Miscelaney

“….we didn’t expect it to end like this” was word from the corporate offices regarding the closing of Seattle’s Oceanaire restaurant.

I guess no one ever does expect unexpected endings. Sad news for the local restaurant scene and I for one will be holding my own memorial service for this Seattle fave, at least in my mind. Although the restaurant has only been open since January of 2002, the cool, proud, curvasiously-shaped brass bar has been the playground to many of my most memorable martini moments.

While I wasn’t a huge diner at Oceanaire, I did claim my share of bar stools at the ever-revolving cocktail/oyster bar. And that was before I started working across the street from my favorite purveyor of the perfect martini. Seriously, the guys behind the bar shook the meanest, and coldest, martinis I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming. And half-priced oysters at happy hour? It doesn’t get any better than Grey Goose and fresh oysters after a long day. Not in this little girl’s world.

 Their service was as outstanding as their blue-cheese-wedge-salad-with-bacon. I can’t count number of times I’d drag my shattered self across the street for a sip of sanity after a ridiculous day, and the staff’s friendly faces would greet me with a familiar hello and ask how my day was. And the thing is, they really seemed to mean it. 

Sad, sad news indeed. From the interesting people I’ve met at the bar to the fishbowls of vodka I could have literally drown myself in (the martini glasses were indeed the size of a small swimming pool), I will miss this Seattle staple. Thank you Seattle Oceanaire for a great seven years of fresh seafood, sublime service, and expert mixology.  Me and my tini-drinking-posse will surely miss you all.