Photo by AP Photo/Hector Mata LAist celebrated the first days of gay marriage by showing up to the first celebrations in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Los Angeles. And yes, Star Trek's George Takei was there. Bostonist covered the Celtics' NBA championship in many ways, writing about the game, the post-victory peeing, internet buzz, and the victory parade. Chicagoist helped try to stop the Kool-Aid Man's path of destruction. While same-sex marriage raised but......

We were very impressed by the great mobilization of Seaside, Oregon's Internet Defense Forces after our very first post about that town. Since then, we've had the pleasure to re-visit the place on several occasions, to eat at Herb's, and to exchange e-mails with residents. As a result, we have fallen deeper in love with both its charming small-town Americana as well as its gaudy tourism-pandering excesses. Seaside is the gold-standard and deliciously eponymous......

POLAR BEAR APPRECIATION: If you’ve heard about global warming affecting the polar bears, you’ll want to head down to the Point Defiance Zoo for Bear Awareness Week. Learn more about the plight of the polar bear and watch the resident polar bears, Blizzard, Glacier, Kenneth and Boris, frolic. 9:30 a.m.- 5 p.m. // Point Defiance Zoo // $11 (adults) HUNGRY: In the not-so-starved neighborhood of Ravenna, author Mark Winne reads from his book, Closing......

Just before lunch we were bicycling down Broadway and this guy on the sidewalk asked us where the place was you can buy pizza by the slice. "Pagliacci," we called back. "What's to-day, my fine fellow?" he asked. "To-day!" we replied. "Why, Christmas Day!" That last part was not quite true. But it's like Christmas because Pagliacci Pizza is hosting a concert benefit, “A Night for Elise," at Neumo’s tonight, and that seems really nice.......

This year’s Kentucky Derby will be marked more by the tragedy of Eight Belles than the dominance of Big Brown. But no matter what you think of the race itself, good times were had down at local racetrack Emerald Downs this weekend. What happened to Eight Belles is awful; no one can argue that. For those not aware, the 2nd place horse suffered two broken ankles immediately after the race finished and had to......

FOOD: First things first. Before you go rushing off into your weekend, you should eat. Eastlake Italian restaurant Serafina is having a grand reopening Friday night after a kitchen remodel and bar facelift, with a new spring menu. It's their 18th anniversary, too. What more do you need? Friday, 5:30-11 p.m. // Serafina, 2043 Eastlake Avenue East // Entrees $16-$27 MUSIC: The GRAMMY-winning Shelby Lynne is at the Showbox SoDo Friday night. Her new......

Unlike the month of March, there aren't a ton of beer festivals/events going on this month (the break was a welcome one). That should give you time to check out a new spot that recently opened up in Ballard called The Dray. This European-style cafe opens up at 9 a.m. for coffee (from Stumptown), and you can stick around like the booze hound you are until 2 a.m. every day for drinks. They've got......

For those of you that are info Top Chef, you can check out the full review of last night's episode on Chicagoist. We were excited to see that beer had the spotlight for part of the show, but it was sad to see it was done in such a sell-out, corporate fashion. Check out the embedded clip for the ten-minute Quickfire Challenge (you can forward to the 3:45 mark). The chefs were challenged to......

Seattlest has long been an on-again-off-again vegetarian. Our last fall from herbivorous grace came in our New York City-living days, when our girlfriend at the time's dad cooked us up a burger and some hotdogs. We didn't have the heart to say no, and they just smelled so good. Thank God, because we wound up moving to New Orleans, where life is meaningless without a good roast beef po-boy and all the juice it......

POLITICS: Samantha Power (where have we heard that name before?), a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is in town Friday night to discuss her book, Chasing the Flame. It's about the 2003 death of UN High Commissioner Sergio Vieira de Mello in Iraq, and how we might better deal with the challenges of religious extremism, refugees, terrorism, and ethnic struggle. She also wrote a book on genocide, A Problem from......

JAZZ: Dr. John kicks off a 6-night run at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, giving audiences the benefit of a life studded with "troubles at home." Singing about New Orleans before, during, and after it was cool, he created a musical love letter to the city of New Orleans in 2004, "N’awlinz Dis Dat or D’udda," and won an award from the Académie Charles Cros at their 57th awards ceremony. He may be most famous as......

Last Friday we got a chance to poke our noses into the Northwest African American Museum before it opened, as part of a test lunch group for the St Clouds Museum Cafe. The Museum is in the historic Colman School, at 23rd and Massachusetts. It's historic now, that is -- back when we lived across the street, on 25th, it was condemned, boarded up, and left a home for pigeons, until a group of black......

Seattle hiphop artist Kublakai (aka Ian Waller) released The Basics in early January, and we've happily kept tracks from the record such "Oh Lord" and "Power Food" in our frequent playlist rotation ever since. This week, Kublakai talked to Seattlest in an exclusive about jazz, Snoop Dogg, his mom, a budding film career, and more! What kind of music did you listen to during your growing up years? What was the first record you......

One month from today, Salish Lodge & Spa will host the second annual “The Falls Come to Life” dinner and auction to benefit Food Lifeline--the nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger in Western Washington. Guest chefs Armandino Batali, (Salumi) Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), Jason Wilson (Crush), Johnathan Sundstrom (Lark), and Matt Costello (The Inn at Langley) will each prepare a signature dish for the menu, as well as contribute a culinary experience as part of the......

A Seattle teen was critically injured this weekend after a shooting in the parking lot of Northgate Mall. A Seattlest reader, Eli Black, was at the mall shortly after the shooting and sent us photos of the aftermath. The 15-year-old victim was shot in the leg and the groin after a confrontation in a mall parking structure on Friday evening. Police believe the shooting stemmed from a previous argument that day in Northgate's Food Court.......

We're in the International District, walking down the street, past the whole roasted ducks displayed in windows, sniffing fried Chinese food and fragrant pho broth, searching for the one thing that seems not to exist in the ID--coffee. We see the bright neon sign of Gossip Espresso and Tea and cross the street. A hand-written sign on the door says, "Closing at 6pm today." It's 5:55 and we sprint up to the counter and......

The Bottleneck Lounge, located at 23rd and Madison, has quickly become one of our favorite bars. Both the staff and the patrons are overwhelmingly friendly, and it's the kind of joint where you end up getting chatty with the bartender or the couple next to you, or where another customer might close out the night by buying a shot for everyone in the bar. Laid-back without being divey, the Bottleneck is just plain chill.......

Downtown's Southern-esque restaurant Sazerac had the misfortune to open in 1997, which meant its decor ten years on -- velvet drapes and cushy banquettes -- looked as dated as a Google-cached snapshot of your homepage. In its review, the Stranger sharpened its claws on the surroundings: "There is some evidence in the tea-dark interior that the decorator was going for a New Orleans-inspired elegance, but somewhere along the way he or she got waylaid at......

This Valentine’s Day -- or Single’s Awareness Day, as you prefer -- Pagliacci Pizza is offering you free artichoke hearts as a topping. The hearts will be available on whole pies or by the slice. According to our cheapskate research, that means you can order an 11" Original, a cheese pizza made with whole milk mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce and spices, with artichoke hearts, for $9.99. As the lady says, "Have another little piece of......

Coffee Angel photo by Seattlest Flickr Contributor, Jeff Carlson The world just might stop its rotation on February 26th. Seattle's coffee giant, Starbucks, has just announced that all 7,100 of its stores will close for three hours that day. Whatever shall we do? The recently returned CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, made the announcement today. The three-hour closure will be spent retraining baristas nation-wide, in hopes of boosting sagging sales. Blessedly, it's not at......

What with the Internetz, the Google and the digital camera, a new generation of wine touring guides is long overdue. Last April, there was a post over at Cornichon.org about a book called Touring the Wine Country of Washington, written by The Oldest Seattlest some 25 years ago. Everything you wanted to know about all 37 of the state's wineries, back in 1983. Now, with over 500 bonded premises in the state, with formal......

A couple of Sunday nights ago we wandered up Aurora towards The Pub at Pipers Creek, located just north of the intersection at 105th and Greenwood Ave. Going to bars we've never been to before is always exciting, especially those that have a great tap list. We had heard that the Baron Rauchbier was on tap here, and that was the primary reason for visiting. At 6pm on this Sunday evening, the bar itself......

When it comes to good beer, brews made in Belgium are usually the cream of the crop. So, no one should be surprised that American brewers often try to emulate their success by brewing their own versions of Belgian styles. And you know what? Some of them are fantastic (And some, not so much...) Starting this Friday at The Collins Pub, they'll be rotating about 15 taps of Belgian-style goodness brewed right here in the......

Central Cinema, over at 21st and Union, is showing the Super Bowl on its big screen. This Sunday, 3pm. The biggest football you've ever seen. We've checked the Big Picture's website, and it looks like Central Cinema has this idea all to itself. They've done this the last few years, and we haven't gone yet, even though it's free -- the pizza and beer (menu pdf) aren't, but then, the pizza and beer never are.......

Ever since we read Frito Pie 101 in the Stranger, we've been itching to try a Frito pie and last night at Georgetown's Smarty Pants we sealed the deal at last. It's not a deal we'll be renegotiating any time soon. We're far from experts, of course. All we can say is that when rating it on its "appeal," we're Russian judges. Nyetch. It was a Seattlest meet-up, so we bought a Frito pie for......

As after all great magic tricks, we're still puzzled how this was done. God knows we love Ballet -- like everyone else who works around Broadway and Pike. It's not just a restaurant, it's our unofficial cafeteria. We've got the menu memorized, the staff all know we like tea and bring us a pot without asking, the price is always right. But we do eat there a lot, so today we walked into the QFC......

We're not sure if barista experience is even necessary. We just noticed the P-I story that Tully's fifth CEO since 2001 had just vacated the executive offices:The chief executive, chief financial officer and three other top executives of Tully's Coffee Corp. have left abruptly, and a new top executive was expected to be named later Tuesday,The other suits departing were General Counsel Andrew Mun and vice presidents Rob Martin and Dana Pratt. This is not,......

If you have enjoyed any beer from Hair of the Dog (HOTD) brewery from Portland, you know that they specialize in big, non-traditional beers (that kick your ass). Going into this past Saturday night's brewers dinner at The Collins Pub, we wondered how their new chef, Erik Wood (previously of Ray's Boathouse), would handle the pairings. He did a fantastic job. Six HOTD beers were expertly paired with six amazing dishes. That wasn't all......

If you are anything like us, you frequently read glowing recommendations of fine little eateries on the outskirts of Seattle and think: I really should check that out sometime. But the truth is--urbanite that you are--you only vaguely know where places like Kent and Burien are (south?) and rarely take the time to actually venture out of your cozy little city. But as fine a city as Seattle is, it lacks some things that are......

The dispiriting weather forecast--below, via Google. Friggin' cold and friggin' rainy. On days like these, there is but one sure pick-me-up: soup. In a typically magnificent essay her classic How to Cook a Wolf, the food writer M.F.K. Fisher made an inarguable case that, if you can make tea, it's silly not to try and make soup.The natural progression from boiling water to boiling water with something in it can hardly be avoided, and in......