Delancey

Seattle, Washington: I swear, we slept in our own bed last night. Or anyway, I am fairly certain we slept in our own bed last night. We flew home yesterday from Los Angeles. We did not want to leave Our Precious Boy, but could not miss Katie's wedding. We slept and did laundry, then headed north in our car this afternoon to Seattle. It was a beautiful drive, with views of Mt. Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams and Mount Rainier all afternoon. Glorious in the sunshine! Alexis Hotel - our favorite spot in Seattle... where we will not be bothered with drunk girls knocking on our door at 3 o'clock in the morning. Boring, I know, after our stay at the crazed W Hollywood last week...... and the view is much better.

For nearly two years, DT and I have been meaning to visit Delancey, the pizza restaurant operated by Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette fame) and her husband, Brandon Pettit. But the restaurant is 6 miles outside of Seattle and we usually visit Seattle via Amtrak and are without a car.

Brandon Pettit baking pizza at Delancey in Ballard

This trip, we are "with auto" so made the trek. Happy we did. Molly & Brandon only serve pizza, a few salads and a few desserts. The crust is thin and the pizzas are baked in a wood-fired oven averaging 700 degrees. The restaurant is teeny and they do not take reservations.

Long-time readers may remember Molly Wizenberg as the foodie who introduced me toTuna Corks - one of my favorite all-time recipes. Ms. Wizenberg is the author of A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table.

We started the evening with Billy’s Summer Gem Tomatoes - Sheep’s milk feta, preserved Meyer lemon, basil-shallot vinaigrette. This was the first time all summer we found vine-ripened tomatoes. Yeah! (Don't forget, we didn't get sunshine in the Pacific Northwest until two weeks ago).

Tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil

The true test of a pizza joint - Pizza Margherita. The most classic of all pies. The crust was thin and crisp, the sauce was just-right and one couldn't ask for much more in a pizza.

We also ordered the Romana pizza - tomato sauce, garlic, anchovy, kalamata olive, chile oil, oregano. This pizza was spicy, salty and we enjoyed the tang of the anchovies too. We were quite pleased with the pizzas at Delancey - and we even saw Ms. Wizenberg float through the establishment at one point.

Much of our pizza was wrapped to-go for our picnic tomorrow... and we also ordered another specialty of the house to-go:

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Grey Sea Salt - click this link at your own risk.

Tomorrow morning, DT and I continue north to catch a ferry to San Juan Island!

Until my next update, I remain, your well-fed correspondent.