Nosh Pit

Tree Eating at The Herbfarm

Next new menu gets all sappy on us

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 15, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Herbfarm fans know that every one of its multi-course dinners adheres to a theme—aphrodesiacs at Valentine’s Day, Copper River salmon in late spring, foraged mushrooms in fall.

The latest in the lineup might be the coolest. Starting this Friday for a three-week run, A Taste of Trees will bring nine courses of seafood, fowl, and meat that have been cooked, smoked, or seasoned with different woods. Flavorings will derive from the fruits, seeds, nuts, flowers, leaves, needles, berries, sap, and bark of various arboreal species, native and otherwise.

Nine courses, six matching wines, $179-$189 depending on the evening. Chlorophylling? Oh yes.

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Tags: woodinville, Restaurants, Restaurant News, Special Dinners, The Herbfarm

Truffled Bacon

Now that we’ve got your attention: John Howie Steak launches another Happy Hour

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 04, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

John Howie just got happier

The most solid new addition to the Bellevue dining scene just got a little more liquid.

John Howie Steak has launched a second daily Happy Hour, from 9pm to 11pm weeknights, til midnight Saturdays, and a full panorama of 3pm to 9pm happiness Sundays.

Now you can tipple Fris Vodka martinis around the piano bar eating things like ½ pound USDA Prime beef bacon cheeseburgers or Kurobuta pork belly sliders for $8. Or deviled eggs with truffled bacon for $5. Or Reggiano Parmigiano potato chips for just $3.

Sounds pretty happy to us.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Bargain Bites, Bellevue, Restaurants, Restaurant News, Restaurant News

The New Zagat’s Out…

…and wait till you see what it says.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jan 20, 2010 at 08:00AM 6 Comments

Top honors for The Herbfarm

You know the Zagat guides? Those compilations of diner reviews of restaurants in cities across the globe? The new Seattle edition hits the streets this month, and here’s which restaurants the 3,165 contributors selected.

You may be surprised.

In the Top Food category, The Herbfarm logged in highest, earning 29 points out of 30 (and highest in the Top Service category to boot) with comments like “once-in-a-lifetime dining experience.” No disagreement here.

Second place in Top Food was a five-way tie: Rover’s, Cafe Juanita, Sitka and Spruce, Salumi, and Bakery Nouveau.

Yep, great food all. (Where are Cascina Spinasse? Corson Building? Poppy? All too new for this edition’s deadline, apparently.)

But Crush logging in after 21 other restaurants in a fourth-place berth? Tied with goofy breakfast joints like Glo’s and Maltby Cafe?

And what the heck are the stunning Boat Street Cafe and Tilth doing earning mere 25’s for food?

And only Dahlia Lounge of all the Tom Douglas restaurants listed in the upper echelons for service—Douglas’ most winning calling card—and only then at a 23-of-30 rating? (These contributors apparently preferred the fancy napkin-snapping routines of places like The Georgian and The Salish.)

As it reliably does, probably through overrepresentation of trend-happy foodies among its contributors, this edition of Zagats winds up vaulting perfectly fine places into a stratospheric region they haven’t yet earned. I’m thinking of Elemental @ Gasworks with its unmerited 26 for food, 23 for service.

What do you think of the new Zagat?

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Tags: Restaurants, Restaurant News, Zagat

Crush’s Technical Nightmare

Oh, the humanity! A technical glitch causes uproar and egregious use of the word “idiot” among Crush restaurant’s newsletter recipients.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jan 18, 2010 at 10:00AM 11 Comments

UPDATE EMAIL FROM CRUSH:

Dear friends,
I am terribly sorry for this horrible e-mial problem. Apparently there was an error with our e-mail news system that I was unaware of when I sent out this press release! Our email provider has also recognized the issue and we are shutting this down immediatly! Please forgive me, this was not the intent of CRUSH restaurant. A setting malfunction with our newsletter email account was at fault. I understand this has upset many of you and caused a major headache to us all, I cannot express the grief CRUSH has endured this morning. Again, I am so sorry and please feel free to contact me.
Jonny Brodie
CRUSH Matre [SIC] D

It started with an email announcement on January 17th. To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Crush, Jason and Nicole Wilson’s mush-acclaimed Madison Valley restaurant, was holding a special dinner on Tuesday, February 23rd. Featuring a lineup of famous chefs, including Poppy’s Jerry Traunfeld and Christophe Eme of Ortolan in Los Angeles, the dinner cost $255, please contact Crush for reservations. The message was sent to a group of people who had presumably signed up to receive news from Crush.

The problem began when one recipient responded to the sender crushnews@chefjasonwilson.com, asking for a trade deal for tickets to the dinner. Awkwardly, that message was sent to the entire distribution list. And then they started coming: dozens of emails—each increasingly irate—requesting removal from the list. The problem was, each of those emails was also received by EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE LIST.

So people started getting mad. The word “idiots” has been used more than once (mostly to refer to fellow newsletter recipients, some of them very recognizable names). Threats to boycott the restaurant (sort of astonishing, considering that this was clearly some sort of simple technical glitch) have been plentiful. “I am done with Crush,” read one message. One of the more circumspect recipients suggested everyone simply stop sending emails asking to be taken off the list, and then we would all stop receiving them.

So far, no word from Crush. Will keep you posted. In the meantime, I have some emails to delete.

Oh and for anyone on the list who wants to be taken off: email Nicole@chefjasonwilson.com. (Thanks Erin Boudreau).

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Tags: Tech, Restaurant News