Oddfellows Cafe + Bar

As promised, I thought it would be fun to highlight a dining establishment each month here in Seattle. For those of you readers from afar planning a visit in the future, I know we always love to hear about and read recommendations by local folk when we visit a city. For you Seattle readers, like us, we find we frequent the same spot time and again, so it is always helpful to hear about someone’s thoughts & experiences about a place we have yet to try. This leads me to Oddfellows. It is about a 7 minute walk from The Gainsborough, and is owned by Linda Derschang who we have gotten to know this past year. You might remember the post I did about her fab apartment in Chelsea that we stayed at when we were in New York last August for the show. Oddfellows is located in the Pike/Pine area that has become crazy popular in the last few years. It is also on the same block as The Elliott Bay Book Company. Sort of a match made in heaven if you ask me. We made a stop in before dinner and loaded up on new reading material. All that perusing of books made us quite hungry. Oddfellows has an Old World vibe that I adore. The feeling of a place that seems like it has been there forever, and I mean way before it actually opened in 2008. You just feel comfortable in the space. Rather than an extensive menu, they concentrate on a few things done well–hearty comforting fare. So comforting in fact, that most of the day yesterday I was looking forward to what I knew I was going to have for dinner. Meatballs with Mascarpone and polenta. Yes, you read that correctly. Just typing it at this early hour makes me hungry again for it. TPS had the same thing he had on our last visit too. A Porchetta sandwich of slow roasted pork with rosemary aioli and a side of fries. Add a glass of red wine and we were very happy campers. A perfect simple Monday night dinner out. The walk home with our bag of books completed the lovely evening.