Finally, H&M, the Ikea of clothing stores, will make its glorious debut in Seattle. Our inside sources (H&M's myspace page) tell us that not one, not two, but three H&M stores are scheduled to open in Seattle this fall. Fans of affordable fashion will soon flock to new locations at 5250 520 Pike Street, University Village and Westfield Southcenter. We know, the lack of Eastside locations is shocking, but who knows? Perhaps they'll arrive......

When it comes to good beer, brews made in Belgium are usually the cream of the crop. So, no one should be surprised that American brewers often try to emulate their success by brewing their own versions of Belgian styles. And you know what? Some of them are fantastic (And some, not so much...) Starting this Friday at The Collins Pub, they'll be rotating about 15 taps of Belgian-style goodness brewed right here in the......

For the first time in Seattlest's life, we're actually bemoaning the fact that we don't have any tank tops in our closet. Heck, this is probably the first time we've ever thought about not owning a tank top. Not having one puts a serious crimp in our plans to go to Sustainable Capitol Hill's Tank Tops to Totes this Saturday at Stitches on Capitol Hill. (We don't think Sustainable Capitol Hill has a Web site.......

While out and about the other day, we ran across these items. Now, seeing shoes hanging from wires is nothing new, of course. Like you, gentle reader, we've been seeing them everywhere ever since we can remember. What is new, though, for us is seeing a pair of boots up there. We're kinda surprised we haven't seen this much sooner. Also, we are thankful that the utility crews hadn't gotten around to taking them......

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. Seahawks vs. Arizona Style Enchiladas with Homemade Corn Tortillas and Salsa preview When preparing food......

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. It’s very possible that the Arizona style enchilada was made up by a marketing firm......

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. Seahawks vs. Cheesesteaks Preview We feel bad for the people of Philadelphia. They’ve given us......

What better way to raise money for cancer than a good old-fashioned moustache pageant? Seemingly classy-ass Monsieur Moustache is tonight at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, with the proceeds going to help pay the leukemia treatment bills of local waiter extraordinare Nick Farina. (Proceeds will also be shared with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.) Nick's not the only guy out there with over a million dollars in bills (since, you know, our system's fucked),......

Last night, in the middle of the movie round, Seattlest officially became old. "What Canadian actor, who died in Mexico, appeared in seven movies directed by John Hughes, more than any other performer?" we asked. "Who's John Hughes?" we heard some people ask in response. The rebellious voice of your parent's youth, said our head. Occasionally we figure Seattlest Trivia should have some Seattle trivia in it, so we did a Seattle round. The......

There were, however, 3:10 to Yuma t-shirts, which we gave away in addition to the regular pile of swag. (That was Jack Daniels-themed this week. Congrats, Greendoggs.) Scores ranged from a respectable low of 41 to an impressive high of 74, out of 81 possible points. Gag Me With a Smurf won for the second week in a row, inspiring a couple of other teams to ask me, on the QT, "Who are those guys?"......

Jim Moore of the P-I reports this shocking news today: The Wazzu Cougars have passed the UW Huskies in apparel sales, according to a company that keeps track of such things. This is crazy! To wit: Not only does U-Dub have nearly twice the enrollment of Wazzu (43K to 23K), the Huskies are in a major metropolitan area where tons of people who never went to Washington adopt the team as their own (this Seattlest......

"It's easy to hate you!" said one player last night at the Old Pequliar. We're sure it was. Last night's quiz turned out to be unreasonably difficult, and we felt bad about it even as the nightmare was unfolding in front of our eyes. Average score in round 1, Geography? 3.3 out of 10. Average score in round 2, A Fine Romance? Better! But only by half a point -- 3.85 out of 10.......

Laser Rocket Arms hates it when we call them "the new Husker Don't." Then again, they keep winning, so our motivation to stop doing so is minimal. 16 teams played the quiz, and the mighty Arms overcame a second-place finish at halftime to take the lead in the end. The loudest groan of the night came during the Nudity category, when Seattlest asked this question: Janet Jackson had a famous breast-exposing wardrobe malfunction during......

Out and about in Belltown, we espy a hand-lettered chalkboard in the window of Bambino's, promising "New York Style" sandwiches, including our favorite, beef tongue. Aha! A chance to write a post in support of a neglected cut of deli meat and say something nice about Bambino's for a change, instead of griping about the lackluster "East Coast" pizzas and the dinner server's tattoos. (Not just Bambino's, either; tats last week at Cucina DeRa, too,......

Somebody get me an Old Style... While this Seattlest has become a pretty big Mariners fan over the past few years, there is no question who we are rooting for in this week’s Cubs vs. Mariners series at Wrigley Field. Our huge Cubs flag pinned to the side of our cubicle has made a few co-workers stop in their tracks to talk a little trash. We grew up watching the Cubs on WGN (Because the......

We were all happy to hear about the return of this weekend’s Washington Brewers Festival at Saint Edward State Park. If you are looking for a last minute Fathers Day present, is there anything better than taking your dad out to drink beer all day (While watching people throw kegs)? Maybe you are not quite as crazy about beer as we are, but we like to know what the “must haves” are before going into......

With summer right around the corner, Seattle is starting to see some of those tasty warm-weather offerings from the local breweries. We will be calling out some of our favorite summer beers over the next few weeks for you to enjoy. We sure would not want you drinking barley wine all summer... Two of the most unique summer beers in town come from Elysian. Their Jasmine IPA is flavored with jasmine flowers, and their Yuzu......

Seattlest James took a time-out from showering the Nickels administration with Gwen Stefani tickets and El Gaucho gift certificates to host the quiz last night at the Old Pequliar. Nine teams took refuge from the sunshine and warm weather to sit in a dimly -- excuse us, atmospherically -- lit bar and answer 80 questions in an attempt to win money. It was an intimate turnout. The winners? Freshly renamed The Origin of Spensor......

Monday 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. 7-8:30pm // Seattle Central Public Library Microsoft Auditorium // FREE PETER BEAGLE SPEAKS: For the Fantastic Fiction Salon, fantasy author Peter Beagle (The Last Unicorn, Tamsin, and The Innkeeper's Song) teaches "Dialogue Says it All." 7pm // Hugo House......

Results of the experiment: Last night 19 teams played the quiz at the Old Pequilar. If we'd been playing under classic $5/team rules, that would've been a pot of $190. Since we expanded the maximum team size to 6 and switched to $1/person, we ended up with a pot of $168 (84 players, pot matched by the OP). We ask you: is the smaller prize pool worth it? Old friends Laser Rocket Arms took first......

Seattlest is more a Nordstrom Rack customer than Nordstrom proper shopper and we're not really interested in an RSS feed telling us that the Rack has a new shipment of six hundred thousand unsorted and unwanted shoes for us to pick through, but we realize that some people actually might be interested in up-to-the-minute information on the contents of the virtual shelves at Nordstrom.com. Enter Nordstrom RSS. Go to http://rss.nordstrom.com and you'll get forwarded to......

We had the pleasure of attending our second “Brewmasters Dinner” at Ray’s Boathouse Café this past Thursday. Executive Chef Peter Birk of Ray’s selected 5 local brews and then built a 5-course dinner around them. Everyone has heard of wine dinners, but Chef Birk does a great job of putting together these beer dinners about twice a year. We only wish that more local places would do the same. Beer dinners are a great way......

When you sign up for enough lists your inbox tends to get clogged up with a lot of useless and unwanted press releases, but every once in a while you'll find a nugget of gold glittering in the mud. Today we received a release with the subject line, "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - High-waisted, wide-leg - You don't have to wear skinny jeans." January 25, 2007 (SEATTLE, WA) - - Although the skinny jean looks......

Garlic Gulch, that's what Belltown's Fourth Avenue has turned into, between downtown and Denny Way. At the north end, the venerable Zeek's appears to take intergalactic orders for traditional, predictable, topping-heavy slices. Bambino, a block away on Cedar, styles itself as "East Coast Pizza," whatever that means (thin crust, light toppings, one assumes). Given the flap over Domino's so-called Brooklyn-Style Pizza, probably not a great idea. Ordered a Tropicale (east-coast-speak for Hawaiian); despite 575-degree, wood-fired......

Photograph of Rick Santorum conceding defeat with his family by Gene J. Puskar/AP The -ists this week had politics on the brain. And what goes better with politics? Partying-- that's two great tastes in one. Oh, and Kevin Federline...can't forget about Kevin Federline. That's three great tastes in one. -Bostonist discussed two big state issues-- what sort of math constitutes a marriage and what kind of alcohol can be sold in most grocery stores.......

Wednesday, October 25 >>>Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater, 7:30-10pm. Are you afraid of the dimmed lights in a theater? A Guide to Visitors presents their annual Ghost Story night. Spooky stories about haunted office buildings and ghost quests, told by people such as the woman who leads a ghost tour of Pike Place Market. The press release says the Jewel Box is haunted, so maybe the dead will chip in a tale or two themselvs.......

Wednesday, October 18 >>>EMP, 6pm. First The Police's Andy Summers gets interviewed by EMP Senior Curator, Jasen Emmons. Then he signs his book, One Train Later: A Memoir. You need tickets to stand in the "Don't Stand So Close To Me" book-signing line, available with purchase of the book from University Book Store. Andy will sign one piece of memorabilia per copy of his book. Did we mention he has a book out? $5......

Wednesday, October 11 >>>University Temple United Methodist Church, 7:30pm. Religious believers can be co-opted, argues distinguished biologist and secular humanist E.O. Wilson in his talk "The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion." Blah blah salvation of biodiversity blah glory of nature blah work together. We dislike this automatic Religion-and-Science connection ("Ballet and Groundskeeping: A New Unity"), but he's a smartie. Could be worth it. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. >>>UW Information School, 7:00-9:00pm.......

We were going to write about style after one of our valued commenters (and one of our three readers) took Seattlest Dan to task for carrying an umbrella. We envisioned inking one of those grandiloquent "A Moral Defense of..." columns that one sees written in defense of some generally unpopular concept; however, dumb things like work and its attendant personal-time-sucking qualities derailed us. Fortunately, the excellent feature story in last week's birdcage liner has......

Wednesday, October 4 >>>Central Library, 6:30-8:00pm. If you've been meaning to get a better handle on stem cell research, then... Wait, let's try that again. We'll just let this event speak for its sexy self: "Regeneration Gaps: Promises, Problems and Policies in Stem Cell Research" by Charles E. (Chuck) Murry, M.D., Ph.D. His research focuses on repair of the injured heart. See? You get out of the way, the poetry comes. Free, but you're......