We're in Seattle Part III: On Mexican Food and Grunge
On Thursday night, the nice door guy suggested that we try eating at Bimbo's Bitchin' Burritos, which is apparently a very hot Mexican food establishment on Capitol Hill. Since the restaurant is only a block away from Nuemos, we decided to grab dinner there on Friday night.
Now even though neither Carlos nor I are of Mexican decent, we are L.A. natives, which makes us fairly particular about our Mexican food. It just seems like people outside of L.A. (or, even a lot of high class L.A. types) can't handle the basic concept driving all Mexican dishes-- lard makes things taste better. But, we're in Seattle now, so we figured we ought to give the city's take on Mexican food a chance.
Bimbo's menu features a few varieties of burritos, tacos and nachos. Much to my dismay, there is nothing involving chili relleno here and very little involving big scoops of guac. With that in mind, I figured I would go with the least authentic of Mexican dishes-- the nachos. I ordered a vegetarian version, since it boasted lots of guacamole, and asked to hold the sour cream. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my plate of nachos came just as I like them-- all stuff and light on the chips. However, the chips were pretty small, which meant that I had to eat most of it with a fork. That just seems a bit awkward. Carlos had a chicken burrito, which he said was alright, but I got the impression he wasn't impressed with Seattle's take on the L.A. staple. Yeah, that's why I ordered nachos.
As far as the ambiance is concerned, Bimbo's looks a lot like Jabberjaw did back in 1996. The place is decorated with flea market finds, including a plethora of Lucha Libre memorabilia and Keane paintings. Musically, they seem to dig the Melvins and things that sound like the Melvins.
It's bizarre that the Melvins, a Washington band that relocated to Los Angeles, has become the reference point of this trip. It seems that grunge was never just a trend up here and, as such, it really never went away. The last time I saw this many people wearing flannel, I was a senior in high school.
After Bimbo's we walked around Capitol Hill. Like L.A., there are a lot of homeless people. Unlike L.A., the graffiti is minimal. All we saw was "El Barto" sprayed across the back of a brick building. Someone must have been feeling nostalgic for the glory days of the Simpsons.
We stopped inside a coffee house before heading to Neumos. That is another difference between L.A. and Seattle, this city actually still has coffee houses that aren't affiliated with Starbucks or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which is perhaps a bit ironic considering that Starbucks is from Seattle. I can't remember the name of the coffee house, but it was virtually identical to anything we had in L.A. ten years ago. Inside, they played TV on the Radio, which might be the most modern thing one can find that comes from the School of the Melvins. One thing was obvious, though, Seattle is a rock city, so much so that it makes L.A. seem like Berlin in comparison.
Back at Neumos, the crowd was much smaller than the night before. I don't know if this was because Guns 'N' Bombs isn't as well known as Diplo, or because the crowd was split between three rooms.
If the dB events are indicative of the dance scene in Seattle, one point can be made. People do not dress up here. In L.A., we always thought of ourselves as being fairly casual, but here, everyone is one wearing jeans and not those of the Seven for All Mankind variety. During the course of my few nights clubbing here, I have not seen a single sparkle top, no shoes that look like Jimmy Choo and no Olsen Twin clones.
Now even though neither Carlos nor I are of Mexican decent, we are L.A. natives, which makes us fairly particular about our Mexican food. It just seems like people outside of L.A. (or, even a lot of high class L.A. types) can't handle the basic concept driving all Mexican dishes-- lard makes things taste better. But, we're in Seattle now, so we figured we ought to give the city's take on Mexican food a chance.
Bimbo's menu features a few varieties of burritos, tacos and nachos. Much to my dismay, there is nothing involving chili relleno here and very little involving big scoops of guac. With that in mind, I figured I would go with the least authentic of Mexican dishes-- the nachos. I ordered a vegetarian version, since it boasted lots of guacamole, and asked to hold the sour cream. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my plate of nachos came just as I like them-- all stuff and light on the chips. However, the chips were pretty small, which meant that I had to eat most of it with a fork. That just seems a bit awkward. Carlos had a chicken burrito, which he said was alright, but I got the impression he wasn't impressed with Seattle's take on the L.A. staple. Yeah, that's why I ordered nachos.
As far as the ambiance is concerned, Bimbo's looks a lot like Jabberjaw did back in 1996. The place is decorated with flea market finds, including a plethora of Lucha Libre memorabilia and Keane paintings. Musically, they seem to dig the Melvins and things that sound like the Melvins.
It's bizarre that the Melvins, a Washington band that relocated to Los Angeles, has become the reference point of this trip. It seems that grunge was never just a trend up here and, as such, it really never went away. The last time I saw this many people wearing flannel, I was a senior in high school.
After Bimbo's we walked around Capitol Hill. Like L.A., there are a lot of homeless people. Unlike L.A., the graffiti is minimal. All we saw was "El Barto" sprayed across the back of a brick building. Someone must have been feeling nostalgic for the glory days of the Simpsons.
We stopped inside a coffee house before heading to Neumos. That is another difference between L.A. and Seattle, this city actually still has coffee houses that aren't affiliated with Starbucks or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which is perhaps a bit ironic considering that Starbucks is from Seattle. I can't remember the name of the coffee house, but it was virtually identical to anything we had in L.A. ten years ago. Inside, they played TV on the Radio, which might be the most modern thing one can find that comes from the School of the Melvins. One thing was obvious, though, Seattle is a rock city, so much so that it makes L.A. seem like Berlin in comparison.
Back at Neumos, the crowd was much smaller than the night before. I don't know if this was because Guns 'N' Bombs isn't as well known as Diplo, or because the crowd was split between three rooms.
If the dB events are indicative of the dance scene in Seattle, one point can be made. People do not dress up here. In L.A., we always thought of ourselves as being fairly casual, but here, everyone is one wearing jeans and not those of the Seven for All Mankind variety. During the course of my few nights clubbing here, I have not seen a single sparkle top, no shoes that look like Jimmy Choo and no Olsen Twin clones.
Labels: clubs, food, Leaving L.A., Seattle
posted by liz o. at
3:49 PM
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