Also try the buttery brioche buns filled with meaty mixes, like a Chinese bao but bigger and, well, meatier. If your appetite is whetted and you need to place an order right now, visit sugarfoots-bbq.square.site. Sugarfoot’s also has pork belly, smoked turkey and a passel of sides like cornbread, brisket baked beans, macaroni and cheese and a snappy dill potato salad with bacon crumbles.
Next, you’ll need to walk off all the barbecue, so head over to the Salmon Creek Greenway Trail, with a few parking spaces along the side of the road and an entrance at 13853 N.W. 36th Ave. This 3-mile trail will take you all the way to Klineline Pond, if you’ve a mind to cool off with a swim or do a bit of fishing. If you’d like, you can walk a partial loop at the east end, toward Klineline. The path also connects with the Cougar Creek Trail, a short out-and-back trail, about halfway.
Our family usually just strolls along the paved path for a couple miles before turning around. We’ve walked here in every season — in the first blush of spring, the height of summer, the glorious fall when leaves are golden and birds are active, and in the middle of snowy winter when parts of the creek are covered in a thick layer of ice. We always see something interesting or just plain beautiful, like tundra swans, cormorants or flocks of Canada geese wheeling overhead, their honks drowning out our conversation.
After your long walk, you may need to reward yourself with ice cream. Village Scoops is located inside the wine bar, VX Vinos, at 3602 N.W. 119th St., in a small retail development called Felida Village. It bills itself as a wine, tapas, art and jazz bar, and while it wasn’t yet the time of day for wine and tapas, I did enjoy the vibrant, graffitilike art in vivid 1980s hues (or perhaps I just got ’80s vibes from the dance house mix of Depeche Mode, Eurythmics and Billy Idol that was playing over the speakers).
“Village Scoops” sounds like an ice cream store, but it’s really a domed cooler with eight flavors — enough to hit the spot on a hot Thursday afternoon. I tried the rhubarb sorbet and the chocolate sorbet before choosing the double chocolate mint, a pale green ice cream with both white and dark chocolate chips. I enjoyed my ice cream at one of the many outdoor tables; there’s nearly as much seating outdoors as indoors, pleasantly shaded and ideal for people-watching at the neighboring Mt. Tabor Brewing.