Enjoyed: Thursday, June 23, 2022.

Listed on the menu: No, not on the brunch menu, but I later found the drink on the “Evening Cocktail” menu as “House Old Fashioned”.

Ingredients:  Four Roses bourbon with vanilla and saffron, demerara sugar, bitters. (Our charming and attentive server told me the bourbon was from Portland, Oregon, and I immediately corrected him. Four Roses is a Kentucky bourbon, I explained, and we had visited the actual distillery just several months prior. Perhaps he was confused because the official nickname of Portland is “The City of Roses”?)

The occasion: We had returned to Seattle from our eight day visit to Alaska the previous day. Our flight home didn’t depart until midnight, so Daughter had a whole day to show us even more of the local sights. She selected a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, so we could see the Seattle skyline as we crossed the pretty waters of Puget Sound. Soon after we left pier 52, we saw majestic Mount Rainier rising above the horizon. “The mountain is out!” as the locals say. Oh, happy day! No low-level clouds to obscure the view! And Bainbridge Island was delightful, full of cute shops and lovely landscaping. We enjoyed a tasty lunch: I had the Tuna Salad Tartine, with albacore fresh from the Neah Bay area on the Pacific Ocean.

My rating: **** out of 5. I was hoping for a stronger note of saffron, as in the description, but I smelled and tasted mostly vanilla.

Final thoughts: The Pacific Northwest (PNW) is a gorgeous corner of our country. It warmed my heart to see Daughter so enthralled by Rainier, the skyline, the open water, and the city in general. I think she’s landed in the right place for her.