Music: More Than a Sum of Its Notes
Seattlest Pix 30Dec11
Friday Morning Headlines
Can't Miss It: The Weekend and Forever Forward
Closing Words from Your Resident Beer-Nerd
Wait, don't get your hopes up, it's not a replay of Quincy Pondexter, has nothing to do with March Madness. It's Seattle's top two independent restaurants. Can you guess? Number one, duh, is Sky City at the Space Needle, which serves over 250,000 meals a year at an average of $60 per, for a gross of $14 million. In national terms, that puts the Needle in 33rd place, right behind Chops Lobster Bar in Atlanta, Georgia. The Top 100 list, compiled by trade mag Restaurants & Institutions, is weighted heavily to Noo Yawk and Vegas, the country's biggest markets for big spenders. (Number one in the country, in case you were wondering, is Tao Las Vegas, which served 600,000 meals and took in a cool $60 million. Old Ebbett Grill in DC served a million meals, on the other hand, and only took in $24 mill; two huge Bavarian joints in Frankenmuth, Michigan, for their part, served roughly the same number of diners apiece, but the average ticket was under $15, so no big deal.) We promised you two, so here's the second Washington entry in the top 100: Salty's on Alki, described admiringly in these very columns some months back, where 200,000 locals and visitors spent about $50 apiece in 2009.
A look into the two day event with over 200 local wineries and restaurants. Plenty of wine, lots of food, and plenty more wine!
Will you kids please, please sit sill and eat your goddamn carrots and not try to kill each other? Can I not leave town for five effing minutes without the house burning down? Here I am in Nice, on the French Riviera, in a freaking thunderstorm, and I get word that Christina's, the restaurant that put Orcas Island on the map, food-wise, is gone for good. Damn!
As smaller slaughterhouses go out of business, large corporations begin to dominate the market. The problem with these facilities is that they only operate on a large scale, or under contracts with a limited number of producers.
Seattlest sends congratulations to our local chefs for being named finalists for James Beard Foundation awards for 2010.
In anticipation of the Blueacre opening, Seattle Weekly's Jason Sheehan reviews (and blubbers over) Steelhead Diner. On Capitol Hill, Matt Dillon has finally opened Sitka & Spruce, having moved out of his Eastlake space, promptly occupied by Nettletown. Scott Carsberg didn't move a goddamn inch; he closed Lampreia (at First & Battery), remodeled, and calls it Bisato; Venetian-style small plates. Over on the eastside, however, the luster is g-gone: Solstice Restaurants has closed all three of its downtown Bellevue properties: 0/8 Seafood Grill, Stir Martini + Raw Bar and Twisted Cork Wine Bar. Matt Bomberger, the Bellevue businessman who bankrolled the company (and removed his original partner, chef Dan Thiessen) pulled the plug, citing the difficulty of an independent operator to compete with the likes of chains like Maggiano's and Palomino.
Wednesday, we got a sneak peek at Blueacre Seafood (opening today!), Kevin Davis' new restaurant in the Oceanaire space where he once worked. We dug the chance to sit in one of the marlin skin-like booths close to the opened-up kitchen, taking in some of the sights, smells, and sounds of the action.
Despite the name, landlubbers will find a good number of choices, from a lamb shank to a muffaletta to a sprinking of "vegetre" (okay, will someone enlighten about that word?)options, including a faro burger. There's even a Terresa salad, named after Davis' business partner and life partner, who's working hard while carrying a couple of potential future partners in utero.
A glimpse into the kitchen of Canlis Restaurant. Photos courtesy of Zach Pacleb.
Once again it's that time of year to cook the books and put your humor and creative cooking skills to the test at the 5th annual Seattle Edible Book Festival. So if you've got a favorite book or literary pun up your sleeve that you're just dying to pay homage to in jello or sculpt in marzipan--fellow book nerd, we love you. And this is your time to bring it.
You may recall the recent flap over a newsletter sent out by the folks at Crush, the one that went viral with rage (Crush Crushed by Email Glitch). Chef Jason Wilson responded by boning up on ""best practices" before sending out his latest edition this morning ("We have taken great steps to insure that our newsletter and the recipients of it enjoy our connection:..."). The full text is online here) but gmail was not impressed. The subject line of our copy: ***SPAM*** Crush March Newsletter.
Soda bread falls under the category of baked goods known as quick breads. As their name implies, quick breads require little time to prepare. They are leavened by chemical leaveners and steam, not by yeast, thus requiring no fermentation time. Additionally, they are usually tender products with little gluten development, so mixing them takes just a few minutes.
It's simple: Seattle vs. Portland in a mobile foodie showdown on the streets of Sodo!
If Mobile Chowdown 3 doesn't leave you sufficiently sated, you can top yourself off the next day with some discount pies courtesy of Pie Day -- er, Pi Day, 3/14. Get 14% of your purchase of three High 5 Pies at any Fuel Coffee location. It's all in honor of our favorite circumference-related constant, which we'd eat if it weren't an abstract concept.
Soon you will be perusing the local grocer's beer aisle for the perfect summer beer to help you escape the overcast weather. However, if your anxiety for gold beer is killing you, there's this: March 16th, at around 5pm, Pyramid Alehouse is releasing their annual "Blond Ale" Curveball. In the past this was a Kolsch-style beer but now it's been retooled to something more blond.
But we're catching up: Seattle's food cart scene is stronger than ever before. The food is better, the carts are more numerous, the locations more convenient. Our own Marination Mobile won Good Morning America's Best Food Cart Challenge. This weekend, if you can brave the crowds, you'll have a chance to find out for yourself who's got the finest cart-based food.
A behind the scenes look at the pizza artisans at Delancey in action.
Wine Press Northwest has named Dusted Valley of Walla Walla "Winery of the Year."
On Tuesday, the FDA confirmed that Tim's Cascade Snacks, based in Algona, WA, voluntarily recalled its Sweet Maui Onion Hawaiian Style potato chips and onion rings for potential Salmonella contamination. This announcement was made just a few days after Tacoma-based Johnny's Fine Foods recalled its French Dip Powdered Au Jus because of possible Salmonella contamination.
The March issue of City Arts, now on the streets, features an eye-opening Dish-Off. Two chefs must each prepare a dish interpreting Gnarls Barkley's "Blind Mary," a song about a guy who loves a girl because she's blind and doesn't know he's ugly.
Eastlake's Red Robin, the first of the chain: sold.
Let's be honest: The Red Robin chain does not produce quality food. Their burgers compensate for a dearth of quality with an overload of size, their salads are oily, and their fries taste like they've been tossed in Mrs. Dash. But the Eastlake Red Robin isn't just a restaurant, it's a landmark, and we will miss it.
Key West is famous for its key lime pie. Everyone's got a preference and there are numerous versions made throughout the region. Some are made with a graham cracker crust, others with a pastry crust. Some are topped with meringue, some with whipped cream, others go topless. Some are cooked others aren't. The one rule that everyone seems to agree on is that key lime pie should never contain green food coloring.
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