Nosh Pit

Book It: Omnivorous Housing Benefit at Century Ballroom

Eat lots of treats as you help retain affordable housing on Capitol Hill.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 15, 2011 at 12:48PM 0 Comments

The lovely Century Ballroom will host Omnivorous on Friday, September 30.

Photo: Century Ballroom via Facebook

On Friday, September 30, in the year 2011, a bunch of local restaurants will be offering up “signature hors d’oeuvres and desserts” for a Century Ballroom event dubbed Omnivorous.

Your consumption of these goes to a good cause: The event is produced by Capitol Hill Housing Foundation and will help fund affordable housing in a neighborhood that requires economic diversity if its soul is to be retained.

Tickets are $75, for that you get to sample snacks from such illustrious eateries as Anchovies and Olives, Cafe Presse, Lark, Marjorie, Monsoon, Poppy, Skillet, Spinasse, Terra Plata (which doesn’t even exist yet!), and Restaurant Zoe (which hasn’t even reincarnated itself yet!). Also: more illustrious eateries. And Stumptown Coffee.

Buy tickets on the Stranger’s ticketing site.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Food Events and Festivals, Fundraiser

Top Seattle Sushi Chefs Collaborate On a Feast to Benefit Japan

Sushi Chef Dream Team sounds like the meal of a lifetime. Seriously.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 07, 2011 at 12:18PM 1 Comments

Photo: Paul Kooiman

Sushi Chef Dream Team brings together seven Seattle sushi stars for a benefit to raise funds for Japan.

With aftershocks still rocking Japan nearly a month after the devastating quake and tsunami this March, benefits continue to pop up around Seattle.

And this one—it must be said—sounds incredible. Seven of our best sushi chefs are collaborating on a feast to be served with wine and sake at Bell Harbor Pier 66 on Thursday, May 5. It’s called Sushi Chef Dream Team, and it really is just that.

Behold who is participating:
Taichi Kitamura (Sushi Kappo Tamura), Hiro Kirita (Chiso), Shiro Kashiba (Shiro’s Sushi Restaurant), Ryuichi Nakano (Kisaku), Hideaki Taneda (I Love Sushi in Lake Union), Billy Beach (Japonessa), and Yoshiaki Nishizawa (Shūn).

Oh and then, Hiroki Inoue from Setsuko Pastry and Fumie’s Gold is doing dessert.

On top of that, three other local chefs will be making dishes: Campagne’s Daisley Gordon, Tamara Murphy of Elliott Bay Café, and Seth Caswell from Emmer and Rye.

Proceeds will go to Peace Winds America and Peace Winds Japan, organizations providing humanitarian relief in Japan.

If you want to meet all the chefs and get a photo with them, opt for the the $200 early-admission ticket and show up at 5pm. GA tickets are $175 and let you in beginning at 6:30. Purchase here.

For additional information about many of the chefs serving up supper, check out our Asian Food feature.

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Tags: Fundraiser, Sushi, Seattle Japanese Food, Japan Relief Efforts

Boat Street Fundraiser to Benefit Employee’s Relatives in Japan

Monday, March 21: Pay $25, support one Japanese family made homeless by the tsunami.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 16, 2011 at 02:43PM 0 Comments

Where to go next Monday evening.

The feeling of helplessness about the Japan situation is not good, is it? Here’s something you can do:

As Chris Werner mentioned in his roundup of restaurants helping Japan, Renee Erickson, chef and owner of Boat Street Cafe, is hosting a fundraiser party to raise money for the family of longtime BSC employee Sachie Mikawa.

Mikawa’s mother and sister back in Japan lost their home—apparently their entire village was destroyed by the tsunami—and they are currently living in a shelter.

Helping them get back on their feet is simple, really. Head to Boat Street on Monday, March 21 and pay $25 at the door, then go inside and party. There will be food and wine plus items to buy including art work, restaurant vouchers, cookbooks, and specialty foods.

The fundraiser starts at 5pm and ends at 10pm. I suggest you arrive early to make sure you get in—small restaurant, big hearts (can’t lose).

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Tags: Queen Anne, Fundraiser, Japan Relief Efforts

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

Spring Roll Celebration at Union Station

Sample the best of the International District

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on May 24, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

How ’bout a couple three dozen of these babies?

Tonight—Monday May 24—the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority is throwing the tastiest fundraiser you can attend for $90: An auction, performance, yum-fest from over 19 restaurants, and spring roll eating contest.

From 6pm to 9pm at Union Station, bid on great items, hear the likes of Deems Tsutakawa tinkling the ivories, watch people of limited intelligence stuffing themselves sick on spring rolls, and sample delectables from restaurants including Green Leaf and Long Provincial Vietnamese.

Proceeds will help preserve, promote, and develop the ID as the vibrant treasure that it is. Now there’s a cause to get behind.

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Tags: Fundraiser

Where to Eat this Week…

…and get great deals all month

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Oct 07, 2009 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Geraldine’s Counter

A couple of dining promotions are making October a spectacular month to eat out.

Tomorrow—Thursday, October 8—a dozen restaurants throughout Seattle and Burien will participate in Dining Out For a Change, donating a percentage of that day’s profits to the domestic violence programs of Consejo Counseling and Referral Service, a Seattle-based Latino health agency.

Great restaurants too—and not just the usual suspects. Columbia City’s Geraldine’s Counter and Lottie’s Lounge, two atmosphere-rich South End mainstays. Latin faves like the Baja taco joint Agua Verde and Ballard’s favorite Puerto Rican cantina, La Isla. And more.

For another sort of promotion, Urban Eats might be your cup of tea. Sundays through Thursdays throughout October, 39 area restaurants are offering three-course dinners for $30.

We’re talking places like Carmelita, La Rustica, and Ethan Stowell’s stylish Tavolata, among a whole slew of others.

Me, I’ll be using Urban Eats as an excuse to visit a couple I keep hearing everyone loving up: Cellar 46 on Mercer Island and Huiyona on North Capitol Hill.

See you at dinner.

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Tags: Fundraiser, Urban Eats, Dining Out for a Change

Picnic with the (Food) Stars

Chef’s Collaborative invites the public to Urban Picnic on September 20th.

Posted by: Kristin Cordova on Aug 31, 2009 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

Tamara Murphy (Brasa) and Thierry Rautureau (Rovers) yuk it up over yum-inducing dishes at least year’s Urban Picnic.

Good news, public. For the first time this year, Chefs Collaborative is opening up its annual fundraiser to you, and good food—plus face time with the city’s premier cooks—is a given.

It works like this: participating chefs will gather at the Rainier Square Rooftop Courtyard where they will serve picnic-goers a course with one key ingredient from the Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) list. Participants are currently in brainstorm mode, though Lark chef-owner John Sundstrom already has his creation in mind: a sweet corn ragout made with onions, cherry tomatoes, chives, parsley, tarragon, and crispy fried smelt (from around Camano Island).

Canlis was assigned geoduck clams; Zephyr Paquette, chef at Elliott Bay Café, will use Navajo Churro lamb in her dish. Other participating restaurants: Oliver’s Twist, Art of the Table, TASTE Restaurant, Café Juanita (and chef-owner Holly Smith of Iron Chef fame), plus Seth Caswell, president of Chefs Collaborative and the force behind soon-to-open Emmer & Rye. Top Chef, Season 6 participant Robin Leventhal will also be a special guest at the toque-studded festivities.

Proceeds will go towards Chefs Collaborative scholarships to the Quillisascut Farm School, north of Spokane. Paquette and Arthur (Zack) Chamberlain, sous chef at TASTE, are this year’s beneficiaries, and Paquette, fresh off her farm studies, will offer insights on the experience.

Tickets are $89 for members of Chef Collaborative and Slow Food; $99 to the general public. Kids under ten are free.

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Tags: Fundraiser, Chefs Collaborative, Urban Picnic

Ivar’s Shares its Clams

Chowder for you…chow for many

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Aug 10, 2009 at 08:00AM 1 Comments

Only 21 more days to take advantage of the win-win deal of the summer.

Now til the end of August, bring your extra canned, non-perishable, and unopened food to any Ivar’s Seafood Restaurant in Western Washington, and you’ll get a free cup of its signature clam chowder.

And take it from the restaurant critic: Ivar’s is really good at chowder.

Bring your food to any of Ivar’s dozens of Western Washington locations—except its stadium and airport branches—and Ivar’s will get it to Northwest Harvest, the statewide hunger relief agency which is facing unprecedented demand in these recessionary days.

And that’s not all. For every pound of food customers donate, Ivar’s will match it with a pound of chowder to the nonprofit.

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Tags: Free Food, Fundraiser, Ivar's Seafood Restaurant

Big Night for Abruzzo

Another tasty fundraiser for earthquake-ravaged Italy

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Aug 06, 2009 at 08:00PM 0 Comments

So you’re a hungry foodie with a social conscience and an operatic soul…and you have nothing to do tonight.

Here’s one for ya: Go to The Crocodile around 6pm for a gala dinner prepared by the following rock-star chefs: Armandino Batali (Salumi), Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), Sabrina Tinsley (Osteria La Spiga), Walter Pisano (Tulio), Brendan McGill (Via Tribunali), Matthew Mina (Hunt Club), and Maurizio Milazzo (Barolo).

Your $150 gets you whatever amazing victuals that crew cooks up…along with the warm glow that comes from knowing your money is supporting victims of April’s L’Aquilla earthquake. That 6.3 Richter Scale quake devastated the Abruzzo region, killed 300, and displaced some 60,000.

Along with all that, tonight’s do will offer presentations from Italian experts, an auction, photographs of the devastation from (among others) Via Trib/Caffe Vita principal Mike McConnell—and Italian arias from Public Opera.

What better way to spend Thursday night?

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Tags: Fundraiser

Neapolitan Pizza Day

And tonight…a worthy fundraiser for Italy’s earthquake victims

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jun 24, 2009 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Today, seven Seattle pizzerias (including the Tutta Bellas, the Via Tribunalis, Pizzeria Pulcinella, and Ristorante Picolinos) are about to become certifiably delicious by the magic wand of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. That’s a troop of pizzaphiles from Naples who claim the final word on pizza authenticity—and have the trademark to prove it.

But who are they? Turns out the AVPN is a fraternity of Neapolitan pizzerias, complete with sign-up fees of $700 for participating restaurants, and annual costs to remain in the club, provided your pizza hews to the Italian standard. When the AVNP visited NYC in 2002, New Yorkers (who argue that their pizza is actually the standard of the great American snack) didn’t buy it. Forbes.com reported that only one New York pizzeria actually forked over the dough to join the organization.

So they’re giving Seattle a shot, having roped Mayor Nickels and State Senator Ed Murray in on the action, with welcoming ceremonies at the Space Needle this morning and official mayoral proclamation of this as VPN week.

And tonight: The Big Night for Abruzzo fundraiser, in which more than 45 participating restaurants will donate a portion of their sales to victims of the L’Aquila earthquake that devastated central Italy earlier this spring.

Go feel good about devouring pasta and pizza (certified and otherwise) at a bunch of participating restaurants, including Il Terrazzo Carmine, La Rustica, La Vita e Bella, The Pink Door, and dozens more.

—Karen Quinn

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Tags: Pizza, Fundraiser