March 2013

Going to My Happy Place

Going to My Happy Place

Editorial director Rachel Hart reflects on the bigger picture of our latest issue.

When my husband and I first bought our home, we felt somewhat banished in pre-cool Ballard. (This was 2001, and the sleepy Scandinavian burg was the most affordable neighborhood closest to Lower Queen Anne, where we’d been happily living in an apartment.) But then we stumbled upon Ballard Market and discovered that the humble-appearing grocery…

Charming Brunch Options at Wandering Goose

Charming Brunch Options at Wandering Goose

Wandering Goose is a little slip of a place—and charming for it.

The charms of Heather Earnhardt’s Wandering Goose are many: church pews for banquettes, lampshades made of flour sacks, poppies blooming royal red on the walls. In a slice of space adjoining Ethan Stowell’s Rione XIII (and visible through a stretch of reclaimed windows), the former co-owner of Volunteer Park Café is making buttermilk biscuit sandwiches…

Tanglewood Supreme: Eclectic Seafood

Tanglewood Supreme: Eclectic Seafood

Dim lighting and a throbbing soundtrack aren’t exactly what you expect to find in a restaurant on a Magnolia side street, but at owner Kent Chappelle’s Tanglewood Supreme, which opened in October, the mood is refreshingly grown-up. Local moms meet friends to sip martinis and share sweet potato arancine (fried risotto balls, $5) with kale,…

What's New at Coastal Kitchen

What’s New at Coastal Kitchen

This Capitol Hill staple closed and reopened with some improvements.

After Coastal Kitchen’s 20-year run as a beloved neighborhood staple, its owner, Jeremy Hardy, closed the old girl for a few months to give her a facelift, including, most noticeably, a new bar for cocktails; the original bar is now dedicated to oysters. There’s also new talent in the kitchen: Jason Jones, who once cooked…

Cupofsugar.com? Helpful Neighborhood Websites

Cupofsugar.com? Helpful Neighborhood Websites

A pair of neighborly websites help build community at the micro level.

Forget leaning over the hedge, that’s so Home Improvement. Seattleites who want to borrow a rake, report a loose dog or just meet the family next door are turning to the Web as a substitute for—or a spur to—old-fashioned front-stoop chitchat. San Francisco–based Nextdoor.com, launched in 2011, connects neighbors through a sort of geographically restricted version of…

The Power of Two: Joule and The Whale Wins

The Power of Two: Joule and The Whale Wins

Joule and The Whale Wins join the growing trend of restaurants finding strength in numbers.

Restaurants and stores have long relied on shared traffic to drive business. As counterintuitive as it may seem, several restaurants in a cluster tend to generate more business for everyone, rather than stealing customers from each other. Funny how that works. Lately, Seattle is seeing independent restaurateurs go a step further: They’re teaming up with each…

See Art in Bellingham

See Art in Bellingham

The Lightcatcher in Bellingham showcases the work of Jim Olson

WHERE: The Lightcatcher at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, for the exhibit Jim Olson: Art in Architecture (3/10–6/9; 250 Flora St.; 360.778.8930; whatcommuseum.org). WHY: It’s the first comprehensive exhibit of work by famed Seattle architect Jim Olson, half of Olson Kundig Architects. Fifty years’ worth of sketches, plans, models and photographs of Olson designs—including the…

It Takes Two to Kizomba

It Takes Two to Kizomba

A sexy dance craze slinks into Seattle.

You’ve swung the West Coast swing, spiced up your salsa and topped off your tango—what’s next? Time to kiss up to kizomba. This Angolan dance style first caught fire in the 1980s, and has since spread across Europe and recently landed in Seattle, at venues such as Century Ballroom (centuryballroom.net), which offers drop-in classes for…

Hello, Kitty

Hello, Kitty

Bellevue Arts Museum herds 155 cats into a fortuitous new exhibit.

Those little waving kitties have become ubiquitous good luck trinkets in Seattle shops—but what exactly do their upraised paws tell us? With Maneki Neko: Japan’s Beckoning Cats—From Talisman to pop icon, Bellevue Arts Museum provides both context and cuteness, exhibiting 155 vintage cats made from ceramic, papier-mâché, wood and stone, as well as several contemporary…

Welcoming Bertha, the World's Biggest Tunnel Boring Machine

Welcoming Bertha, the World’s Biggest Tunnel Boring Machine

Advice for the new girl.

The world’s largest-diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM) is travelling all the way from Osaka, Japan to dig the two-mile-long tunnel that will replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Named for Seattle’s first and only woman mayor, Bertha Landes (a tough groundbreaker herself), the sharp-toothed, 7,000-ton Bertha may have a little trouble busting through “the Seattle freeze.” We…

Burien: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013

Burien: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013

A folksy—and affordable—small town only 10 minutes from downtown Seattle.

I was lured to Burien by the incredible bang for my real estate buck, but what I fell in love with was the community’s no-nonsense, hardy attitude; the beautiful, secret stretches of Puget Sound waterfront; and a charming downtown strip that makes you feel like Marty McFly stepping out of his DeLorean into a Rockwellian…

Ballard: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013

Ballard: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013

Comfortably cool.

The more “come as you are” of Seattle’s two major super ’hoods (see also: Capitol Hill), this northwest Seattle area is a cool—but not too cool—burg where middle-aged parents can wear their Patagonia fleece and have their Ethan Stowell eateries, while singleton 20-somethings, with their chunky hipster glasses, cocktail-hop down Ballard Ave. With choice boutique…