You never have to worry about going hungry in Seattle, for the most part. In nearly every neighborhood one has a wide array of culinary options before them. From Thai, American, Chinese, Japanese, European or Ethiopian, Seattle neighborhoods offer a cornucopia of eateries from which to choose. With the one exception being the South Lake Union area. Having only a smattering of restaurants lining the Southern lakeshore and three or four dotting the blocks South, this part of town is more of a transit hub shuttling people through to destinations with more offerings. And if you are unlucky enough to work in this area what do you do if you want lunch but don’t feel like driving into downtown, up the hill to Capitol Hill or over to one of the other neighborhoods? Likely you bring a lunch or you settle for a sandwich from Subway ™. I was with this in mind, and because I was meeting a friend who works nearby, that I decided to try Paddy Coyne’s.

It was evening when I gave Paddy Coyne’s a try, their happy hour just beginning. An Irish themed establishment, stuffed into a smallish space, dark wood paneling and slightly worn furniture tries to give the space a feel of an old country tavern. For the most part though it just seems small and corporate. On the plus side there are huge floor to ceiling windows on one side of the restaurant allowing in ample afternoon sun and an outside patio area. I settled in at my table, perused the menu and decided to stick with the theme of the restaurant and ordered the Guinness Braised Irish Beef Stew ($8.50).

A large, steaming bowl arrived at my table filled with a stew smelling of thyme and potatoes with large bits of beef lounging in the broth. I grabbed my spoon and with the first bite was reassured of the use of thyme in the cooking process. Fresh and heady it assaulted my senses but not so powerfully as to drown out the richness of the overall broth. Swimming with bits of celery and onion this broth had a definite peppery kick to it. As for the other ingredients, the potatoes were just barely cooked through, almost a little underdone but the carrots were tooth tender. I would have thought that the beef stew would have come out of a can but the freshness of the root vegetables proved that unfounded. Plus the bits of beef told a story of being made from scratch. How do I know this? Having had my share of Dinty Moore ™ after moving out on my own, I recognize the reconstituted, bland meat of canned products. No, the meat in this stew was tender but still had fatty and gristly bits. This was not a plus but merely a way by which to tell that all the ingredients were assembled locally for this menu.

While I think that Paddy Coyne’s is probably aiming for the after work crowd with its happy hour and faux-Irish setting, grabbing a bite to eat there is not a bad thing. The South Lake Union area can be a bit of a black hole in the restaurant department but hopefully owners of restaurants like Paddy Coyne’s will see the opportunities that lay before them in such an area. With such efforts perhaps the South Lake Union area can be filled in as another of Seattle’s neighborhood destinations.