Top 10 New Restaurants of 2007

• Cafe Presse (the location of last night’s meetup)

• Tavolata
• Steelhead Diner
• Volunteer Park Cafe and Marketplace
• Matt’s in the Market
• Osteria la Spiga
• Betty Restaurant and Bar
• Calamity Jane’s
• TASTE Restaurant
• Skillet Street Food

Top 10 New Bars of 2007

• Cha Cha Lounge

• Oliver’s Twist
• Smith
• The Local Vine
• Copper Gate
• Georgetown Liquor Company
• Venik Lounge
• BottleNeck Lounge
• TapHouse Grill
• Verve Wine Bar

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve barely made a dent in the two lists. I did manage to go to The Local Vine last night, however, which had amazing and well-priced food, an extensive wine list and lovely atmosphere. Perfect for a date night. I can also personally recommend Oliver’s Twist and say that I wasn’t that impressed with Betty, but alas, that’s as far as my knowledge goes. Any agrees or disagrees with the two lists?

By now, the holiday season is in full swing. Yikes. I swear, it sneaks up on me quicker and quicker each year. Most of you have, or are thinking about, hanging your Christmas lights, decorating a tree or setting out your Menorah, and all the little trinkets you’re going to purchase for Uncle Fred and Cousin Barney. Oh what joy.

Personally, one of the only parts of the holiday season that hasn’t gone from enjoyable to annoying for me is watching the classic Christmas shows–”National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “A Christmas Story,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” etc.

Today in history, the classic TV Christmas special, “Frosty the Snowman”, first aired in 1969 on CBS.

You can catch the holiday classic tonight on CBS at 8 p.m. (followed by the sequel, “Frosty Returns”) and again on Wednesday, December 19th on CBS at 8 p.m.

Find local airings of other holiday Christmas specials here.

• I hadn’t really found a real big reason to use either Safeway.com’s service or Amazon Fresh (except after the first delivery, Safeway.com charges you $9.95 and Amazon Fresh is free as long as you spend more than $25 or $50). I wrote a list of approximately 25 items, then went through and selected all items on both sites to see which was cheaper. Amazon Fresh come out approximately $4 cheaper, however, I was unfamiliar with most of the brands I was ordering, which bugged me (a bit silly, I know). So, I went with Safeway.com

• I know you’ve all gone to the grocery store with the intention of spending $50 and you end up spending $100. I feel like I do this every time. So, it was incredibly nice to monitor the amount of money I was spending on items in my “cart,” and ultimately decide to put stuff back I didn’t really need such as banana chocolate fudge dreamy pudding.
• Searching each category by price makes it real quick to find the milk, bread, etc. that is on sale. You can also search with the Club Card savings items listed at the top. It was quick and easy to be a savvy shopper.
• When the grocery delivery guy arrives, he actually wheels all the groceries into your house and puts them in your kitchen! No carrying bags from your car in multiple trips! I found this to be above and beyond customer service. It also made me feel like I’d gone from lazy to incredibly lazy.
• You don’t need to tip the driver. I asked. Unfortunately, it’s against company policy and they can lose their jobs for accepting tips. But, you’re allowed to give them a “good review” on the Web site. Good to know.
• I was bothered that I wasn’t able to pick out my own produce–the biggest green pepper, the firmest tomatoes (I hate soft tomatoes), one ripe and maybe one not so ripe avocado to save for later. You get what they pick out.
• They substitute things for you, even though I clicked “NO substitutions” when finalizing my order. I don’t know why they substituted, but I got Jenny-O turkey bacon instead of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon. Call me nutso, but this is probably the one thing I didn’t want substituted. The two brands are a huge difference and the Jenny-O turkey bacon is quite awful, in my opinion.
• If they don’t have something, you don’t get it. And you’re not able to make a smart replacement decision. (Such as I ordered precut broccoli in a bag, which they were out of. But they just didn’t give me broccoli heads instead, which is what I would have done if I were at the grocery store.)
• For some odd reason, they bagged everything in separate bags–one bag for the ground turkey, one bag for the onions, one bag for the coffee creamer, one bag for the shredded cheese. After unpacking my groceries, I had effectively doubled by collection of plastic bags, which is obviously not great for the environment.

In conclusion, it was nice and not nice to order my groceries online–definitely not worth ever paying a delivery charge, in my opinion. Perhaps I’ll continue to do it if I can cheat the system a figure out a way to get free delivery each time. Hmmm…

Photo courtesy of [WashingtonBeer.com]

No matter the time of year, there seems to be a beer festival going on in Seattle. And what better the season than Winter, when beer bellies can be hidden underneath sweaters, peacoats and other fuzzy layers? This weekend, get out and taste some of Washington’s best winter beers at the 3rd Annual Winter Beer Festival. Much like Oktoberfest in Fremont, a $25 admission gets you six 5-ounce beer tastes, with additional tastes priced at $1.50. The festival will be held at Hale’s Ales Brewery & Pub in Fremont and will feature more than 30 winter beers, in addition to a Vintage Beer Tasting, featuring popular winter beers from years past. (The 2007 beer list included Yulefest from Bigtime Brewery & Alehouse, Cabin Fever from Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro, Sno Cap from Pyramid Ales & Lagers, Bye-Bye Frost from Elysian Brewing Company and more.) Hale’s will be serving food and Samish Bay Cheese will be giving away organic cheese tasting to compliment the beers.

Warning: The Web site says “Many of the beers served at the Winter Beer Festival have high alcohol. Please drink responsibly.” Suhweet. This says to me–more bang for your buck!

Check out the Winter Beer Fest then head to Brouwer’s–essentially down the street–for their Big Wood Fest.

Beery Holidays.

3rd Annual Winter Beer Festival

Hale’s Ales Brewery
4301 Leary Way NW
Seattle, WA 98107

Friday, November 30th, 5-10pm
Saturday December 1st, 1-10pm

$23 advance/$25 at the door (No credit cards! Cash and check only!)

Oh sad day.

While I much prefer The 5 Point and their macaroni and cheese triangles, there have been many a night after closing time where I’ll stop at The 5 Point first, find the wait to be ridiculous, then walk myself down to Cafe Minnie’s. It has proven to be the perfect drunken triangle, (Downtown or Belltown, up to The 5 Point, down to Minnie’s).

Apparently a sign on the front door indicates that the closure is because of $15,649.76 in unpaid taxes. Whoops. That’ll do it.

I think the I’m most pissed about this because ordering one of their Dutch Babies has been on my list of things to-do since approximately 1998, and now I won’t be able to cross it off.

Anyone know of another diner that serves Dutch Babies? I’ve wondered for YEARS what those things are like…

Candles at Barolo. Photo by .scarlet. on [Flickr]

Last night I finally ventured over to visit a friend of mine who works at Barolo. The bar’s location on Westlake and Sixth Avenue makes it sort of an obscure destination…it’s not necessarily downtown, not Capitol Hill, not Belltown. It’s definitely a bar that I had to make an effort to go to, but it was well worth it. If you get a chance, you should make the effort too.

Barolo is classy, swanky L.A. It feels very “seen and be seen,” but not in an obnoxious way. (Although, I wouldn’t recommend showing up in jeans and a T-shirt.) The atmosphere made me want to just, well, sigh in satisfaction. It was twinkly, dreamy, shiny crystal chandelier lighting, white tablecloths and rich woods. I was, actually, quite surprised at the amount of people that were packed into it on a Thursday night. I would not have found a seat at the bar if it weren’t for my friends who had a couple already. And even still, the four of us were doing the three-chair shuffle all night because it stayed consistently busy. Seems that this barely one-year-old bar and ristorante is making a name for itself.

While I didn’t get a chance to really dive into the menu, I did get a peek and some tastes from a couple dishes my friends ordered, and they were fantastic. I was especially impressed with the house-made gnocchi. Up until last night, I have not been a gnocchi fan. The two or three times I’ve had it, it’s been nothing more than firm and bland little nuggets that were often cold. Barolo’s house-made gnocchi with fresh mozzarella, basil and fresh tomato sauce ($16), however, has left me dying to go back for more. “It’s like a yummy, cheesy, melty, cheesy tater tot!” my friend exclaimed. Well, not really. But, it was a light, puffy and decedent little potato dumpling that was very flavorful. I fought off the urge to consume the entire bowl, which was not mine.

Final verdict: I will most definitely be going back to check out their happy hour, which offers half price appetizers, $3.50 glasses of wine and $14 (!!) bottles of wine. Or, you know, to get my own bowl of gnocchi.

Photo by Johann C. Rocholl on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

0! Happy Halloween 2007!

DRINK:

Halloween Candy Cocktails

Almond Joy

1 oz. Three Olives chocolate vodka
1 oz. Frangelica
1 oz. Coconut rum

Shake together while chilling and pour.

Sweet n’ Tart

1 oz Gin
1/4 oz Midori
1/3 oz Sweet & Sour
Sprite
Garnish: Sweet Tarts

Combine all ingredients in an old fashioned glass. Garnish with Sweet Tarts.

EAT:

Leftover Halloween Candy Recipes

You buy 12 bags, you use eight. This leaves you with four leftover bags of Halloween candy to eat every day, one by one. (Who said writers weren’t good at math?) Or, you could turn your candy bars into a super sweet–and somewhat “recycled”–treat with recipes like Butterfinger Banana Cake, Candy Bar Stuffed Baked Apples, Baby Ruth Cookies and more.

GO:

If you’re in full-boar Halloween party mode like me, hopefully you’re attending one of the many parties happening around the city tonight, namely at nearly every bar in Seattle. Market Ghost Tours also are offering a Paranormal Pub Crawl for $25. Those interested should meet at the pig in The Market between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The crawl will include stops at The Can-Can, The Alibi Room, Kell’s Irish Pub and Il Bistro and will continue until midnight. $25 at BrownPaperTickets.com

Trick or Treat!

Photo by pdgibson on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

1

DRINK:

Orange and Black Screwdriver

1 1/2 oz. Blavod Black Vodka
3 oz. Tangerine juice

Add ice to a highball glass, pour tangerine juice. Top with vodka and garnish with a Halloween candy such as candy corn on a swizzle stick.

EAT:

Spooky Spiced Shrimp

Turmeric, chili and curry powders, and the Indian spice, tandoori masala (coriander, cumin, ginger, fenugreek and pepper) give these Spooky Spiced Shrimp an orange color. Sprinkle them with black seeds and you’ve got a spicy and festive Halloween dinner!

GO:

Still haven’t carved pumpkins for Halloween? Perhaps it’s a little too G-rated for your pleasure…so spice it up and sexify your pumpkin for Babeland’s Sexy Jack-O’-Lantern contest. The first-place winner will receive a Babeland gift bag worth $100. Second and third place winners will receive gift bags valued at $50 and $25, respectively. Entries will be accepted during store hours today, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Babeland, 707 E. Pike Street.

OR

Check out the House of Terror haunted house at one of their two locations–Tulalip or the Supermall in Auburn–from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. $10 to $13.

Zombie Walk 2007 – Fremont. Photo by Brymo on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

2

DRINK:

Zombie Cocktail

1 oz. Apricot brandy
1 oz. Light rum
1 oz. Dark or Jamaican rum
1 oz. Lime juice
2 Dashes grenadine
Orange juice
1 oz. Bacardi 151 rum

Mix light and dark rum and brandy in a cocktail shaker, add lime juice and grenadine. Shake well and strain into a higball glass filled with cracked ice. Fill glass with orange juice but leave enough room to float the 151 on top. Garnish with a cherry and orange slice.

EAT:

Zombie Meatloaf

Just like mom used to make!

GO:

Some of you may have witnessed or seen pictures of the Zombie walk in Fremont last Sunday the 21st. There’s another one at U Village today at 4 p.m., so if you happen to not be working and have a sweet zombie costume lying around, throw it on and help haunt. Or, head to Chop Suey for their Zombie Movie Marathon, sponsored by Scarecrow Video and featuring Shaun of the Dead, Dead Alive and Zombie 2. Doors at 7 p.m., FREE! Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison.

Smack! Photo by Pipistrula on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

4

DRINK:

Witch’s Brew

2 Bottles of champagne
1 Gallon orange juice
1/2 Gallon orange sherbert
1 Bunch peeled black grapes
Sugar to taste
1 2-Liter of lemon-lime soda
1/2 Bottle vodka
Small pieces of dry ice
Bunches of grapes for garnish

Combine champagne and orange juice in large punch bowl. Scoop sherbert into bowl until it has produced a nice scum over the top. Add sugar to taste if desired. Float peeled grapes in mixture, and garnish bowl with the rest of the grapes. Drop in pieces of dry ice for steaming effect, but note that no one should put dry ice in his/her mouth. If you want to raise or lower the alcohol content in the punch, add vodka or clear soda respectively.

EAT:

Witches Fingers

I ran across tons of recipes for crackers or cookies meant to resemble witches fingers by using blanched almonds for a long, scraggly fingernail. This recipe, however, actually looked appetizing. It’s more of a cheddar cracker like thing than just a piece of dough shaped into a finger. Recipe for a potential Halloween party you could be hosting this weekend?!

GO:

Lots, lots, LOTS going on this Saturday night–what some may argue to be the main holiday evening this year. If you don’t already have a Halloween party to attend, here are some of the 100s of happenings and parties going on in the city tonight:

Thriller in Seattle: A couple weeks ago, The Times published an article about a grassroots Internet campaign called Thrill the World that was attempting to get as many people as possible to dance Michael Jackson’s Thriller at 3 p.m. on October 27th. Roughly 15,000 people in approximately 80 groups from 82 cities, 15 countries and four continents will be participating. You can participate too at the YMCA, sixth floor, 909 Fourth Ave.

Ghosty: A long rumor exist of 13 ghosts haunting the Annex Theatre. This interactive production invites you to learn the stories of each of these ghosts and help unlock the mystery behind their passing. Doors open and 8 p.m. and continue through midnight. Full bar available. $10.

Untamed Halloween Bash: Space City Mixer presents their sixth annual Untamed Halloween party held at Showbox at the Market. The party will include a costume contest with a $1000 grand prize and a cover band called Cool Aid. Doors at 8:00 p.m., 21 and over, $39 advance tickets.