Results tagged “wallingford”

Over on 45th in the Wallingford neighborhood and just a few blocks from Big Time Alehouse is the beer equivalent of a bottleshop. Since 1999, Bottleworks has been providing guidance to those that gravitate to its stellar selection of beer from around the world.

This week marked the first Battle in Seattle, featuring Chef David Hahne of host restaurant Enotria against Chef Takashi Ogasawara of Rain Modern Infusion Cuisine. In this crudo versus sashimi competition, the secret ingredient was salmon, and both chefs plated up three courses for a panel of judges (this Seattlest among them) and a rather raucous, sold-out crowd.

This never happens to us--all we get are next-door-basement grunge-type bands--but Wallyhood has the salacious details about what our life would be like in a Russ Meyer movie: "the neighborhood gossip is that the residents are a feisty bunch of eight college-age girls. New modifications to the house apparently include the addition of a stripper pole, which has been getting its fair share of activity, to the enthusiasm of guests, audible from other houses." Eight! College-age! Girls! If this post doesn't generate search traffic, nothing will.

Tanning salons have more to worry about than just being burgled. We've been wondering all week how the Wallingford Desert Sun will respond to the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer's recent decision to put tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation in the top category for cancer risk.

      

In the overlapping sets of Seattle restaurant owners and people who are dicks, there stands Phred Westfall, and it's not because he spells his name funny. Call him eccentric, call him quirky, call him sui generis if you must, but he's got a most unusual way of running his candy store, Elemental @ Gasworks.

It's a dark day for Seattle jokesters, as the iconic Archie McPhee close their Ballard storefront door after ten years of selling fake poop and punching nuns.

It is our sad duty to report that the 50th St. Market, a Wallingford fixture since the Woodrow Wilson administration, has closed.

• Seattle's newest main stream celebrity: Bacon Salt. The bacon-loving boys reached the pinnacle of fame and product placement, on today's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
• Keep an eye on the road, because this weekend will be filled with road cones and construction delays.
• We scream, you scream, everyone screams for ice cream--especially for Molly Moon's ice cream. Capitol Hill's newest--and most indulgent--resident opens its doors on Saturday.

Well, the folks in Wallingford would like to know, as they have been seeing a sharp increase of car break-ins and theft lately. In a united blog front, Wallyhood and its readers bring valid concerns and even links featuring their stolen GPS on Craigslist, to the attention of their local police teams, prompting a lackadaisical response--if any at all. Is it really too much to ask the designated neighborhood police team to do their job? Apparently it is. Go get 'em Tiger.

April 4 is the not-to-be-missed Seattle Edible Book Festival (at Wallingford's Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N.) where word nerds, book lovers, and creative cooks can get together and cook the books so to speak, or eat their own words and laugh over hokey literary puns.

Henry by +Russ

Having already seen Gomorrah, we were at the Guild this weekend for the other film currently showing, The Class. All the people in front of us in line were also buying tickets for that film, prompting the man behind us to ask, "What's The Class about?" We told him something to the effect that it's a year in the life of a French teacher and his students at an inner-city Paris school. He nodded with vague recognition, and then proceeded to buy two tickets to "Gorma." We expect he'll be back for "The Calls" sometime soon.

Chamber music. Even the name loses you, doesn't it? Music for chambers? Why, it makes no sense! That said, Seattle is rich in terrific musicians who like to play music in small groups. The naming problem isn't really their fault, but it's hard to get people to try them out in a concert hall. Even classical music lovers feel like they get more music, on a per musician basis, at a symphony performance. It's simple economics.

Snow-crusted trash bins are overflowing all over Seattle, thanks to missed garbage collections last week. Garbage pick-up should resume today; if you're unwilling to wait your turn or for some reason the trucks skip your house over the next five days, the City of Seattle would like you to know that you can drop off trash yourself for free at the nearest Recycling and Disposal station until January 1st. The two stations located in Seattle proper are in Wallingford, on North 34th Street and in SoDo, on 5th Avenue South.

The other day on a walk up 40th in Wallingford, we noticed that the crossing flags at 40th and Sunnyside were in search of an adopter. There was a little sign up next to the flag bucket that we took a picture of, but, you know, cameraphone at night...it's not that visible. It said something like, "Adopt this intersection--email CrossingFlags@gmail.com." We emailed to determine what, exactly, adopting crossing flags entailed--because the flags in Wallingford are starting to mature and we're not prepared for the teen years--and it turns out you just buy new flags ($1.62 a pop) every once in a while to replace the flags lost to attrition (or attempt to get the city to put flags there, although that way madness lies).

These days Seattlest's skateboarding activity is limited almost exclusively to a few lazy longboard turns on the Burke-Gilman every once in a while, and the Wall of Death bank under the University Bridge (the skate spot that is literally dwarfed by the gigantic monument to it across the path) was one of our little pleasures on those rides. Just a quick up and down and we were on our way. Back in the day, though, we could have spent countless hours skating that spot, so when we saw a post about the recent safe-ification/ruination of that bank over on the Slog it hit us pretty hard:

A fake tanning salon, of course! The Orange One will be at Wallingford's Desert Sun next week! Set up your tent now to make sure you get to shake hands (check for streaks after shaking) with Blayne-licious.

Straight from the owner's mouth, we have word that Archie McPhee's has found a new home in its old neighborhood. Just a couple of weeks ago, the greatest gag gift store announced its lease was up in the Ballard location and it would be looking for new digs. As of this morning, we know that Archie McPhee's will be re-locating to the NE corner of 45th and Stone Way in the old liquor store, at Wallingford's edge. Archie McPhee's original location was just down Stone Way, so this is somewhat of a neighborhood homecoming for the rubber chicken, bacon everything, and boxing nuns store.

In the wake of a brutal tussle between car and bicycle last weekend, it's good that New Belgium Brewing's Tour de Fat, the "traveling celebration of all things bicycle," arrives in town on Saturday, opposite the carbon-spewing, combustion engine worship-fest that is Seafair, what with the supersonic jets and souped-up motorboats.

Seattlest and The Stranger have had disagreements of opinion concerning the quality or fucking lack of quality at certain Seattle taco trucks. In this week's print Stranger, though, there is a statement of fact regarding the highly-hyped tamales at the Rancho Bravo truck in Wallingford that cannot be disputed, and should be highlighted: They never have tamales at Rancho Bravo. Seattlest has taken to ordering them defensively, hopefully, and as an add-on but never the focal point of a meal. "Oh, and, excuse me, Ms., but have you any...tamales?" In the ordering window the woman's eyes soften and she seems to say, "It's very flattering that you would ask. You obviously hold them in high regard, and they are delicious. How disappointing for you, though. We do not have any tamales." What she actually says is, "Sorry, no." We're this close to calling in and pre-ordering a dozen of them like the sign on the truck invites us to do, eating one of them, and then selling the other eleven for a few bucks each to people waiting in line to order from the truck.

That's just changed. Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream opened in Wallingford this weekend, and while Seattlest missed the grand opening party on Saturday, we twisted a few arms in the family and stopped by on Sunday afternoon. The good part about going with two other people: we got to try 5 of their 16 flavors.

The Taco Bravo Rancho Bravo truck in Wallingford has the second best tacos al pastor that Seattlest has ever had. A trip to Mexico a few weeks ago provided the third best. The absolute best came from a burrito place just outside of Chicago circa 1997, but details of that era are sketchy at best and the experience may have expanded in the remembering. Somehow we still haven't had the "real" al pastor that is said to be roasted on a vertical spit gyro style.

As we promised last week, Seattlest played the quiz at Kate's Pub last night. Our team, Eclectic Boogaloo, ended up winning the pot, although it took a tiebreaker round to get there. (Sorry, Ozzy's Outcasts. Good game.)