I read about this group in Time Out mag and took the F train out to Barbes, a small club with a great selection of beer and single malt scotches (had Taslisker, with smoky flavor, umm-mmm good). Warm and homey neighborhood club and Brain Cloud, (“…(whose) brand of western swing draws from the New Orleans-meets-Texas. strings-meet-horns, jazz-meets-country sound that Bob Wills perfected on his mid-40s radio broadcasts…”) plays there on Monday nights, with Tamar Korn doing vocals. After them was Feufollet, a Cajun band from Lafayette, Louisiana, and it was hard to hold still. In between groups I walked a block to the Han Noi Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Later I talked to Tamar at the bar about the Mills Brothers, who used to do horns and trumpets with their voices and she told me about The Nighthawks, playing tonight at Sophia’s at 46th and Broadway, so off I go right now. And oh yes, I did go the the Book Expo today and made all my appointments on time, I am such a responsible business person.
Another Puyallup place where you couldn’t tell what it was like until you came inside. Score! Anthem Coffee & Tea (210 W. Pioneer Ave.), interior done in recycled wood and corrugated steel roofing, great coffee and a perfect almond/bran muffin combo, fast wifi (so handy for the on-the-road nerd), opens at 5:30 AM (I don’t even know a connected place in NYC that opens that early), cool workers and clientele.
In all of the places I’ve been traveling in the last month, there have been on-tap-beer taverns and/or microbreweries. I hit a good one (Toby’s) in Coupeville, Whidbey Island, a not so good one in Anacortes (untogether bartending, crude food), but let me tell you about yesterday, oh yeah:
I drove south mostly down the backroads from Sedro Woolley to Puyallup in my hot blue Mustang. Farm country. Barns. Highway 9. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No 3, then this French station, making me think how elegant and deft and delightful the French are, they really do look at the world differently. Then Joe Cocker, you can leave your hat on…you give me reason to live…
Got into Puyallup, checked into hotel, went in search of food. I sussed out the old part of town (usually a good bet), set off on foot, looked into several restaurants, then saw the TK Irish Pub (109 S. Meridian). Couldn’t see in, so pushed open the door and whoa! The place was packed, vibes good, I sat at bar and ended up with a pint of Irish Death porter, from the nearby Iron Horse Brewery (started a few years ago by two Harley buddies, I was told) and a killer corn beef w. sauerkraut on rye and homemade potato chips. Everyone friendly. Everything a pub should be.
Yesterday rainy morning, on my way to SunRay Kelley’s and Bonnie’s compound near Sedro Woolley, Washington, I’m hungry, and here is Mom’s cafe. Who can resist? (I’m a sucker for any cafe that says “Mom’s,” or “Home Cooking.”)
Great breakfast of scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, homemade corn muffin. I ask the cook, “Are you Mom?” “Yes,” she says, “but little mama runs this place,” motioning toward the young waitress. “Your daughter?” “Yes. I just do what she says.” Smiles all around.
Mom is Linda Hanger, daughter is Jess, and she’s lovely. Doesn’t know it either. Radiant smile, kindness in face, sparkling eyes. There’s substance here too, and humor. She’s 22 and lives, it turns out, in a tiny home on 22 acres in the hills and practices permaculture. There’s something about the 20-year-olds these days. Children of the boomers. A whole new breed. Hope in this battered world.
Leah Weinberg of Weinberg’s Good Food in Buckley Bay, newly opened at the Ferry dock to Denman Island.
Last night I met my friend Michael McNamara (who’s in Builders of the Pacific Coast) for dinner at this lively place on Hamilton Street. Good local beers on tap, oyster paradise.
At Blenz, Hamilton/Helmcken streets:
I just discovered this place. Best sauerkraut ever, (some with seaweed) Kim Chee, pickles, and — what I (who am admittedly given to superlatives) — consider the best drink I have ever ever had: a bottle of Tumeric/Ginger Kombucha (“A Naturally Fermented Herbal Soda),” bottled while we were there. This is a unique and brilliant shop I recommend to anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lacto-fermentationn gets probiotic action going in your digestive system. I think their stuff is in some stores as well. Top quality. https://www.culturedpickleshop.com/
Slide show in Arcata last night went great. Packed house. Couldn’t find a place to eat, or a room in Arcata, so about 9PM I got a tank of gas, Sobe soda and some, ahem, Dorito barbecue nachos, and headed east through the hills, destination Reading, on Hwy 5. Found a nice little motel in Weaverville, $50, took hot bath on cold night, got donuts and coffee at bakery this morning and am now in Reading.
I have a problem on the road. I keep seeing things to photograph. My friend, photographer Jack Fulton and I can hardly get anywhere on a road trip. Every 5-10 minutes, one of us will say, “Um…” and we’ll stop and jump out with cameras. In the next few days I’ll post various images from this trip.
Above: Heading north from Mendocino yesterday
Below:Great hunting/fishing/diving store in Eureka. The real thing
(Below: maybe my favorite brewery anywhere, The Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka. Had a 9.5% dark stout, corned beef and cabbage (was St. Patrick’s Day). I couldn’t have eaten a plate of food this size when I was 18 and surfing every day.
Yesterday around 4, Louie and I rode the cable over the river (https://bit.ly/A9mmMd) to his cabin to have dinner. We opened the medium size Hog Island oysters and had them raw with a lime juice sauce. We split a wild duck (Sprig), had it with salad greens and red wine, listened to ’40s big band music, and I rode back before it got dark. Every time I go on this journey I can’t believe I’m doing it — or that Louie is doing it at age 84. Good on ya mate!
Drove up the coast to Mendocino in the rain this morning — glorious– no one on the roads. Mendo pretty deserted, storm blowing in.
(No one knew about this lovely town in the ’60s, when I first came here.)
Used my recently-developed Feng Shui/intuitive/divvy (a la Lovejoy) sense to find great coffee/wi-fi at Moody’s Organic Coffee Bar, then a nice room in an old house for $100 (off season) at the Sweetwater Spa, which has a great hot sauna and a robust wooden hot tub, all free with the room.
Geared up with parka, rain pants, Muck Boots, and walked on the beach with wind howling and rain pelting. Good to be alive.
The slide show, at the Gallery Bookshop, one of those great and brave independent bookstores that is surviving the Amazon onslaught, went well. Everybody was with me, great to see people nodding and smiling. Rapport. My people. Signed a lot of books. One guy brought a tattered 30-year-old copy of Shelter for me to sign.
Nice dinner at The Moose Cafe. Tomorrow heading for Arcata to do a signing at Northtown Books. Maybe some music somewhere in this cool little town afterwards and back home Sunday.
I read about this group in Time Out mag and took the F train out to Barbes, a small club with a great selection of beer and single malt scotches (had Taslisker, with smoky flavor, umm-mmm good). Warm and homey neighborhood club and Brain Cloud, (“…(whose) brand of western swing draws from the New Orleans-meets-Texas. strings-meet-horns, jazz-meets-country sound that Bob Wills perfected on his mid-40s radio broadcasts…”) plays there on Monday nights, with Tamar Korn doing vocals. After them was Feufollet, a Cajun band from Lafayette, Louisiana, and it was hard to hold still. In between groups I walked a block to the Han Noi Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Later I talked to Tamar at the bar about the Mills Brothers, who used to do horns and trumpets with their voices and she told me about The Nighthawks, playing tonight at Sophia’s at 46th and Broadway, so off I go right now. And oh yes, I did go the the Book Expo today and made all my appointments on time, I am such a responsible business person.
