Date Night in Seattle's Capital Hill

March 08, 2019

Date Night in Seattle's Capital Hill

The Capital Hill neighborhood in Seattle is a solid choice for a date night. There's many food and drink options, if you can get around the tricky parking situation.

We headed to Liberty Bar first, for a craft cocktail and some happy hour sushi. That day's sushi special was a tuna roll with cucumber and red pepper. We took a seat at the bar where all of the action is and we were handed the menu. The menu was filled with many unique drinks. I ended up getting an Out of Focus. It had Tequila, Cocchi Bianco, Green Chartreuse, spiced pear, and Cardamom bitters. This cocktail was strong from the Tequila and the cardamom flavor really came through. My husband ordred a Nimbus 2000 and it had gin, lychee liqueur, honey, fresh lemon juice, egg white, and sparkling rose. We also shared the sushi special. I really liked the red pepper because it gave the sushi an additional crunch along with the cucumber. Plus the sushi was hand rolled and really fresh.

We only had about ten minutes to drink our cocktails and eat our sushi because we had a dinner reservation at Osteria La Spiga. They're located in a different part of Capital Hill, so we had to drive there and find parking again. Unfortunately, it was also during rush hour, so the closest parking spot was a few blocks away. We were about fifteen minutes late for our reservation, but it didn't seem to matter. So heads up, if you're hanging out in Capital Hill, just park once, and go to spots near each other.

La Spiga serves Northern Italian food, so we were prepared to get our pasta on. We were seated at a cozy, small corner table near the floor to ceiling windows. We started with drinks and some Ciabatta bread with oil and vinegar. I had an Aperol Spritz, an Italian cocktail with Prosecco, Aperol, and soda water.

Since we had already had drinks and sushi at Liberty Bar, we decided to just share two dishes and also order dessert. The salad we chose was the Scarola which was warm escarole salad with taggiasca olives, orange supremes, toasted pistachios, wine soaked golden raisins, and volpaia red wine vinegar. We also ordered Gnocchi, but I accidently asked for the wrong one and received the Pomodoro, the red sauce, instead of the Gnocchi Di Spinaci. That one had spinach gnocchi with gorganzola and radicchio walnut pesto. I didn't notice right away that I ordered the wrong thing, so I just tucked in to the pasta, sprinkling some fresh parmesan on top. The gnocchi were soft and tender and the sauce and parmesan had a nice flavor. The pasta was warm, savory, and filling, and was just right for a cold winter night.

Since we weren't overly full and I knew La Spiga's desserts are done really well because of a previous visit, we ordered the dessert from the special's menu. Our server recommended the Castagnole di Carnevale- carnival donut holes with marsala zabaglione and roasted strawberries. The serving was small, three donut holes with a sweet and creamy sauce, and two beautiful tasting strawberries. The donuts were really fresh and delicious. It was only a few bites, but it was an incredible few bites.