Bellingham suggestions

[Vervain]

We're visiting Bellingham, WA next week and we'd love suggestions for some interesting places to visit:

gourmet stores

organic markets

cheese shops

kitchen supply stores

wine shops

Thanks!

[Saara]

After another cup of coffee I may have more suggestions, but here are a few off the top of my head:

Saturday Market, Railroad Ave downtown, 10am-3pm

Wednesday Market, Village Green Fairhaven, 3pm-7pm

Bellingham Community Food Co-op, N. Forest St, 8am-9pm (not everything is organic so be mindful if that's important)

Barganica, State Street (organic discount, haven't visited but am planning on it)

Spice Hut, Kellogg Rd, (market spice tea!)

Just east of B-ham is Deming where you can find Mount Baker Vineyards and have a little taste of various reasonable wines. If you go there, head south on Hwy 9 and go to Everybody's Store in Van Zandt.

If you head north a bit, you can visit Pleasant Valley Dairy in Ferndale. If you go that far, you might as well go to the C Shop in Birch Bay. (Full disclosure: The C Shop belongs to my honey's parents.)

If you do head south on Chuckanut Drive you will have a spectacular view and end up in Bow which offers many possibilities. I usually visit The BreadFarm, Slough Food, and the Farm to Market Bakery. Then I dump off my purchases and have a beer at the Longhorn Saloon. Connect the dots!

I have a bazillion suggestions for Skagit County, but I'll shut up now since Bellingham is the focus. There are many options up there and I'm sure someone will come up with more.

If you go down Chuckanut, head east on Cook Road and pick up some berries at Sakuma's Market Stand. The strawberries weren't quite sweet yet two weeks ago, but they should be good any time now. You can head back up I-5 and pit stop at Samson Estates Winery near Lynden for some award-winning wine. Lynden is an interesting Dutch town to visit as well.

How many weeks were you planning on staying? We didn't even get to restaurant suggestions.

Edited for errant plurality.

Edited June 16, 2006 by Saara (log)

[Vervain]

Saara,

You're the BEST! Here's the deal, we're going up for a week to scout out locations to move to. And we're NOT rich Californians looking to drive up real estate prices. We rent and have never owned a house. We're looking to move someplace we can afford where we can have an acre (or two), quiet, can meet interesting people, and enjoy nature. We visited Bellingham 4 years ago and liked it then. We're also thinking of checking out places to the South of Bellingham (but North of expensive Seattle). And we'd love to be near (in view of) mountains (part of our wish-but-willing-to-compromise list). We're checking out Bellingham again because we want to be near culture, bookstores, coffee houses, etc. But near could be a 45 minute drive.

Anyway, I'd welcome any and all suggestions. Thank you so much for taking the time.

[Saara]

Aaah ... well, thank you for not being a rich Californian.

You do have a week so you'll be able to take in Chuckanut Drive and its associated treats. Both Whatcom and Skagit counties are littered with small wineries, creameries, and organic farmers.

Since you'll probably be making a meal or two, check out Vis Seafoods on James Street. Another great local producer is Hempler's and their sausage and pork products are available at most local retailers including the local grocery chain Haggen's.

If you want more help with where to look for actual housing, PM me your email and we can discuss that off eGullet. I'll keep adding foodie suggestions as I come up with them here of course. For now I'm off to dinner in Anacortes at the Majestic.

[tsquare]

If you want more help with where to look for actual housing, PM me your email and we can discuss that off eGullet. I'll keep adding foodie suggestions as I come up with them here of course. For now I'm off to dinner in Anacortes at the Majestic. 

←

Early bird special? Have to say the breakfast provided for guests was not good. Didn't make me want to try it for dinner, but did go across the street to the Blue Star for an enjoyable meal.

Hope you let us know how dinner goes.

Edited June 17, 2006 by tsquare (log)

[Saara]

Well, the plates looked pretty, but that was about it.

I had halibut with a macadamia crust, citrus beurre blanc and pineapple chutney. The chutney tasted like pineapple upside down cake and didn't have any tang. Too sweet. The halibut was good otherwise. My honey had the strip steak in bourbon-peppercorn sauce over garlic mashed. The potatoes were good, but there was a big wad of gristle in the steak and the saucing was meager. He said he was disappointed and he's not even fussy! Incidentally, he started feeling sick last night, but we haven't been able to determine why. It's probably not their doing. My mom had the molasses pecan-crusted halibut which was okay. She was satisfied. In their favor, the meat portions were very generous, but they all could have used more sauce. I have pictures which I can post later. The bread was brown 'n serve even though they have La Vie en Rose right across the street!

The staff could use a little training. They were certainly friendly, but lacked polish and knowledge. Our plates came out one at a time with fairly long waits in between. I spent quite some time fiddling around with my plate in front of me waiting until the others came out. It sort of seemed like they should have sent them out in a different order as well (my mom, me, then my partner - not me, my partner, and lastly my mom). This wasn't the waitress's fault, however, as she was apparently wrongly informed that plates were ready.

When it came to the dessert list, she rattled it off including cream [sic] brulee and couldn't adequately describe some of the others and had not tasted them. She described the Grand Marnier torte as pie crust filled with chocolate mousse flavored with orange. Her description made me change my mind about ordering it. Keith had the creme brulee and I ordered a sherry and my mother a port and coffee. The creme brulee was cold and seemed to have been carmelized at some earlier time. It had some gritty quality to it. Frozen? Didn't taste creamy and had no flavor.

She brought out my mother's port and half a glass of sherry for me. Apparently that was the last of it, so she charged only half price ($5). Mmmkay. I declined to order anything else. She had to be reminded of the coffee. In her defense, it was fairly busy at the time and she didn't seem to have much help.

All in all, we're not going back. This was our first try of the restaurant since we were able to go out on some night other than a Monday (my mother's evening off) so it had been on the list for a while.

The Star Bar is an excellent choice and I've had one dinner there and hope to have more. We've also been to Cafe Adrift. Our regular has always been Sasso's (before that La Petite) so it's been nice to have other options. Sasso's is good, but frankly we've just eaten there too much.

I guess I should have put this into a new thread, but I didn't think I was going to ramble on so. Funnily, I have other complaints, but I'll be done for now. Oh and we had reservations for 7pm so it wasn't quite as early bird as my timing seemed.

[MGLloyd]

I am one of the few remaining Seattle-area natives. Bellingham or Mt. Vernon are two places I could easily retire to. Lovely, lovely cities, with an edge to Bellingham for the cultural opportunities afforded by Western.