Lowell's Restaurant Seattle

Lowell’s powers KEXP, the best community radio on the planet, and streaming around the globe!

We love KEXP, and no matter where you are, traveling or living, head to www.kexp.org , and stream it live. It’s not corporate radio; the incredible staff plays songs that aren’t pushed by record companies. Local bands are supported no matter where the “local” is-just get music to them and sometimes you’ll be blown away by hearing a band that was recommended by a brother of an uncle of a sister from wherever!

I love the fact that for decades Seattle has supported an original hometown hero like KEXP that supports the individuals of all genres, and doesn’t hobble their dj’s from playing their favorites or their children’s favorites. Listen to a segue from say, Leonard Cohen, to a completely dis-similar artist like The Raveonettes to Nina Simone to Neil Young to Willie Dixon.

Where else would this happen? (Well, maybe WFMU in Brooklyn, but they’re friends of KEXP, kindred souls!) If you aren’t supporting KEXP, then obviously you haven’t listened to them! Commercial free radio, packed with real music untainted by the snake oil salesmen of the record industries playing the same tired tripe hour in and hour out. Go to KEXP, look over the playlists and the archives, and find a show that wets your whistle, and then try one you would have never considered before.

They’ll open your mind to the new and the old and the curiosities of the world! And we love them.

Fresh Music, streaming the world, and a Seattle hometown original!

Fresh Music, streaming the world, and a Seattle hometown original!

~Mark @ Lowell’s

 

Stan & Lynn’s sheep’s milk cheese at Glendale Shepard on Whidbey Island. Eat it!

A few months back I was lucky enough to take a couple day seminars over on Whidbey Island with the great guys of “Farmstead Meatsmith” www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com , Brandon & Andrew. We learned and participated, from snout to tail, in the honorable harvesting of beautiful apple and grain fed free-living pigs. It was truly a spiritual process, and the setting was divine (no pun intended).

The classes took place at Glendale Farms, where some of the best cheese in America is made by Stan, Lynn & Erik Swanson, from the sheep’s milk of their sheep grazing on the farm. www.glendaleshepard.com

Lunch each day in Stan & Lynn’s kitchen was the best part, though, as they graciously pulled out some of their awesome cheese and hand pickled condiments & veggies! (And thank you for sharing your specialty, Stan, parting with some of your home-made elixir of god’s greatest apples…)

You can pick up their cheese at The Calf & Kid cheese shop inside the Melrose Market up on Capitol Hill, or try it at Sitka & Spruce restaurant, also in Melrose Market. (I’ll be topping some salads at Lowell’s with it in the near future, probably in spring when the best local produce starts coming back around. Maybe before, greenhouses work too!) Savor the flavor of real, honest to goodness artisanal cheese made from the purest of ingredients in the purest of places, Stan & Lynn’s farm, on Whidbey Island, in our Pacific Northwest.

I took a bunch of pictures while visiting, but I like the “root cellar greenhouse shack whatever you call it” best, since it seems to sum up what growing your own is all about. Form follows function, and it’s just a beautiful little reminder of how simple the real things in life make you happy.

(Unfortunately, I just realized the pictures size is too large to upload to my blog, so you should probably just go to the farm tour web site and see it, while eating their cheese!)

~Mark @ Lowell’s

 

 

 

 

Michael & Maria, locals from Edmonds, Sat. 12/15 breakfast…

I met Mr. P. Michael Biggs while assisting my staff on the third floor this morning, what a great guy. Smiling, full of life & laughter and it didn’t hurt that he praised our food and staff!

We swapped some laughs and enjoyed a few moments talking about the view and the morning and good living; essentially, not taking for granted what we have each moment right in front of us. We are so lucky to have locals like Mr. Biggs and Maria brightening our days, I was compelled to share their grins.

Michael tells me he also blogs, so later today I’ll be looking him up at one of his, you should also. If they’re as positive as he is, they have to be inspiring.

Here’s Michael’s blog addresses:

The Morning Notes Blog: www.up-words.blogspot.com   It’s All about People Blog: www.peoplebrief.blogspot.com

Michael & Maria from Edmonds, WashingtonLoyal regulars smiling through the day!

Michael & Maria from Edmonds, Washington
Loyal regulars smiling through the day!

Cheers,

~Mark

 

 

Papa Juan’s Fresh Fish Soup!

Italy has its Cioppino and France has its Bouillabaisse. Lowell’s has the best American version of Fresh Fish Soup, here in the Pacific Northwest, right here in Pike Place Market! And it gets no fresher unless you’re cooking it on the boat (but you’d still have to bring the vegetables from somewhere!)

Papa Juan (our kitchen manager Juan Valencia) has been taking fresh wild salmon chunks, fresh halibut and cod and stewing them with fresh spices, vegetables and tomatoes to make his incredible hearty “Papa Juan’s Fish Soup” for years now, and it always sells out.

Every time, rain or shine, this is our favorite soup of the day, and the only thing that changes is when we add something that just came in that morning that Harry brings over to throw in the pot. We always have first dibs on the fresh local salmon, halibut & cod, so we can depend on the freshest of the fresh. Sometimes though, Juan will throw some Dungeness crab or prawns in also, depending on what he’s cooking up for that day’s lunch special.

Stop in next Friday and try some. In addition to our creamy clam chowder, Juan’s soups of the day are locally famous, and are always the same price as our cups and bowls of chowder. You’re in Washington State, why eat foreign fish when you can eat local?

~Us at Lowell’s

Big Bowl of "Papa Juan's Fresh Fish Soup" on a blustery Friday afternoon (before we sold out!)

Big Bowl of “Papa Juan’s Fresh Fish Soup” on a blustery Friday afternoon (before we sold out!)