Starting this Sunday, Joule restaurant is transforming its dining room into a walk-in backyard for its Urban BBQ Series. To help celebrate the summer, every Sunday through mid-August, chef/owners Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi have planned a different theme (we especially like the sound of “Food on a Stick” and “Dreaming of Pigs”) that will offer a variety of grilled dishes. more ›

Puget Sound is home to some of the world's best oyster beds, thanks to cold, clean water and nutrient-rich runoff from the Cascades and the Olympics. Ya got your Kumamotos, your Pacifics, your Olympias, your Virginicas. Yup, Virginicas, "east coast" oysters whose seed was brought to Washington by transcontinental train nearly a century ago, grown on the banks of Totten Inlet. And, get this: in a blind tasting last week, sponsored by the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, those "west coast" Virginicas were judged number one. "Stunning" said Rowan Jacobsen, author of The Geography of Oysters. Local grower Bill Taylor, president of Taylor Shellfish Farms, was humble: "A thrill to have our oysters appreciated by such an esteemed panel." more ›