Worth Leaving Town For: Grilla Bites

Distance: approximately 9 miles or a ten-minute drive from North Everett.

Think about vegetarian food— what comes to mind? Limp, wilted broccoli and congealed day-old hummus? Lukewarm lima beans out of a can? A soy and lumpy nut-based thing?

Or do you think of spicy curried carrot soups, a satisfying saucy barbecue sandwich comprised of marinated tofu tucked into a whole grain bun and slathered in a blanket of melty mozzarella?

And then you wash that sandwich down with a peanut butter berry almond milkshake, sipping through a thick straw?

Now we’re talking about vegetarian food. But we’re also talking about comfort food. And that’s what Grilla Bites in historic downtown Snohomish specializes in and why I (picky eater that I am) do consider GB a restaurant Worth Leaving Town For.

It’s healthy, tasty and filling.

Yep. It’s a restaurant that actually makes tasty, warm, nourishing food that you want to eat; food that you would recommend to others and happily box up as the evening’s Netflix-watchin’ leftovers.

They’ve been open since 2008. A full decade for an organic cafe in steep-rent downtown Snohomish— that’s a sign that the GB is doing something right.

Grilla Bites’ food isn’t just for vegetarians. You can get buffalo burgers or a nice cut of salmon.

WHY IT’S COOL

Grilla Bites is a reflection of the local food ethos of Snohomish, Washington.

“Local” is one of those marketing buzzwords, carelessly used in and out of vogue. But there actually is a small ecosystem of interconnected food artisans in Snohomish that are real.

Skiprock Distillery, Snohomish Bee Company, the Cabbage Patch Restaurant and Roger’s Bistro are all into making food and beverage from scratch, using the local farmlands as their main sources for procuring quality ingredients.

It’s cool that this tiny foodie enclave is a ten-minute drive from beautiful Everett.

So when you step into Grilla Bites, to your left, next to the longest and best customizable salad bar you’ll ever encounter, you see a giant mural of nearby farmland, you get the impression that people in “boho Snoho” really do more than pay lip service to the idea of eating from the surrounding lands.