Nosh Pit

Feast of the Week: June

Catch the Madrona restaurant’s four-course repast five nights a week.

Posted by: Judy Naegeli on Aug 31, 2010 at 10:11AM 0 Comments

An exterior shot of June in Madrona. Photo courtesy Clare Barboza.

What: Weekday family meals at June

Where: 1423 34th Ave, Madrona

When: Sun–Thu starting at 5pm

Why you should go: Unlike other Seattle suppers taking place here and there, Madrona’s new, cute June one-ups by offering a themed, four-course family-style meal five nights out of every week. You’ve got three more days to sample chef Vuong Loc’s Chinese-inspired menu: Peking duck, steamed buns, fresh green beans with chilies, and egg custard.

Cost: $20/person; kids under 8 eat free

Reservations: Required 24 hours in advance; 206-323-4000; groups of four or more only

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Tags: New Restaurants, Madrona, Special Dinners, Feast of the Week

Feast of the Week: Ventana

Once a month Joseph Conrad crafts multi-course meals covering the corners of the globe.

Posted by: Judy Naegeli on Aug 23, 2010 at 01:40PM 0 Comments

All photos courtesy Ventana.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

All photos courtesy Ventana.

View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration:

What: Monthly Sunday Supper

Where: Ventana, 2323 First Ave, Belltown

Why you should go: Food tastes better over conversation, so the Ventana folks serve family-style. Executive chef Joseph Conrad kicks off the convo by personally introducing the three-course spreads inspired by a rotating regional cuisine. Past menus have hailed from northern Italy—that one meant entrees of stuffed goose, a buckwheat noodle bake, and polenta curiga, with flatbread pizza to start and Nutella panna cotta or almond rosewater biscotti to finish—as well as Cuba, Greece, and Thailand.

Cost: $25/person for three courses; $15/person to add wine pairing

Reservations: Highly recommended; call 206-441-4789

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Tags: Belltown, Special Dinners, Feast of the Week

Beef Tasting and Dinner at Cicchetti

Steak tasting: Everybody’s doing it. You can do it on August 30.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 16, 2010 at 10:26AM 0 Comments

Photo: Jessica Voelker

A prepped hunk of beef from Rain Shadow Meats.

Steak tasting. Everybody’s doing it. They’ll be doing it at Cicchetti come August 30.

Carrie Oliver of The Artisan Beef Institute will be steering (ooh, unintentional pun) the event. This is the text of her bio, from the Artisan Beef Institute website. “I created the concept of Artisan Meat and evaluate, rate, and create professional tasting notes for individual farms, ranches, and butcher teams. Some call me the Robert Parker of Meat, others Beef Geek.”

I had to read that twice, at first I thought she was saying she created the concept of artisan beef, which is a bit like inventing the internet. What she means is she invented the concept of the Artisan Beef Institute which treats beef like wine—evaluating (and appreciating) it based on where it grew, how long it was aged, what the cow ate, etc.

So here’s what happens. You make a reservation with Cicchetti (206-323-0807), you show up on August 30 at 6pm, you blind-taste beef while listening to Oliver and a panel of experts (Tracey Baker of The Gleason Ranch; Tracy Smaciarz of Heritage Meats; Dylan Giordan, Executive Chef at Serafina and Cicchetti; Nicole Aloni, food writer) discuss the ins-and-outs of your meat, you eat a three-course dinner with wine, and then you go home. This evening costs you $85. Enjoy.

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Tags: Eastlake, Special Dinners, Beef

Suddenly Open Seats for Tonight’s New Guard Dinner

If you were hoping to attend the clambake cheffed by Tako Truk’s Cormac Mahoney, here’s your chance.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 04, 2010 at 09:16AM 0 Comments

The New Guard clambake begins at 7pm and costs $50.

Good morning. Thought you might be interested to know that four or five seats have opened up for tonight’s New Guard dinner, an intimate clambake for 40 in SoDo.

Cheffing will be Cormac Mahoney. I almost always write “Cormac McCarthy” when I write his name. But Cormac McCarthy is the guy who wrote The Road. That’s not who is cooking tonight. Cormac Mahoney is the guy who made those tacos you loved at Tako Truk and who will be opening a new restaurant in Madison Park at some point soon.

The musician this time around is Justin Ripley (Salmon Thrasher, The Pomonas), and Kat Larson is the artiste. More details about them are here.

The dinner starts at 7pm and costs $50. Email thenewguard@hopegrocery.com to reserve.

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Tags: Special Dinners

Feast of the Week: The Tin Table

The theme rotates each month at these three-course dinners.

Posted by: Judy Naegeli on Aug 02, 2010 at 01:47PM 0 Comments

The Tin Table on Capitol Hill hosts a chef’s dinner every first Thursday of the month.

What: First Thursday Chef’s Dinner

Where: The Tin Table, 915 East Pine Street

When: 5-9pm

Why you should go: Because galleries aren’t the only ones turning it up on First Thursday. Consider chef Travis Chase’s assemblage for this week’s three-course feast, inspired by Argentine cuisine: lobster porcini empanadas with chilled avocado honey soup and candied cilantro; spicy grilled octopus with sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, and black beans; and skirt steak (braised, grilled, and smoked—impressive) with celery root fennel puree and chimichurri.

Cost: $40 per person; wine pairing and other drinks cost extra

Reservations: Highly recommended, call 206-320-8458

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Special Dinners, Feast of the Week

Art at the Four Seasons Offers Dinner Specials

Crab, steak, organic, fried chicken, ice cream sundaes…it’s all here, folks

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jul 28, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Art Restaurant downtown is offering a 7 Days of Art dining promotion.

Feel like organic tonight?

As part of its new 7 Days of Art promotion, Art Restaurant at downtown’s Four Seasons Hotel offers a market-to-table organic feast tonight and upcoming Wednesdays, for $30 per diner.

Assuming tomorrow you’ll feel like crab, the fun continues, as Thursdays the schtick is the Crab Duel TV Tray, ($32 per person). Diners will sample four crab dishes—on TV trays, including King crab leg cocktail; Dungeness crab legs; warm Dungeness crab pasta; and grilled King crab.

As for the rest of the week:

—Friday Night Flight Night ($15 – $35), with flights of three wines.

—Steak Saturday ($44), with four different cuts of steak and seasonal condiments.

—Sunday Family Dinner, ($100 for 4), featuring roast chicken, pan gravy, and all the fixins—including apple pie a la mode for dessert.

—Wine all you Want Monday, with 50% off all bottles of wine ordered for dinner. (With 160 choices, this one’s the critic’s pick, folks…a fantastic deal.)

—Big.Chill Tuesday, ($6 – $20), with all manner of ice cream and sorbet flavors and sundaes, including an ice cream tasting for the whole table.

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Tags: Special Dinners, Art Restaurant

Chef Maria Hines of Tilth on Iron Chef America

(Pssst…you can sample the dinner she created two nights later!)

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jul 21, 2010 at 09:00AM 1 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Food Network

Missed the great Maria Hines on Top Chef Masters last spring?

Not to worry: The chef and owner of Tilth, who has earned kudos from Food and Wine and the James Beard Foundation, which granted her the Best Chef Northwest award last year—goes back to the small screen August 1 for a showdown with Iron Chef Miromoto on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America.

There she’ll whip up a five-course dinner with a secret ingredient we cannot reveal. (Because, ahem, it has not been revealed to us.) But pay $200 and you can sample it in five courses, at a special dinner with wine pairings to be held Tuesday, August 3.

Call NOW…this one will go fast.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Special Dinners, Maria Hines, Iron Chef, Tilth

Photo Tour: Outstanding in the Field Dinner at Full Circle Farm

Last week a chef from Elemental@Gasworks prepared a multicourse meal in the middle of a berry field. And we took pictures.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 19, 2010 at 04:02PM 2 Comments

Photo: Lindsay Borden

Last week, I attended an Outstanding in the Field dinner along with photographer Lindsay Borden.

We drove out to Full Circle Farm, in Carnation, around 3pm in the afternoon. Since the guests weren’t due for another hour, we had a chance to walk around with Andrew Stout, who owns the farm with his wife Wendy.

As I snacked on snap peas picked from the vine and listened to Stout talk about local eating and land stewardship, it occurred to me that something was missing at this farm. The barns were there, and the cute little hand-painted wooden signs. A wet dog trotted around with that loopy what-a-lucky-guy-I-am-to-be-a-farm-dog grin. Here and there a bale of hay sat, all farmlike, beside a rusty tractor. What could possibly be missing? Then, it dawned on me. Full Circle Farm didn’t smell bad! As it turns out, there are no cows or piglets on the premises to stink things up. Once in a while you get a little whiff of manure but otherwise, fresh air all around. Frankly, it took some getting used to. Then again, if you’re going to eat dinner at a farm, a nonsmelly farm seems sort of optimal.

Anyway, we’ve got a beautiful photo tour documenting Outstanding in the Field.

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Tags: Chefs, Special Dinners, Vegetables, Full Circle Farm, Farms

Feast of the Week: Sunday Supper at Maximilien

Three courses costs $30 at this normally spendy Pike Place resto.

Posted by: Judy Naegeli on Jul 19, 2010 at 12:57PM 1 Comments

Pike Place restaurant Maximilien hosts a weekly Sunday Supper.

What: Three-course Sunday supper.

Where: Maximilien, 81A Pike St at First Ave

When: Sundays 5–9

Why you should go: Unlike some Sunday suppers, here you can choose your own entree from the regular (spendy) menu. Go ahead, order a more expensive dish (Yakima Valley beef tenderloin or Oregon rack of lamb, anyone?) and still get dessert. A gooey poached pear with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and almonds tops off the night. Choose between French onion soup or a green salad to start.

Cost: $30/person; drinks and foie gras are extra

Reservations: 206-682-7270, or online at maximilienrestaurant.com.

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Tags: Special Dinners, Pike Place Market, Feast of the Week

Feast of the Week: Urban BBQ at Joule

On summer Sundays, the Wallingford restaurant serves up regionally themed grilled goodies from around the globe. This week: Marrakesh.

Posted by: Judy Naegeli on Jul 14, 2010 at 02:35PM 0 Comments

On Sunday nights in summer, Joule serves up grilled specialties from around the world.

Who Joule

What Urban BBQ 2010

Why you should go On summer Sundays, the chefs of this fine-dining restaurant grill in the style of a far-flung locale—Halong Bay, Vietnam, Austin, Texas—known for its unique barbecuing traditions. The July 18 feast is inspired by the gastronomy of Marrakesh, Morocco. Your ticket buys you a choice of entree—in this case almond and chicken phyllo pie, shrimp kabobs, and lentil soup, or a merguez (spicy sausage) burger with red onion and aioli—and access to a buffet of cold salads and sides (spicy grilled eggplant and bulghur salad with raisins and almonds.)
Still to come: Marseilles, France; Sicily, Italy; and Busan, Korea.

Where 1913 N 45th St, Wallingford

When every Sunday, 3–9 pm

Cost $18/adult; $10/child

Reservations 206-632-1913 (recommended).

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Tags: Special Dinners, Deals, Barbecue, Feast of the Week, Joule

The Corson Building’s Bastille Day Bash: One for the Kiddies

Parents, meanwhile, can practice their pétanque and tipple pastis.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jul 14, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

This is the second year the Corson Building is hosting a Bastille Day celebration.

If those burlesque-y Bastille bashes are too bawdy for junior, consider the Corson Building. A shindig is starting there at 3pm and goes until midnight, you don’t need reservations and can show up at the door whenever, and the $35 entrance fee gets you three drink tickets; kids 12 and under are free.

Munchies—oysters, savory and sweet crepes, stews, insert other French foodstuffs—start at $1 and cost no more than $8. The Molly Moon ice cream truck is making a cameo, as is Georgetown vendor Helluva Falafel, chatted up by many to be quite delicious.

While you, adult ones, tipple French cocktails, let the littles partake in carnival games, chicken races, and a Capsar Babypants jam session. Then try your hand at the boccie-like pétanque. If your game’s a tad rusty, study up:

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Tags: Special Dinners, Food Events and Festivals, Bastille Day, Francophilia

Bastille Day Three Ways

No, silly. Not those kind of three ways! We mean three ways to celebrate the birth of La Republique on July 14.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 08, 2010 at 09:29AM 0 Comments

You can celebrate Bastille Day at the aptly named Bastille in Ballard, over five courses at Campagne, or at a Post Alley street party hosted by Cafe Campagne.

Ballard’s Bastille seems like a pretty obvious choice for celebrating Bastille Day, but the classic Seattle go-tos on July 14 are actually Cafe Campagne and Campagne (both in Pike Place Market).

In any case, all three French restaurants have planned festivities to celebrate the birth of the modern nation-state, here are the details.

Bastille’s festivities begin at 4:30pm on that sassy little patio around the side of the restaurant. Chef Shannon Galusha will serve you a platter of oysters or charcuterie for $5. A glass of wine is also $5, beer is $3. Live entertainment begins at 6pm with the Djangomatics, a “gypsy jazz” band. The second act, cabaret band Rouge, will entertain in the back bar from 9:30pm onward. After that it is burlesque until midnight.

Meanwhile, Downtown, Campagne is doing a 5-course meal for $50. Service starts at 5pm and reservations are encouraged. The menu is: coddled Duck Egg with grapeseed oil and maple syrup, pork confit canneloni with English pea foam, warm cucumber soup, truffled free-range chicken, and waffles with fresh strawberries for dessert.

Downstairs, casual counterpart Cafe Campagne is closing off Post Alley and serving snacks, wine, and beer beginning at 3pm. The offerings start at $5 and include grilled sausage sandwiches, baguette sandwiches, tartes flambées, and my very favorite CC menu item: frites with garlicky aioli.

Djangomatics, sly devils that they are, have double-booked on Bastille Day: they’re playing at the Post Alley party as well as at Bastille. There are three other musical acts on the roster and, as at la boum en Ballard, this party concludes with a burlesque show.

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Tags: Holiday Events, Special Dinners, Food Events and Festivals, Bastille Day, Campagne, French Fries, Francophilia