Eat & Drink

Five Things You Need to Eat in September
A grilled cheese smash burger? Katsu spam masubi? Creative mash-ups born from the delicious idea of two-in-one
A lot of good things come from saying, “Why not do both?” When both options are coveted, marrying the two hardly feels like a compromise at all. The food scene is working hard to make our tough choices easier, particularly as we head into autumnal months when cravings turn to comfort foods, but stomach space…

Big Mario’s Reopens Northlake After Seven-Month Closure
Big Mario’s reopens venerable pizza spot in time for Husky opener
The Northlake Tavern & Pizza House lives on. Big Mario’s has reopened the popular destination near the University of Washington campus as Big Mario’s Northlake Tavern. The 65-year-old pizza joint closed in January after the previous owner retired. Big Mario’s said at the time that the closure would last only two months, but the full-blown…

Five Things You Need to Eat in August
Ube pancakes, egg cream, and blistered tomato memories
Food has the wonderful effect of capturing a time and place. Many dishes in this city bring memories into the present, celebrate history, and preserve the abundance of our current season. What is old can be made anew. And in this bustling city where creativity, change, and traditions intersect, we can return to many familiar…

A Pandan Treat
How a Vietnamese coffee shop became one of the city's best under-the-radar waffle spots
Whether it’s a hot puff of steam pushing through a tightly packed mound of grounds, or beans whirring in a grinder perfuming the air with their bitter oils, in almost every coffee shop on the planet there’s only one scent that dominates: coffee. So, it can be a little surprising to walk inside Phin Vietnamese…

Seattle Artifacts: The Man Behind the Door
Seattle's caffeine culture started well before Starbucks
Seattle has always been a coffee town. The region’s gray and drizzly weather has made coffee a cherished commodity going all the way back to the pioneer days, with some of the city’s earliest merchants establishing their success by roasting and selling their own brands of the stuff. In fact, long before Starbucks, an early…

Around the World, Bite by Bite
Satisfy your hunger for travel without leaving Seattle
Travelers make friends and create memories seated across a table, sharing exotic flavors and sensations, around the world or at home. Here are five local restaurants that capture the essential flavors of their host countries, and transport diners to these distant lands in one delicious bite. The chefs and owners strive for cultural authenticity, providing…

Five Things You Need to Eat in July
The American Dream lives on in this month’s five recommended foods
July may have us asking, what makes up American food these days? Though the American flag cake studded with strawberries and blueberries remains a patriotic standby, we in Seattle are lucky to have a food scene bursting at the seams with creative and unique offerings from people who dare to dream. Life is Like a…

The Best Ways to Patio Dine in Seattle
Since COVID, Seattle establishments are finding new ways to level up outdoor dining
Perhaps the greatest good that emerged from recent years for Seattle restaurants is the proliferation of outdoor dining. Outdoor dining in 2023 no longer means extended seating, but presents new ways to share the street and experience our neighborhoods. Whether we’re imbibing on an elegant rooftop terrace, digging into a bowl of pasta on a…

15 Quintessential Seattle Things to Eat and Drink in 2023
Our food scene has changed. So has the list of foods that define it. Can we take chowder off the list?
In this seemingly post-pandemic world, cruise ships once again dock at our shores and visitors flood Pike Place Market, queueing up at the first Starbucks and crowding around the airborne salmon at Pike Place Fish. What should local food lovers recommend to travelers if they only have a few days to spend in this city?…

Essentials: Grape Expectations at Woodinville’s DeLille Cellars
DeLille Cellars nabs an impressive list of awards
One of the region’s most popular wineries is wrapping up its 30th anniversary with a slew of notable awards. Woodinville’s DeLille Cellars — winner of Seattle magazine’s Readers Choice award for best wine tasting — recently received five top 100 accolades. Bordeaux-style blends Chaleur Estate landed at No. 48 on Jeb Dunnuck’s Top 100 and…

Five Things You Need to Eat in June
We're still springing into summer, but soft serve is officially in
By June, Seattle is relishing in a fat dose of vitamin D. The world feels alive and at the end of the month, there’s the PRIDE parade that winds through Capitol Hill. Each June, I try to resist the urge to buy every rainbow-themed cupcake or baked goods. I may fail, but luckily with our…

Decolonizing dining in Seattle
Hillel Echo-Hawk is at the forefront of Seattle’s Indigenous food movement
In 2022, an Indigenous-owned restaurant serving a precolonial menu — Owamni, in Minneapolis — earned a James Beard Award as the best restaurant in the country. Names like Sean Sherman and Crystal Wahpepah (respectively, a Beard award finalist for best emerging chef, and the first Native American chef to compete on the Food Network’s Chopped)…

Pastry: An Affair to Remember
Chef Ewald Notter of Dote Coffee Bar makes it easy to fall in love with pastry and chocolate
Most romances unfold in predictable ways. An invitation for lunch, where you share sandwiches in a loud café, silently wishing your bread was crisper, but never giving up on the idea that one day it might be. An awkward laugh as your fingers touch while you both reach across the table for sugar in that…
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