Seattle: Day 2 [Part II]

Last night I was vastly overdressed for dinner at Serious Pie, one of Seattle's newer pizza restaurants. This is no Pagliacci. For one thing, Serious Pie has only one location, hidden away on the north side of downtown, near a Zipcar lot. The tiny space is maximized by the use of long bar tables... forget eating a romantic dinner here; the food may be fancy as far as pizza is concerned, but this is is definitely is jeans and t-shirt establishment. You will be eating within four inches of a stranger... if you're arrive at peak hours, which is pretty much all of them, since the restaurant hosts happy hour with excellent appetizer prices from 3 to 5 pm, you may even end up sitting in between two people you have never met, with your date across from you.

Serious Pie is packed at all times. You can expect to wait to be seated, but never fear... there is lots to see in the open kitchen, where pizzas are prepared and wood-fired by hand. There are only about six varieties on the menu, with no susbstitutions available. I sampled the delicious truffle cheese and roasted mushroom; Ian ordered a pie toppled with fennel sausage and cherry bomb peppers. The crust is fluffy, particularly around the edges, but not New York-style thick. Many diners seemed to think it was the best they had ever eaten; I thought it tasted like good pizza, but wouldn't have dreamt of going so far as to ask for the recipe. [For the record, the dough-making process takes 36 hours.]

What set Serious Pie apart for me was not their pizza- you can get pizza anywhere, and putting unusual toppings on it does not a great restaurant make- but rather their ambition dessert. The chocolate, hazelnut, passionfruit and ricotta cannoli we ordered was the perfect combination of crisp, creamy, sweet and sour... ambitious, unique and light, so that we walked away satisfied but not overstuffed. I would go back to Serious Pie for dessert in a heartbeat.

Check back later to find out how we spent our third day in Seattle!

Bisous,
Cee