CAPITOL HILL, SEATTLE: Stumptown coffee, dead animals nailed to the walls, mimosas served in juice glasses, and some of the ugliest portraits I’ve been lucky enough to see – this is my kinda brunch place. Actually, Smith seems like more of a bar than a restaurant, but if they’re cool with being open at ten on a Saturday morning then I’m happy to eat there.

It’s not one of those sunny, yellow, cheery brunch places. The walls are dark, the woodwork is dark, the main windows face west, and the waitstaff had a humorously morose air at being awake so early. Plus the aforementioned dead animals. The coffee was insanely strong.

Unfortunately, we weren’t really hungry when we hit this place, so we only ordered one plate of sweet potato corned beef hash. What we got didn’t appear to involve corned beef (the menu was new that day, resulting in a touch of confusion), but it was delicious – crispy caramelized sweet potato and ham chunks topped with a very soft poached egg. Despite us not being very hungry, it disappeared instantly. I wished I had more room.

We will be coming back here, of course, first chance we get. They have poutine on their menu. And a grilled gruyere sandwich with onion jam. And a really great looking bar. Maybe we can sneak the whole place up to Mount Vernon?

Also: am I weird that I really, really like these brown coffee mugs? They make me strangely happy.