The Big Breakfast Adventure | Tilikum Place Cafe

(In case you missed how the Big Breakfast Adventure got started, you can read it  here:  How it all began )

Wakey, wakey! Happy Saturday! Time for some audience participation. Hands up if you know what a Dutch Baby is. Anyone? Well, if you’d asked me that yesterday my hand would have stayed firmly but my side; but today…oh what a difference a day makes. My hand is waving furiously in the air & I am shouting “Oooh! Oooh! I know! Ask me! Ask me!”

My introduction to the world of Dutch Babies came courtesy of  Tilikum Place Café, a rather smart establishment in a rather less-smart street at that crazy junction where Denny & 5th & Cedar all converge under the monorail tracks. I am wildly excited to be able to report that I did not get lost getting there…despite the best efforts of the City of Seattle who had closed the off ramp at Olive, I thwarted their attempts to divert me from my goal & reached my destination without having to turn around once, although that special one-way system we have here did have me going around the block before I could park. And so, having allowed “getting lost” time I found myself outside the door totally too early & locked out in the chill air. It wasn’t so chill that it stopped me from meandering around Cedar & 5th though, gazing in the windows & watching as Seattle slowly started to stretch it’s legs and shake the sleep from it’s eyes.

This time I didn’t even tempt fate (or encourage my wandering eye) by looking at the menu.  I was there for Seattle’s best Dutch Baby and by jove I was going to have it.  They have two versions – one savory, one sweet - & being British, where breakfast “ought” to be savory, I opted for the Chorizo & Cheese.  Dutch Babies, it turns out, are a bit of a production, so we were very grateful for the {huge} steaming mug of hot chocolate for me & the cute little French Press for my fellow Dutch-Baby-first-timer Kathy, while we waited for our masterpieces to be created.

Hot Chocolate & French Press

 When they arrived, masterpieces they were.   Steaming hot, moist & seriously “eggy”, each served in their own scalding hot cast iron skillet with sour cream dip on the side.  Quite unlike anything I had eaten for breakfast before…not an omelet, not a quiche, not a pancake…reminded me most of a gougère or a Yorkshire pudding.  And for us they were the perfect size – we were full enough but not too full to ruin an otherwise rather splendid Saturday morning.

Chorizo & Cheese Dutch Baby

 The atmosphere at Tilikum Place Café is a total weekend-brunch-over-the-paper kind of place.  Our server was delightful (if a little busy), the decor was modern yet cozy, American yet European, smart yet comfortable.  The Bar looked like a fun place to while away an hour with a favorite person or the weekend magazine, oh & with a Dutch Baby on the side.

Tilikum Place Café

We ate great food, laughed a lot & put the world to rights… Tilikum Place Café is a great place to do all 3 of those.  And two hours on the parking meter turned out to be the perfect amount of time.  Do I really have to wait a whole week until next Saturday?