So often around this time of year, our attention turns to the holiday feast — the giant bird, abundant sides, and numerous pies — such that we forget how everyday meals can be regular opportunities to treat ourselves. Family-owned restaurants are returning to classic recipes and bringing a sense of comfort and ease to our dining experience. It’s often in savoring the simple pleasures — sipping a cup of coffee topped with a sweet foam, slurping beef marrow from a bone broth soup, or eating with your hands — where thankfulness is most deeply felt.  Classic Thai street food, Ka Praw Gai. P ..read more

The parking garage is under a vitamin shop, across the street from an apartment complex. It’s trash pickup day so the garbage cans are stinky and overflowing. A few crows bounce through puddles in the alley, waiting for me to pass so they can get back to doing whatever it is crows do when no one is looking.  Stacked on top of a folding table, in the back corner of the garage, are about nine medium-sized cardboard boxes. One of them always has my name printed on it. Inside the box are two big yellow onions, a huge head of cauliflower, napa cabbage, and broccoli. There’s also a bag of brigh ..read more

Get ready for Restaurant Row at Westfield Southcenter. The entire north side of the Tukwila shopping center has established a new dining district. Dubbed “Restaurant Row,” the emerging culinary hub is introducing several new concepts, beginning with Mr. Dim sum this winter. Gen Korean and another new concept will open later next year. Each restaurant will feature both indoor and outdoor dining and will include walking paths and lighting accents. “(The) restaurant district is completely fresh and flavorful for the community,” says General Manager Arta Barhamast. “a focus on new food and beverag ..read more

What’s believed to be the world’s first international whiskey trail has been created right here in the Northwest. The new Northwest Whiskey Trail features seven distilleries in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. It has two Seattle stops: Copperworks Distilling Co. and Westland Distillery.  Visitors pick up a passport at the first distillery they visit and then collect stamps at the others. Participants receive a limited-edition Northwest Whiskey Trail Glencairn whiskey glass if they fill their passports. The idea is modeled after Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail and Scotland’s Malt Whisky ..read more

The notable chill in the air compels us all to take better care of ourselves, to tuck into the comfortable and warm spots of our home, to indulge in the richness that our body craves this time of year. This month, we’ll have two new bakeries added to a growing list of incredible bakeries in this city, each bringing vastly different styles to your favorite desserts. Whether you’re craving sweets, carbs, something cheesy, or something meaty, restaurants have heard the call and created menus with everything you’d want, as well as some things you might not have known you needed.    The ..read more

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 remains unchanged. Prepare for a life where you can have it all. The “Whole Donut,”chocolate-covered, at Ben’s Bread Photo by Dabe Alan The Whole Donut at Ben’s Bread Whose idea was it to separate the donut hole from its mother anyway? For the team at Ben’s Bread, serving the donut hol ..read more

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 restoration project took more than seven months instead. Company officials said they wanted to reopen before the Washington Huskies football season, which begins Saturday. “While we thought the space would make a perfect Big Mario’s upon hearing of its cl ..read more

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 flavors as much as we can indulge in the new. New combo at the new Ludi’s Restaurant Seattle lost a landmark restaurant when Ludi’s announced its closing in 2019. Luckily, the family-owned operation has reopened in a new location on Second and Stewart, not too far from its ..read more

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 Coffee & Etc. and get hit square in the nose with the aroma of freshly baked waffles. As you wait for your cà phê sa — slow brewed in a metal filter known as a phin, with beans from Vietnamese roasters who buy from farms in Vietnam — there’s another show happening next to your cup. A ..read more

So often around this time of year, our attention turns to the holiday feast — the giant bird, abundant sides, and numerous pies — such that we forget how everyday meals can be regular opportunities to treat ourselves. Family-owned restaurants are returning to classic recipes and bringing a sense of comfort and ease to our dining experience. It’s often in savoring the simple pleasures — sipping a cup of coffee topped with a sweet foam, slurping beef marrow from a bone broth soup, or eating with your hands — where thankfulness is most deeply felt.  Classic Thai street food, Ka Praw Gai. P ..read more