Seriously?!

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Seattle when we came upon Tom Douglas's newer location of Serious Pie, which is also home to Serious Biscuit. Regan wanted a light nosh, so the fried chicken biscuit and gravy caught her eye. Oht! Serious Biscuit occupies the downstairs, and Serious Pie sits upstairs, overlooking Douglas's bakery the Dahlia Workshop. Regan's fried chicken biscuit was good, but if I was blindfolded I would have thought I was at any roadside diner. It is nearly impossible to mess up a biscuit and fried chicken. (She loved it, but she's from Idaho where biscuits n gravy is a measure of culinary success.) Regan also ordered a "blt" Bloody Mary with bacon salt. It was horrible and had a bad fake bacon taste to it -- not like the one at Tasty n Sons in Portland that comes with a piece of house-made beef jerky!

Since I am a big fan of Lola's octopus creations, I was happy to see it on the menu: wood-fired octopus with arugula, Gigante beans, olives, and some pesto jazz. This was really disappointing and by far the worst octopus dish in Tom Douglas's repertoire. There was barely any octopus. The beans were dry, bland, and not cooked well. The olives tasted like they had extra salt added to them, and the overall flavor combinations really didn't work -- that has always been key to Lola's success. The octopus at Lola has always been interesting, and the ingredients have always complemented each other.

Since expanding his empire, Tom Douglas has let mediocrity seep into his restaurants. He is simply trying to do too much, and his misses are now as frequent as his hits. In the past, we have enjoyed some of his restaurants, but these days he just seems greedy. Food consistency and quality have slipped. Maybe we should have just shared a pizza. I had it once but seriously can't remember if it was any good.