-amber
I lot of people have been asking about how to search the board recently. I find it to be hit and miss. If someone remembers a thread, they usually find it and post a link, but it's not much better than that.
Case in point, here's info about a co-op in Seattle from another thread:
PCC Markets (an awesome co-op located in the Seattle area) have disclosed their recipe for the the very popular Emerald City Salad, which they sell in their deli section. I made this salad yesterday for the first time, and it turned out great (strangely, even better than PCC's, which I'm sure is based on pure luck!). It was the first time I've ever made a dish with kale and chard. Here's the link to the recipe:
http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/cgi/recipeget.cgi?id=426
I didn't have any red/yellow peppers or a fennel bulb (what the heck is a fennel bulb?), but the salad was great anyway. Also, I chopped the kale and chard into small strips after removing the tough stems.
PCC has other recipes posted on their web site as well (choose the "vegan" search): http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/recipes/index.html
thanks for the info.
i've been living in VA/East Coast for too long. I am excited about the move. I have family in California, but other than periodic visits I have no idea what living on the west coast will be like. can't wait!
Amber, PCC is a fabulous place to shop for vegans--it's truly been a Godsend to me. It's an organic grocery store, and they offer a lot of vegan options. I don't live in Seattle proper (I live about 30 miles east of Seattle at the edge of the Cascades), so I shop at the nearest PCC, which is in Issaquah. They have about 8 locations, and I believe about 5 of them are located in Seattle (here is a link to the locations: http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/locations/index.html). If you join PCC (it's a co-op), there's a (one-time) lifetime membership fee of $62, which sounds like a lot, but what you get back out of it is well worth the price. They send a newsletter to you every month, with a coupon for 10% off, and they also have discount days for members. Also, rarely have I not been able to find something I was looking for at PCC--they just seem to have everything. They just opened a new PCC outside of Seattle in Redmond--I've been there once and it's bigger and even more fabulous than the Issaquah PCC. PCC also has a deli section and a bakery section, which is usually stocked with a pretty good selection of vegan food (vegan cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, potato salad, quinoa salad, gourmet mushrooms, etc.! Yummo.--When I get a craving for "fast food," this is where I go!)
I believe there's a Whole Foods in Seattle, too, (I know there's one in Redmond and Bellevue) though I never go there (PCC serves my needs).
We also have a Trader Joes in number of locations (there's one in Issaquah, so I'm sure there are a few in Seattle). They have a few vegan options (I buy my vegan cookies there).
As far as restaurants go, I barely ever go out to eat since I've become vegan (I mostly cook at home). However, there is supposed to be a whole slew of vegan restaurants in Seattle. I have been to Cafe Flora once, which was pretty good. Many of the vegan restaurants that I know of in Seattle are in the University District, which is a fun place to hang out. The only vegan restaurant I've gone to regularly is in Bellevue and it is called The Teapot (they are totally vegan), and I really enjoy going there. They make an amazing cheesecake, and they have a great selection of creative dishes. I believe there is a Teapot in Seattle, too (never been to that one). Last month, my husband and I had to take his car to a mechanic in Seattle (Ballard), and while we were waiting the guy who worked there recommended a small vegan place around the corner called Patty Pan Grill (I think). It's a little quaint hole in the wall and is supposedly owned by the author of The Accidental Vegan (who knows, maybe she was the person who served us--I didn't ask--too shy :-\). We got seitan gyros there, and they were yummy. For Indian food, Pabla is good.
If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. I think you'll really love Seattle. There's a ton to do here, whether it be in the city or out in nature.
BTW - I found this link on the web for vegan restaurants in Seattle: http://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/washington/seattle/index.html
wow i really appreciate your responses, thanks everyone. this makes me so much more excited about my move! woo hoo! I will definitely make it a mission to find a PCC the first few days I am there.
vegan doughnuts?! excellent vegan cheesecake? and a vegan pizza place! looks like i made the right decision. Seattle sounds like so much fun!
thanks again.
along with my dorky acronym question earlier (this is embarrassing i suppose, but i have to learn some how) I figured out SAD and SO, but what is DD and DH? all i could think of were really morbid things like Deadbeat Dad and Dead Husband, but this board is pretty posi so I am assuming that is wrong. so what about Darling Husband? Darling Daughter? am i close? also, if there are other acronyms that i haven't listed that you know of that are common things used on this board, could you plz tell me wtf they mean? thx.
DH, DD, DS, DC, DP... dear husband, daughter, son, child, partner. :)
I lived in Seattle for a year. I lived in the Ballard section which was near Wallingford / U District. There was a Trader Joe's in the U District. There was also a little chain of markets we did most of our shopping at that had a nice selection of natural/bulk foods while we were there but I can't remember the name of them! The one nearest us was Greenwood Market, I think??
A nice place just to walk around day to day is Green Lake ... there's a path around the lake and I went there nearly every day to walk or run.
The weather was nice there ... doesn't rain nearly as much, IMO, as the rest of the country believes, LOL. I am a winter girl and I missed winter but at least in the summer it never got too hot.
Actually I guess we really only lived there 10 months, Aug through June, so I missed the midst of the summer... but what I did see, I liked. Seattle weather ran circles around Bay Area CA weather... I hate it here!
hey, you guys, im moving to the west coast also! about 3 hours from Seattle, this place called Wenatchee. my sister lives there and my other sister lives in Spokane. i will be visiting Seattle often, since my daughter will be going to the Art Institute.
i will be checking out all those awesome vegfriendly places u posted here. can't wait!!!
crazy awesome!!! :D :D :D
I'm surprised no one has posted this yet:
http://students.washington.edu/careuw/feb06guide.pdf
Dave from Action for Animals puts this together and updates it about twice a year. They have a list for Portland too (scroll down on http://www.afa-online.org/veganinfo.html and look for "Portland, OR Vegetarian Restaurant Guide")
I don't live in Seattle itself, so I'm not really qualified to comment on gardening there. And I'm a crappy gardener (I'm very new to it, but I try), but I can tell you that my neighbors here (east of Seattle by the Cascades) have absolutely BEAUTIFUL gardens. Right now, the flowers are starting to bloom all over the place (particularly tulips). Come to think of it, every year there is a tulip festival up north--a popular event here in Washington (http://www.tulipfestival.org/).
Here's a book that may help:
http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Ed-Hume-Northwest-Made/dp/1570613281/ref=sr_1_1/102-0100692-1067368?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176793913&sr=1-1
Ed Hume, the author of the book, is a master gardener that gives good advice on Northwest gardening.
My husband and I moved into our house a little over a year ago, and I have been desperately trying to keep up the garden that we have "inherited" from the previous owners (who apparently had green thumbs--in comparison, I have a thumb of any color BUT green). This garden includes, among many other flowers and plants, 20 rose bushes (yes, 20 rose bushes!). I went MENTAL last summer trying to learn about rose bushes and how to keep them healthy and free of the dreaded black spot. I am so ready for native plants. Personally, I like things natural (trees, ferns, wildflowers, nurse logs, etc.), so I might try to dig up many of the domestic plants, give them away, and replace them with native plants. I'd like to create a more fulfilling environment for the local wildlife as well. Incidentally, there is a book called Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest that offers tips on this subject for anyone interested.
As a very amateur gardener (if that), I would say that you would really enjoy gardening here in Washington. The only challenge here is the amount of rain, and knowing which flowers and bushes to plant in the right kind of soil (moist/dry), but there are many books and web sites that can help you with that.
Hillside Quickie is an AMAZING vegan sandwich shop.
Mighty O is an entirely vegan, organic donut shop.
those were my favorite two places i visited when in seattle. YUMM!!!!!!!!
This is off topic--
Veggiemonster/Amber, I noticed from your profile that you are interested in hiking in Washington. The nature here is gorgeous (lots of lakes, rivers, forests, ferns, hanging moss everywhere) and many of the trails are well maintained. Hiking with my dog in the Cascades is my favorite thing to do. Here are some books that might give you a head start:
Foothills & Lowlands Around Puget Sound:
http://www.amazon.com/Walks-Hikes-Foothills-Lowlands-Around/dp/0898864313/ref=sr_1_1/102-0100692-1067368?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176797065&sr=8-1
Snoqualmie Pass Mountains to Greenway (these trails are east of Seattle):
http://www.amazon.com/Hikes-Around-Snoqualmie-Pass/dp/0898867770/ref=sr_1_3/102-0100692-1067368?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176797193&sr=1-3
ShaolinBunny, thanks for the tips on which books to check out. there are so many guides out there it's always good to get a recommendation. i've been looking at this other seattle guide and the hiking areas around seattle sound really amazing. can't wait!
If you like Chinese food you absolutely MUST go to Bamboo Garden, it's sort of by the Space Needle on Roy Street and they serve everything a normal Chinese place does... but it's all vegan!!! (except for the fortune cookies) The food is absolutely amazing and if you're ever craving beef and broccoli or shark fin soup (or just about any other random Chinese dish for that matter) it's definitely the place to go!