Restaurant News: A sweet answer to midnight cravings, plus a recap of 2017 food news

Who’s new ~ Who’s closed ~ Who’s in limbo? Here is a recap of restaurant events, starting with the newest spot in our locale

New endeavor launches in nearby Firdale Village

Midnight Cookie Company is all about satisfying your craving for sweets in the middle of the night, literally. The Edmonds area facility launched Wednesday. Of course Restaurant News had to check it out.

Go online and log into midnight cookie and drool over all the possibilities. Spoiler alert: Each moment online adds at least 10 pounds as one ogles the cookies, fresh baked daily from the Midnight Cookie Company’s West Seattle bakery.

Midnight Cookie’s Firdale location is at 9643 Firdale Ave. Check out the cute little blue drive thru-stand, which opens up at 5:30 p.m. and late night ends at 1 a.m. Service is five days a week, Wednesday-Sunday.

Delivery radius for Uber Eats is about three miles from that location, so able to deliver to most of Edmonds and Shoreline, and parts of Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood. This location provides the same core menu: 13 varieties of cookies, coffee, ice cream and other snack treats. One can work off a few pounds and walk, bike or drive up to the drive-thru or order delivery through Uber Eats and Grub Hub too, depending on your address.

This Wednesday was day one for Edmonds/Firdale Village spot and they were out of a few things: like totally sold out of all ice cream items, when I logged in at 9:30 p.m.

Taste buds set for an ice cream sandwich, built from the advertised kit — Full Tilt Ice Cream and fresh Midnight cookies — I was bummed out a bit. Oh well, I made my selections. Reminded that this was day one for Edmonds, I exerted plenty of patience with challenges on the Firdale website interface, and after a couple of tries, the site began to display updates. My order was updated and “food ready” status soon switched to ”with the Courier and on the way” to my door.

At 9:40 p.m., less than 10 minutes after I placed my order, the Uber Eats driver’s lights flashed in the front window.

Coffee arrived piping hot. Midnight Cookie Co offers drip coffee in 12-ounce size, from local roaster Light House blend of java. And if you want a cold coffee, they offer Stumptown Coldbrew.

Cookies were tasty. A little spendy at $2.50 each but when one craves circular carbohydrates at midnight, cost is no object.

The chef’s special was a ginger molasses cookie and it was delicious. Moist and tender melt-in-your-mouth, the snickerdoodles were equally toothsome. The s ‘mores cookie did not even make it into the bedroom after photos were snapped, and no guilt here either… it was that yummy. Least satisfying were the double chocolate chip cookies — just a tad too solid; a texture like frozen cookies that had been thawed, as opposed to fresh-baked today. But those DCC’s disappeared before breakfast coffee finished brewing, just the same.

Midnight Cookie Co. delivers delicious cookies, coffee, and ice cream late night five days a week in our area and six days a week to those lucky folks in Seattle.

Happy New Year, Lynnwood

ReadiSpaghetti Baked Cavatelli with garlic bread.

Readi Spaghetti, Mukilteo Speedway, opened its third location on New Year’s Eve 2017! Food items are prepared right in front of your eyes, and only after you place the order. Their signature sauce — Jonny Meatsauce — is made in store, every day…flavorful and robust with any pasta. Authentic Italian pasta cuts and sauce recipes from Jonny’s grandmother in addition to flat bread pizza, great variety of greens…all priced to keep family food budgets under control. Drive up and dine in at 12822 Mukilteo Speedway, in Lynnwood. Hours: Monday – Saturday: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. and Sunday noon – 9:30 p.m.

Open, Closed or on Hold… Restaurant News recaps the year of 2017 events.

85°C Bakery and Café: Kudos to the City of Lynnwood. They have attracted several hot new restaurant businesses to the city, and the lines around the parking lot at 18700 33rd Ave. W., close to Alderwood Mall, attest to the success and popularity of these new spots.

Aggie’s BBQ- Perrinville: Aggie’s BBQ opened this August. New hours: Open Wednesday. – Sunday, from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. so stop by, admire their new sign and taste their delicious food.

Arashi Ramen. Front and center at the Ranch Market complex: 22511 Highway 99 #105, in Edmonds, another tasty addition to Edmonds area Asian food scene last June. Their extensive ramen menu features items for every taste and diet discipline.

Barkada: Opened Dec. 23 this year. An “early Christmas present” for lovers of Filipino-style cuisine. As of this post still working on grill exhaust system, but I hope to taste some of the pork adobo real soon.

Rice paper salad.

Bambu’s opened at the end of September, the fourth location here in Washington. They serve Chè – Vietnamese sweet dessert soup, plus smoothies, coffees and teas — both hot and iced — and yogurt combinations. Waffles are another treat available at this location. Recent addition to menu is Bánh Tráng Trn (Rice paper salad)

B Thai celebrated their grand opening in February of 2017. A recent visit found the authentic Thai food to be even better than the first visit. The atmosphere is very relaxing. The staffs are friendly and the service is excellent.

Chapluines

Casa Oaxaca: Mary Hernandez, one of the partners, invited me to stop by in May this year and preview their unique cuisine. I think readers were intrigued, perhaps shocked with menu items like fried crickets, but I see crowded tables when I am in the Five Corners roundabout, so that bodes well for their continued success.

Fashion Dim Sum, located at 22923 Highway 99 adds style to Dim Sum to make everyone happy and excited.

Ganache Patisserie Café Cakery Edmonds: Edmonds’ newest bakery at 407 Main St. just west of the Edmonds Theater, is officially open after a few glitches. Owner is Nikolai Kulakevich, who is still recovering from a brain hemorrhage.

Furi Chinese Restaurant: The former Red Lantern Chinese Restaurant has new owners and a new name and  offers authentic and delicious tasting Chinese cuisine in the same location- next door to IGA/ACE Hardware spot on 5th Ave, in Edmonds.

Ono Poke: Opened in February to sell-out days, thanks to the season, the Lenten season that is…business has remained strong. The quality of fresh fish (never frozen) used to create authentic Hawaiian Poke located at 10016 Edmonds Way, Ste. E, in Edmonds, is exceptional.

Mel & Mia’s Unique Pastries and Fine Coffees is indeed full of unique pastries and fine coffees. The red letters on the sign finally said “OPEN”  for business, last January at 7530 Olympic View Dr. in Suite 103

MidiCi: The Neapolitan Pizza Company fired up a pair of gold ovens, shaped like chocolate kisses, at its first location in Washington state: 3000 184th St. S.W., Ste 948, (Alderwood Mall) in Lynnwood. Another score for the City of Lynnwood! The second location of this hot pizza joint opened to crowds that wrapped around the outside of the building and continues to be a major player in the Alderwood Mall food scene.

~ ~ ~ ~

Brown paper on windows- NOT some of my favorite things…

Hard to see the brown paper in the windows at Edmonds restaurant locations under renovation and soon to open. Not to mention the clear inside views of the still not open places that tease us…

Amata Thai: The new spot in Westgate is still not open, and the design site has yet to post the remodel pictures …my last contact was in November and they were hopeful for an end-of-the year opening, but progress is slow and the renovations were major on this old North China location.

Thai by Day sports an interesting logo on his Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/thaibyday/ … word is opening in mid to late February for the Salish Crossing location at 182 Sunset Ave South.

Top Pot: See my recent update.

Gravity Bar: Paper is back on the windows at Gravity Bar, one of the new soon-to-open Edmonds spots located at 610 5th Ave. S. Suite B.  Owner Elyssa Boyd is not available for an interview just yet…stay tuned.

~ ~ ~ ~

Sad to say good-bye

Here and There Grill, Owner Julie Malcolm calls her experience operating her bright orange food truck “a blast.” But she is “getting too old” for the 70-plus hour a week grind and hopes to find a buyer to carry on her work. Julie has a line at her truck, whereever she parks, and her customers want to see the business carry on, even if it’s no longer Julie at the wheel.

Celtic Cowboy BBQ’s Saturday, Sept. 9 was the last day for Edmonds’ retail location, no word yet on sales of their premium dog treats.

 

— By Kathy Passage

A specialty gourmet food broker for over 30 years, Kathy Passage has in-depth knowledge on food and the special qualities of ingredients used in the exquisite products she helped bring to market. Kathy brings this unique perspective from the “other side of the plate” to writing about the local food and restaurant scene.

 

 

  1. I see a sign for Harbor Buffet across from Fred Meyer on 196th. Is it taking over the closed Old Country Buffet?

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