This makes me really sad.

It makes me sad that I've never actually been in, but always meant to. M, are you veg?

honest question, was it really that good? i know i am judging a book by it's cover, but it looked quite dirty and greasy, and for a veggie place, that just didn't seem right.

Gooner, I think that may be what kept me from actually going in. I know their stuff at the market smells fantastic, though...

They have GREAT tamales...I am saddened by this! I guess I'll have to stick to the market now!

It really is that good, or at least the tamales and quesadillas are. I've only ever had them at the market, though, so I can keep getting them there whenever the line is less than half a block long.

their food was awesome at the markets! i loved to eat their stuff at the Ballard and madrona Farmers markets. never actually ate at the restaurant but they really made a killer veggie quesadilla and the lemonade was yummy!

i wonder what will go here now?....

jules // Jan 9, 2009 at 9:05 am

their food was awesome at the markets! i loved to eat their stuff at the Ballard and madrona Farmers markets. never actually ate at the restaurant but they really made a killer veggie quesadilla and the lemonade was yummy!

i wonder what will go here now?….
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A Starbucks.

as a vegetarian, i enjoy going to the market and eating their incredible quesadillas and their tamales but their restaurant didnt quite translate for me. the other options, especially the tofu items were not that great. plus it was so small and not that comfortable of a space. i am bummed its going to close but i do think the market is where they flourish.

@Greg...this is Ballard... a Starbucks won't go here, a pizza place will.

or yet another thai place. ....geez.

The person who owns that little brick bulding is a friend of a friend and its my understanding that he has a particular fondness for that building. I'm trusting that fondness will translate into something wonderful for the neighborhood.

The person who owns that little brick bulding is a friend of a friend and its my understanding that he has a particular fondness for that building. I’m trusting that fondness will translate into something wonderful for the neighborhood.

that is a really neat old building. hooray for him for trying to keep it around! i look forward to seeing what happens.

i don't find it sad. there is a bright side to this. now they have no rent but are still producing a product that people enjoy so to support them at the markets will only help them when the market improves and they can have a brick and mortar place to open up again. we need to continue to look outside this box we're all jumping into. there are ways to get through this ugly monster of an economy.

Wow! I love their tamales - have definitely run up to the market during half-time of a game to grab one for lunch. I never realized there was a restaurant that went with it. Glad they'll still be a fixture at the market.

Weird. This is the first time I've seen or heard anyone say they like patty pan's food. Always figured their customers were either first time market visitors/tourists or >really< desperate vegetarians.

My daughter and I tried their tamales a few weeks ago and thought they sucked. Small, almost no filling, and very overpriced. The grilled veggies looked great though (wish we got them instead of the tamales)

living a mere 2 blocks away, the patty pan was one of my favorite healthy lunches. their grilled veggie, bean, and rice quesadillas were the ish. the tamales were never that good, more a conduit for tasty salsas. the crew and food over there at patty pan will be missed.

kim:
i don't feel like i am in a "bummer box" or anything--just simply saying i think it is sad that the business is gone. no big doom and gloom person here. i always see the bright, happy side to most coins.

its just a simple fact--most of my favorite Ballard places (i have lived in Ballard 12 years) are disappearing and this is another one.

I never had a chance to check out the place because every time I walked by there it was never open. Having some normal hours might have helped business a little better.

The good thing is that Delancey, the new pizza restaurant on 70th, plans to serve grilled veggies. I look forward to their opening this spring.

this was a great little place and atmosphere to eat at.great staff to see everyday, I will miss patty pan very much after about a year and a half run. Have a great 09
oggie

Sorry to say the main reason I never even walked into the place is because the exterior was so ugly. That sign is reminicent of a crummy 1970's deli and the colors of the storefront were drab. No design at all. It just looked uncared for.

I was enticed by the smell of massa at the Sunday Market only to pay a ridiculous price for just massa. No filling and no chile? What no chile in tamale? Ok vegie sure but chile is a vegie right? I am not surprised they could not make it. I really need to give up eating Mexican food in Seattle. There is just no point.
My BLESSED daughter brought me home a carne adovada burrito from NM where she spent the holidays. Such a child! Such a burrito with CHILE!!

Maria - before you say no point in eating Mexican in Seattle, try Senor Moose or La Carta.

I have eaten at both. The ONLY place that is even close to being passable Mexican in Seattle is Gorditos.

I admit I am terribly bias and spoiled but a 22 year side trip to New Mexico does that.

I year ago my daughter wanted to make some biscochittos for a Latin feast in her Spanish class and I had to go to three stores in Ballard before I could find lard. Mexican food just cannot be made properly without lard. A little chile would help also. Even in California no self respecting place would sell chipotle as Mexican. Ewwwwwww I want GREEN chile NOT tomatillos. ewwwwwww
I learned not to eat fish in Albuquerque I guess I can learn not to eat Mexican in Seattle. Still, glad to be home in Ballard.

Maybe my rear will get a bit smaller….nah there is always Larsen’s.

gorditos? no way. have you tried el puerco lloron, moose cafe, or some of the taco trucks? much better than gorditos.

Sorry Dave.. In Nm the ‘taco’ trucks, known as garbage trucks, sell freshly made breakfast burritos filled with green or red folded in warm homemade flour tortillas.

I have not eaten at el puerco lloron. Do they sell green chile? With and E not an I.

I grew up in Ballard and loved Mexican food. Then I moved to California and realized I had never eaten Mexican food. THEN I moved to NM and knew I had died and gone to heaven. It’s unique, a combination of Mexican and native cuisine. Ahhh for the taste again of a fresh sopapilla slathered with honey. A Navajo Taco at the State Fair Indian Village.

There is a tiny grocery in The Market, near the Suk I think? They sell some ready to eat food which is passable but they also sell fresh flour tortillas and frozen tamales than are danged good. Considering most Mexxican now buy corn tortillas from factories a restaurant using packaged is not a crime. Larry’s sells Queso fresco for a VERY good price and I get frozen green chile from Nm from relatives and friends traveling and I can usually find good red chile. (make sure to see where it was packaged an if it says Albuquer or Santa Fe buy it) I cobbled together a good posole for New Years but I hate to cook.

Back on the subjcet of Patty Pan, the grilled vegetables at the Market are just piles of grilled mulch and oil; flavorless and uninteresting. The tamales were overpriced, dry, and equally bland.

chipotle chiles are mexican
mexico has as many regional cuisines,than the rest of north america
new mexican cusine is very specific - not all mexican food has green chiles
senor moose seems to focus more on central/western mexican cuisine, and it does seem hit or miss.
you can find lard down southside

how did this conversation evolve into bashing Seattle for not having lard readily available? and faulting it for not having great chile?

Agreed eM.

JD I am not bashing Seattle. I love Seattle and I choose to live here. I found lard at the 85th QFC. I just don't care for the Mexican food here. I also think that many justify bad food with the need to be 'authentic.'

I don't like to see any buisiness fail but this place did not even offer authenticity.

I liked Patty Pan's quesadilla, but I worked until later than it was open, or I would have gone more.

As for Mexican food, I grew up in SoCal, and there is nothing wrong with that taco truck near Leary and 15th. I would bet the people running that truck are actual Mexicans.

White Center has some real good spots too.

Blood tacos are very authentic and one of the most popular foods in Ciudad Juarez and in East LA. I don't see Seattlites eating them up. Authentic does not always mean good.

the guy that owns that taco loco (taco truck on 50th/15th) is El Salvadorian.

The Patty Pan Grill is authentic in their own way. They make their own tamales, and vegetarian ones at that. It is very hard to find veggie tamales anywhere, except for the desert ones, like pineapple. They use excellent quality ingredients, like produce grow from small local farms. Many other restaurants and ''trucks'' use the what I would call lower quality ingredients, like ''industrial'' grown produce. That is a term not meant out of disrespect to the workers who work at such farms. The way that produce is started from the seed, to the application of herbicides, to the harvest is on a level that produces more pollution into the streams and into the soil. I think that when you support a restaurant that uses local- organic when possible- ingredients you get more nutrition for you and less pollution for the Earth.
I'm just sayin'.

I love that little building, and I wish someone would put a little diner/breakfast place in there! I must admit that I never ate at Patty Pan's...I can grill my own veggies at home.

On the subject of Mexican food; when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I'll betcha you can't get lutefisk or rommegrot or lefse in New Mexico, either. The salmon, clams, oysters and blackberries aren't great in the SW or Midwest, either, so let us embrace the bounty of what the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Lard is gross.

Absolutely Nordic. It took only a few fish dinners ordered in NM to realize it was a mistake.

Daughter had taken to making Mexilefsa. It's amazing how good lesfa tastes when made with a really good homemade flour tortilla.

Lard is very gross but it sure makes tasty chile and biscochittos. My grandmother always used lard for pie crusts. They come out light and crisp and can be made much thinner than can those made with shorting or butter.

Okay from a vegetarian restaurant to lard. . .
Use "leaf lard" available from many small pork farmers, it is so much better than industrial lard -
Industrially-produced lard, including much of the lard sold in supermarkets, is rendered from a mixture of high and low quality fat sources from throughout the pig. It is typically hydrogenated (which produces trans fats as a by-product), and often treated with bleaching and deodorizing agents, emulsifiers, and antioxidants, such as BHT. yuk.

I may be late with this post, but...

This may be an instance of a transition to the "informal economy" as envisioned by this writer:

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec08/rise-of-inf...

The basic premise being that in tough times, you drop high fixed costs like rent, occupational permit fees and the like... a farmer's market is a more informal environment

I'm the owner of Patty Pan Grill. We're moving mainly because we've outgrown the space, which is charming, but funky. Unfortunately, the landlords who loved the building sold it to a development company a few years ago. They own all the land around it and they're trying to sell it as a contiguous parcel-I've seen the whole thing listed on Craig's List for 12 million. I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon because the market for condos in Ballard does seem rather saturated, but it is just a matter of time. As far as the food, we had our regulars, but most of our energy was going towards the markets, and I'm sure folks picked up on our ambivalence. Personally, I'm really excited about the move, which will allow us to do more markets, as well as some bigger events.

Thanks, devra and good luck to you and your family. We now know the truth.