Too bad The Met is getting remodeled, best steaks in town, and amazing service, close 2nd El Gaucho,,,quick legendary El Gaucho story, Earlier days of SIFF and then big time NY film critic Rex Reed was at The Westin, and ordered bananas foster desert, not on The Westin's menu. They sent a cab to El Gaucho, got the desert, and up to Reed's room,,,anyway, that version of Seattle, like all others before it, has passed...

We had a Canlis in Honolulu--opened in 1946, then closed in the late 1980s. Same family.

It ended up being Hard Rock Cafe...closed and moved to Waikiki. The old Hard Rock Cafe became a Coffee place--but NOT Starbuck’s or Seattle’s Best.

Anyway Canlis is pau (finished, kaput). But Honolulu has 6,000 restaurants. Actual regional cuisine as in NO fortune cookies at Chinese restaurants, GREAT dim sum, superb fresh sushi and sashimi.

I knew of six 5 star Michelin restaurants from French to Fusion. But when I Googled “5 star restaurants” it gave me 5 star ratings from YELP! Ha! Include “Michelin" next time.

Because the Islands has many resorts we also have many superb restaurants. Some prix fixe with seven courses and accompanying wine can be well over $400 per person. Then you can get $1,000 bottles of wine at the Mandarin, Four Seasons etc. The latter resort on Maui’i is $10K a NIGHT with a minimum of 14 days for your own “little” bungalow of maid, butler, valet, and chef. More “men” and “women” as needed.(!)

The compound that the Obamas used to rent each Christmas holiday was $3500/night WITHOUT butler, chef etc. And the Obamas paid for it, not the taxpayers. Flying from DC to Honolulu is on Air Force One but they had to pay for 5 First Class tix as if flying commercial.

Anyway the islands are expensive so “Lucky you live Seattle.”

What a waste of an article. What's the point of showing a photo of the Seafood Tower from Goldfinch if you're not going to tell us what it includes or tastes like? I may be thousands of miles away but I'd like to vicariously imagine digging into that tower that's been set down before me.

And, then, there's this ridiculous bit about the (stereotypical, sexist, heteronormative) clientele at Rob Roy:

Also, lots of suit-wearing business dudes go here to impress their secretaries, so it makes for fun and fashionable people-watching too.

Oooh. Dudes impressing their secretaries. Shades of the 1970s. Is that before the secretaries report them to HR? You could have just as easily written "dudes with their fashionable dates go here, so it makes for fun people-watching too" and avoided clumsy writing with unfortunate connotations.