There are two Seattle eateries that I pretty much insist on visiting every time I'm there. One is Ivar's, and the other is a tiny family-owned one-note place called Piroshky Piroshky. The next time you're in Seattle, down by the Pike Place Market, make sure that you notice a little storefront restaurant called Piroshky Piroshky.There's usually a line all the way out the front door and down the sidewalk before this small family restaurant even opens. This downtown Seattle landmark has hit on the secret of doing what you know, simply and excellently, without trying to do too much, or provide a bunch of superfluous options that only serve to clutter up the menu. Reviews of Piroshky, Piroshky only confirm what the line on the sidewalk out front tells anyone passing by. These are fresh, homemade, and fabulous.

A piroshky is basically a little stuffed pie, designed to be held in the hand. This makes it a perfect small meal, while you're walking around downtown and the Market. The piroshky is a traditional Eastern European/Russian food that's been a popular, hearty, simple staple for delicious and savory portable food, for centuries. It's definitely comfort food. The crust is delicate, flaky pastry, whether it's hot or cold, and the possibly fillings are limited only by the season and the chef's imagination.

Piroshky Piroshky offers a uniquely Northwestern take on this very traditional food. They offer a variety of meat versions—even a popular smoked salmon pate piroshky—but they offer several kinds of savory vegetarian piroshky, as well. For the more traditional American sweet-tooth, there are rhubarb, apple, cherry and white chocolate, poppyseed, berry, cream cheese, cinnamon, and marzipan piroshky and pastry variations. My personal favorites are the ham, cheese and spinach, and the spinach, egg, and cheese. It is, naturally, customary, and gustatorily required to follow the main course piroshky with a sweet piroshky; I suggest the coffee cinnamon roll, or the chocolate hazelnut cream roll. I note that new options appear on the board behind the counter all the time, and the staff are quite comfortable suggesting what's particularly good on a given day. I note as well that they reliably produce good coffee, even by Seattle's standards.

The website, unfortunately, is all flash, so it's impossible to provide a link easily to Piroshky Piroshky's terrific menu. Because I'm a geek however, I persevered, and here's a link to the image of the menu which they are (stupidly, since Google won't ever index it) displaying as an image via Flash.