Thousands of Seattleites missed Paseo (4225 Fremont Ave N, 545-7440) for the two months that it was closed, but absolutely nobody missed the line. Dozens of people stretched out Paseo’s door in a chilly, unrelenting mist last Saturday around noon; at first the line was a quarter block, then a half block, and then it wrapped around the corner and out of sight. Most people were dressed in Seahawks gear, giving the experience a mildly unsettling quality of uniformity; there’s nothing quite like waiting in line with people wearing matching uniforms to amp up your dystopian anxiety levels by a few notches. The line was egregiously over-documented, with selfies and shots taken from across the street and lovingly Instagrammed photos of sandwiches posted by people leaving the restaurant. All these thousands of photos were presumably dumped onto social media, where they accrued a few generous likes before fading into digital oblivion.
“It’s like the old days,” a man cheerfully told his son as they got in line. After a few minutes, the man updated his opinion: “Wow. This is a long line.” Finally, about 25 minutes later…