Photo source: http://www.emmerandrye.com/
I received an email today from local chef Seth Caswell (also the president of the Seattle Chef’s Collaborative), announcing his new restaurant emmer&rye. I had the opportunity to try some of Seth’s delicious emmer fries (made from Bluebird Grain Farms emmer) at the last foodportunity networking event – so I’m definitely excited to try even more once this place is officially open and in full swing. The restaurant is slated to open on Feb. 1st and will be located at 1825 Queen Anne Avenue N.
Seth describes the restaurant’s philosophy and cuisine as:
…“seasonally inspired, locally derived” cuisine. And more than just featuring what is available from our local farms, waters and artisanal producers, I want to make the menus affordable. Small plates range from $4-9 and large plates of $11-18. This means lots of sharing and sampling a variety of dishes, flavors and textures in one meal.
Posted in News
Tagged Bluebird Grain Farms, emmer, emmer&rye, food and wine, Foodportunity, new restaurants, Queen Anne, restaurants, Seattle Chef's Collaborative, Seattle restaurants, Seth Caswell
Since I’m a total news junkie (hey, you have no choice in the PR gig 
), I thought I’d share some interesting food-related articles that came through my RSS reader this week:
Best foods of the year from Bon Appétit
Here is Bon Appétit’s year-end review of top food trends and predictions for the next year. I was thrilled to see that Korean food is among the top trends they predicted for 2010. I’m half-Korean and grew up eating all the delicious (and spicy!) food – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! It’s also the cuisine I’m most comfortable cooking. While I do have some of my mom’s recipes handy, I generally never follow them – I just throw in a little bit of this here and little bit of that there until the flavor is just right.
10 commandments for restaurants
Chicago Tribune food critic Phil Vettel compiled 10 great tips for restaurants to follow to ensure the most pleasant dining experience for their customers. These are really no-brainers, but you’d be surprise how often restaurant-goers leave with a bad taste in their mouth (oooh I made a pun – totally wasn’t intentional! ). Anyway, here are my 2 personal faves from the list:
- Refill those water glasses and coffee cups as though your job depends on it. Because it might.
- If a customer has a valid complaint, own up to it, make amends and do whatever you can to turn this negative into a positive.
20 secrets your waiter won’t tell you
This article from the latest issue of Reader’s Digest reveals the dirty secrets of the kitchen straight from the horse’s mouth: the wait staff. After reading this, you’ll definitely rethink ordering certain items from the menu or making that special request with your waiter. Bleeeeh!
New recommendations on food advertising aimed at children
In an effort to curb the obesity problem we face in our country – especially among young children – the Institute of Medicine (IOM) this week urged drastic changes in the way food is marketed towards children, according to this USA Today article.
You may recall my blog post about Food 2.0 — well I recently came across a great example of the increasing popularity of social media in the food world. In a Twitter campaign, Get on Dining – a new restaurant listing website — is encouraging folks to “tweet” a restaurant recommendation…and for each recommendation they receive, Get on Dining will donate one meal to Feeding America. Their goal is to donate 10,000 meals by Christmas this year. For more information on the campaign and how to participate, check out: http://getondining.com/hunger.
I submitted my recommendation the other day: Pasta Freska, located in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. If you’re ever super hungry and in the mood for a unique food experience, definitely give Pasta Freska a try . Rather than provide menus, the chef/owner visits with each table to get a sense of their likes and dislikes and whips up a multi-course meal based on the feedback.
And now to wrap things up, I leave you with my “must-cover-my-hiney-or-else-the-FCC-will-fine-me” disclaimer:
I have no relationship with any of the parties mentioned in this blog post, and was not paid to endorse their products or services. I just happen to think they are cool enough to mention in my blog. Thank you and have a lovely day
I read this interesting USA Today article about the changing landscape of the food world. It’s no surprise that the Web and new tools such as blogs and social networking sites are the “it” thing right now. Take that and mix in a little economic recession and you’ve got traditional media outlets either cutting their staff or shutting down altogether, as is the case with Gourmet magazine (after nearly 70 years!).
The article sums up what I like to call “Food 2.0″ as a world of celebrity chefs, social networking and recipe cyber-swapping, specialized niche websites and blogs, ingredients of all sorts easily ordered online.
I guess my dream of becoming a star on my own YouTube cooking show isn’t so far-fetched after all!
…but we (Seattle) sure as hell have the best farmers markets, according to Travel + Leisure magazine’s “America’s Favorite Cities” issue. We also came in 2nd place behind New Orleans for best cafes/coffee bars. I don’t know about you, but as long as I have access to a great cup of coffee and farm-fresh produce, I can handle being around unattractive people and whatever else we ranked poorly for as a city
Jenn Davis
