So Starbucks is again trying to jump into the hot chocolate market, following the failure of their indulgent Chantico drink. Today they start selling "Signature Hot Chocolate" (along with salted caramel and hazelnut versions). But a recent walk down and around Queen Anne Avenue revealed a number of other options for drinking chocolate. At the Queen Anne Farmers Market (which just finished for the season), we were sampling some of Rococoa Cookies when owner Rocky......

We’ve spoken highly (sparking some debate) of Pagliacci as our place for pizza by the slice—at least locally. But imagine our surprise while reading a recent USA Today and seeing the Queen Anne location listed as one of the country’s “10 great places for solo diners to pull up a chair.” (The article was put together in celebration of National Singles Week, which started Sunday.) Bar Boulud in New York City with its charcuterie bar......

There are still a few openings left in this Tuesday’s Cooking with Class (sponsored by Seattle Dining!), which is also for a cause. This long-running event provides a unique opportunity to take three consecutive cooking classes taught by some of the area’s top chefs. Each class is limited to eight participants, providing the chance for interactive learning. And food tasting—along with wine pairings. Best of all, Cooking with Class benefits Providence ElderPlace and Heritage House......

Earlier this year, Theo Chocolate offered music, massage, and meditation. This Thursday, you can head over to Theo for the Chocolate Barbeque. While not a formal sit-down dinner, this event will offer you grilled chicken and brisket done with two of Tom Douglas’ barbeque sauces—one using Theo’s cocoa nibs! Salads will round out the meal. Tom will be on hand to demo the grilling, as well as to sign books. There will also be......

Follow the pink umbrella. Seattlest felt silly taking a tour in its own city—but we’re pleased to report it was tasty fun. Angela Shen is founder of Savor Seattle food tours, and while she’s been conducting a 2-hour Pike Place Market Tour, she’s pleased to unveil her newest offering: a 3-hour Gourmet Downtown Seattle Tour. Although she’s a relative newcomer to Seattle, Angela has gained encyclopedic knowledge of our city; combined with her zest for......

Imagine your menu for the evening: Chilled cauliflower and leek soup with salsa verde from Serafina Kobe-style beef salad with arugula, parmesan and balsamic vinaigrette from Chez Shea Grilled lamb burger with balsamic onions, roasted red peppers and aioli from Café Campagne Hungry? You can have all this and much, much more (we had a sneak peek at the menu) by attending one of the most popular stomach-stuffers of the summer: the annual Sunset Supper......

Perhaps you bit on the Bite or uncorked at Uncorked last weekend, but this coming weekend brings a cooking contest for amateur chefs—and your chance to sample the food for a good cause. INCREDELICIOUS 2008 is a fundraiser for EKAL Seattle, which works to improve literacy and to educate tribal children in India. The cooking part of the competition is already sold out, but the sampling part is open; expect about 60 dishes—appetizers and......

On the Seattle side, this weekend brings Bite of Seattle, but on the Eastside it’s time for Kirkland Uncorked: A Festival of Style and Taste. Kirkland Uncorked is a three-day festival featuring more than 60 wines from Washington wineries, along with pairing plates and picnic boxes from the Rotary Club of Kirkland Downtown and The Crab Cracker. Entry to the beer garden includes a souvenir wine-tasting glass, ten tasting tokens, and a chance to......

Upper Queen Anne finally has a good bagel shop pho joint chocolate shop. With all the chocolate options around the city, Seattle’s becoming a bit of a chocolopolis. And now you can visit a real Chocolopolis. Chocolopolis isn’t exactly new. The online site sells over 200 artisan bars. But in speaking with founder Lauren Adler, it was clear that she was excited to go brick-and-mortar—anxious to interact with customers in person and to share......

Great food, excellent beer and wine pours, delicious jazz, music, games, and sunset at Pier 66. What more would you want for a summer night? Mark your calendar for Wednesday, July 9 for some post-Independence Day fireworks of the culinary kind, as it’s once again time for Guest Chef on the Waterfront. But don’t let the singular "chef" fool you; there will be a slew of Seattle’s finest on hand preparing samples of their......

Coming up Tuesday is the second annual Seattle Hot Picks. Sponsored by Wine & Spirits Magazine, this event celebrates the June issue’s annual Critics’ Picks—the magazine’s favorite inexpensive wines from around the world. It also honors ten of Seattle’s best young sommeliers and wine experts (all under age 35), who work in area restaurants and wine shops. The critics sampled more than 9,000 wines, paring the list to about 60 that you can try,......

As Seattlest reported last month, Kress IGA was expected to open in June, and that day has arrived. Downtown Seattle now has a supermarket! We attended the ribbon-cutting earlier this week, and are pleased to report that the store offers lots of services and goodies. Most impressive was seeing the produce section immediately at the landing of the escalator or staircase descent from 3rd Ave; a display of asparagus at under a dollar per......

Earlier this week, we reported on Anthony Bourdain’s presentation at the Moore last Saturday, which included his regular railing of Rachael Ray. The mistress of 30 Minute Meals seems a bit impatient, which is why she’s shortened the three-second "extra virgin olive oil" down to EVOO. Mmm…EVOO…TIGS (That Is Good STUFF). Today, you have a chance to find out sample some high-class EVOO. The fine folks at DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine, who recently......

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. For example, this Sunday is "Operation Clam Bake," featuring oysters on the half......

With Memorial Day weekend approaching, the weather warming (sort of), and boats a-sailing, it’s time to think about eating outdoors. We’ve got lots of gorgeous places to gorge, but few are finer than Ponti Seafood Grill. Ponti offers two outdoor patios where you can watch the boats go by as they make their way below the Fremont and Aurora bridges. We recommend a reservation now if you’d like to enjoy the view while at......

We’ve been big fans of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid since reading Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia (James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook of the Year for 2000). This coffee table-worthy book completely captured us with great recipes, gorgeous photos, and even its glossary. We immediately dug deep into their earlier work, including the aptly named Seductions of Rice, which is also as much travelogue as it is cookbook. There have......

It’s a new month, and that means a new dining promotion around town. Returning is New Urban Eats, featuring some of the relative newbie restaurants in and around the Seattle area. For $30, you’ll enjoy three courses—a choice of appetizer, entrée, and dessert from a fixed-price menu. Participating restaurants: 94 Stewart, Beato Food & Wine, Betty, Coupage, Cremant, Crush, Cucina De-Ra, Divine, Enotria, Iris Grill, Kurrent, Lucia, Moxie, 0/8 Seafood Grill, Opal, Portage, Qube,......

Gelatiamo means “let’s have gelato together.” To celebrate May Day and its reopening, Gelatiamo invites you into its shop from 11am to 1pm on Thursday, May 1 for a free gelato. That’s the easy part. The hard part is choosing between the flavors. Mocha or mango? Cappuccino or caramel? Tiramisu or toasted almond? Pistachio or panna cotta? If you try to sample them all, you’ll waste too many sample spoons, and you’ll just get......

Need a good excuse to eat out? Mark your calendars: One week from today, April 24, is the 15th annual Dining Out for Life. Hosted by the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, 30% of your meal cost goes back to the organization, which provides a wide variety of services to people in the Puget Sound who are living with HIV/AIDS, including fresh meals and groceries from the Chicken Soup Brigade, housing, insurance, and education/prevention programs. Nationally,......

Next week, icon Grill’s Chef Nick Musser (known for his Aroused Americana cooking—and cookbook) is doing a demonstration at Dish it up! in Magnolia. On the menu are signs of spring: grilled asparagus salad, spring pea soup, oven roasted rack of lamb, and white chocolate strawberry cake. We had an opportunity to spring these questions on him: Why do you like to teach cooking classes? It’s great to interact with the participants, as I......