Seattle Times on 50 North's 'Hit Parade of American Standards'

Providence Cicero gives out another 2.5 stars, this time to 50 North in the U District. "While the menu says, in effect: give me your vegans, vegetarians and your gluten intolerant; send these, the dairy and cholesterol-challenged to me — it doesn't forsake indulgence." Her favorites include scallops and short ribs that "vie with their seasonal sides for your attention." Less successful are the bucatini and the buckwheat quinoa pancakes, "which had the taste and texture of loamy earth."

Servers are "unfailingly pleasant" even when they're "tentative, even lackadaisical." Melinda Sontgerath, who owns both 50 North and popular Vashon Island restaurant The Hardware Store, "is courier, as well, for the island produce that tends to steal the show here." [Seattle Times]

Hanna Raskin doesn't review her review of Golden Beetle, exactly, but says Marina Hines' bourekas (she uses an alternate spelling) brought back memories of her grandmother's version. Other than this one family-based food memory, however, Seattle Weekly's critic was raised on a most un-froofy diet:

Spaghetti with jarred tomato sauce; Creamette elbow noodles with cubed cheddar cheese, heated in a stockpot until the cheese turned greasy; a dish of stew meat and untrimmed green beans that we unceremoniously referred to as "meat and string beans," and a "taco salad," made with iceberg lettuce, canned black olives that fit on my fingertips, leftover hamburger meat, and--after 1986--Cool Ranch Doritos.

Raskin concludes, "while there's much wrong with Golden Beetle, the bourekas are terrific. I think Matilda Miller would approve." [Seattle Weekly]