Nosh Pit

Nosh Pit Weekly Planner

Volunteer Park Cafe’s fifth birthday, gluten-free Asian food at Book Larder, and chef-guided tours of Pike Place

Posted by: Brian Colella on Jan 09, 2012 at 11:45AM 0 Comments

Happy fifth birthday to Volunteer Park Cafe.

WEDNESDAY January 11

Join Volunteer Park Cafe for its fifth birthday celebration during dinner service from 5:30 to 9. In honor of the anniversary, dessert will be on the house. Call 206-328-3155 or go to VPC’s site to make a reservation.

THURSDAY January 12

Head to Book Larder to learn how to make gluten-free Vietnamese-style roasted pork meatballs with nuoc cham sauce, mixed vegetable tempura pancakes, and other previously-off-limits foods with the help of Laura Russell and her new book The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen. Tickets are $20 and the event runs from 6:30 to 8.

SATURDAY January 14

Starting now, and continuing for the next month, a different Seattle chef will host a weekly tour of Pike Place Market. Simon Zatyrka of Cutters Bayhouse hosts the first tour, which runs 9 to 1 and costs $75 per person (register online in advance). Up to 14 people can sign up; the tour ends with a cooking demo and light meal at kitchen showroom SieMatic Seattle. The next tour is led by Franz Junga of Il Fornaio.

TUESDAY January 17

Mike Easton of Il Corvo brings his digestivo creation Amaro Vittoria to Artusi for a tasting with Spinasse’s Jason Stratton. For $90 per person, you sample amaro, tour Oola Distillery, snack at Artusi and cap it with dinner at Spinasse. Call 206-251-7673 to register.

Dubbed a rock-star chef by the New York Times, San Francisco’s cult meat hero Ryan Farr comes to Book Larder to teach Whole Beast Butchery, his book featuring 500 step-by-step photos, recipes, and instructions for meat handling. To make this scenario even more meaty, neighboring Dot’s Delicatessen is providing food; the event runs from 6:30 to 8 and costs $10 per person.

WEDNESDAY January 18

Cafe Lago continues their Doposcuola series, this time starring Seattle Met‘s own Laura Cassidy teaching you how to Shop Like an Italian. Join Laura at 7 for antipasti and prosecco and she’ll show you the best independent and specialty shops for new or established Italian designers.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Volunteer Park Cafe, Culinary Events, Seattle Food Events, Book Larder

The Former Bill the Butcher Sets Up Shop in Pike Place Market

Full service butchery BB Ranch now open.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Dec 02, 2011 at 11:25AM 0 Comments

Pike Place Market has a new full service butcher shop, courtesy of William von Schneidau. You might know him as Bill the Butcher, though von Schneidau is no longer affiliated with the local chain of meat shops that bear his name (here’s a little bit of back story).

His new endeavor, BB Ranch, is open in the Corner Market building in a location that’s no stranger to meat, having previously housed both Fero’s Meats and Crystal Meats. Name your protein, it’s probably here; the butchery carries chicken, turkey, goat, rabbit, lamb, both chicken and duck eggs, veal, pork, bacon, and even house-made jerky, marinades, and sausage. You can even come here for a Christmas goose if you are feeling Rockwellian this holiday season.

Von Schneidau says he’s “very proud to be selected to go into the market,” and says the shop gave him a chance to “rekindle some of those relationships” with local farms and producers.

Per the press materials, many offerings come from local ranchers; BB Ranch’s website and its blog offer more specifics on products’ provenance. The space also has a 1920s-era meat rail in back, which means von Schneidau can hang whole animals and cut meat to order. He even has a brander bearing the BB Ranch logo that he uses to leave his mark on steaks he sells to customers.

BB Ranch is open 9 to 6 Monday through Saturday, and until 5pm on Sundays.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, BB Ranch

Mt. Townsend Creamery Settles In at Pike Place Market

Get your local cheese fix daily at the creamery’s new stand.

Posted by: Emily Dhatt on Nov 28, 2011 at 02:00PM 3 Comments

Allyson Taylor mans the new Mt. Townsend stand in Pike Place. Photo via Facebook.

You may already know the brand from grocery stores and farmer’s markets, but be advised that Mt. Townsend Creamery has expanded its cheesy outfit, arriving in Pike Place Market, as we prophesied back in September. Now you can—and should—find Mt. Townsend’s whole catalog of ten cheeses in a tiny glass case near Rachel the Pig.

This prime real estate certainly doesn’t hurt the stand’s already-booming business, but it’s not all that draws in customers. (And draw in customers they do—when I visited, there was a small crowd mobbing around the counter.) The Port Townsend-based creamery sources additive-free, non-GMO milk from Sequim dairy Smith Brothers [not this Smith Brothers farm in Kent as we stated earlier], and even donates the whey workers separate from their curds to local farmers to repurpose as pig food.

The creamery’s most famous cheese, Seastack, is a briny, soft-ripened number. As it happens, Seastack is what brought us Allyson Taylor, cheese connoisseur and manager of the Pike Place location. “I was living on the East Coast at the time, and I tried some of the Seastack. It was perfect—so Pacific Northwest.” Two months later, she was in Seattle.

Allyson has been with the company for three months, making and promoting cheese in the flagship location until she set up shop in Seattle two weeks ago. Before that, she slung cheese at Savour Specialty Foods in Ballard.

There’s an obvious comparison to draw between Mt. Townsend and longtime Pike Place stalwart Beecher’s, but Allyson insists that the two shops are uncompetitive and even work as partners. “They sell our cheese,” she says. “We’re two completely different kinds of creameries. They make cheddars; we don’t. We send people over to them all the time, and they send people to us.”

You can find a few Mt. Townsend products at Whole Foods, but you’ll have to visit the Pike Place outlet to get your hands on some of their more obscure cheeses, including Trufflestack, a black truffle and salt-infused version of the classic Seastack, and rich, buttery jack New Moon. Not that you’d want to avoid the shop, anyway—its sample-laden counter and knowledgeable, passionate staff are big pluses.

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Tags: Cheese, Pike Place Market, Food News, Grand Opening

Tour Marché, Pike Place Market’s New French Restaurant

Plus: photos of the food.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Oct 05, 2011 at 08:45AM 1 Comments

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The salade du Marché.

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Yakima sweet peppers with marinated chevre.

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Brined, pan-roasted chicken leg dressed and spiced zucchini.

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Linguini dressed in comte with basil pistou and tomato coulis.

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Epaule de porc roti

No more white linens at 86 Pine Street: After an eight month renovation, the space that housed Campagne for more than two decades officially has morphed into Marché, a more relaxed reboot of the French institution. After all, casual is très trendy.

Elegant accoutrements have made way for handsome woods, a communal table, and snazzies like vintage filament bulbs and loungey booths. The shiny, well-stocked bar is even pimped out with an Enomatic wine-dispensing system.

Chef-owner Daisley Gorden will look to his Pike Place environs for sourcing (marché means market) to prepare bistro dishes like curried mussels, house-made chicken and mushroom sausage, or mackerel. Joining Gordon, whose Cafe Campagne remains open and unchanged, is general manager Cameron Williams and former Rover’s sommelier Cyril Frechier. He promises plenty of wines by the glass.

Marché is currently in the soft-open stage, with an official debut slated for Friday, October 7 starting at 4:30. Can’t make it? Get a look at the revamped cafe and a sampling of the food in our slideshow.

All photos courtesy Doogin Design.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Pike Place Market, French Food

Mt. Townsend Creamery About to Open Shop in Pike Place Market

The cheesery is set to move into the Economy Arcade.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 16, 2011 at 02:35PM 1 Comments

Check it out, you can see the market in the reflection. I totally did that on purpose.

So there I was in the Economy Arcade at Pike Place Market today, looking at the bit of real estate that once housed Best Flowers. Then I noticed a sign in the window. It seems Mt. Townsend Creamery is moving in. Exciting.

I called the Port Townsend-based cheesemongers but was unable to get ahold of anyone for details. The Pike Place Market Insider wrote in September that the store was due to open on the first of October. I will get more info from the creamery as soon as possible.

But tourists: Get psyched. You’re about to get your first taste of Seastack, a very tasty cheese.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, New Food Shops

Beecher’s Opens in NYC

Let’s have a look inside.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 24, 2011 at 01:35PM 0 Comments

Cheese bath!

Photo: Beechers

Thanks to the Village Voice’s Fork in the Road blog, we can have a look inside Beecher’s 8,000 square foot shop that opened today just north of Union Square in New York’s Flatiron District.

No fair alert: The NYC shop has a basement cafe.

But on Seattle’s own Voice Media food blog Voracious, Hanna Raskin reported that Beecher’s new Flatiron cheese, made with milk from Upstate New York, goes on sale today at the NY shop and the one in Seattle.

So we have that.

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Tags: Cheese, Pike Place Market, Seattle Exports

Pike Place Market Busker Spotlight: Emery Carl

The hula-hooping performer sings of an alien “traveling through the galaxy just to get a sandwich.” Right.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 20, 2011 at 09:38AM 0 Comments

Alright Noshers, here it is, the final installment of Battle of the Buskers. To close out the competition we have Emery Carl performing some very original music.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Battle of the Pike Place Market Buskers

Pike Place Market Busker Spotlight: Carly Calbero

She’s got some serious pipes.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 15, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

The Battle of the Buskers is heating up! Several contenders are emerging as frontrunners, this half pint with the big voice being one of them. Watch her as she belts out “Beat It.”

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Battle of the Pike Place Market Buskers

Pike Place Market Busker Spotlight: Squirrel Butter

Their “If I Fall” is a twangy bluegrass original.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 14, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

The only duo to compete in Battle of the Buskers, Charlie Beck and Charmaine Slaven, don’t just turn out masterfully harmonious, high-pitched Americana, their finger- and footwork is rather impressive too. The evidence is in the video, so do press play.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Battle of the Pike Place Market Buskers

Pike Place Market Busker Spotlight: Reggie Miles

Sidenote: some amusing crowd shots in this one, like blondie dancing in the corner at 1:03.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 13, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

The bluesiest of the Battle of the Buskers bunch, Miles is a bit of a departure from the likes of American duo Butter Squirrel or Michael Jackson–covering Carly Calbero. That’s the beauty of Pike Place Market: one turn of the head and you’re immersed in something completely new and different.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Battle of the Pike Place Market Buskers

Pike Place Market Busker Spotlight: Howlin’ Hobbit

The little man with the croaky voice is a crowd favorite. See why.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 07, 2011 at 09:08AM 1 Comments

So far we’ve featured Yaacov Reuven doing “In Your Eyes” and Morrison Boomer performing original song “Eyes Open Wide." Now it’s the turn of the Howlin’ Hobbit. Here, he performs “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” from Die Dreigroschenoper, or The Threepenny Opera.

And don’t forget to check out the rest of the featured performers on Battle of the Buskers then vote for your favorite.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Battle of the Pike Place Market Buskers

Pike Place Market Busker Spotlight: Morrison Boomer

Watch the trio perform the original song “Eyes Open Wide”.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on May 26, 2011 at 09:28AM 1 Comments

As part of this kick-ass guide to Pike Place Market, videographer Joshua Guerci filmed seven resident buskers. Every so often we’ll feature a different one here on Nosh (they’re playing in the mother of all farmers markets, so that makes it food-related, right?) First up: folksy trio Morrison Boomer.

Watch the video below, then check out the rest on Battle of the Buskers and vote for your favorite.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Battle of the Pike Place Market Buskers