Waterfront Grill (Seattle)

We spent one evening in Seattle at a lovely restaurant called the Waterfront Grill. Sadly, we were one of two tables the entire evening. Despite being a lovely town with some wonderful restaurants, Seattle seems to have been hard hit by the economic crisis.

San Francisco doesn't have too many large, sprawling, airy restaurants--or at least those places aren't where I usually choose to dine. So this was a nice change. Food was good but not particularly different from a high end seafood restaurant anywhere along the West Coast.

What was really cool was dessert! More so than Los Angeles or San Francisco, Seattle seems to pride itself on having retained many American classics on their menus. One example is a the baked Alaska, re-named the Emerald City Volcano. The dessert started with our server pouring flaming liquor from one container to another, repeatedly cooking the alcohol and putting on a light saber show. She dropped flames onto the carpet several times, but stomped out each fire with complete nonchalance.

Finally, she poured the flames onto the waiting volcano, throwing on a few dashes of cinnamon to create a sparkling fireworks show. Then she doused the flames with some chocolate "lava." So much fun! The interior was just cake layered with chocolate and coffee ice creams, but the show was worth every penny.