USA 42 - The Best of Anchorage

This post is dedicated to Ezra, one of the cool guys at Snow City Cafe in Anchorage. He has been patiently waiting for this post...I think he thought it would never make it! Well, here it is Ezra, I'm writing it from the lobby of my Paris hotel...dreaming of Alaska and that wicked Kodiak Benedict!

Well, the final Alaska post. The final USA post (for the time being anyway!).

And what better way to finish Alaska than commentary on the best foodie places in the state's capital, Anchorage.

All up, I think I spent almost 2 weeks in Anchorage and bloody loved it. Downtown is small, friendly, safe, and a heap of fun. I met some great people who steered me in the right direction for food, drink, and fun!

A HUGE thank you to the Salmon Berry gals, Candice and Mandy, and to my fellow foodie soul-mate, Sarah (from Darwin's), who not only introduced me to Crush, but took an old fart out on an Anchorage bar crawl and got us kicked out of Darwin's at 3am!!!

Now...let's get down to it...keeping in mind that I didn't actually eat at every single restaurant and cafe in Anchorage, here are my awards for the Best of Anchorage....

Oh and one other thing - I've included addresses where I could, Downtown Anchorage has this cool system of the streets running parallel to the water being numbered, and the streets running perpendicular are lettered!!! COOL.

1. Best Restaurant - Crush, 343 W. 6th Avenue
Thank you Sarah for taking me to meet the wonderful team at Crush, and almost becoming besties with the chef, Luke, a local born and bread Sourdough (Alaskan). I ate here about 4 times all up and it was divineeeeeeeeee. Crush had the edgiest and freshest food I think I ate in the whole of Alaska (it was a little edgier than the before mentioned Kingfisher Roadhouse in Cooper Landing that I awarded best restaurant in Alaska).

Crush is a relatively new restaurant, only about 18 months old and sits in an unassuming spot opposite Nordstrom. It's a cool, hip place, a very modern and dark interior, but comfy and friendly. It's called Crush, I believe, because of its dedication not just to food, but more importantly for them, their dedication to wine. they have about 40 wines by the glass, and their menu features "flights" which are grouped wines by region - 3 glasses of 3 different winemakers for each wine type eg. "Pinot Envy" features a NZ, Chile and Oregan pinot - it's pretty damn cool stuff. I saw an empty bottle of Grange proudly displayed on their shelf...these guys take their wine seriously. They offer a retail cellar upstairs. Yep, they love their wine!

But their food. YUMMMMMMMMMMM. Their menu is quirky, creative, and fresh. Small plates to share, snack and taste, or big plates to devour, are on offer. You can come here for lunch, an afternoon wine and snack, bar dinner, or a full posh dining experience. I did a bit of all of these!

Sarah, Ty (mate of Sarah's) and I devoured a wonderful plate of Pork Ribs with jasmine rice and jicama and watermelon salad (pic above). For the aussie readers, jicama is a tuber vege, like a big white radish, but sweeter - it had the texture of a nashi pear. The ribs were divine...sweet and spicey, falling off the bone, and the wonderful crunchy fresh salad was a perfect accompaniment. MMMMMMMMm. We also shared a magnificent Caprese Salad, basil, mozzarella and tomato drizzled with olive oil and wonderful white balsamic vinegar...really yum. All the salads here are a must...I also ate the Strawberry Sheeps Feta and Hazelnut Salad (top pic), and I stopped for lunch one day and had the AMAZING Toasted Goats Cheese Salad, which I'm going to try and replicate at home.

Dessert. I ate dessert twice here, and it was really good. The Cranberry and White Chocolate Bread Pudding was wicked, and the best bread pudding I'd eaten so far in the USA (pic above). I also had a slice of their Lemon Cheesecake (after my lunch salad), and it was a smaller sized piece (very unusual for the USA) - the perfect size really, creamy, tasty, and not too sweet (again, unusual). Delicious.

Oh, and I almost forgot - one night I went for dinner, and ordered the special - it was a White Rock Fish grilled in an amazing sauce with creamed spinach served with marvellous mash and marinated yellow baby peppers (capsicum)...dear me...AMAZING!!!!

Thank you Luke, thank you Crush Team, and thank you Sarah for introducing me to this place - you can see Sarah and I with Sarah's mate Colleen in the pic above - we were out bar hopping after our big dinner at Crush!


Best Cafe - Snow City Cafe, 1034 W 4th Avenue
Ok Ezra, this is what you've been waiting for!

Whenever I told anyone I was a bit of a foodie, the cry was unanimous..."GO TO SNOW CITY CAFE". So I did. Three times.

This place is the coolest place to hang out in Anchorage, no question. It's big, bright, light, way cool, and really fun. The staff there are great - wacky and really helpful - when I got to talking to the guy next to me on my first visit (I was at the single's counter), turns out he works there and was eating breaky there on his day off...when I told him I loved food he brought me out all these cool things to try (thanks Josh)...that's how friendly this place is.

I also met the wonderful Ezra and Tucker - you can see their pic above, Ezra is the one pointing! The place is PACKED on Saturday and the queue was enormous, but everyone was waiting patiently for their turn, chatting with each other and just adding to the vibe of the place. Forunately I only ever had to wait once, when I wanted my own table rather than the counter. It was only 15 mins and I waited at the outside tables soaking up the rare sun!

So, how was the food??? FAN BLOODY TASTIC. It usually goes against the grain, but I ordered the same meal twice out of the three times I ate there. I actually ate my last Alaskan breakfast there, and just couldn't pass up the "best thing on the menu (according to Tucker)", that I'd eaten about 2 weeks before...the Kodiak Benedict (pic above).

Alaska is lucky enough to have crab coming out of its butt! So, imagine Eggs Benedict, where in place of ham there are two wonderful, thick, crabby King Crab cakes!!! OMG - sooooooooooooo good. So picture this...toasted English Muffin, crumbed and fried King Crab cakes, perfectly poached eggs, topped with the most divinely tangy Hollandaise sauce (served with a huge and very very good hash brown). Eggs Benedict people of the world rejoice...this is a masterpiece. And that's why I ordered it twice. I can still see the huge chuncks of crab I'd pull out of the crab cakes and just let them melt in my mouth allowing that wonderful crabby flavour to just invade my tastebuds...sighhhhhhhhhhhhh.

The menu at Snow City Cafe is huge, the soups are wonderful, and sandwiches creative and fresh, and the coffee fantastic. I wish I had an opportunity to try the pancakes and french toast...but I just couldn't got past those crab cakes under my poached eggs! Oh well...next time!

So, sportsfans, get yourself over to Snow City Cafe, but be patient if it's full, it is truly worth the wait. Say hello to Ezra and Tucker, and for goodness sake, let yourself be seduced by the Kodiak Benedict....mmmmmmmmmm.


3. Best Bar - Darwin's Theory, 426 G Street
As my Aussie friends know, I am no drinker. I'm old and boring, can't stay up past midnight, and fall asleep if imbibing alcohol.

Well...um...things don't seem to happen that way in the USA! I was a bloody rager! Thanks to Jordan, see Savannah post, I was fully hooked on bloody Captain Morgan and Coke - which, embarrassigly, is like saying I love Bundy and Coke. Hmmmmmmmm. Captain Morgan is a spiced rum if that adds any distinction whatsoever.

Travelling solo, I soon realised that a bar is a great way to connect with people. I had to learn to suck it up and just go in and sit down and start talking, it was hard at first, but I soon got the hang of it, and WOW, I still can't believe the cool people I met at bars, like really cool people. You can see me above, in Darwin's Theory, which I have voted Best Bar, with Jeff, who is like the "fishing Police" - he hangs out on commercial fishing boats to ensure they meet the strict fishing quotas, then there's the pic of me taken only a few days ago with spunky Greg from Hawaii, he spent 6 months in a Muslim refugee camp in Palestine studying conflict and also likes to Captain Hawaiin canoes, and on the other side Thomas, a Native Alaskan with OCD. See how cool the bar is!!! Darwin's is also where I met fellow foodie, and now good mate, Sarah. She works behind the bar.

Now Anchorage has some great bars. Apparently drinking is a favourite Alaskan pastime, especially in winter. A couple of other bars that get an honorary mention are Humpy's on the corner of F and 6th Streets and F Street Station Bar on F Street - both of these are fun, friendly, and serve really good food. I ate at both places a couple of times and it was great stuff. The French Onion Soup at F Street Station was very special - but everything on the menu there, according to Sarah, is fantastic. Humpy's usually has live music, is packed full of locals and tourists, usually a younger crowd, but great bar food and very atmospheric - go and check these two out.

There are a heap of other bars, most of which were covered in my bar tour with Sarah and Colleen. They were pretty average. I kept going back to Darwin's. It's a real dive of a bar...it's really for locals, but with the odd cool tourist! That way you get to chat with really interesting people. The barmaids are all soooooooo friendly, the patrons are friendly and some rather eccentric! I felt safe, laughed a lot, chatted a lot, and even drank some!

Darwin's is actually famous for one drink - "A Red Hot" - you can see it above, it's Cinnamon Schnapps with a dash of Tabasco Sauce - and OMG, it leaves a lovely burn on the lips! It hits with a true "hot" cinnamon blast further developed by the Tabasco!! Warms the insides and the outsides! I would recommend you try it, at least once! It's called a Red Hot, because apparently it tastes like an Amercian Christmas cookie named the same thing, which is a sugar cookie with a hot cinnamon candy on top - so give it a go sportsfans. It burns, but it's worth it!

Make sure you get along to Darwin's - one warning though, Barbara-Jean, the barmaid on my first visit assured me the bar is "full of locals and only the "nice" tourists...if they're cranky they don't last too long"!


4. Good Seafood - Phyllis's Cafe & Salmon Bake, 436 D Street
Ok Ok, You may have noticed I didn't put "Best", I put "Good". I have to admit, I didn't go out to specifically eat seafood, and didn't eat a lot of it in Anchorage, so I don't feel it's right to say this is the best place. I ate here, the King Crab was really good - AND HUGE - and I thought it worth a mention.

I was taken here by some local friends, and as you can see above, ate the biggest crab legs I've ever had in my life. Alaska is famous for its King Crab - and here I had two King Crab Legs - I could get through one, and had to share the other. The flesh was so sweet and so yum...I am still amazed by how prolific crab is here - in Oz the crab is sooooooo expensive that we don't waste it in crab cakes!! Here the crab cake abounds (as we've already read)!

So, rock up here for some real crab - don't go for the very average baked potato and salad that comes with the divine crab - but to experience the cracking and slurping of the King is something you have to do when you're in Alaska.


5. Best Sweet Place - Cake Studio, 4th Street
Anchorage is pretty light on for patisserie. But there is one place I kept going back to. I went back to buy their divine toasted marshmallows, their home-made cookies, and the odd piece of cake!

You can see their sweet treats in the pic above - lots of little goodies in the front windows, then behind on the counter is about 5 different cakes you can try by the slice...I um tried two of these... and oh my...very very yum!!! I also had one of the peanut butter cookies - it was two cookies sandwiched with a peanut butter frosting...oh yes it was sooooooooooo good!!!! There's also a chilled cabinet here full of more delicate desserts...I didn't try any of those...I'm much more excited about the baked goods. You know me.

The coffee here is good, they will make it as you like, the girls are friendly, there's wifi, and it has a really nice atmoshpere - I spent many an hour here gossiping or blogging! Check it out.


And there you have it sportsfans...the best of Anchorage. A city of no Porsches, no Fendi handbags and not a lot of superficiality. It's a real place, and I bloody loved it.

Thanks to everyone who took me under their wing, gave advice, kept me company, laughed with me, ate with me, and answered all my inane questions. I have truly fallen for Alaska, and I thank you.