Date Night

The weather was so ridiculously beautiful last week that T and I decided to get out and explore more of Seattle.  So we suited up and headed downtown on the 73 bus for an evening of fun.  Our first stop was the Seattle Art Museum to catch the Miro show that we'd been meaning see ever since we moved here.

First Thursdays

As it was the first Thursday of the month, we got into the museum for free and paid a discounted rate to get into the Miro special exhibit.  Thursday also meant that the museum was open till later (9pm to be exact) so we could take our time getting lost in the art.   

As the exhibit was on the third floor, we couldn't help but pass many pieces from the museum's more regular collection on the way.  With so much to see, it was hard not to get distracted and quite a challenge to stay disciplined enough to make it the the Miro exhibit.  

SAM vs. DAM

Among the "distractions" was The Bronco Buster, a bronze statue by Frederic Remington which is on loan from the Denver Art Museum.  Apparently the two museums made a bet about whose team would win the Superbowl.  Thanks to the Seahawks victory, Seattle gets to proudly host the iconic piece. 

Eventually we were able to drag ourselves away from the regular collections and make it to Miro.  Unlike the exhibit we saw a few years ago in Washington, DC which focused on Miro's earlier work, this exhibit focuses on the last twenty years or so of his career.  By this point his style has evolved into the style that I most associate with Miro.  While it was obviously inspiring to see his work, it was also unexpectedly comforting to see his more familiar looking pieces again. 

That's not to say there weren't a few surprises however.  While I am familiar with many of Miro's paintings, I wasn't aware that he had also been a prolific sculptor as well.  Included in the exhibit are a number of Miro's sculptures that were often made with found objects.  It was therefore fun to dissect each one and identify how and with what it had been assembled.  I also enjoyed how some of the titles for his sculptural works seemed to be a bit more colorful than those of his paintings.

By the time we stepped out the Miro show, we were both starving so we high tailed it over to a little Japanese restaurant in the International District called Maneki.  T had eaten there weeks before with work colleagues and had been raving about it ever since so I was super excited to finally be introduced.  

With great anticipation we walked into Maneki only to be stunned by the news that it would be an hour long wait for a table.  Luckily however we were able to snag the last two seats at the bar which is my preferred way to dine at Japanese restaurants anyways.  We quickly got to work on the menu and I have to say everything we ended up trying was every bit as good as T had hyped... maybe even better.  The vibe is unpretentious, the price point more than fair, the portions large, and the flavors even larger.  And just when I thought that I couldn't love Maneki any more, we found out that it's been around for over a hundred years!!  First established in 1904 and having survived the Japanese American internment of WWII, it's not only a restaurant but something of a historic landmark in the history of Asian Americans in Seattle.  

Deliriously full after our meal, we stumbled to a nearby station and bus-ed it back home in food induced bliss before succumbing to full blown food coma at home. Not the most romantic ending to a date night but certainly no less happy.

Photo credits:  William Cordova's 'Machu Picchu After Dark,' Frederic Remington's 'The Bronco Buster,' and all pictures of Miro and his work taken from the Seattle Art Museum webpage.  Maneki store front from Cameras and Cuisines.  Black Cod collar bone from Zagat.