A Visit to Seabrook, Washington’s Beach Town
We went to SEABROOK (no, not ABROOK or EABROOK, geez I wish someone had told me to move my head to the left in that picture) last week to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday! It was our first time visiting Washington’s Beach Town and we had a wonderful time. See our full review and trip highlights below.
Just a two and a half hour drive outside of Seattle, Seabrook is a great vacation destination for families with young children (tons of park amenities, a pool, and walkable nearby beach) or an adult weekend away. Our Airbnb was fantastic – the Flagstaff House – well appointed kitchen, hot tub, cute bunkroom, and sleeps up to 17. Loved the location within the Seabrook community – highly recommend! The town of Seabrook is highly walkable and the architecture is quintessential coastal and impeccably done with colored Adirondack chairs, houses each individually named, and pathways finished with crushed shells.
While in Seabrook, we ate highly recommend you purchase coffee and baked goods at Vista Bakeshop (started by Canlis alums!), both were delicious. We ate Mexican food for lunch at Koko’s Restaurant and Tequila Bar (pricey, but good), and ordered pizza-to-go from Frontager’s Pizza Co. The pizza was indeed fantastic, but be warned, we placed a pizza order at 4:45pm and were told it wouldn’t be ready for pick-up until 7:30pm. There is also a great candy and ice cream store in Seabrook – The Sweet Life – which is the stuff kids’ dreams are made of.
One of the highlights of our trip was the Spaghetti alle Vongole, Ryan made for his mother’s birthday dinner. It was absolutely delicious and I, of course, failed to take a picture (such a bad blogger)! Ryan research and discovered National Fish & Oyster Company in Olympia from which to purchase our clams. Be warned: National Fish & Oyster Company is literally down a gravel road, upon which you pass numerous homes with cars on blocks in their front yards, and I may have thought Ryan was maybe taking me to an isolated area to throw me in the ocean and drive off; however, the clams were so fresh (you can literally see them harvesting them) and less than 1/2 the cost elsewhere. Highly recommend! Pasta recipe is below and seriously a very good reason in and of itself to book a trip to Seabrook just so you can stop at National Fish & Oyster Company, buy fresh clams, and make this Spaghetti alle Vongole when you get there.
SPAGHETTI ALLE VONGOLE
- 22 oz. spaghetti
- 1.5 cups olive oil
- 4 pounds manila clams
- 18 oz. grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 3 pinches crushed dried chili flakes
- 3 handfuls flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 1 1/3 cups white wine
- lemons slices to taste
- Soak clams in cold water as salty as the ocean for one (1) hour until sand is purged.
- After soaking clams, cook spaghetti to al dente.
- While your pasta is cooking, heat a wide frying pan over a high heat.
- When smoking hot, add 6 tablespoons of the oil and then, quickly and all at once, the clams, tomatoes, garlic and chili flakes.
- Fry for a few moments (garlic should just start to color at the edges).
- Add the parsley.
- Stir together and then add the wine.
- Let the pan bubble away – the clams will let out some liquid as they start to cook.
- Once they have begun to open, they shouldn’t fry. If your pan gets too dry, add a little water, but remember that in the finished dish the sauce should be more oil than water.
- When most of the clams have opened, add the drained pasta and remaining oil and cook together until the last ones pop.
- Serve immediately with lemon slices.
In addition to our Spaghetti alle Vongole, we made Chrissy Teigen’s Everything Bagel Cream Cheese Breakfast Bake (recipe available here) for breakfast along with our favorite homemade cold brew and brought the ingredients for two of our favorite non-wine based celebratory cocktails – Watermelon Margaritas and Cocoa Espresso Martinis – because wine triggers migraines for my mother-in-law. Make sure to grocery shop before you head to Seabrook – the Front Street Market in town is cute and quaint and great for extra ice or ice cream but does not contain the full array of grocery items if you plan on doing most of your cooking in your rental.
Have you been to Seabrook? Did you enjoy your trip? We will definitely be returning (I want Ryan’s Spaghetti alle Vongole again) and this time I will be dragging Mallory with me 🙂
