Best Restaurants: The Locavore

The Herbfarm, Emmer and Rye, Volunteer Park Café, The Corson Building, Le Gourmand, Café Juanita, Sitka and Spruce, Tilth, Nettletown, Trellis, and Poppy: temples of the local, seasonal movement.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: The Morning Meal

Dinner houses—Tilikum Place Cafe, Spring Hill, Dahlia Lounge, Monsoon, the Bellevue Wild Ginger, MistralKitchen, June, Emmer and Rye, Nettletown—and even wine bars like Verve and tapas bars like Harvest Vine, leap into the brunch game. Weekday morning meals are coming back, too, at Seatown Snack Bar and Toulouse Petit.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: Molecular Gastronomy

Spur Gastropub, Spring Hill, Crush, Canlis, and MistralKitchen experiment with the science of food.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: The Sidekick

Meet the restaurant offshoot: Cicchetti, Sambar, Licorous, On the Fly, Seatown Snack Bar To Go, and Elemental Next Door.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: Tarts and Sours

Chefs such as Renee Erickson of Boat Street Café and The Walrus and the Carpenter and Matt Dillon of Sitka and Spruce and The Corson Building, plus restaurants like Joule, Nettletown, and Anchovies and Olives, have begun to tart up dishes.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: The Upscale Downmarket

Seatown Snack Bar, Joule, Spring Hill, The Dahlia Lounge, Serious Pie, Quinn’s, and Homegrown are messing with old assumptions about what belongs in fine dining rooms and what belongs in diners.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: Chef’s Choice

At Spinasse, Sushi Kappo Tamura, Elemental, Art of the Table, Sutra, MistralKitchen, and Staple and Fancy, what’s for dinner is what the chef’s cooking.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: The Small Platerie

Lark, Licorous, Harvest Vine, Tilth, and Bisato boost the appeal of a movement that’s clearly here to stay: small-plate dining

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: The Roving Restaurant

Where Ya at Matt, Skillet Street Food, Marination Mobile, Maximus/Minimus, and Veraci redefine the restaurant model.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: The Unfussy French

Luc, Café Campagne, Le Pichet, Café Presse, Bastille Café and Bar, and Toulouse Petit give rise to the unfussy French restaurant.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: The New South Lake Union

Flying Fish, MistralKitchen, Tutta Bella Pizzeria, and Re:Public get cozy in South Lake Union.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Best Restaurants: Nose to Tail

Organs, intestines, and extremities—the whole animal is fair game at June, Le Gourmand, The Herbfarm, Staple and Fancy, Quinn’s, Re:public, and Sitka and Spruce.

By Kathryn RobinsonWith contribution from Judy Naegeli

Do You Have Tunnel Vision?

The state’s plan to replace the crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep-bore tunnel has been as difficult to follow as driving on the elevated highway without imagining it collapsing beneath you. Take Seattle Met’s handy tunnel test to see if you’re smarter than a WSDOT official.

By Matthew Halverson

Bright Ideas

The motto of this holiday shopping guide: Don’t overthink it. Classic materials, traditional toys, and smart, spirited innovations will always be loved.

By Laura Cassidy

Northwest Exposure

Chase Jarvis made a career with images of fast people in far-flung places. Then he pointed his camera at his hometown. The result: the book Seattle 100: Portrait of a City.

By James Ross Gardner

Letters to the Editor

Moonshine memories; liquor laws yays and nays; praise for Luke Burbank’s podcast—and Seattle Met; keeping fingers crossed for 3BA; tsk-tsk-ing Seattle police; kids’ sports: “the worst industry in the world”?

’Scuse Me While I Sue This Guy

The good news, Hendrix fans: out November 16 is a four-disc box set chock full of rarities, West Coast Seattle Boy. The bad news: the Jimi Hendrix estate has become "the single most litigious in rock and roll history.”

By James Ross Gardner

Waiting for a Super Washingtonian

This fall, Davis Guggenheim released Waiting for Superman, which details the disastrous condition of public education in the U.S., particularly in urban areas. But a study issued by the University of Washington reveals that the situation is also bleak throughout the Evergreen State.

The Perfect Party

This month’s party guests: Joe Biden, Bart Simpson, John Chelminiak, Melissa Westbrook, Steve Wiebe, Eddie Vedder, Claude Fischler, and Margo Pellegrino.

Get Kinect-ed

This month Microsoft releases Kinect for the Xbox 360. But we’re not ready to shell out $150 for the controller-free upgrade until the ’Softies agree to produce at least one of these Seattle-centric games.

By Matthew Halverson

Deal a Meal

When online coupon companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial entice diners with deep discounts, restaurants can end up stuck with the bill.

By Jessica Voelker

Fire Squad

While the Great Fire of June 6, 1889 still smoldered, Mayor Robert Moran ordered a ban on booze sales, an 8pm curfew, and summary justice for any lawbreakers resisting arrest. Within hours, the state militia deployed to keep looters and loiterers in check.

By Eric Scigliano

Minced Meat Words

Seattle comedian Andy Haynes on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, September 8, 2010

Lover Boy

In his latest movie, Jack Goes Boating, Philip Seymour Hoffman takes on two new roles: romantic lead and film director.

By Laura Dannen

Applied Art

Ever since the Frye Art Museum installed Robin Held as curator, she’s been finessing the task with characteristically singular and nuanced style.

By Laura Cassidy

Agents of Chaos

After the Department of Licensing suspended Michael and Tara Hellickson’s licenses in September, fellow real estate agents were asking, “What took so long?”

By Matthew Halverson

Hot ’Hoods: Capitol Hill

Home prices are down throughout Seattle, but it probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that sellers in Capitol Hill are still getting more than list price, particularly in the Stevens microneighborhood.

By Matthew Halverson

No Clear Cut Solution

Last year the city council delegated the task of drafting a permanent urban forest master plan to the Department of Planning and Development, and it established an Urban Forestry Commission to watchdog the process. It was probably inevitable that a commission dedicated to protecting urban trees and DPD, whose job is facilitating development, would collide.

By Eric Scigliano

The 50 Gigabyte Woman

Social media maven Mónica Guzmán, formerly of the P-I and seattlepi.com and now the director of editorial outreach at Intersect, wants to know the story of your life.

By Matthew Halverson

The End of the World

Boardwalks, beach marvels, native treasures, and salmon skins in the Northwest’s far northwest: the Ozette Loop of Olympic Peninsula.

By Eric Scigliano

Into the Void

Suck in your gut, bring a flashlight, and get ready to crawl—we’re going caving at Cave Ridge.

By Matthew Halverson

Safe Arbor

Taking inspiration from The Treehouse Book, authored by TreeHouse Workshop’s Peter Nelson, the Danilchik family build a Swiss chalet hovering between two centenarian Western Red cedars near Port Orchard Bay.

By Alexandra Notman

Pregame Pig Out

Tips for scoring a culinary touchdown while tailgating from Skillet’s Josh Henderson.

By Jess Thomson

Kombucha Culture

Fans of fermented tea are brewing their own at home with the help of Chris Joyner, owner of local kombucha brand CommuniTea.

By Alexandra Notman

Long, Beautiful Hair

This month the musical revival Hair brings its message of peace, love, and pre-Obama hope to Paramount Theatre.

Laughing Matter

Drew Barth and Nancy Reed, two of the top local contenders in this year’s Seattle International Comedy Competition, get sassy.

Edited by Laura Dannen

Not Your Daddy's Porn

When a teenage boy surfs for Internet porn, Mom and Dad get hot and bothered.

By Kathryn Robinson

Pet Star Search

Upload your favorite picture of your prized pet and she may land a starring role in our pages. Runners up will be celebrated in an online slideshow.

Seattle Met Uncut: A Talk with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz

A talk with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz, stars of the film Jack Goes Boating.

By Laura Dannen