Tuesday evening wasn’t anything special, just another trip across the Puget Sound

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tuesday evening wasn’t anything special, just another trip across the Puget Sound before one weary commuter’s workday would come to a close. It would be 9:30 by the time he reached his front door, 15 hours after he left it.Back on the wrong side of the water with a belly to fill, he had 10 minutes and two options before he boarded the ferry: Big Mac or big chowder. He opted for the latter, not because he liked chowder, but because he was cold, damp, and the fall was beating through his jacket.At the counter he registered his request for a “large” chowder, and the deck hand reached for something that was less bowl than Big Gulp. (The man would later learn that the receptacle and the vessel of a traditional Big Gulp hold the same amount of liquid: 32 ounces.) The deck hand measured the order at three dollars and some change. The man was taken aback.He hadn’t intended to make a “tanker” of chowder his dinner, but he realized he hadn’t exactly ordered in the proper nomenclature. Most surprising of all was that for the tanker, typically a $9 purchase, he was being asked to forfeit only three. “What the fuck?” he thought to himself, but solicited a response nonetheless. “It’s $3 through, like, the end of November,” the deck hand offered.The man took the bowl of red chowder on board the ferry, found a bench next to the window, and struggled to see through his reflection in the glass. He removed the bowl of chowder from the bag, which he folded nicely, careful not to soil the bag. He was certain, after all, that there would be leftovers to attend to. The first spoonful of chowder burned the top of his mouth. The second did a number on his tongue. The ferry was past West Seattle by the time he went in for another try. By then the chowder was at the optimal temperature: plenty hot to warm body and soul, but no longer a threat to common sense.Halfway through his trough the man realized that the chowder was cooling at a rate that could not compete with his insatiable appetite. Optimal temperature was fading. The man didn’t think twice and he didn’t look over his shoulder. He just held his tanker in one hand and pounded it as if Ivar were his fraternity brother. Afterward he didn’t feel sick. He didn’t feel angry. He didn’t feel any remorse. He just felt like going home.Ivar’s Seafood Bars — including the Alaskan Way location — are serving tankers of chowder for $3, bowls of chowder for $1.50, and cups of chowder for 75 cents through Novembe 22.