Nosh Pit

Columbia City Loses its Verve (Bistro and Cellar)

The neighborhood wine bar closes this month.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 05, 2011 at 09:27AM 0 Comments

Verve, a neighborhood wine bar and retailer, will pop its last cork on September 17.

Photo: Verve via Facebook

Tough times for wine bars.

Last we heard from Verve, chef Garrett Michael Brown was converting his dining room into a pop-up BBQ joint.

But today, the four-and-a-half year old neighborhood wine bar and retailer announced via Twitter that it has lost its lease and will close.

The last day of service at Verve will be Saturday, September 17 and a closing-day party is in the works. Brown is still scheduling catering gigs and private classes.

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Tags: Columbia City, Wine Bars, Seattle Restaurant Closings

Columbia City Bakery’s CSA for Carb Lovers Now Offered Year Round

Next up: a second delivery day each week, says owner Evan Andres.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 07, 2011 at 09:35AM 0 Comments

Columbia City Bakery: now delivering the loaves all year long.

Photo: Columbia City Bakery via Facebook

About a year ago, Columbia City Bakery owner Evan Andres introduced the CSB program (like a CSA, only you get baked goods instead of vegetables), dropping off breads and desserts to sites around the city on Tuesdays—the bakery’s slowest day.

The service was planned as a way to move bread during the farmers market off-season. But Andres recently started offering year-round delivery and says if the program grows large enough, he’ll deliver on Mondays too.

The CSB costs $17 a week (the minimum commitment is $136 for eight weeks of delivery) and for that members receive two loaves of bread and a sweet baked that very morning. They can hand-pick their orders online or leave the choices up to the bakery. The latter option offers the opportunity to taste the full inventory of Columbia City baked goods, minus those that don’t travel well. Croissants, Andres points out, make poor deliverables.

There are currently about 45 slots open in the CSB. Check out the bakery’s website to learn about drop-off spots and how to join.

Curious, I asked Andres if he knew of any other bakeries following a CSA model. He was aware of a bakery in Vermont doing something similar, he said, as well as a desserts delivery service in Olympia.

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Tags: Columbia City, Bread, Baking, CSAs, Seattle Food Delivery

Marination Mobile Colonizes Columbia City

Starts next Sunday

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on May 12, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Marination: About to put more yum in Columbia City

Marination Mobile, the roving purveyor of happy Korean/Hawaiian food, has added a Sunday location to its schedule. The big blue truck is heading to Columbia City.

Starting Sunday, May 16 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Marination will be dishing its kalua pork sliders and kimchee quesadillas at the Rainier Plaza parking lot at Rainier Avenue and South Angeline Street.

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Tags: Columbia City, Mobile Food

Full Tilt Rocks

Ice cream, beer, pinball, and utter happiness…now in three locations!

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 10, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Full Tilt Ice Cream: Happiest Place on Earth

Popped into the Columbia City Full Tilt Ice Cream the other night and had a hard time popping back out.

First: The arcade games, great ones, a quarter apiece, which instantly addicted the 11-year-old and her roving posse to pursuits like Ms. PacMan and, yes, pinball.

Second: The fact that everyone was here. Everyone. Full Tilt opened in the southern fringe of downtown Columbia City right before the Big Heatwave of Summer ‘09, cultivating a devoted neighborhood following just as it had done before in downtown White Center. Then just last month a new outpost brought the same love to the *UW’s 50th and Brooklyn* corner. Every one of ’em attracts the kind of fizzy, alt-flavored family energy that builds community and makes Friday nights out in the ’hood really, really fun.

Third: BEER!!! The coolest thing about this ice cream parlor is that it embraces a grown-up’s need to bring the kids out for ice cream and enjoy a little naughtiness of her own.

Fourth: Astonishingly enough… there is ice cream. Really fine, creamy, and affordable ice cream in flavors like Mexican chocolate and a superlative salted caramel. I tried the newer salted caramel variant, enhanced with a fair amount of Sailor Jerry spiced rum, and found it every bit as compelling as the pinball machine.

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Tags: Bargain Bites, reviews, University District, Beer, Desserts, kids stuff, Columbia City, White Center

Was it Spice Room We Loved…

…or was it Manish?

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 08, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Yummy, isn’t it?

Photo credit here

You’ve heard the buzz about Spice Room, the new Thai-and-then-some joint along the Columbia City strip? Sitting in one of its broad booths within silky mosquito-netting sheers—sky-blue wall on one side, Seattle brick on the other—sucking down a stiff tropical cocktail…this is one joint that whisks you away.

The food? A giddy romp through Thailand, with stops in China and Southeast Asia besides, for a solid tamarind phad Thai, a fragrant garlic-infused deep-fried whole tilapia, a feisty and fathomless tom yum goong soup. The best way to experience it is to place yourself in a waiter’s good hands and let him have his way with you.

Particularly if that waiter is Manish. Gently authoritative, wryly humorous, thoroughly versed in every nuance of every dish, thoughtfully aware of the children’s needs…this guy is a maestro of service. With a few deft questions he sized up our sizable party, made a few suggestions, graciously accepted a few of our tweaks—then presented dish after elegant dish adding up to a stunner of a feast.

With a mystic combination of smarts and intuition he deciphered what we wanted most, then made it happen. “You’ve been a great waiter,” one in our party told him at the end. “Would you consider being my life coach?”

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Tags: Restaurants, Thai, Columbia City, waiters