Road Trip! Seward

My husband, dog, mother in law, and I just got back from a great trip to Seward, Alaska. Seward is on the southern part of the Kenai Peninsula, at the head of beautiful Resurrection Bay. Seward is one of the older towns in this part of Alaska, and was important as the start of the Alaska Railroad and the Government Trail/Iditarod Trail. It was a really important transportation and supply hub because the bay is open year-round, unlike a lot of ports in Alaska that are frozen in the winter. Today, the port is still important as a base for commercial and recreational fishing, as a cruise ship port bringing thousands of tourists to Alaska every summer, and as a supply point for shipping things like coal from Alaska to the rest of the world. It is also adjacent to Kenai Fjords National Park, and a lot of people come to Seward to take wildlife cruises, go sea kayaking in the fjords, or to go hiking up to Exit Glacier.

Since Seward is a tourist town, there are a ton of places to eat. You'll notice that the prices seem pretty high, but I will point out two things about that. First, this is a town that lives off of tourists, including cruise ship tourists, so their prices are high because of that. Also, so much of the food includes fresh seafood from Resurrection Bay and Prince William Sound, so that makes things more expensive, too. Some of the places that I didn't have time to go include Ray's Seafood Restaurant, which is apparently the most expensive restaurant in Seward. Their seafood is supposed to be pretty good, but mainly they are popular because they are right on the water overlooking the harbor, and they have big plate glass windows giving you an amazing view. Also right next to the harbor is the Harbor Street Creamery ice cream parlor. I really wanted to go there, but didn't get the chance during our approximately 36 hours in Seward.

And while I didn't get any coffee there, I really recommend going to the Resurrect Art Coffee House and Art Gallery. It is housed in the old Methodist Church, which is gorgeous. The coffee shop part is in the front where you come in, and they have teas, coffee, and things like bagels. They have a ton of local art for sale, which takes up the rest of the space, and includes watercolors and oils by local artists, prints of drawings and paintings, jewelry, hand-woven towels, knit hats, hand turned wooden bowls, books about Alaska, photo prints of cute Alaskan animals like sea otters, stained glass, and modern scrimshaw ivory with unusual designs, like an octopus one-man band. The tall church windows let in a ton of light, which is great. There is so much art and display cases that there aren't a ton of tables and chairs, but is seems like there is enough room. And if you go upstairs to where the choir used to be, there are a few comfy chairs and low tables, along with a bookcase of used books for sale. They also have a great bulletin board which advertises things like the photo contest and fundraiser for the SOS animal shelter. So while, since Alaskan love their coffee, there are probably a dozen places to get an espresso in Seward, if nothing else, you should go to Resurrect Art for the ambiance.

Another great place to go, when you need a sweet snack, is to Sweet Darling's candy store. It's on 4th Ave in the heart of Seward, and they make all kinds of tasty candy. They make their own salt water taffy, which my husband loved, and they make their own fudge and truffles. I got a dark chocolate truffle, a hazelnut truffle, a "maple almighty" truffle, and a truffle that was basically a piece of their homemade fudge dipped in chocolate. They had a pretty wide variety of truffles, so I'm sure everyone could find something they liked. They also make fantastic gelato. Not only was it good, but it was really authentic- everything from the flavors (mostly) to the little spatulas they give you to eat it, was more like actually getting gelato in Italy than anywhere else in Alaska. I got two scoops of chocolate and coffee, and my husband got strawberry and fruits of the forest, and they were all delicious. I think the 2 scoop cup was $4. Alaskan towns usually have a ton of choices when it comes to ice cream, but if you're in Seward, you should definitely pick the gelato.

For lunch when we got into town we went to the Apollo, a Greek and Italian place that has been around a long time. It was great when my whole family was down there fishing, and we were cold and wet. We could go here, and the kids could get spaghetti or pizza. This is a very old-style Italian restaurant, though, and the thick cream sauces were a little much for us. We got the seafood stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer. They were pretty much like a crab cake or something, with seafood and breading, stuffed in the mushroom caps, and topped with a lot of really thick cream sauce. I got the frutti de mare pasta, which had very well-cooked seafood, including halibut in it, but again, it was topped with a super thick cream sauce, almost like a roux or bechamel, so I didn't get very far. It is a Seward staple, though, and if you like old-fashioned Italian-American food, or if you need a hot pizza for for your family after a long, cold day of fishing, you should stop by.

For dinner one day, we went to Alaska Nellie's Roadhouse, which is also on 4th Avenue. It was really good, and we wished we had time to come back for breakfast or for another lunch or dinner so we could try more things on the menu. They apparently make really good breakfasts, including hotcakes, corned beef hash, omelets (including one with reindeer sausage), and breakfast burritos. The breakfast prices ranged from $7 - $12, depending on what you got. For lunch and dinner, they have everything from nachos (which looked amazing), to sandwiches, falafel, and seafood baskets. They make their own seafood chowder fresh, and you can tell- it was really delicious. They also have really fantastic burgers, which are served on ciabatta rolls and come with coleslaw or fries, or for $2 you can substitute a cup of chowder or their amazing sweet potato fries. My husband got the mushroom and swiss burger, which was really good. It was cooked more than he would like, but he didn't ask for it rare, so you can't really blame them, and it was still really good. You can also get a caribou burger, a salmon burger, or a halibut burger, which is what I got. It was really great, good halibut, grilled so it was charred a little on the outside, and was perfectly cooked so it was just falling apart. The burgers cost from $10 to $17, and of course the most expensive were the salmon and halibut burgers. They also have dinners that come with a baked potato and vegetables, so you can get your fix of steak, halibut, crab legs, chicken, or caribou filet mignon. They also have a seafood pasta and a cajun chicken or halibut pasta. I didn't catch all the dinner prices, but they were in the $20 range for entrees. Everyone I know loves the food they get here, plus they have great old photos of historic Seward and of Alaska Nellie Lawing, who was a tough pioneer Alaskan woman who ran a roadhouse and was a world-class  hunter back in the day.

The other place I would really recommend, and that we'll also be going back to when we get back to Seward, is the Smoke Shack. They are located in the "Train Wreck" which is a group of four converted Alaska Railroad cars at the corner of 4th and Port Streets. One car is a bike repair and rental place, one is a guide outfit for tours of Exit Glacier, one is a hotel in case you feel the need to stay in a railroad car with a great view of the harbor, and one car is the Smoke Shack. They have a smoker out back, and a kitchen on one end of the car, and the other end of the car has maybe 10 4-person tables. There was a short wait when we went, and as you can imagine, it's so small that there's probably always a line. Their mottos are "Food for the Soul" and "Life's Too Short to Eat Boring Food!" The name of the restaurant is taken seriously - all meat in this place is smoked, from the breakfast meats to the burgers to the ribs. We had breakfast here, but the rest of the menu looks great. My husband had the eggs benedict, as always, and it was really good, but was really unusual. It was served on toasted little baguettes instead of English muffins, and it had smoked ham, and the sauce had a lot of cajun spices in it, that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I got the Huevos Rancheros, which was fantastic and also really unusual. I got it with scrambled eggs, but you could have your eggs any way you wanted. It was a big platter with tortillas on the bottom, covered in potatoes, black beans, cheese, and eggs garnished with pico de gallo. You got your choice of red Spanish chorizo sauce or green chili sauce. I went with the chorizo, which is what the waiter recommended. It was very spicy and delicious, and not at all the Mexican style huevos rancheros I am used to. Their other breakfast selections include frittatas, chicken fried steak, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, and the "Benedict Arnold," which is the Egg's Benedict with vegetables instead of ham (get it?). Breakfasts cost from $6 to $14. Most of the lunches cost from $10 to $14, but the large rack of baby back ribs cost $22. For lunch they have ribs, a smoked green chili burrito, smoked beef or turkey burgers, smoked chicken sandwiches, and smoked pork shoulder sandwiches, all of which come with beans and coleslaw. They also have a couple odds and ends like gumbo and "Cajun baked brie,"which is served warm with tomato salsa on toast. And despite everything I've just described, they also have vegetarian options for lunch - a smoked tofu burger (I told you everything was smoked!) and a portobello mushroom sandwich with carmelized onions and goat cheese. See, I totally have to come back to this place.

There are several other restaurants and bakeries that I didn't get to, but luckily Seward is only a two and a half hour drive from Anchorage, so I should be able to get back to try some more things soon.