Copper Gate

We met Mia, Ryan, and Chris last night for a happy hour dinner at Copper Gate, a strange and interesting restaurant/bar in Ballard. The decor is Viking meets boobies, with a bar shaped liked a Viking ship and walls that are covered with picture after picture of naked ladies. The food is Scandinavian small plates, with a long list of interesting cocktails that rely heavily on Aquavit.

We had the gravlax with brown bread and mustard, the Swedish meatballs with potato and celeriac puree, and a plate of fries with curry ketchup. The gravlax was fantastic, very dilly and not too fishy. It was also really pretty on the plate. The meatballs were good, but not fantastic. (I make better Swedish meatballs!) but the potato puree was great, very creamy and smooth. The fries were more like Belgian frites, short and stubby, but very crispy. The one thing I didn't like was the curry ketchup, but our waitress was nice enough to bring us regular ketchup and all was made better.

We each had a few drinks as well. I had a kir cocktail made from the Scandinavian version of kirsch mixed with sparkling wine. It was really nice, not too boozy, but not too fruity either. I also had a juniper berry cocktail that was made with grapefruit. It was tart and not too sweet, just how I like my drinks. Andy tried a couple of beers, one from Belgium and one from Quebec. Both were decent.

The prices were good because of happy hour, but I am not sure I would ever want to pay full price for anything but a plate of fries here. The decor was interesting, something to keep the conversation going, but somewhat weird with the tall partition wall blocking the view of most of the restaurant. Good for privacy, but I am a people watcher and like to be able to see everything! Nevertheless, I'm sure we'll be back for some more happy hour goodness.