The Golden Beetle

Forget about going grocery shopping tonight. Don't take out those old pork chops to defrost. Instead, head to Golden Beetle for an amazing happy hour with to-die-for small bites and creative cocktails.

property of Golden Beetle

I knew that Maria Hines was a genius in the kitchen, what with the 2009 James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest and her triumph over Morimoto on Iron Chef America in 2010 in "Battle of Pacific Cod," but I hadn't tasted her food until last week.  The woman knows flavor, and she hires a staff who follows through with these flavors.


The only bad part about my dinner at Golden Beetle was that I had an hour to eat, drink and observe.  The atmosphere is comfortable Mediterranean. The lounge area is in the front of the restaurant and has several dark wooden tables and a semicircular bar with about ten stools.  There are floor to ceiling windows, allowing natural light to make the bottles of liquor on the shelves twinkle.  The dining area is in the back of the restaurant, and diners have a clear view of the pristine kitchen.  I don't think I've ever commented on a restaurant's bathroom, but I must say that the soap was divine.  It was a thick, gooey yellowish soap that looked like honey but smelled like mint.  It makes you want to wash your hands over and over again!

The happy hour food specials are $4 each, and there is always a specialty cocktail on the menu for $7, which is a couple of dollars off the regular menu price. I ordered the Spiced French Fries, which were fried in beef fat -- that's right, beef fat -- and spiced with sumac and salt.  They were very spicy, so I was glad to have the harissa aioli to dip the fries in and wash them down with a Fremont Pale Ale.  The highlight was two Skagit River Ranch Beef Sliders served with a tomato-garlic sauce and pickled onion.  The level of flavor in a patty that was about 4 inches round was astonishing.  My mouth watered between bites, and I wondered if my drool was visible to the woman next to me.  Speaking of the woman next to me, she let me taste the spiced pistachios, which had an unexpected brightness to them.


The drink specials at happy hour include $2 Rainier drafts and PBR tallboys, house red or white wine for $3 and well liquor for $4.  (The house wine is Kiona Lemberger, which is a great Washington red.)  The regular drink menu has all sorts of cocktails with an Eastern Mediterranean influence, but what I like best is the I'm in Your Hands drink that allows you to explain what you like to the bartender and allow him or her to mix something special for you. The only other place in Seattle that really touts this sort of thing is the Zig Zag Cafe. One final thing that I want to mention is the wild array of concentrated syrups on the shelf. I noticed cinnamon, cardamom and burdock root.  Aaron, the bartender, told me that they make their own syrups and use them to make interesting cocktails.  There was one syrup that looked like marinated jalapenos in mucky water, so I inquired about it. It's unfortunate name is Falernum, which is a sweet cordial made from almonds, ginger, lime and a few other spices.  Aaron let me taste a bit, and it was delicious!  I'll ask him to concoct a cocktail using Falernum next time.


I will definitely return to The Golden Beetle sooner rather than later.