Nosh Pit

Nosh Pit Weekly Planner

This week: rhubarb in Columbia City, free fries on Pike Street, the Seattle Cheese Fest, and more.

Posted by: Anne Larkin on May 14, 2012 at 12:45PM 0 Comments

Free Fry Friday. It’s definitely got a ring to it.

WEDNESDAY May 16
Rhubarb Festival
The tart pink stalk is finally getting its 15 minutes of fame. The Columbia City farmers market is hosting a sweet vs. savory recipe contest, judged by Edible Seattle editor Jill Lightner, and cooking demo with chef Nat Stratton-Clark of Cafe Flora. Also: live music and a kids tent. Fingers crossed for slices of strawberry rhubarb pie. The event runs from 4 to 6 pm.

FareStart Celebration with Thierry Rautureau
The chef in the hat is putting on a three-course meal to benefit FareStart and celebrate its 20th year. The decadent menu ranges from oxtail terrine to almond caramel, and although the VIP reception is sold out, there are still tickets up for grabs for the $150 dinner.

THURSDAY May 17

Fishmonger Face-Off
The Pacific Northwest’s best fishmongers will meet for battle at the Interbay Whole Foods from 1 to 3 this Thursday. Their knowledge and skills will be put to the ultimate test, and the victor will continue on to garner more glory at the national competition in Aspen in June. And there will be free seafood bites.

Syttende Mai
It’s everyone’s favorite holiday: Norwegian Constitution Day. Get back to your Scandinavian roots (real or imagined) at Copper Gate Tavern with happy hour from 5 to 7 (cheap Aquavit) and live music from 8 to 11. The parade will roll right by too, sometime after 6.

FRIDAY May 18
Free Fry Friday
Aka, the perfect excuse to forget the quinoa and steamed veggies you were planning on consuming, and head down to Pike Street Fish Fry for some fish and chips. From 5 to 7, two-buck New Belgium beers, free fries, and a complimentary good start to a Friday night.

SATURDAY May 19
Seattle Cheese Festival
It’s here, it’s finally here! The weekend that Northwest dwellers with the soul of a Wisconsin cheesehead all pine for. Cheese seminars, mozzarella demos, and tastings galore. Cheesemongers from around the world will set up temporary tasting shop on the cobbled street just outside the market for the two-day fest, starting at 10am both Saturday and Sunday and ending at 5 Saturday, 4 Sunday.

Classic Cocktail Course
SAM’s Taste is hosting Cocktails 101 with Duncan Chase, the restaurant’s veteran bartender. The class will cover everything from how to smoothly order at the bar to how to make and present the classics. The $30 class runs from 6:30 to 8.

SUNDAY May 20
John T. Edge at Elliott Bay
The nation’s best food truck chronicler (officially—he just won the MFK Fisher writing award from the James Beard Foundation) will be at Elliott Bay Book Co., talking about his recent release, The Food Truck Cookbook, and making everyone drool with his recipes gleaned from the nation’s best rolling chefs. He’ll be at Elliott Bay at 2pm Sunday, and at Village Books in Bellingham at 7 on Monday, for you northerners.

MONDAY May 21
Meet the Producer
The third installment of Bastille’s “Meet the Producer” happy hour will bring winemaker Tim Sorenson of local winery Fall Line Winery into the restaurant. There will be a special informational happy hour from 4:30 to 6. (Up next, on June 11, Steven Stone of Sound Spirits…aquavit cocktails?)

WEDNESDAY May 23
Magic and Wine
Though wine alone is usually all the magic anyone needs with dinner, tonight the Schwartz brothers are stepping it up, pairing Château Ste. Michelle wines with nibbles and…a magician. Local wizard G. G. Green will grace the dining room with his sleight of hand at 6:30. The enchantment occurs at Daniel’s Broiler and tickets are $70.

BEYOND

June 2
Cafe Flora’s 20th Anniversary
The sunny vegetarian cafe, beloved by vegans and carnivores alike, is celebrating its second decade with a farmers market-inspired party: bites from some of the restaurant’s local vendors, live music, CSA sign ups, and something that many farmers market are sadly lacking: beer and wine (and special anniversary cocktails for VIP guests.) VIP admission is $50, general is $30, and ticket proceeds will benefit the Bailey-Boushay House.

June 11
Naomi Pomeroy at Matt’s in the Market
Chester Gerl, the head chef at Matt’s in the Market, has been making space in his kitchen for a variety of chefs over the past few months. Planes, Trains, and Traveling Chefs has brought multiple west coast chefs to Seattle already; Portland’s Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon and Vikram Vij of Vij’s in Vancouver, to name a few. Up next Naomi Pomeroy, a heavily lauded Portland chef known for her fantastic restaurant Beast, will walk through Pike Place Market and put together a market-inspired dinner at the restaurant. The dinners are $125, and reservations can be made by calling Matt’s.

June 25
Foodportunity
The semiannual opportunity to rub elbows with the big names in Seattle food (and hey, maybe take the first step to becoming a big name yourself) is coming around again this June. Thierry Rautureau, Jess Thomson, and a variety of other writers, chefs, and industry folks will be there to chat and nibble with. Tickets are $25 now, $32 later, and they usually go fast.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Daniel's Broiler, Pike Street Fish Fry, Thierry Rautureau, Farestart, Matt's in the Market, Taste Restaurant, Bastille, Cafe Flora, Elliott Bay Book Co, Free Food, Farmers Markets, Columbia City, Foodportunity

Nosh Pit Weekly Planner

Historic Seattle menus at Roy Street Coffee, a Japanese confectionary open house, and, of course, St. Patrick’s Day.

Posted by: Anne Larkin on Mar 12, 2012 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

March 14 = 3.14 = Pi Day. Get it? Photo: Pie via Facebook.

WEDNESDAY March 14
Drinking Lessons
Bourbon is the honored guest of the evening for two sessions of Night School, the class series put on by the Sorrento Hotel and its Hunt Club bar. The classes begin at 6 and 8, cost $59, and will work through the history of bourbon and bourbon-based cocktail preparation.

Pi Day at Pie
In celebration of the mathematical constant, from noon to 3:14, hand pies are $3.14 and mini pies are…3 for $3.14 at Pie in Fremont (and did you hear about its plans for a new location?).

An Evening with Aldo Vacca
To celebrate a visit from an Italian wine expert and friend from the Piedmont region, Tom Douglas’s Cuoco will be offering a special three-course meal paired with Piedmont wines as well as a luscious six-course meal in the private dining room. The special dinner will be limited to 20 guests and costs $125.

THURSDAY March 15
John Howie Class Series
Steak man John Howie hosting a four-part series of business discussions at the Pan Pacific Hotel over the next few months. Each class begins at noon and costs $30, including lunch. The first lesson: how to order wine at a business dinner.

Keeping Chickens in the City
The Seattle Free School is putting on a class at the U District Library on how to get started on a backyard chicken coop. The class begins at 4:30 and you can register online.

Historic Menus
Hanna Raskin and other Seattle food folk will be gathering at Roy Street Coffee and Tea to discuss the history of menus in the city. MOHAI is sponsoring the event and the Seattle Public Library will be breaking out a portion of its collection of historic menus. The event is free and begins at 7.

SATURDAY March 17
Ballard St. Patrick’s Day Festival
The Ballard Odd Fellows hall will be hosting a family-friendly St. Pat’s Day party, complete with live entertainment, lots of food, and a full bar. The event starts at 10 and chugs along till midnight. Entrance is $10 and the proceeds will benefit Sustainable Ballard and Ballard Food Bank.

Irish Festival
The Irish Heritage Club is putting on a two-day Irish fest at the Seattle Center. Admission is free, and the exhibition hall is sure to be filled with clovers and merriment. A highlight: there’s a kids “Smilingest Irish Eyes Contest.”

SUNDAY March 18
Tokara Open House
Phinney Ridge’s traditional Japanese confectionary Tokara is holding a sweets open house from 1 to 6. A reservation $10 will get you a special box of season-specific treats (with names like spring fog and berry girl) and a peek inside the candy-making shop.

BEYOND
April 27
Copperleaf Restaurant is putting on a celebrity chef dinner and auction to support FoodLifeline, a non-profit that is working to end hunger in Western Washington. Thierry Rautureau, Jonathan Sundstrom, and other well-known local chefs will each be preparing a piece of the five-course meal. Tickets are $175, and there will be both a live and silent auction.

May 16 and onward
FareStart is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a year of exciting events. First up, a dinner hosted by chef Thierry Rautureau. Later on, an anniversary bash in Fremont, an auction in October, and another guest chef night in November. Tickets and more information here.

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Tags: Tastings and Classes, Tom Douglas, Taste of Washington, Pie, Farestart, John Howie, Weekly Planner

Nosh Pit’s Top Food Tweets of the Week: James Beard Edition

José Andrés retweets too hard, props for Rachel Yang, and the best photo snapped at this year’s #JBFA.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 13, 2011 at 03:47PM 0 Comments

The Feast NY’s sentiments exactly.

This week brought us the James Beard Awards, and it was a pretty dismal year for Seattle.

Tom Douglas, the Canlis family, Ethan Stowell, and Matt Dillon were all up for awards but didn’t win. Our one victor was quite a worthy one, however. Farestart was awarded Humanitarian of the Year.

And despite the disappointments, there was much #JBFA-related entertainment to be enjoyed on Twitter.

Coming in at number 5 is the adorable Iberian José Andrés. He walked away with this year’s Outstanding Chef award, an awesome honor. His tweeting skills, however, could use some sharpening.

Twitter lit up with accolades for the DC-based chef after his award was announced, and Andrés retweeted them all. For this breach of Twitter etiquette, he received many virtual spanks. But it wasn’t until after Andrés retweeted the following, from someone called Web Barr, that he realized his mistake. An apology followed.

Now that @chefjoseandres has won the James Beard Award for Excellence, can we anoint him King of @Humblebrag? #lotsofretweets

4. Seattlest’s Lorraine Goldberg, responding to the announcement that Best Chef Northwest was Portland’s Andy Ricker—and not, as we’d all assumed it would be, Ethan Stowell—tweeted:

Portland-1 Seattle-0. Bummer

3. The ever-mysterious Ruth Bourdain had some funny things to say about the Beard awards (and won one!), but this is our favorite tweet of hers this week.

I hate the way men look at me when I walk down the street eating a geoduck clam.

Okay, that wasn’t a James Beard tweet at all. Hmm. Moving on.

2. Revel and Joule chef Rachel Yang cooked at the James Beard Awards this year and received high praise from the always lovely Marcus Samuelsson.

Best food tonight from revel[’s] rachel yang. http://yfrog.com/gyspkknjj

1. But the best James Beard Award tweet by far came from The Feast New York, who snapped the photo you see above, with the following caption.

Our sentiments exactly.

Better luck next year, Seattle chefs! And happy weekend.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Ethan Stowell, Farestart, James Beard Awards, Food Tweets of the Week, Geoduck

Nosh Pit’s Top Food Tweets of the Week

Sous-viding leprechauns, the dangers of Jack in the Box, and a big honor for Farestart. These are the tweets we relished this week.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 18, 2011 at 11:27AM 0 Comments

More frightening than a steaming plate of leprechaun sous-vide: Ruth Bourdain.

5. Just when we think we’ve wearied of RuthBourdain, the anonymous tweeter who mashes Ruth Reichl’s haiku-ish twitter style with Anthony Bourdain’s brash writing voice, “she” offers something wonderful in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

You haven’t truly celebrated St. Patrick’s Day until you’ve sous-vided a whole leprechaun. Delish.

4. It’s not often that you experience queasiness and culinary inspiration at the same time. But how else to feel after reading this tweet from Seatown scribe Sarah Dickerman?

there’s a certain grim satisfaction in cleaning the fridge before a trip—how to combine pumpkin hotdogs apples and cottage cheese?

3. Coming in at number three, an excellent question from local writer Rebekah Denn to world-famous Seattle lawyer Bill Marler, who specializes in food-borne illnesses.

@bmarler Curious, after reading Poisoned, whether you would eat at a Jack in the Box now.

2. Marler’s response:

@Rebekahdenn IF I ate fast food I would.

1. Local food writer Leslie Kelly offers our sentiments exactly on the James Beard Foundation’s choice for its 2011 Humanitarian of the Year Award: FareStart.

Congrats to Farestart for the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year Award!! So well-deserved!

Full disclosure on that one: Seattle Met is a Farestart media partner. Happy weekend.

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Tags: Farestart, Food Tweets of the Week

Which Restaurants Have the Best Private Rooms?

It’s the perennial holiday question. We got answers.

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

Partying at Steelhead Diner

We know, we know…you’re charged with planning your holiday office party (or girls’ night out, or book club gift exchange, or [insert event here])…and you fear you’re already too late, and what will you do now?

First, breathe. We hear it every year, and every year folks like you find terrific party rooms. You’re lucky to live in a region with tons to choose from.

If it’s twinkly water you’re looking for you might consider Ray’s Boathouse. In addition to its Northwest Room (which has a view and seats 10-74), not a lot of people know that the elegant main restaurant is available during the day for brunches and luncheons, before it opens to the public for dinner.

The romantically dim new Mamma Melina Ristorante in Ravenna near U Village features a bunch of semi-private tables, some in intimate alcoves behind pretty sheers, along with a menu of affordable pastas and pizzas.

For something more businesslike, Pike Place Market’s Steelhead Diner features a room for 48, a seafood-heavy menu, and a staff of uncommonly friendly servers. Down Post Alley, a room off Cafe Campagne serves as a warm backdrop for any fizzy holiday gathering.

Other downtown choices include the long private room at Sazerac , a bunch of differently sized options at Wild Ginger and the noble Farestart (where a portion of your bill will benefit its time-honored work-training programs), the Metropolitan Grill’s three rooms—the Vintage Room, the Board Room, and the Chairman’s Room—accommodating parties of between 22 and 75, a room for 75 at the ever-festive Andaluca , and of course Tulio’s handsome upstairs library.

Want more? Oh, we got more. Call around from Seattle Met’s recommended restaurant listings and you will find the room you need.

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Tags: Wild Ginger, Metropolitan Grill, Steelhead Diner, Andaluca, Sazerac, Party Room, Private Room, Mamma Melina, Farestart, Ray's Boathouse, Cafe Campagne, Tulio, Holidays

Farestart has Helped a Lot of Homeless People

Now you can help Farestart.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Oct 04, 2010 at 09:00AM 1 Comments

Heard of Pepsi Refresh grants? Pepsi is giving away $1.3 million in grants every month in 2010 to nonprofit organizations that are making a positive impact in the world.

Seattle’s own Farestart is up for one…worth $250k. Your vote this month could help get ’em there.

You know FareStart, the culinary job training and placement program for homeless and disadvantaged individuals. Through its restaurant and kitchen services FareStart has provided opportunities for over 3,500 people to reboot their lives, while also serving over 4 million meals to hungry people.

Not to mention keeping downtowners in tasty lunches and Thursday night guest-chef dinners—the biggest foodie thrill in town—for the last 18 years.

If it can snag this grant, Farestart will have the means to launch a national network of similar organizations. Together they can access greater resources and magnify the impact of culinary job training nationwide.

The two nonprofits (out of hundreds) with the highest votes will walk away with the $250,000 grants. So go ahead, vote here, right now. Then again tomorrow…and the next day after that…

Because “vote early and often” isn’t just a winking tagline in this election. You’re invited to vote for a given candidate once a day til the voting ends October 31.

Spread the word…at this point the leaderboard ranks saving the world’s oldest wooden rollercoaster, in Florida, as the leader in the $250,000 category. Really.

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Tags: Fundraiser, Farestart, Pepsi Refresh Grants

Where to Eat Dinner Before the Paramount?

It’s a popular question

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Oct 19, 2009 at 11:00AM 1 Comments

Dear Critic,

Now that the old Union Square Grill is defunct, and so is the Lost Lady American Cantina that replaced it…where can we eat before a show at the Paramount? We’re stumped.

Signed,

Hungry in East Downtown

Dear HED,

You are not alone. This question probably comes my way a good three times a month.

A few ideas.

If your show’s on a Thursday, then, lucky you: Proceed directly to Farestart’s website to see who the guest chef is on your particular night, and whether or not it’s sold out.

(If it’s Thursday, November 12, then unlucky you: It’s Poppy’s Jerry Traunfeld volunteering in the kitchen—but it’s sold out.)

If your Paramount tix are for an October show, you might consider Urbane, which is participating in the three-courses-for-$30 Urban Eats promotion.

If its happy hour you’re hankering for, head straight for Barolo for its sexy Italian food and lots of it, priced with ridiculous affordability.

Finally…big news is promised for December, if you can wait that long. That’s when William Belickis plans to debut MistralKitchen, the Downtown refashioning of Mistral, the Belltown boutique eatery that for a few years was the quietest sensation in that loud neighborhood.

Enjoy the show.

Signed,
The Critic

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Tags: Paramount Theatre, Recommended, Farestart, Barolo, Urbane