That sure didn't last long, did it? Barely nine months. Wild Salmon, an eatery in Noo Yawk City that supposedly showcased Pacific Northwest cuisine, is calling it quits. Charles Ramseyer, who left Ray's Boathouse to open the joint for his friend Jeffrey Chodorow, will stay in the Big Apple (for the time being) and labor for other properties in the China Grill group. Chodorow went off the deep end after Frank Bruni dumped on......

Look up the definition of “hot-to-trot” and you’ll find two sets of meanings: (1) willing and eager and (2) sexually exciting. To us, hot pot is both. All the recent hot pot talk on food message boards and in the local and national newspapers tempted us to do a turkey trot to Seven Stars Pepper (at 12th and Jackson, our favorite food corner in Seattle) on Thanksgiving Day – thankful to the Chinese for having......

Braiden Rex-Johnson's new book, Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining, is a fine complement to Kurt Dammeier's Pure Flavor (reviewed by Seattlest back in August). Affectionate portraits of leading players: wine makers Bob Betz Kay Simon, Harry McWatters; unique restaurants, cooking techniques, recipes. Rex-Johnson, a familiar name whose previous books include the iconic Pike Place Market Cookbook, writes a food & wine column for Wine Press Northwest and served as food editor at Seattle Homes &......

The glorious fall sunsets have disappeared along with the mouldering husks of Halloween pumpkins, and according the weather report, we can all expect a long, cold, wet weekend. But this being the Northwest, that's never stopped us from getting out and about; here's the weekend plans of your intrepid Seattlest contributors: By the time this hits the digital newsstands, Jeremy is going to be on his way to Fadó for post-work cocktails; after that......

Have you heard of cask beer, but maybe avoided it because you think it is supposed to be served warm and flat? Well, you need to find out what you're missing. Cask-conditioned beer, often referred to as 'real ale', is brewed from only traditional ingredients and allowed to mature naturally. The unfiltered, unpasteurised beer still contains live yeast, which continues conditioning the beer in the cask (known as 'secondary fermentation'); this process creates a......

Last year Seahawks kicker Josh Brown publicly announced his crush on Carrie Underwood. He'd even gotten her phone number. But soon after, Underwood was linked to Cowboys QB Tony Romo. Even after Romo's epic choke in the Hawks/Cowboys playoff game, he and Underwood continued to be an item (or, in gossip mag parlance, "good friends.") But now it appears that Underwood's been left behind as Romo climbs the celebrity girlfriend ladder. In just the past......

Stand at the corner of First and Pike, and you almost hear the thunder of Seattle's hotel wars, the howitzers of the future as they battle for attention in the trades, the travel mags, the lifestyle glossies. First into battle: a new Four Seasons, across the street from the downtown Art Museum: 21 stories, 149 hotel rooms, 36 residential condos, opening 2008. If your memory goes back more than two years, you'll recall that Four......

We really hesitate to head out for curry, as it’s a staple in our cooking repertoire – sort of our emergency food. But when we found ourselves at Racha recently, we decided to give the exotic sounding Jungle Curry a try. It’s not that it was bad… we just don’t get it. A small sampling of vegetables along with some slices of pork (our choice of meat) cooked in a curry paste for $12.50. (Prawns......

"No more moons-over-my-hammy", documented by mary and filed in the Seattlest Flickr pool. We don't mean to steal Mary's thunder; however, her photograph moved us to write down some of the thoughts we've been having about the Ballard Denny's closure. We knew it was coming; however, just like the presence of vampires in Sunnydale, we didn't actually want to think about it. The light, the clouds, the darkness of the trees, and the Shell......

It's a big, bad world out there, and there are plenty of reasons to be mad as hell. An undisclosed conflict of interest? Well, depends on the circumstances: whose conflict, whose interest? Used to be, reporters of all stripes were treated to trips, tickets, meals, drinks. Then came a wave of holier-than-thou moralizing and publishers began to insist on paying reporters expenses. Granted, Seattlest gets an occasional free beer, but big whoop. More of an......

North of Seattle, in Lynnwood, is the restaurant Kirirom. Lurking low in the shadows of the big box stores, the chain restaurants, and the Alderwood Mall, Kirirom means “mountain of joy” and is a national park in Cambodia. Perusing the picturesque menu, we really wanted to order the Chocolate Rice Soup, but Seattlest’s dining companions just weren’t biting on it. Guess they don’t see the humor in calling organ meats “chocolate.” We’re still not sure......

You know the type, the ultra-picky customer whose complaints ruin dinner for everyone in the restaurant. The self-appointed lightning rods for tough steak, spilled wine, fallen soufflés, incorrect checks. Waiter, there's a fly in my drink! Miss, there's no gremolata on the osso buco! You want to find her car in the parking lot and let the air out of her tires, or send a mash note to her table: "STFUA!" Leslie Kelly, Seattle's sorriest......

Our cooking habits this summer have followed a peculiar pattern. First we go the farmer’s market when ravenous (always a bad idea), then we impulse-buy produce, and finally at home we wonder: what sort of a meal could we possibly fashion out the eclectic collection of ingredients now sprawled out all over our kitchen? The resulting meals are multi-course oddities in which we pit our desire to eat well-prepared food against blinding hunger. We start......

Just because it's a modest storefront doesn't mean it's a hole in the wall. Au contraire, mes amis. Two new spots in Belltown--both French--forgo pomp in favor of hospitality. At Entre Nous, it's the sprigs of thyme in a pitcher on the counter and Brigitte Bardot on the sound system. At Le Petit Café (no website), it's a slice of lemon in the water glass, seedless grapes on the plate. Little things that enliven lunch.......

Seattlest isn’t really a discriminating diner. We don’t have a sophisticated palate. We don’t demand impeccable service. If we get what we order, the food is reasonably priced and tasty, and the wait staff leans friendly, we’re content. We do, however, expect near-perfection from new restaurants. And fair, unbiased criticism from those who evaluate them. After reading a “first look” review of new Ballard eatery Austin Cantina, and subsequently eating there Saturday night with our......

There's an article bemoaning our pending loss of Daly's Drive-In in Eastlake in the Post Intelligencer today (with accompanying blog item--probably both inspired by a slightly previous blog item from the Stranger) headlined "Popular drive-in on way out." The thing is, Daly's isn't popular. It should be, and it was, but it isn't. Red Mill Burgers, say, the Phinney location, is popular. There's always a line out the door and it takes forever to......

Rachel Hynes is a former barista and yet still enjoys spending time in espresso places. She reviews them for us. We're driving home from the Coleman Pool in West Seattle, looking for a place to rest after an afternoon of splashing in the sun. After traveling a short distance on California Avenue SW, we pull up in front of C&P Coffee Company. We're not home but we might as well be. We pad up the......

Substitute restaurant reviewer Leslie Kelly has reached the end of her stint at the Post-Intelligencer and Managine Editor David McCumber (among many, many others) is breathing a huge sigh of relief. How'd this kid from Spokane end up in a big-city newsroom, anyway? Hsaio-Ching Chou, who signed off on the deal for Kelly to cover Rebeka Denn's "family leave," ain't around to answer, having gone off to PR-land. But Kelly's six-month tenure leaves a......

A year ago, under the headline "Eatin' Good Outside the Hood," we wrote about dinner at Union Bay Café in Laurelhurst. Couple of months later, owner-chef Mark Manley announced he's closing down: "After 21 years, it's time to move on." Gulp. Fortunately, the concept of an enlightened yet unpretentious neighborhood restaurant is alive and well in other nabes and hoods. In Fremont, that self-described Center of the Universe, for example, we have a perfect example:......

The food news may seem depressing, but there's hope. Bear with us. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes, not known for his optimism, wrote that the life of man was doomed to be nasty, brutish, and short. Couple hundred years later, the even less-cheery Thomas Malthus predicted that the Industrial Revolution would cause worldwide famine. Yet humans survive, even prosper. Oh, sure, we waste resources fighting one another. Granted, too, that political systems everywhere seem to encourage......

Once upon a time, we had a nice boyfriend with whom we discovered Szechuan Noodle Bowl, a veritable gem in the International District. We ate noodles, we held hands, we gazed into each others’ eyes. But somewhere along the line, it seemed that not all of the times were as good as those we spent at the Noodle Bowl and sadly, we were...let go. Now, getting dumped was painful, but giving up Szechuan Noodle Bowl......

When will they learn, those pretentious New Yawk snots? With the solemnity befitting the announcement of a cure for cancer, the NYTimes reports that three Gotham spots now serve Montreal's beloved junk food, poutine. Whazzat? Duh: french fries with cheese curds and gravy, dumbo. In Australia, where Canadian eating habits aren't automatically ridiculed, they've eaten poutine for decades. Aluminum to-go containers are filled to the brim with hot, glorious gravy so the fries stay......

Last year we lamented a less-than-stellar meal at a forgettable Japanese restaurant, wishing we’d instead gone to ol’ reliable: Takohachi. Especially after an active day, we crave the salty goodness of the grilled mackerel dish known as saba shioyaki, or saba-shio for short. Forget about the latest version of Dining for a Determined Amount of Dollars. Run, don’t walk, to the International District before Takohachi closes. Just like the beloved Koraku, this restaurant will be......

National dining correspondent Kyle Anderson has the scoop on a great place to stuff yourself this afternoon While Seattlest long ago gave up hope that the Sonics will stick around, who doesn’t want to see Detlef Schrempf serve up some pizza?! Sport Restaurant and Bar had the marketing savvy to combine everyone’s favorite holiday, National Pizza Day (evidently the brainchild of Papa John, the Godfather, and Little Caesar) with a “Save Our Sonics and Storm”......

Princess Cruises and Holland America are both currently in a kind of limbo in Seattle. They use Terminal 30 by Harbor Island which the Port wants to convert back to something that can be used by container ships. The plan is to move the cruise berths to Terminal 91 in Magnolia where they can be properly outfitted with shore power and whatnot, but the cruise lines aren't excited about it because that will mean a......

If you missed Reggie Wilson's group at On the Boards a few weeks ago, you have the chance to not only make up for it, but to add three other stellar choreographers and one of Seattlest's favorite dance companies to the bill. Opening this evening at Meany Hall as a part of UW's World Series, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company performs the Seattle premiere of colôr-ógrăphy, n. the dances of Jacob Lawrence. There have been......

A long line before a restaurant’s opening time often speaks volumes to the quality of the ensuing dining experience. At the beloved, ballyhooed and boisterous La Carta de Oaxaca, you and your dining companions may have to speak at volumes – large and loud volumes – to enjoy any semblance of a conversation. Our “communion” was chaotic from the start. You have to arrive early (4:45 should work) to get seating at the start of......

The first thing we noticed when we got to Egan’s Ballard Jam House on Saturday was that the place was designed by architects from Mattel, with parts left over from Barbie’s last house. The front room is as roomy as the backseat of a Volvo. The main dining/concert room is like an elongated hallway with a stage built into one wall. Even before the band started, the placed felt packed; this was because there were......

Times are good for folks with new Italian restaurants (Sorrentino, Tavolata, Barolo, La Spiga, Bèato): lively, fiercely independent, stamped with the vibrant personalities of their owners. And then there's the local outpost of Il Fornaio at Pacific Place, a chain that's been around for years, putting its own stamp on regional Italian cuisine with a monthly "culinary festivals." The fornaio is Italy's baker, and crusty, fresh-baked bread is indeed one of the restaurant's signatures. (The......

Last week at Seattlest trivia, fourth-place team The Fookin' As requested Marvel Comics as a theme for a round this week. So if you're coming to the Old Pequliar, bring a comic book geek friend -- or at least skim the Marvel Comics page on Wikipedia. Also last week, the Fookin' As requested that we consider expanding teams to a maximum of 6 players, rather than 5. Comments were split. So we're going to......