At Michele's - Brunch

- by Brian Griffin

When I was a little kid, I used to try to find somewhere that I had never been. I would look for a place where I had never sat to see the world from a perspective that I had never experienced. I would find a small corner of the yard and look at the same trees, and the same garden hose, but with brand new eyes. I would climb a tree and look down onto the neighborhood and I would always feel like what was going on in my world back on the ground was insignificant.

Monotony has a way of consuming you. It is easy to begin to feel like your little world is all that there is, and it is all that matters. It is rare feeling when you are able to break free of that. You sit down somewhere that you have never been in your own home town, and you do not recognize what is around you. There are places to go that give you a different perspective. An elevated perspective. A slightly different view of the river. But largely, we find ourselves in a new place, overlooking the same scenery, behind the next burger and fries. But rarely have I found an environment that truly felt like I was somewhere else entirely.

At Michele’s does not remind me of Richland. It feels like a steampunk dream of an event venue. There are giant metal barn doors, and moving gears above the bar. The grand piano in the entryway feels like a relic from another time, placed in the center of a building reclaimed from the future. The front patio only provides the slightest hint of its home when you see a tumbleweed roll across the parking lot. The entire facility provides a welcoming, and pleasantly disorienting allure, with chandeliers and vintage lamps and couches. Like a passenger on the Titanic’s idea of what the future would be.

Is that whimsical enough for you? Let’s talk about brunch.

I have never been to a breakfast with Ginger at which she did not order eggs benedict. Today was no different. There are two choices, one being called simply eggs benedict, which is an upscale version of your common eggs benedict, with poached eggs, ham and hollandaise on top of an english muffin with the addition of pork belly. But she didn’t order that one. Because Ginger is special, and there is another dish called special eggs benedict. This has everything that comes on the eggs benedict with the addition of lobster, and a dungeness crab bearnaise. I am realizing now that I didn’t ask what a dungeness crab bearnaise is. I try to do these articles with as little Googling as possible, so I’m going to assume that the bearnaise is prepared by a crab. When he is finished, he clicks his claws together as if to say “voilá.”

I went the route of a traditional breakfast. Classic is the word that they use, but I would use the word ideal. There is something about the layout of eggs, sausage, potatoes and an English muffin on a plate next to a cup of coffee that warms me to my core. The variable here is in the adjectives, namely coffee spiced sausage and black garlic roasted red potatoes. As fragrant and robust as coffee tends to be, I expected a more bold presence in the sausage. It added a subtle background note to the dish that I would not have been able to identify immediately.

I have never had black garlic before. I am certain that I would have survived as a hunter gatherer. Presumably, there was a considerably dangerous process of trial and error when it came to discovering what foods were and were not edible, and I would not have participated in any manner. Three cavemen named Zog, Thag and Brian are out in the fields and they come across a variety of mushrooms. Zog grabs one and eats it, and he dies on the spot. Thag turns to Brian and says “Zog dead now. So try Thag’s black garlic. Thag heat garlic for weeks, now garlic is black.” Brian politely declines and eats lettuce and rabbits for the rest of his life. Anyway, the black garlic roasted red potatoes are excellent.

I don’t remember hearing much about brunch as a kid. I really don’t think I was aware of brunch as a concept until social media took over the world. On any given Sunday, I can scroll through my Instagram feed and see all of the perfectly dressed groups of friends out on patios across the country with their quinoa quiches. The true power of brunch is in its ability to soothe a hangover. I don’t think that avocado toast and a juice cleanse is the best way to do that, but it certainly paints a better picture of you on Instagram than a mountain of gravy an nachos at 10:30 in the morning. Brunch is more than a meal now. It is a sanctuary. A place of worship, with an altar of lipstick stained champagne flutes and avocado pits. There is something about an elegantly executed brunch on a Sunday that puts me into the perfect mood to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day, when that was really a decision that I made the night before.

At Michele’s showed me some of the best of both worlds.

Europa - What Do You Mean Funny? Like a Clown?

- By Brian Griffin

I don’t ever intend to be negative about the past of the restaurants and nightlife of the Tri-Cities. I think that sometimes it can come across that way when all that I am trying to do is express a feeling of hope about the future. I have been watching closely as the gaps in our culinary scene have been filled in over time. For years, we have had world class wineries, where aspiring professionals could rub elbows with the drunken establishment. At the other end of the spectrum, we have long had countless taco trucks for when you needed a bite, and all you had was the change in your cup holder. Until recently, the gaps between those two were far and wide, with several intervals left unexplored. A lot of that has changed over the last few years. We now have places to get excellent barbecue. We have a place to have a cocktail overlooking the city. Granted, it is just three stories up, but we are doing what we can. Have you ever seen the roof of Lowe’s? I have. And you can too.

One thing that we have not had until now is a great place to not only get some Italian food, but to have a meeting shrouded in secrecy, or to break it off with your mistress. Where were you going to go? The Olive Garden?

If you have some business you need to handle with the family back east, there is a new spot in town. Europa is ambitious. They have a menu of blended Spanish and Italian cuisine, executed exactly the way that you want them to be. These are family recipes handed down over generations. They didn’t tell me that they sliced the garlic so thin that it liquifies in a pan with a little bit of oil, but I can tell that this is the kind of place that does. It’s a good system.

We were having a shady meeting about family business, so we popped a couple of bottles of wine and did this family style.

The Europa Trio is a seven or eight pieces of flat bread served with an olive tapenade, mozzarella, and roasted red peppers. They recommend that it be paired with a salad for a light lunch. That is an excellent suggestion, but we went the other direction. We threw on some sausage and meatballs.

We also checked out the Papas Bravas. This is as essential as you can get, with  sliced red potatoes topped with paprika and a spicy aioli.

For the main dish, I had the Spicy Chipotle Pesto Trottole, and Ginger had the Fettuccine Alfredo. The Trottole was excellent. The one that you order would look a little bit different than mine, because I had to ask them to remove the pine nuts. Nature is actively trying to remove me from the gene pool by murdering me with nuts.  

The dish that really stood out to me was the alfredo. I don’t believe that I have ever been to another restaurant that made a fettuccine alfredo that didn’t have chicken breast. Sauces are an under appreciated facet of any dish. Sure, I appreciate shoveling ranch and curly fries into my face like anybody else, but there is a refined art to the selection of sauces and proteins. The sweetness of the sausage brings a volume to an alfredo that chicken can’t. And by sweetness, I think I mean calories.

But I don’t sit down to a plate of pasta and sausage and think too much about the calories. You only have this one life. You owe it to yourself to enjoy it.

Fat Olives and the Technicolor Cauliflower

By Brian Griffin

I had a story written out about this time that a guy threw a tantrum at Fat Olives, but Ginger made me change it. She believes in unicorns and only happy places and benevolent beings. We had a lunch at Fat Olives that took a little bit longer than expected, and this dude started waving his hands around like one of those inflatable guys at a used car dealership. I’ve been a server. It wasn’t easy. It is simple, but it isn’t easy. Anyway, Ginger doesn’t want me to talk about that. So let’s talk about bread and fashion. Bread is really what makes a sandwich. I mean that both literally and figuratively. If you don’t have bread, you have a salad. If you have the wrong bread, you technically have a sandwich, but you could possibly also have an abomination. Generally, you can imagine what kinds of breads should go with what kinds of ingredients. Bologna and Miracle Whip probably doesn’t bring to mind a nice crusty baguette. Unless you’re in college, a meatball sandwich probably isn’t on Wonder Bread. It’s like wearing shorts and sandals with a nicely tailored peacoat. You can get away with it in a pinch, but I wouldn’t make a habit of it. When you see the world, the world sees you. I could go on for days about the sandwiches at Fat Olives. The meatball in particular stands out to me as having an excellent combination of a telera roll with marinara, parmesan, and provolone. The roll has that perfect pairing of a crisp, thin crust and a soft… inside? Is there a word for the inside of bread? The body? The… meat? Anyway, I’m not one for an overly crusty bread. I don’t need my sandwich fighting back. I’m not trying to bleed at lunch. Know your role, roll. Last week, Ginger and I stopped in for a preview of some items on their upcoming menu. We started with gambas in a smoked chile beurre blanc. It arrived just after I Googled what the hell gambas are (it’s just really good shrimp) and we were greeted with a beautiful bowl of shrimp and cherry tomatoes in a pool of beurre blanc sauce and the aroma of paprika and white wine. Paired with the toasted bread for dipping, it was nothing short of exquisite. We finished up with the spiced apple wontons with salted caramel and basil. They were crisp, miniature apple pastries dusted with a little bit of powdered sugar and basil with a dipping sauce that reminded me of those awesome little caramel apple lollipops. Like everything else, the presentation was so beautiful, I wished that I wasn’t wearing gym shorts. Fat Olives is always nothing short of excellent. I absolutely love this place. Oh, and as always, respect your waiters. Tip your bartenders. Their job is simple. But it is not easy.

Love Curry? You Will Love Love Curry

By Brian Griffin  Note to view all pics & formated version visit: www.tricityvibe.com

For one reason or another, Indian food has not caught on in the United States in the way that other world cuisines have. One reason is perhaps that aesthetics are important when it comes to not only choosing what we are going to eat, but also how much we are willing to pay for it. I recognized a few years ago that I had never really explored Indian food in any concerted way, and I decided to give a curry a shot in the kitchen. I searched for some pictures of recipes to find the one that would have the most impact on Instagram when I was finished. Instagram is at least half of my motivation for cooking. I searched for a while, and I couldn’t really find any that were particularly impactful. They were just pictures of mush and bread. They looked like prison food. How hard could this be?

What I discovered when I got into the kitchen, however,  was that the simple appearance of the dishes disguises not only their difficulty, but also a truly intriguing set of flavor combinations.

In Western cuisine, we tend to use ingredients that overlap in their flavor profiles. Indian cuisine tends to do just the opposite. By combining flavors that rub up against each other in a completely different way than what we usually find. The very thing that makes Indian food so gripping is what has led to a slow integration into American culture.

Well, that and the Instagram problem, probably. What filter makes green on green look good? Lark? Juno? Hudson?

We started with the samosa with chana and a mint chutney. The samosa was very good, but the chana was excellent. I have a major soft spot for chickpeas. I say that with some reservation, because I told a British guy named Jim that I was really into hummus a few months ago and he said “how avant garde” in the most condescending way that I could have ever imagined. That damaged me.

Anyway, the menu is not long, which is generally a great sign. That tells me that they do a few things, and that they do them well. The menu contained words like “korma'stache” and “aloo gobi.” I am guessing that Scrabble is a totally different kind of game in India. We just dipped our toes in a little bit ordered the house curry, the butter chicken and the garlic naan.

It was all outstanding. Indian food is some of the most interesting food in the world, and to have it prepared with such skill in Pasco is a distinct pleasure. I could probably make up reasons all day for why Indian food isn’t as popular as I believe that it should be in the United States. The fact is that it lags behind Mexican and Chinese cuisines in some kind of tragic and foolish misunderstanding of how excellent it can be. If you have yet to venture into Indian food, Love Curry is a great place to start. I will undoubtedly be returning soon to get a little bit more adventurous with my selections. Perhaps some palak paneer, or dal makhani.

And then I’ll find Jim to see if I can get him to respect me.  

VIBE notes: Best Indian we have found in the Tri-Cities. That is saying a lot as there were 2 of us at this meal & one is a self-proclaimed ‘Indian Food Fanatic’. 2. They have a full on ‘Naan’ Menu. How bad@ss is that?! They carry wine & craft brews. Wine you will have to ask which wineries but mostly are WA wines so how bad can they be?!  3. They have a spice store next door, a little type Indian grocery. The restaurant is located on Rd 68 next door to Yokes.  Website w/ restaurant & grocery info here: http://lovecurrycuisine.co/  For menu, all food pics for Love Curry on Cork & Fork click here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/tricitycorkfork/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1684074445009468

Bookwalter Brunch - The Best Way to Start Your Day and Shut It Down Before 2:30

- Brian Mark Griffin

I worked at Bookwalter for a year or so. In hindsight, it was the most consequential job that I have ever had. It was where I met the people that facilitated my transition into a career in real estate, for better or worse. It is where I met Ginger, which has given me the opportunity to explore the Tri-Cities with a purpose, and given me a platform to share my thoughts with you right now. I made a few friends that I still have the honor to see regularly.

Bookwalter is also where I developed a taste for wine. This development made waves in my transition into the life of an independent contractor. It gave me an excellent way to connect with clients and associates by discussing our booming wine industry. It gave me an understanding of the way that different varietals pair with certain types of foods. But perhaps most importantly, it gave me the new hobby of fighting alcoholism in a new and exciting way. I’m writing this in a coffee shop at noon because there is a bottle on my counter at home right now. What am I supposed to do? Ignore it?

I have long felt that Bookwalter was home to some of the finest food in town. Hands down, my favorite meal that I have ever had here was a spring evening out on the patio with a flat iron steak with garlic whipped potatoes and chimichurri. I still stop in from time to time to have a wedge salad, partly because it is delicious, and partly because of the way that it is constructed. They take a head of romaine, and stand it up in a pool of buttermilk blue cheese dressing with some bacon and tomatoes and chimichurri. I love a good salad presented in a different way, because they leave some of the work to you. And that really makes you feel like you earned it.

Another thing that I love about Bookwalter is that the wine gets you where you’re going a little bit faster than just about anywhere else. If you need to lose a Tuesday, this is your place. After a couple of glasses, I can feel myself descending into the rabbit hole, and single handedly keep Uber in business. I can think of no better way to live large and cut your Sunday short than with brunch and some wine on the back patio at Bookwalter.

Because we skipped church, we started with some donut holes. You have a choice of cinnamon-sugar and honey, or maple glazed with bacon. Or, you can be like us and get both. I think that guilt set in midway through, and we started passing them around the restaurant like we were feeding the multitude on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It was Sunday after all.

Because of my affinity for all things hash (not that kind of hash) I had to order the Duck Confit Hash. I have only had duck a couple of other times in my life, and they were all at Bookwalter. There is something about putting duck in a dish that always makes me feel like the dish was designed by Mad Libs. The other dish I had was lavender duck, which sounded like a cartoon character, but that cartoon was delicious. I would like to see Sassy Duck, with his partner Cabbage. Cabbage would be a teenaged vegetable that while immature, grounds Sassy Duck with his youthful exuberance while they travel the world fighting food based crime.

Anyway, the hash was pretty good.

Ginger ordered the Red Mountain Eggs Benedict. I know that’s not their name, but I refuse to use the word Benny unless it is followed by “and the Jets.” Everywhere we go, Ginger finds the Eggs Benedict, and these were excellent. We had a brief discussion with Justin Webb about a pulled pork eggs benedict that Ginger and I both loved at Hill’s a year or two back. It was your standard eggs benedict, but with a pulled pork and barbecue sauce that was a phenomenal pairing with the hollandaise, and I would love to be able to go somewhere to get that again. Hill’s closed in 2016 after a fire, and it would be an excellent tribute to another Tri-Cities institution to include it on the menu at a place like Bookwalter. Right Justin? ...Right?

We also checked out the Huevos Rancheros, with a fried tortilla topped with potatoes, chorizo and two eggs over easy with an excellent pico de gallo. They were excellent, and truly a breakfast staple with a quality that you would expect from Bookwalter.

What I truly loved was the Hangover Burger that Zac Mason ordered. Zac and I have had our disagreements, in the past. In all honesty, I can’t remember what the problem was, but on this Sunday, we broke burgers and patched it all up. And breaking this burger unleashes a golden yolky goodness upon the Wagyu patty and ham. If you haven’t tried it before, there is nothing like egg on a burger, and I have never had a better one than this one. Ask them to throw a hash brown on it too. And then don’t eat again for the rest of the day.

We didn’t have any wine that morning. I had things to do for which I needed to be coherent. Though, I can’t imagine a better way to spend a summer afternoon with friends than there, having breakfast for lunch with a bottle of Couplet or some Bloody Mary’s.

By the way, Uber is available for download on iTunes and the Google Play store. You will need that.

Oh, also I’m a real estate agent. Real estate doesn’t have to be as expensive as it is. Check out my website at www.homeandharbor.net or shoot me an email at briangriffin@kw.com

Proof - More than a concept

Florida is weird, but we could learn a lot from them. Hear me out.

I spent my Christmas vacation in the Orlando area visiting some family. With the sea of humanity that poured into Disney World for Christmas, we spent a little more time than we usually do exploring the suburbs and neighboring cities. We took a quick trip to Tampa, and we were greeted by the most enormous confederate flag that I have ever seen in my life. Now, think what you will about that flag, but in retrospect, it did us a favor. It was a great indicator of what we would find if we were unfortunate enough to need to stop for gas. Denim shorts with matching vests come to mind. People drinking out of paper bags while sitting on  washing machines in their yard, considering all of the different ways that they could blur their family lines.

Florida is weird, but we could learn a lot from them. Hear me out.

My family likes food and beer. We live all over the country, and sharing recipes and discussing local beer gives us a common thread to keep us together on social media. My brother took us to a couple of excellent breweries while we were down there, but the one that stuck in my mind was Crooked Can. He brought us there through what he described as a retirement community where residents got around in golf carts. And by got around, I mean that they had different colored hair scrunchies fastened to their golf carts to announce what “different adult activities they were into.” The brewery itself is located in an open air facility shared with a coffee roastery, an oxygen bar, a sushi restaurant, and whatever else they could pack into it. It was incredible. I sat there wondering what this facility would look like back at home. What local businesses could benefit from this sort of co-op environment?

We also went to a barbecue restaurant called Yellow Dog. It is essentially a shack run by a beach bum named Fish. The line wrapped around the place like a sleepy snake digesting one of Fish’s ridiculous sandwiches. It was remarkable.

Florida weird. Learn lot. Hear me out.

What is the reason that we don’t have that here? Imagine restaurants and shopping centers along the banks of the Columbia river with bike paths and boat docks with kayaks for rent. Imagine diverting the water on the east end of Columbia Park and connecting it four miles away at the west end to create a man made river to have a beer and float the river with your friends. Imagine a place where you can sit out on a third story balcony and have a great meal and a cocktail overlooking the lights on Columbia Center Boulevard.

Hang on. You can do that one tonight.

I have been waiting for this place. Not just the environment that it provides, but I have literally been waiting for this building specifically. I worked at Fire for a year or so, and I remember looking across the parking lot at this building and wondering what would be on the top floor. I remember climbing the staircase when the building still under construction and looking out toward the river and hoping that it would be something like what it has become. That was in 2013 or 2014. I have driven by it countless times, and seen businesses move in to the lower floors while the top floor remained vacant, save for the wishful thinking of those like me. So we waited. And it was worth it.

We have entered a new era. You can now step out of an elevator, sit down in a black leather booth and order some crab cakes and clams. And that’s exactly where we started. The dungeness crab cakes are served on a red pepper sauce and topped with a basil aioli, and the clams are sauteed with garlic, lemongrass and ginger, and finished with butter and white wine. They are both excellent if that is what you are after, but I found myself in a high end pub food kind of mood.

I highly recommend the sweet and spicy pork nachos. It is tough to mess up nachos, and Proof certainly hasn’t. I am a huge fan of shredded pork, and whenever I have a dish of it in front of me, I taste the pork alone first. My initial reaction was that it was slightly under seasoned, but there is a lot of flavor going on in the rest of the ingredients . The tomatillo crema is an excellent choice for topping the nachos and paired perfectly with the pork, though this would be a very good vegetarian choice as well.

Speaking of vegetarians, if you are one, don’t order the skirt steak. I don’t want you to accidentally taste it and have a conflict arise. Stick to your guns. You are not an animal anymore. You have chosen to remove yourself from the food chain, and I commend you for that. In all honesty, I think that you are making the right decision. You don’t need this deliciously tender cut of meat awakening anything deep within you, though you do need to find something else to top with the chimichurri. It is a different take on the chimichurri that I love, with more of a minced texture rather than a puree. It would pair excellently with the fish and chips.

Wait, you can’t eat that either. Damn.

At a certain point, I found myself distracted by the atmosphere in the best way. The table also sampled the Reuben and the chili spiced prawns, and the Reuben was one of the better sandwiches that I have had here. I don’t want to diminish the food, because everything was truly solid. What really moved me, though, was the atmosphere. It feels transformative. After the sun sets, it feels like our own little slice of Seattle or Portland. You know, where the cool people live with their monocles and unicycles or whatever.

I promise you that I will be out on that patio every chance that I get this spring and all the way through the fall, sipping on a glass of WhistlePig. Proof is more than just a cool new restaurant or bar.  It is a revelation that we desperately need.

Brian Mark Griffin

I am a real estate agent. Selling your home doesn’t have to be as expensive as it is right now. Give me a call at 509-551-4141, or check out my website at homeandharbor.net. Happy New Year everybody.

LuLu Craft Bar + Kitchen

I have been waiting for this one for a while.

Perhaps the most interesting topographical characteristic of our three little towns is the access to a gorgeous, giant river. The Gulf of Mexico is a puny 1,000 miles long, while The Columbia River is 1,200 miles long. That’s a whole 200 extra miles! So what’s the big deal with the Gulf of Mexico? Okay, so the Gulf of Mexico is about 12,000 feet deep, but who cares? What good is the underside of water from the patio of a bad ass restaurant?

Speaking of restaurants, let’s talk about LuLu. They have created a true farm-to-fork restaurant, and their menu is a fantastic sampling of what is grown and raised right in our back yard. Their friends and farmers provide them with amazing seasonal produce (and wine.) I got a chance to check them out the day before their doors opened to the public.

I try to be up every morning around 6:30. I have some coffee, start a crossword puzzle, yell at some kids in my yard, have another cup of coffee, peek out between the blinds to check for more kids, and finish my crossword puzzle. I never find time in my morning for food until about 10:00 a.m. By that time, I am hungry for something that is not quite breakfast, and not quite lunch. I came up with a great term for this meal, but I found out it was already taken. That term is brunch.

Lu Lu does brunch beautifully. We started our meal (after a couple of beers and mimosas) with a flat bread toast appetizer topped with a tomato jam, cambazola cheese and toasted garlic. There is another version with sausage, pimento and arugula that I’m looking forward to checking out soon. I can imagine a nice July evening on the patio with a glass of wine and a couple of flat breads talking about… mortgage rates or something. I’ll leave that up to you.

I have always been a huge sucker for corned beef hash and eggs benedict, so there was no contest when I saw my staples with a seafood twist. Both are offered with Dungeness crab and a lemon hollandaise for a unique perspective on my favorites. I won’t spend too much time belaboring the point. You can get eggs benedict and corned beef hash anywhere, but never like this. I can’t wait to check out the biscuits and gravy and the smoked steelhead benedict.

The setting is what truly stands out at LuLu. The view is as good as it gets in the Tri-Cities, overlooking a river that dwarfs the feeble (and frankly embarrassing) Gulf of Mexico. If you are familiar with the other restaurants on Columbia Point, LuLu will be a pleasant and relaxing surprise.

Oh, you wanted to know about the bathrooms? Okay. Like the rest of a restaurant, they are rustic and beautiful. The hand soap was olive oil based, and comes in a mason jar. It sounded delicious. I thought about just eating that, but I decided to check out the menu. The hand dryer said something about cold plasma, and that sounds pretty cool.

-Brian Mark Griffin