Last Thursday we went downtown for the art walk. It has been a while since we visited the galleries. It was the perfect way to spend the evening.

We started the evening with dinner at a rather new restaurant called Crow. It is located on lower Queen Anne. It was fun. They have gotten several good reviews and the restaurant was listed in the Seattle Times Sunday Magazine as one of the hot bistros in town.

We went early (5:30 pm) and we were a bit surprised to find that it was going to be difficult to get a table. There were only one or two tables taken. They usually allow 2 hours for each seatting and had full seattings at 6:30-7:00pm. I explained that we were planning on a quick meal because we were heading out to the Pioneer Square galleries. Perfect. As long as we were out by 6:30 or so, they could seat us.

I don’t remember what used to be there. The room is large and open. You can see from the bar through to the kitchen. They have seating around the kitchen which look really fun. You can watch them prepare dinner. I’ve got to try that.

We looked over the menu. G doesn’t eat meat but does want fish on the menu. They only had the fish of the day which was seared scallops with bacon. I know… we could request them to make the dish without the meat. We’d probably do that but we have had a very bad experience at another restaurant where we requested that they not include the meat. The waitperson brought the dish and immediately grabbed it back and said that it was prepared with the meat! So there I sat eating my dish while we waited for them to correctly prepare G’s dish. Plus it made us feel so awkward when they quickly grabbed the plate back after sitting it down. It has made us very reluctant to try it again.

Okay, end of long story. We decided instead to order a couple of the small plates along with salads. I ordered the iceburg lettuce wedge with blue cheese. Nicely prepared with an ascertive blue. It came with a half of hard boiled egg and a crinkle cut raw carrot. G had the greens with blue cheese, pear and walnuts. I had a taste and it was nicely done. The vinagrette had a touch of tarragon.

For the small plates, we ordered the curried mussels, Brandade fritters. Both were wonderful but I really liked the curried mussels. We sopped up the broth with the crusty bread. Along with this we each had a glass of wine; G had a glass of Fairview Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa and I had a glass of Kris Pinot Grigio from Alto Adigo area of Italy. We have had both wines before and they were good. My only small complaint is the small pour they do for the glass of wine.

Off we went to the galleries. Our favorites ended up being the two we first visited; Linda Hodges and Global Art Venue. We were amazed at the watercolors by a Polish artist at Global Art Venue. There was also some nice glass.

It was a nice way to spend a Thursday evening.