As Washington’s restaurants reopen from pandemic mode, here are some neighborhood eats you should revisit!

By the time you read this, I will be home with a newborn baby, which also means you won’t be seeing my byline again until this fall. (Our incredible new intern, Jade Yamazaki Stewart, will be filling in for me in the Neighborhood Eats realm while I’m away, and I’m sure you’ll all send him the same emails filled with your neighborhood favorites that you send me. But also, save some for me upon my return?)

But before I turn my attention to a summer I’ll spend mostly at home juggling a precocious 3-year-old alongside an infant and what will probably be a long span of sleepless nights, I decided to make a list of some of my favorite restaurants I’ve discovered while on the Neighborhood Eats beat. With many Seattle restaurants reopening from pandemic mode when Gov. Jay Inslee ends COVID-19 restrictions at the end of this month, you have even more reason to go check out some of these places in case you missed them when they first surfaced in our pages! Perhaps I’ll see you there!

First, I’m hoping that the months that have passed since I told you all about The Carlson Block (531 Church St., Wilkeson; 360-761-7593; carlsonblock.com) in Wilkeson, Pierce County, mean that I can once again get my hands on their pizza without too much of a wait. I hear Thursdays are usually less busy than weekends!

Closer to home, I’m so happy to see that some of my favorite pizza pop-ups have moved into more permanent digs or expanded their hours. Blotto (1830 12th Ave., Seattle; 206-403-1809; blottoseattle.com) has just opened a pizza shop/corner store/bar on Capitol Hill while Dantini (1417 Elliott Ave. W., Seattle; 206-420-9912; dantinipizza.com) sets up shop Thursday-Sunday at Batch 206 in Interbay. Also, Guerrilla Pizza Kitchen (Gpkseattle.com) and Kilroy’s (instagram.com/kilroyspizza) on Bainbridge have ramped up to near-weekly events.

I’m excited to see Chachi’s (instagram.com/chachispizzaco) is expanding into burgers, although I love the herbaceous pizzas, too. Lastly on the pizza front, my freezer is already stocked with Good Luck Bread’s (pizza.goodluckbread.com) amazing frozen pizza, but I am once again suggesting you do the same. Due to a busted freezer, baker Corrie Strandjord is taking a little break until early July, but once she’s back in full frozen-pizza form, I bet they’ll grill up nicely for those blazing-hot evenings we’re sure to see this summer when you can’t fathom turning on your oven.

I’m also hoping to check in with many of my favorite pop-up bakeries again soon. I’ll be making a near-standing order for pretzels and English muffins from Patch Pocket Productions (instagram.com/patch.pocket.productions), and I plan to get my hands on some of the huge cookies from My Friend’s Cookies (myfriendscookiesseattle.com). I’m so excited to hear that Ben’s Bread is expanding to a brick-and-mortar outpost in Phinney Ridge (7009 Greenwood Ave., Seattle; bensbread.com) this fall, which significantly ups my chances of getting baker Ben Campbell’s bread and crackers. In the meantime, they’ll have a few more pop-ups this summer before opening — I’m hearing rumblings of a French bread pizza pop-up. Sign up for Campbell’s newsletter to be in the know.

I’m also planning to go hard on gooey, cheesy breakfast sandwiches from Post Alley Pizza (1123 Post Ave., Seattle; 206-382-8475; postalley.pizza), Hi Helen (instagram.com/hihelenseattle) — which now has a residency in Ballard — and Kent’s Egghole (229 Washington Ave. N., Kent; 253-277-2308; myegghole.com).

Columbia City’s Vietnamese-centric Coffeeholic House (3700 S. Hudson St., Seattle; 206-722-3327; coffeeholichouse.com) opened a new location right in my Greenwood neighborhood that I am happy to be able to walk to, but I’m also looking forward to getting back to the Columbia City store for a cheese-foam-topped Vietnamese coffee and the chance to pick up a tofu banh mi from nearby Billiard Hoang (3220 S. Hudson St., Seattle; 206-723-2054).

Lastly, sunny summer days might have me over in West Seattle at the beach, stopping on the way home for Thai Chicken and Rice (4611 36th Ave. S.W., Seattle; 206-554-9442; thaichickenrice.us) or the crispy khao man gai tod. And speaking of crispy things I love, I’ll also be heading up to Mountlake Terrace for the crispy pork belly from Amorn Thai (22826 56th Ave. W., Mountlake Terrace; 425-712-9112).

Have a wonderful summer and see you in the fall!