Blogs

Take it from me: though it isn’t a regular cocktail staple, sake is a versatile and entertaining base to build drinks on.

Made from a special strain of rice—one you wouldn’t want to serve in a stir fry—the fungus Aspergillus oryzae (used during fermentation) and water, sake usually has around 15 percent alcohol by volume (and 18 to 20 percent before it’s diluted), so it’s a stitch stronger than most beer and wines. Read more »

Finally! Got to eat dinner at Altura  on Capitol Hill, Seattle mag’s Best New Restaurant of 2012, at last and, oh, man, it lived up to the lofty expectations. Read more »

April 1 — Seattle's booming South Lake Union is about to get taller. In anticipation of a neighborhood up-zone, a developer has dusted-off Frank Lloyd Wright's 1956 idea of a mile-high tower to handle density. The building will be more than 18 million square feet.

 As word of the 500-story skyscraper leaked, officials were quick to react. "This solves the city's density issues in one fell swoop," said city council member Richard Conlin. "If we do this in SLU, we won't have to go denser in other neighborhoods. Seattle can be Seattle." Read more »

During a week when attention was focused on the Supreme Court considering the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Facebook profile pics and Twitter avatars showed pink-on-pink equal signs in support of marriage equality for all, it seems especially fitting to share some sparkling good news:

Égalité, the first-ever wine created in support of equality for gay Americans, has arrived in Washington, making it the first state on the West Coast to carry the fast-growing French bubbly brand. Read more »

First it was Irene Wood, she of the amazing beaded necklaces, who upped and move to Brooklyn last year, and now we’re losing handbag designer Crystalyn Kae to the Big Apple. While we wish them both success of course, alas we can’t help but feel a little bereft at the loss to our accessory design community here in Seattle. Read more »

Seattle’s iconic Baby & Company is back home in their spot in the Terminal Sales Building at First Avenue and Virginia Street. After 84 days of construction, the store, opened in 1976 by Baby and Uri Bursten and later purchased by long-time employee Jill Donnelly, features a new full men’s department, luxe dressing rooms, a larger shoe department and a restoration to the space’s former glory, circa 1923, as envisioned by the building’s architect Henry Bittman. Read more »

I’m totally into juicing. Even bought myself one, a Breville, for $99, and fix myself a stiff one every couple of days. I try to push myself with chard and kale, but mostly rely on apple, carrot, beet and celery combos, sometimes with a little pineapple thrown in. Easy stuff. Read more »