Where you eat with kids can be as intriguing as the food you order. At Heather Earnhardt’s new, southern-inspired Wandering Goose, the surroundings and the menu are in stiff competition. Options include a foot high quattro leches cake that could double for a snowy volcano at a school science fair. Then there’s plump sea island beans topped with pickled cabbage so bright green it might as well glow in the dark. If that’s not enough to engage children, the space’s warm-in-the-winter details will: A bowl of persimmons rests on a counter; a giant glass container filled with lemons brining in salt sits high on a shelf in the long, lean room.
Opening last autumn in the increasingly family-friendly Capitol Hill, the Wandering Goose is a big win for families living in the neighborhood. It’s also worth the drive. A wall of windows in the restaurant’s interior peeks into Ethan Stowell’s neighboring Rione XIII. Stowell’s Italian-inspired eatery prepares for the dinner rush around the time the breakfast and lunch-focused Wandering Goose is winding down.
Hailing from North Carolina, it’s clear that Volunteer Park Cafe co-founder Earnhardt pays attention to ingredients. She raises bees to make the restaurant’s honey and ships in authentic ground Boonville flour for homemade biscuits. The menu includes a few more healthy components (dinosaur kale, beets, braised greens) than traditional southern recipes.
The kitchen whips up plates that can easily be shared by a snacking family of four. The fried chicken platter ($13) includes a leg, wing, and two thighs resting on an enormous biscuit. Any bites not gobbled up with crisp-on-the-outside, juicy-on-the-inside meat should be sweetened by the accompanying ramkin of raspberry jam.
Biscuits also stand in for buns in a number of sandwiches. Children will predictably opt for the “Big Trouble” ($5) with peanut butter, honey and banana. The more daring will be happy with the “Sweet Blonde” ($7.50) – a sweet potato biscuit hugging hearty ham and an over-easy egg. Vegetarian diners will do well with a generous veggie plate ($12) or house salad with pumpkin seed brittle ($7.50).
Parents searching for ways to encourage kids to try new flavors have many choices on the “Odds and Sods” menu. With prices ranging from $4 to $6, a range of sampling sides, including crock pot grits and homemade sausage patties, are offered. Sweeten the deal with something from the rotating display of desserts, including peanut butter fleur de sel cookies and quince hand pies.
The Wandering Goose, 403 15th Ave. E. (between Republican and Harrison Streets), Seattle. 206-323-9938; www.thewanderinggoose.com.
