When one door closes, another one opens with chocolate on top (on visiting Hotcakes in Seattle)

I’ve been dreaming about eating at the Fat Hen for a while now.  It is really close to a shop where we often go for macarons and other treats (Honore Bakery if you’re curious.  It has amazing desserts and some of Seattle’s tastiest macarons and it’s one reason why I used to schedule my kids’ swimming lessons at the nearby Ballard Pool) and the Pantry at Delancy where I’ve taken many cooking classes so we’ve driven by a ton.  But, for some reason it just hasn’t worked out.  So when I saw a delicious-looking picture Tania from Hashtageat posted showing an amazing brunch dish, I knew that’s where I wanted to go when I was meeting a friend for lunch.

Halfway to meet her, she broke the news.  For some reason, Fat Hen was closed just this week, and just the day we were going to go there.  So, we decided to try Hotcakes instead.

Oh, Hotcakes.  If you haven’t been before, it has amazing (boozy) milkshakes and desserts and I thought maybe pastries for breakfast.  I didn’t realize they actually had food there-like salads and sandwiches and actual food-like stuff.  We were planning on just making it a dessert-for-lunch type of day.

But we were well-behaved.

And indulged in dessert AFTER we ate something decently fitting for a mid-day meal.

I picked up something for my guys for dessert too because we saw this being eaten at a table near ours and were enthralled.

It was odd-looking (to be honest they laughed for a long time about this one, even thought I put it on a pretty plate) but they thought it was yummy.  It would be perfect in Eton Mess. I just can’t remember what it was called.

Thankfully, this visit inspired me to start running again.  And I know I’m becoming a runner because I’m starting to need to run to survive and when you do it long enough you start to see beautiful things when you run.  (If you’re a beginning runner and you’re overwhelmed, you do need to see some of my first posts about running and realize I actually like it now and you might too.)

And I know we’ll be back.  It’s nice to eat out kid-free sometimes.

Well almost kid-free.

I managed to get a shot of my adorable friend, her baby belly and a lovely red porsche on our way out of the restaurant.

Ballard is perfect in the fall.  And Hotcakes is perfect any day.  (You should go.)

(And Fat Hen?  We’ll get there one day.  And I’ll let you know how it goes.  Or you can tell me if you get there before I do.)

(Oh and PS. if I get a dog in the next year, it may be partly because of this sign:

I swear Seattle is the most awesome city, don’t you?)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)