Nosh Pit Blog

Food and Drink Events

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 Speech Bubble 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

Food Events

Slideshow: Foodportunity Returns to Palace Ballroom

Check out what everyone was eating at Monday night’s networking event.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Feb 07, 2012 at 01:20PM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Metropolitan Market whipped up mac and cheese made with a nutty-sweet gouda.

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Gastronomes and media folk descended upon Palace Ballroom Monday evening for Foodportunity, the network-and-nosh event put on by Keren Brown (aka Frantic Foodie).

Brown has organized Foodportunity for several years now, both here and in Portland. The idea behind these events is to come and converse with fellow food obsessives while sampling bites from top-notch restaurateurs and local purveyors. The chefs talk attendees through the dish they chose to prepare, which is a neat opportunity to get inside their heads. Name tags facilitate the networking side of things, as does the cash bar (it’s amply stocked). So convivial is the atmosphere even foodportunists flying solo will find someone with whom to chat.

Many of the people at Foodportunity are repeat attenders and will eagerly share lessons learned from past events. For example, they’ll tell you it’s best to arrive when doors open at 6, when few others are there. That way you can go nuts with the food and avoid the awkwardness of trying to converse while doing so. (Or worse, getting grub stuck between your teeth during a gab session—definitely a networking no-no.) Also: it’s easy to miss the booths hidden in the back right corner of the foyer, but they’re some of the best of the bunch.

Check out the slideshow for more from the event and a sampling of the food on offer.

All photos by Seattlemet.com photographer Lucas Anderson.

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Tags: Palace Ballroom, Seattle Food Events, Foodportunity

Food Events

Slideshow: Foodportunity at Palace Ballroom

Gorgeous grub and plenty of food folk at the networking event this Monday.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 14, 2011 at 03:53PM Speech Bubble 3 Comments

Photo: Lucas Anderson

Happy cooking: The kitchen manager from Ray’s Boathouse finishes up a salmon-filled tortilla Española.

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Foodportunity is a networking event for food people—journalists, restaurateurs, PR individuals, etc. And as scary as that sounds, it’s remarkably fun. What helps distinguish Foodportunity is delicious bites from excellent restaurants (Nettletown, Emmer and Rye), local food producers (Stone-Buhr Flour), and grocers (Metropolitan Market). They bring food such as foie gras on a cracker (Chez Shea) and lamb meatballs with yogurt dipping sauce (Urbane).

And unlike at other tasting events, the venue and crowd size are such that you can actually eat the food, and actually chat with the chefs and purveyors, without being unceremoniously bumped and spilled upon by aggressive attendees. The foodportunists are there to get to know you, not decorate your favorite jacket with meatball grease.

Responsible for this event is one Keren Brown, who also goes by the monicker Frantic Foodie. Several times a year she holds Foodportunities in Seattle and Portland. It costs $25 to attend, and you will be expected to wear a name tag—we’re mingling, remember?—and asked to put your business card in a glass jar for prize-raffling purposes. These two activities may cause some buried memories of painful job and/or college fairs to burble to the surface, but persevere, my foodie friend. There’s a cash bar near the entrance that is well-stocked with networking juice.

As it turns out, most people you encounter will prove friendly and fun to talk to. And should some socially challenged Foodportunist pause to scrutinize your hastily Sharpeed name tag only to move on without so much as a smile, do not allow your feelings to be maimed. Instead, go hang out up front with the authors. Last night, Seattle scribes Kurt Timmermeister, Langdon Cook, and Amy Pennington were onhand to chat it up—a foodportunity no local gourmand should go without.

Here’s a slideshow from Seattlemet.com photographer Lucas Anderson.

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Tags: Foodportunity

Making Foodie Friends

Foodportunity Returns

The networking event takes over Palace Ballroom on June 13.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 25, 2011 at 08:40AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Fill up on bites from local restaurants at Foodportunity.

photo: springhillnorthwest.com

The next Foodportunity—a networking event for people who love food and people who love people who love food—takes place June 13 at the Palace Ballroom from 6 to 9 pm.

Tickets are $25 and that price include bites from The Book Bindery, Chez Shea, Trellis, Nettletown, Tilikum Place Cafe, Urbane, and BuiltBurger.

Arrive between 6:30 and 7:30 if you want to get in on a gab session with Amy Pennington, Kurt Timmermeister, Corky Luster, and Langdon Cook.

Buy tickets here.

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Tags: Foodportunity