Today Laurie and I packed Iris off to the park with my dad and did our taxes. When we were done, I called to check in:
> **Iris:** Iris eating Dorothys. And macaroni!
“Dorothys” is what she calls Goldfish crackers, because Elmo’s fish is named Dorothy. The macaroni, it turned out, was from a Guy Savoy recipe, leftovers from a potluck last night. It was made with an immoderate amount of cave-aged Gruyere, I am told. While Iris was gorging on three-star macaroni and its traditional fishy accompaniment, Laurie and I had lunch at Red Line.
Red Line is one of our neighborhood’s great hangouts. It’s in a large, bright space on a weird corner where Olive crosses Denny. At least two restaurants have failed there since we’ve been here, including the Hamburger Mary’s where we had lunch the day in 1995 when we came up to Seattle to look for our first apartment. When Red Line first opened, in 2004, the owners posted a manifesto on the wall indicating that they had performed an exorcism to drive off restaurant-killing demons.
In short, Red Line serves sandwiches, soups, and salads. American lunch. But they do so with an unusual level of skill. They make much better sandwiches than I do, because they’re always on the lookout for the unexpected ingredient that will elevate the sandwich to another plane. The chicken torta, which is what I had for lunch today, has chicken, green chile spread, and a couple of different cheeses, including feta. I don’t like feta, and surely it’s not a traditional part of a Mexican sandwich, but I decided it give it a chance, and it gives the sandwich a faint echo of brine that keeps things interesting, bite after bite.
Similarly, the Texan (my favorite Red Line sandwich) is a grilled sandwich with roast beef, red onions, cheddar, and horseradish. I’m not saying horseradish on a roast beef sandwich is a groundbreaking move, but it’s not how I would have done it. Too bad for me. The Texan also comes with a side of chipotle au jus. (Is it acceptable to use “au jus” as a noun now?) Laurie got the Texan today. She also had a cup of the pozole, a seriously spicy hominy soup.
That Red Line tries harder in the sandwich department isn’t just my imagination. One time, the owners, Katy and Derrick, sat down at the table next to me for a business meeting, and I overheard them discussing plans for adding a grilled cheese to the menu. They had a spirited debate over what cheeses and breads would create a world-class sandwich. They did end up putting grilled cheese on the menu (I don’t remember what components they ended up with, other than fontina), and Iris loves it.
Red Line used to be open in the mornings for coffee and scones, but they cut back to 11am-11pm a few months ago. They were losing money in the morning, probably because of people like me, freeloaders who would come in early, spend hours on the free wi-fi, and occasionally glance up at the beautiful sandwich cook who looked like Hilary Swank. To my credit, I sometimes ordered the frittata.
They’ve also done some cool promotions. For a few weeks before election day in 2004, all coffee drinks were a dollar on Tuesdays. Last year they did an Aloha Week celebration in honor of co-owner Derrick, who is Hawaiian. I got this awesomely messy beef teriyaki sandwich.
Also, the cookies are 50 cents, even the one with chocolate on the outside and a peanut butter center.
At one point, Iris became so enamored of Red Line that it turned into her nightly bedtime song for literally months. It changed every night, but here’s one version, with annotations.
*Goin’ down to Red Line*
*Gonna get some almond*1
*Almond will be hot*
*Dada will cool it*
*Gonna see the fire*2
*Fire burned the sandwich*
*Gonna see Ben*
*Drinking some beer*3
*Goin’ down to Red Line*
*Gonna bring my Iris*
1. Steamed milk with almond.
2. They have one of those ovens with fire in it. It’s not actually wood-burning, but it looks like a wood-burning pizza oven. They would never let the fire actually burn a sandwich, but it makes a good lyric. *My sandwich fell into a burning ring of fire…* etc.
3. Ben is a friend of a friend who came along to Red Line one night and got a beer. I also got a beer, but for some reason Ben drinking the beer made a huge impression on Iris. Did I mention Red Line serves beer and wine?
**Red Line**
1525 E. Olive Way
(206) 328-9559
11am-11pm
**Update:** Apparently Derrick is no longer associated with Red Line. Too bad.
That is a touching song.
The onion dip at redline is great. I intend to return next time I am in the area.
Hey, Ben. Laurie and I had that on Sunday too, and for the first time. It was great.
>
That’s a crying shame! I used to live across the street from Red Line, and although I’ve moved off Capitol Hill, I still have a crush on him. ;-)