Anchorage is a circus. This lunch spot will regulate your cortisol.
Notes on: Secret Service guys, grilled zucchini pizza, astrological portals, killer food-cart tamales, the last of the Beach Boys and a hipster Alaska guidebook
My cousin told me there’s an astrological portal open this week called “the lion’s gate” and I believe it. As I write, we’ve got an impending flood in Juneau and volcanic ash grounding planes in Nome and Kotz. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are on their way to our little town for a historic meeting on the future of Ukraine. Oh, and school starts and its my birthday. ♌️
Everybody who has an Airbnb is renting it to government people, Russians or media. I caught myself staring at a guy with a fresh haircut and khakis (khakis = dead giveaway) at the Fred Meyer Starbucks yesterday, looking a little too hard for a Secret Service earpiece. In short, the vibe is unsettled and a maybe a little ominous. They haven’t even shut down the roads and airspace or brokered any peace yet.
On the upside, I got to help the New York Times on a couple of stories (gift links: here and here) leading up to the big visit, basically just finding sources, interviewing them and sending a feed with my notes, which, for someone at my advanced age in reporter years, gave me a passing buzz of relevance. The Times is a sleek, smart, lightning-fast operation. I never did meet the reporter they sent here, but we talked on the phone after he landed. Coming in over the Chugach blew him away, he said. Yeah, I heard myself say, it’s why I can’t leave this place.
One time, when visiting New York, a friend of a friend and I were sharing a cab and she told me that she lives there because nothing important happens anywhere else. I thought about that this summer as I was running a blade down the spine of a sockeye. When you choose to live this far away from the rest of the country, you have to reckon with what important means. Maybe it means a byline in the New York Times. Or maybe it means being as old as Wolverine Peak or wide as the horizon across Knik Arm. Is it more important that the Mendenhall Glacier, and many other glaciers, are melting too fast or that President Trump is touching down tomorrow at JBER? Being way up here gives a person perspective to ask those kinds of questions. In the grand, astrologically-influenced scheme of things, that’s important to me.
I bring all this up because we could all use some grounding among the convoys and television live feeds. Your assignment: pay a visit the cathedral of pickle-topped buns and micro-histories that is Arctic Roadrunner and let deep Anchorage regulate your cortisol. That place started in a trailer at the Alaska State Fair 60-some years ago and grew into a funky, built-out, always-busy, cash-only institution on Old Seward. The fountain Dr. Pepper runs cold as the inlet and the burgers come with a tidy little cup of baked beans.
In particular, look close at the hundreds of framed photos crowding the walls of people the late owner, Dick Sanchis, deemed important because they were customers for 20 years or more. You’ll find judges, politicians, small business owners, homesteaders, bikers, religious leaders, one three-time Super Bowl winner, plus lots of people like “Jacy,” a horse lover and second-generation customer, pictured in a combo cowboy hat/tiara in 1998. I suggest weighing what’s important to you while eating a highly-rated halibut sandwich on the patio as the creek rambles by. Try not to think about Air Force One. The burgers are excellent, too.
Meanwhile, what’s for dinner? Aside from portals, natural disasters and Putin, now is a very kale-intensive time, garden-wise. I’m making easy kale salads, de-stemming and dressing it with lots of lemon, good olive oil and Parm. (If you need a recipe, Julia Moskin’s got you.) PSA: don’t let your garden zucchini get away from you. They’ll get as big as your forearm overnight if you don’t watch out. Should you have a large zucchini situation, I suggest this chocolate-zucchini cake. If you’ve just got a lot of regular-sized zuchs, look into Stanley Tucci’s favorite spaghetti alla Nerano. Or make this zucchini flower and burrata pizza on the grill that I just wrote about in the Anchorage Daily News. (Oh, and here’s how to make an Aperol spritz to go with it.)
Little treats: Newsletter wingman Spencer likes to go to the Peña Park Market on the weekends on the Eastside. It’s known for local produce and Hmong food, but lately he’s been into the red and green tamales that come with cotija, jalapeño crema and fresh salsa from La Neta food cart, which he says are killer.
In all the hubbub, let us not forget that the all important State Fair starts Friday, featuring supremely huge vegetables, my forever favorite deep-fried fingerling potatoes from Bushes Bunches, Medium Build, that lady killer, and the remaining original members of the Beach Boys. Here’s the schedule. Oh, and the very hip and pretty Wildsam Alaska guidebook just dropped, sleek as a Moleskine notebook (complete with a graph paper notes section). I got to contribute restaurant recommendations. You can get one here from the Salmon Sisters.
Hey: thank you for subscribing to this newsletter. (Did you miss last week’s? Here it is: Seven things to eat and drink to savor the last of Alaska summer.) If you have been thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, today could be the day you go all-in on the burger-based regulation of your autonomic nervous system and emergency zucchini recipes! Upgrade here. Subscriptions start at $1.50 a week or $8 a month, help me pay the bills and buy access to my archive of newsletters with their weird Anchorage stories, recipes and restaurant mini-reviews, early notice about events and workshops, and entry into my occasional birthday cake raffle. You can also choose to be a founding subscriber, doubling down on this local news and food project for $240.
Write to me with your favorite fair food, little treats and surreal Secret Service sightings. And anything. Really.
Thank you, always, for reading.
Julia
P.P.S: Neighborhood mood, as seen on my recent dog walk. (Next week can’t come soon enough.)
*Eagle-eyed editor-for-hire Egan Millard reads this newsletter. Hire him. 🦅*
For the last few years, Killer Shrimp has been a required stop for me at the Fair! But I also have to pick up a whole bunch of cookies from Hoop 'N' Hula before I leave!
I so love this newsletter, especially today. Thank you! And happy birthday!