Results tagged “bravo”

Wednesday marked the second episode from this season of Top Chef. There's still too many cooks, not enough personalities, but we're busy keeping our eyes peeled for any reality tv drama related to local cheftestants Ashley Merriman (of Branzino) and Robin Leventhal (chef-owner of Crave).

The fifth season of Top Chef kicked off on Bravo last night, and we're excited to see what the two cheftestants from Seattle can do in Las Vegas over the next few months. As always, the first episode (and the next few thereafter) have far too many characters to keep track of, but we were watching for local ladies Ashley Merriman (of Branzino) and Robin Leventhal (chef-owner of our dearly departed Crave).

  

End of year, thus time for the annual Belltown Bravo Awards. Yes, we'll add other neighborhoods in due course, we promise. In the meantime, don't get too excited; we're not. Hasn't been a particularly good year for restaurants in this nabe, in Seattlest's view. We lost some good ones (Cascadia, Qube, Marjorie), got some interesting new ones (Branzino, Kushibar, Tilikum Place, Spur) and the very promising Taberna del Alabardero, but overall, it hasn't been mouthwatering. Best promotions are still coming from the shoebox-sized Txori (the Tamborada, the San Firmin festival, the monthly Txoco dinners). For consistency and value, previous winners Steelhead Diner and Black Bottle continue to lead the pack. The real restaurant action these days is in Ballard, Capitol Hill, and (gulp) Bellevue.

It would seem someone in Seattle not only likes Blayne, our uber-tanned licious-loving local on Project Runway: someone loves him. The self-described "crazy drunk boy at R Place" admits to hyperventilating after meeting The Blayne (oops, wrong contestant), but valiantly asks for another chance via Craigslist's Missed Connections.

Last week, Seattlest was embarrassed when the one local chap to make it onto the Greatest Reality Show That Ever Was (Blayne) turned out to be the camera-hoggy, catch phrase-happy, can-tanned queeny diaper-dress designer. So, we were thrilled pleased to see he somehow toned it down for week two. There was only one obnoxioulicious catch phrase moment, and even his fake-n-bake tan looked a little less, well, fake-n-bakey.

For those of you that are info Top Chef, you can check out the full review of last night's episode on Chicagoist. We were excited to see that beer had the spotlight for part of the show, but it was sad to see it was done in such a sell-out, corporate fashion. Check out the embedded clip for the ten-minute Quickfire Challenge (you can forward to the 3:45 mark).

Bravo!-glam event of this spring, twenty teams from several of Seattle's best design firms will showcase the innovative (and hopefully, fierce!) haute couture lines they've been challenged to design from manufacturing materials like upholstery, plastics, and lighting. Though this won't be on TV, the entertainment value of this one-night-only fashion show looks very promising.

Tonight: Style Out in SoDo or Neema/Cool Nutz/Cancer Rising in Fremont? The choice is difficult for local hiphop fans. On the one hand, we've got Alpha P (classic and skilled pros), The Physics (hilarious and enthused), and a host of talented performers working the social movement angle of hiphop. On the other hand, we've got Neema (he's promised a bunch of new material tonight), Cool Nutz (from NE Portland, repping the deliciously dope ), and Cancer Rising (the rumor mill says: new dance moves).

Alice in Chains’ former lead singer would be blowing out candles today had he not said yes, yes, yes to drugs. The Chains gang would likely still be making both crunchy (Dirt) and beautiful (Sap) music. Jerry Cantrell, who co-founded the band with Layne, probably would have written some lighter lyrics and cut his hair. Seattlest would have had the pleasure of seeing Alice in Chains—or the supergroup Mad Season—live.

Our land, this inlet on the western coast of the North American continent, is a fortunate one, endowed with natural riches and settled by people who do not confuse prosperity with moral superiority. Modesty becomes us; we do not flaunt our advantages.

Mom always told me not to talk with my mouth full. But that's just what Leite's Culinaria wants local food writers to do for a project about food writing. Launched last year in New York City, now spreading around the country, "Talking With Your Mouth Full" is a night of reading by food writers "to highlight the versatility of the craft."

BOOK CRUSH: Librarian Nancy Pearl´s latest book is Book Crush, a guide to books you loved when you were growing up. How does she know? Head over to the launch party and find out.

OK, Seattle maybe you're not so bad. Or, maybe someone hasn't caught an incident here like this series of crashes on an obviously icy street in Portland (sorry, couldn't find it on YouTube).

Over the last six weeks, we scored a temp gig working for a certain, local e-retailer that possesses the planet's largest selection. On our daily jaunts to the International District, we had the chance to observe progress on the Sound Transit tunnel. With its above-ground plaza, the I.D. station is the only place in which one can leisurely peek down into the tunnel during construction.

The big drama on Project Runway this week was Jude Law getting thrown off the show for having contraband in his room at the PR compound and we have to say that it was more than a little disappointing how quietly he went into that good night. Can you imagine past villians getting thrown off the show for having fashion books in their room? Santino would have popped a neck vein and whipped Gunn with it until he repeated, "whatever happend to Andre" ad infinitum, but Jude just sat and took it. And left.

To the right is a picture of a llama named Bravo, which we chose because Seattle Opera's BRAVO! Club has 477 members and they would not all fit in a photo. Also, we like llamas.

In a not-always-successful attempt to keep our TV watching to a minimum, we have a no-reality-TV rule at home. But we do have one exception: Top Chef. New episodes broadcast on Bravo TV at 10pm on Wednesdays, but the Bravo people must be even more into the series than we are because you can watch practically the entire season every day, and we think that next Wednesday you can, in fact, watch the ENTIRE season, beginning to end. And we think it would be a surprisingly good use of your time.

Seattlest had two very different opera experiences this past weekend, and we wanted to share both with you. (We know Seattlest’s own MVB has already favorably reviewed one of them, but we wanted to add our own two cents.)

A fire did some damage to an apartment building in Bellevue last night and forced the evacuation of 200 residents when someone's flaming kitchen got out of hand. Newly installed fire alarms are being credited with getting everyone evacuated, but the resident we talked to said he messed with his until a wire finally came loose and it shut up. Only then did he realize that alarms were also going off in the adjacent apartments - Nevertheless, he failed to evacuate.

Seattle's own Bill Gates was named Time magazine's Man, or "Person," of the Year. Well, he and that wife of his, Melinda, who will share the honor with 'You Too' front man Bono.

A bit light on the levity this week on Showdogs: Seattle's own Liberace fell down the stairs and broke his little leg. Brandon and Ryan hung tough with him at the vet's, at least until Brandon had to leave to sell cell phones. We think we're starting to "get" the relationship...especially when Brandon referred to Ryan as his "housewife."

We open back in the parking lot of Riverdog in Issaquah, where Brandon is telling the cops that Ryan is holding his dog "for ransom," which we think has to be the most dramatic reimagining of the situation possible, and which, we have decided, is driving us further into Ryan's arms in terms of picking favorites in the relationship.

Wherein Seattlest follows the fate of Seattle's most recent reality TV folk, Brandon and Ryan of Showdog Moms and Dads.