No longer so close, yet so far away
After so many trips to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest to see my children and granddaughter, there is one city in the region I hadn’t been to: Bellevue. Close to Seattle, it was difficult to get to without a car. A lurching bus ride there could take 45 minutes.
Not anymore.
In March, the sleek, spotless Sound Transit 2 line started connecting Bellevue and Redmond with Seattle.
It’s an epic milestone, linking the Lake Washington cities into a giant tech metropolis that rivals the San Francisco Bay Area. With the Puget Sound, Lake Union, and Lake Washington linked together by rail, perhaps the area should be rechristened SoundWash or SeaBelleRed. I’m sure there’s a better name out there. And hopefully more engaging than Greater Seattle.
15 minutes from Seattle to Bellevue
From Seattle’s Judkins Park Station to Bellevue Downtown Station is 15 minutes — and a journey to another world. From Seattle’s earthy, edgy, and yes, at times grungy, neighborhoods to Bellevue’s glistening downtown, it’s a change of pace and scenery.
Free rides around Bellevue
When I got out of the station, I immediately found the Bellevue Light Rail Shuttle, which is a shiny blue VW Buzz ID van with red, green, and yellow stripes running down its center and side. It provides free – yes, free – rides around Bellevue. I took it to Bellevue Botanical Garden, a serene oasis at the edge of an oasis-like city.
Nature’s paintbrush at Bellevue Botanical Garden
At 53 acres, Bellevue Botanical Garden is an urban treasure. Garden Design Magazine rates it as one of the top twenty US botanical gardens. King 5 Evening, a local TV program, named it Best Public Garden and Best Park in the Northwest.
At the garden’s entrance, friendly volunteers guided me to what mattered most at that moment: a cup of coffee and a pastry. At the Copper Kettle Coffee Bar in a mid-century building, I ordered a Black Sesame Latte with a savory pinwheel. As it was a crisp, sunny fall day, I enjoyed my light breakfast on the patio before exploring the trails that led me to both surprising fall foliage and quirky human touches like the gnome house, which looks like somewhere Bilbo Baggins would reside, and the Tateuchi Viewing Pavilion, which gave the gardens a Kyoto-like touch. Both were gifts from Cal and Harriet Shorts, who donated the garden’s original seven acres to the city.
The Lost Bird Project
The garden envelopes you in visual harmony from the Yao Garden to the Lost Meadow Trail. One part, though, had me pause and contemplate what we’ve been losing. The Lost Bird Project was created by artist Todd McGrain to commemorate, with arresting sculptures, the extinction of five North American birds that were driven to extinction: Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Labrador Duck, Heath Hen, and the Great Auk.
Another free ride?
The Bellevue Bellhop is another local travel perk, allowing you, through the Circuit app, to get a free ride to and from anywhere in Bellevue. Whereas the Bellevue Light Rail Shuttle only leaves from the Link Station, you can request a ride on this app from anywhere. So I did, from the Bellevue Botanical Garden to Bellevue Square. The van that picked me up was spiffy and spotless. The only drawback is a much longer wait than an Uber or Lyft ride. But hey, it’s free.
Singapore on Lake Washington
If Seattle is Berlin on the Puget Sound, then downtown Bellevue reminds me of Singapore, where I lived for more than twenty years. Soaring, glistening office buildings, wide, clean sidewalks, impressive public art, and malls, of course. Bellevue Square has a Takashimaya vibe along with Asian restaurants whose origins are in Asia.
As an advertising exec in Asia, I used to travel to Gurgaon, near Delhi, to attend meetings. So a meal at Farzi Café, which originated in Gurgaon, had a certain nostalgic appeal. The dishes are fusion and really hit the spot. For a starter, my wife, daughter, and I had the Dal Chawal Arancini — Indian fused with Italian. For mains, we ordered the OG Dal Makhani, black lentils cooked for 18 hours, and Chicken Tikka Masala. The restaurant’s plush décor signals that the dining here is fine, though not quite fine dining.
Public art to inspire the public
The towering neck-straining bronze sculpture called Endless Connections by Gesso Cocteau literally reached as high as the fourth floor of Bellevue Place as it depicted one figure lifting another high into the air with her arms.
Oliver Jeffers’ The Moon, the Earth and Us, sponsored by Amazon, had a blue glass globe and the message, repeated within the borders of every country, that people live here.
The most impressive public art that I saw was Marc Fornés’ Piloti in Bellevue Downtown Park. I was dwarfed by it. While pilotis are support columns for a building, I interpreted the artwork as white flowers opening to the sun.
Historic Heart of Bellevue
After navigating through so many shiny buildings, it’s hard to believe that Bellevue has an historic center. But it does, on Main Street, founded in 1904.
I got a caffeine fix there at Third Culture Coffee. Its welcoming atmosphere in a spacious, warmly decorated space was articulated well in an artwork that said, “Filter coffee not people.” In a majority-minority city, where more than 50% of the population identifies as a person of color, those words resonate.
Amazon was founded here
While sipping my Americano, I thought of how the same pleasant all-American Main Street with its quirky shops like Hedge & Vine, cozy cafes like Gilbert’s on Main famous for its Matzo Ball Soup, and Fran’s chocolates — Obama’s favorite, where they give you free samples — also, in its own way, gave birth to the globe-girdling Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos in a garage in West Bellevue. Microsoft’s second headquarters after Albuquerque was located here from 1979 to 1985. So was Expedia’s from 1999 to 2019. T-Mobile has its headquarters here. Amazon and Microsoft still have a large presence in Bellevue, along with Meta and Salesforce. All this concentration of high-earning companies has made Bellevue wealthy. Over 54% of households earn more than $150,000 a year. The median home price in Bellevue is over $1.3 million.
I strolled to the tranquil Bellevue Marina at Meydenbauer Bay, the boats gently rocking to the barely there waves of Lake Washington. Who wouldn’t want to come back to this after a stressful day in a tech job?
Innovative Asian dining
On my walk back into downtown, I passed BA Artisan Bakery. Founded in Yunnan, China, it combines French baking techniques with flavors that draw upon different cuisines. Think Papa Roti, Grape and Cheese Bagel, and Nama Sourdough Chocolate (which I ate and loved!).
From Macau to Shanghai to Bellevue to my tastebuds
Luckily, I saved some room for dinner at The Dolar Shop. Founded in 2004 in Shanghai, it draws its culinary inspiration from Macau, where “doulao” (which sounds like ‘dolar”) means to gather fortune in wealth and opportunities. While traditional hot pots are communal affairs in that everyone dips their chopsticks into the same pot, at The Dolar Shop you get your own.
My family and I devoured a wealth of food at The Dolar Shop with a cacophony of different flavors. The individual pots contain two broths of your choice. I had the tomato and spicy broth. At a condiment counter, I created an outrageous-tasting dipping sauce with plenty of chopped garlic, Thai chili, cilantro, chive flower sauce, and fermented bean curd sauce. I’m not one for subtlety.
After a trip to a long appetizer table, we shared plates of wagyu, ribeye, Kurobuta pork shoulder, flat iron beef with sides of tofu, cabbage, fried bean curd, enoki mushrooms, and hand-crafted noodles. It all went into our respective boiling pots.
A feast for the taste buds and the “sound buds”
The meal was punctuated by small splashes as the ingredients hit the pots’ boiling broth; the swoosh of the beef and vegetables being cooked with chopsticks; the lift, dip, and either slurp or chew. Usually both. Sounds were as important to the experience as the visual appeal of the food and its taste and texture. My “sound buds” were certainly titillated.
It wasn’t just the food that was sumptuous. So was the restaurant’s décor, with highly stylized images of Chinese women decorating one wall with muted tones of grey on the walls, blue on the sofas and chairs, and the occasional orange chair to add a color accent.
Like most hot pot restaurants, tables were filled with families or groups of friends.
As Bellevue reaches out to the world, the world is coming to Bellevue
Blissful Bellevue’s ties to the tech industry have powered its wealth and population. With approximately 42% of its population identifying as Asian, it’s no surprise that the best Asian food ends up enriching the city’s dining scene. I returned to dine at Me + Crepe in Bellevue Square, a tiny restaurant that specializes in Peking Duck crepes. Unusual and unusually good. And the only place I’ve seen it offered. Anywhere.
When you need a break from Seattle — and let’s face it, why not? – a little bit of bliss comes in handy.