Always I’m eager for a good breakfast, and word on the internet was that Geraldine’s Counter is great. It’s a mom & pop place in Seattle’s Rainier Valley, and the most enthusiastic raves online are for their fresh-baked coffee cake, so one fine autumn day I took a crosstown bus to Columbia City, and found Geraldine’s, in an old but charmingly reconfigured building at the corner of Rainier Ave and Ferdinand Street.
As sometimes happens with beloved local restaurants, it’s popular, crowded. I’m decidedly unpopular, and avoid crowds. I want to eat at the excellent restaurant nobody goes to, but this clearly wasn’t that.
I’d even come at what should’ve been an unpopular, uncrowded time — 2PM on a weekday. The lunch rush should be over, and they close at 3:00, so business should be tapering off, right? Wrong. From the sidewalk you could see that the restaurant was very, very busy, almost 100% packed.
Being a coward of staggering proportions, I staggered around the corner, and leaned on the building’s wall, torn about whether to face my phobia for a slice of coffee cake, or go home and try again some other day. It was the voice of Alfred (Michael Gough) from the best Batman (1989) that decided it for me: “If not now, when?” said the old butler. If I came another day, it might be just as busy, so I opened the door and walked in.
“Just one?” said a pleasant 30-something waitress of possibly Hispanic or Asian descent.
“Just one,” I said (story of my life). She had a menu in her hand and was looking for an empty table or booth for me, but I volunteered, “I’d prefer the counter.”
She gestured toward a stool at Geraldine’s namesake Counter. It’s fairly long, with perhaps a dozen stools, and like everything in the building except the building itself, seemed of recent construction. The restaurant is about twenty years old, but the building is from the late 1800s or early 1900s.
I asked for coffee and settled in, or tried to — still a little nervous from the crowd. The menu was a single laminated sheet, but listed lunch options only, on both sides. I must’ve had a frustrated look on my face, because a different waitress bustling past stopped and said, “Is everything OK, sir?”
“I was hoping for a breakfast menu,” I said, holding the lunch menu out toward her.
I thought she’d say oops and swap it for a breakfast menu, or worst case scenario she’d tell me breakfast is over and they’re only serving lunch. Instead she took the menu from my hand, and opened it. Suddenly it was four laminated pages, not two, and the inside pages were all about breakfast. She looked at me and smiled, and we both laughed. Me being an idiot is also the story of my life.
After studying the menu for few minutes, I ordered the breakfast casserole — eggs, sausage, hash browns, pepper jack and cheddar, layered and baked and topped with pico de gallo (a fancy term for salsa, Google told me later).
My wife made terrific breakfast casserole, and I figured ordering it might bring back memories. And also, of course, I ordered a slice of Geraldine’s famous coffee cake.
“Sorry, all gone. You have to come early for the coffee cake.”
“Well, next time I’ll come early,” I said, glumly.
After I’d read about four pages in the book I’m reading, the casserole came. It’s individually portioned, baked in its own ceramic bowl, and bore no resemblance to my wife’s breakfast casserole, except that it was yummy.
The tab was less than twenty bucks, including the coffee, and the coffee was dang fine.
There wasn’t quite enough casserole to fill me, but I would’ve been full if there’d been coffee cake. I was a happy customer as I left, but also happy to be leaving, as the place was still crazy crowded.
♦ ♦ ♦
If you google a brick-and-mortar business, then jump to Google Maps, there’s usually a long list of information about the business in the left-sidebar. Scroll down a ways, and Google will estimate how busy the place is, at any particular time. It’s a neat trick, and it’s what I should’ve looked at before my first visit to Geraldine’s. I definitely did it before my second visit, and the recommendation was to go early.
I got there just after the restaurant opened at 8AM, and only half a dozen tables were taken. When the greeter tried to seat me, I again said I’d prefer the counter, and she guided me to the same seat as my first time, right where the counter goes at a slight angle. Come twice, get the same seat twice?
In an a-ha moment, I understood the logic — because of the jig in the counter, the stools at that point are several inches further apart than the rest of the stools, which makes my seat “the fat guy seat.” It’s brilliant, it’s thoughtful, and being enormous, I appreciated the extra space.
This time I ordered coffee, french toast, and (yes please) the coffee cake. With less of a busy vibe to the place, I looked around and noticed things I hadn’t on my first visit. The added interior walls are white, the original walls are brick, which gives the place a warm feeling. The counter is light pink, the stools light blue.
The french toast was not made with slices of ordinary bread, but with what appears to be fresh-baked bread, each piece roughly triangular in shape, six inches or so long, and two inches wide. You get three chunks, and they’re substantial — and delicious. The menu says it’s topped with powdered sugar and a different fruit daily; mine was half a banana, sliced, ripe, excellent.
And it’s served with maple syrup that’s the real thing, not the chemical imitation that most restaurants serve. Can’t remember the last time a restaurant served genuine maple syrup that wasn’t an ‘option’ costing several dollars extra. Maple syrup is standard, at Geraldine’s.
The coffee cake was so fresh it was still hot, a generous portion, with almond slices and several pats of wrapped butter, cool but soft enough to be spreadable. This I ascertained by squeezing a pat, but unwrapping butter pats is always a pain so I didn’t, and the coffee cake was quite good without it. For all the chatter about the coffee cake, though, and good as it was, the french toast was better.
The service is attentive, friendly, but not intrusive.
The music was 1960s rock, good stuff, and not too loud. “Walk on the Wild Side” and “For What It’s Worth” — thoughtful sounds, not Bobby Sherman.
You know the small tabletop ads that many restaurants have, standing reminders to order a beer or dessert or whatnot? Geraldine’s has those, but instead of selling something they’re asking folks to donate or volunteer for the Rainier Valley Food Bank.
The restaurant is in the heart of America’s most diverse zip code, 98118, and that’s reflected in the staff and customers, very much of the neighborhood. Donald Trump would not win an election at this restaurant.
It’s where the locals go. They kept coming while my food was cooking, and never stopped, and by the time I’d finished breakfast the restaurant was nearly full again. I’d guess it seats 150, maybe more.
In just about every way, Geraldine’s Counter is an excellent restaurant, simply one of the best I’ve found in Seattle.
But it’s not quite right for someone eating alone, especially someone crowd-phobic (enochlophobia — also the story of my life). There are so many customers, more always coming in, that taking a table by myself would feel like I’m blocking several people from getting seats.
Take a seat at the counter, and there’s a sink on the other side, so every few minutes when another waitress washes her hands right opposite your breakfast, you’re hit with the scent of soap. And Geraldine’s is rated “Excellent” by the Health Department, so there’s a lot of hand-washing.
Eating solo, it’ll be a while before I’m in the fat seat again. For a meal with a friend, though, you probably can’t do better than a table or booth at Geraldine’s Counter. So all I gotta do is before coming back is, make a friend.
Geraldine’s Counter
4872 Rainier Ave S, Seattle WA (Columbia City)
Food & drink: excellent
Dessert: excellent
Price: surprisingly reasonable
Service: very good
Transit: #7, #50
Verdict: BIG YES.
11/29/2024
itsdougholland.com
← PREVIOUS NEXT →
Leave a Reply