Nosh Pit

Friday Nigh Specials: March 12

Here’s to Washington Wine Month!

Posted by: Kaitlin Nunn on Mar 12, 2010 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

Get swept away in the charm of Boat Street Café.

March is Washington Wine Month, and three local restaurants are offering tasty pairing suggestions tonight. Here’s to great wine!

At Ravenna’s Pair, good things come in twos. Try the pan-seared Qualicum Beach scallops, sweet potato purée, crispy parsnips, and red wine jus, $14, with a dry riesling or Sancerre. Or, order the fried Alaskan black cod with grilled endive, shisito peppers, cauliflower purée, and fennel gastrique, $14.50, and wash it down with Chablis or a local chardonnay.

Portalis Wine Bar in Ballard is pouring a glass of the medium-bodied, velvety Owen Roe 2006 Sharecroppers Cabernet Sauvignon, $8, and pairing it with peppered New York steak au poivre with spinach gratin and brandy mushrooms, $18. During happy hour (4-6pm), take $2 off all food-and-drink pairings.

Make your way to where Belltown, Queen Anne, and the waterfront collide to sample Boat Street Café ’s braised lamb shank served on butter-fried Parisian nettle gnocchi, with reduced braising wine, $28. The recommended pairing is a glass of Chateau Chabiran, Bordeaux Superieur, France 2006, $9.

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Tags: Wine, Special Dinners

Upcoming Guest Chef Nights at Farestart

Every Thursday a chef cooks up a three-course meal for a cause. And you get to eat it.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 11, 2010 at 03:47PM 0 Comments

You know Farestart, the nonprofit that trains the homeless and disadvantaged in the ways of the professional kitchen.

Just want to make sure you also know and haven’t forgotten about its Thursday night Guest Chef series, when a local chef comes in and cooks with the staff-in-training.

Each three-course meal costs $24.95 per person, you can reserve up to six weeks in advance. Jason Franey of Canlis is cooking tonight, that dinner is sold out. Next week, however, Sabrina Tinsley of La Spiga will control the kitchen and there’s still space. After that it is Alvin Binuya of Ponti Seafood Grill on 3/35.

Future Farestart guest chef nights to get excited about: Dalis Chea of Fresh Bistro cooks on 4/08, and Volunteer Park Cafe’s Ericka Burke will be behind the line on 5/06.

See full schedule here.

[ Photo source]

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Tags: Chefs, Special Dinners

Friday Night Specials: March 5

Sardines, salmon, or sturgeon? Belltown is serving up seafood tonight.

Posted by: Kaitlin Nunn on Mar 05, 2010 at 11:53AM 0 Comments

Belltown summons! Three excellent eateries are clanging their bells with great specials this evening.

The cooks at Basque tapas bar Txori does specials just like they do in the motherland: They let the chalkboards do the enticing. Every Friday and Saturday, a slew of raciones and pintxos are chalked down 20 percent. This Friday, it’s two fresh sardines with smashed potatoes (not mashed, mind you: a whole red potato gets smashed, then cooked again) for $11, or, for those of the vegetarian persuasion, there is baked eggplant with smoked sheep’s cheese for $6.

For a larger portion, go with the red wine-brushed lamb shank with potato mousse for $14, and pair that with the red house wine Protos Roble 2006 from Ribera del Duero in the North of Spain, $7 a glass.

Or, catch Flying Fish before it leaps over to South Lake Union. Tonight the iconic seafood joint is featuring spring Chinook salmon braised with kale and apple bacon chutney for $29. But start with the beet salad with Belgian endive, cinnamon-sherry vinagrette, and Roquefort cheese. Pair all that with a glass of Patient Cottat sauvignon blanc from France’s Loire Valley, $9.

Meanwhile, the very Italian Assagio has an appetizer of baby short ribs in a reduction of red wine over polenta for $15, and entrees include a sturgeon sauteed with lemon capers ($28) and risotto with beef, wild mushrooms, and a red wine demi-glace for $18.

Sounds delicious.

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Tags: Belltown, Special Dinners, Seafood

Locavore’s Delight: Sustainable Dinners at Ray’s Boathouse

Monthly multi-course meals show off the tasty wares of nearby food purveyors.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 26, 2010 at 02:42PM 0 Comments

They eat grass, you eat good beef.
Photo: skagitriverranch.com

It’s hard to argue with sustainably raised shellfish and grassfed local beef. And so we are liking the 2010 series from Ray’s Boathouse. Each month the restaurant hosts a dinner featuring food grown and raised sustainably in the Northwest. On March 4 from 6-8pm, it’s a five-course meal that includes oysters, scallops, mussels, and clams from Taylor Shellfish, Little Skookum, and Penn Cove.

Cost is $65—drinks, tax, and tip not included. Reservations at 206-789-3770, ext 3.

Meat more your bag? Sign up for a pig and beef extravaganza with humanely raised beasts from Skagit River Ranch in the Skagit Valley. It’s on April 3 and costs $60 sans beverage, but there is a pairing option with wines from Woodinville’s DiStefano Winery: a flight of three wines is $20. Call Ray’s for details.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Restaurants, Locavore News, Special Dinners, Oysters

Friday Night Specials: February 19

Here’s what’s cooking at Earth and Ocean, Eva, and Poppy.

Posted by: Kaitlin Nunn on Feb 19, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Eva Restaurant.

We chose the restaurants, now you choose the location: downtown, Greenlake, or Capitol Hill. Bon appetit!

At Earth and Ocean order off the Sip and Savor menu: a three-course meal and a glass of featured wine for $30. Chef Adam Stevenson recommends starting with an appetizer of sautéed spinach with dashi and smoked paprika, then Taylor Bay–seared scallops—the only scallop native to Seattle. A roasted pork loin from Carlton Farms with porcini ragu and polenta rounds out the meal. Get there between 5pm and 7pm, and the menu costs $25.

Expect two perennial favorites to pop up in Poppy ’s thalis: lavender duck leg with parsnips and huckleberry, and wild sturgeon with lentils, fennel, and capers. Sample them both in a $32 thali, or choose a smaller version for $24. You can hit up the bar, too, for $6 eggplant fries and Berkshire pork ribs, $16.

Through this week only, Greenlake’s Eva Restaurant and Wine Bar Bistro is featuring an appetizer of goat cheese- and cacio di basco flan with house-made sea salt crackers for $8. (The basco is an Italian truffle cheese.) Then try braised beef short rib ragu with papparadelle pasta for $16. It pairs nicely with an $8 glass of Italian red aglianico.

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Tags: Special Dinners