Yum

Bakeries around Seattle on my current list to go check out:

Cheap Eats: Greenwood Bakery and Cafe
New Grand Central on Eastlake
Le Fournil

Ginger Ale

This is yet another "I might live here for years and never really understand some things about this place" post. I like drinking ginger ale when I go out to dinner. I'm not a fan of most sodas, I don't really drink wine very much when I'm out at restaurants, and so ginger ale is kind of what I fell into ordering out of habit. I like the flavor, and on the east coast at least, almost every single restaurant has it, unless you're in the PNW. Sometimes if they have a bar, they mix up fake ginger ale, but I can only think of two restaurants that I've eaten at in Seattle in the last 8 years that had ginger ale available. I've been to fewer places in Portland, but so far none with ginger ale. It doesn't seem like an inherently east coast thing, in the way that, say, good Italian bakeries are. It's baffling. Grocery stores carry it (and ginger beer, which I also love), so clearly people drink it out here... just not in restaurants.