OPENINGS
Coltiva: Pizzeria e Barra
According to a press release, local restaurateur Garrett McAleese (the owner of Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub) will open Coltiva, an authentic Italian-style pizzeria featuring thin-crust pizza with handmade dough and craft cocktails, in the Cora apartment building in lower Queen Anne on November 8. Inspired by McAleese's childhood trips to Italy from Ireland, the space includes indoor and outdoor seating, and McAleese has carefully considered sources for the ingredients, including hard cheeses from producers in Sardinia, organic, farm-grown and canned Oregon tomatoes, and humanely raised beef from Oregon's family-owned Nehalem River Ranch. Guests can also expect details like house-made amari (herbal liqeurs).
Queen Anne
El Camion
The popular taco spot, which includes taco trucks and a brick-and-mortar location in Ballard, is now slinging their sought-after Mexican fare, including posole, chilaquiles, gorditas, tamales, tacos, and more, inside longtime Seattle brewing stalwart Hale's Ales.
Ballard
Jellyfish Brewing
According to a press release, this dog-friendly Georgetown brewery owned by Tom Stevens (previously of Big Time Brewery and Alehouse) and Mark Burr (who helped open Water Street Brewing and Alehouse and co-founded Strange Brewfest) will open its taproom on Saturday, November 3, at 11:30 am, with food trucks arriving around 3 pm. The brewery will feature all of its core beers, including Smack IPA, Planktonic Red, Hydra Pils, Saison Memoir, Cannonball Oatmeal Porter, Sour Suzie Kettle Sour and Tickle Monster Imperial Stout, as well as three seasonal favorites: Mandatory Fun Fresh Hop Pale, Winter Fix Winterfuit IPA, and Cerveza de los Muertos. To kick off their first month of business, they'll also be releasing rare and barrel-aged beers each week.
Georgetown
Katsu Burger Ballard
Though it soft-opened its Ballard location, which serves sushi, bento, and cocktails in addition to behemoth tonkatsu-style burgers, nori fries, and unique shakes, earlier this summer, the burger joint is having its grand opening today, November 2. For the occasion, they'll be offering $5 Tokyo Classic Slider meals and specials throughout the weekend.
Ballard
Ma'ono
Mark Fuller's popular West Seattle fried chicken joint Ma'ono has opened a new location inside the Capitol Hill location of Rachel's Ginger Beer, replacing Monica Dimas's Sunset Fried Chicken counter. (Due to opening Westman's Bagel and Little Neon Taco and having a baby in the last year, Dimas has decided to focus on her other businesses, but will keep Sunset Fried Chicken alive as a pop-up inside Little Neon Taco on the last Sunday of every month, with an expanded menu beyond the items that were offered at Sunset, and as an upcoming location inside SeaTac.) Today, November 2, they'll be celebrating the opening with $6 fried chicken sandwiches and $6 Moscow mules until 12 am.
Capitol Hill
Soulful Dishes
This soul food spot, which recently opened in the Central District and had its first Yelp review on September 5, serves fried chicken sandwiches, burgers and fries, fried catfish, and more.
Central District
Whole Foods
The organic grocery behemoth opened its newest Seattle location at Madison on Broadway on Tuesday, October 30. The new location features two floors of retail space, a full-service coffee bar, a bar called Stella Lounge with local draft beers and wine by the glass, and full meat and seafood departments.
Capitol Hill
Willmott’s Ghost
Renee Erickson's much-anticipated new Italian restaurant finally opened inside the Amazon Spheres this Monday, October 29. Named after a plant christened in honor of English horticulturist Ellen Ann Willmott, it's Erickson's first full-on Italian venture (a tribute to her time spent in Rome in college) and features Roman-style pizza and Italian aperitivo cocktails, as well as frittatas, arancini, pastries, Calabrian chili fritti, and tiramisu.
South Lake Union
CLOSURES
Cafe Bengodi
The cozy Beacon Hill spot has been reported closed.
Beacon Hill
Elysian Bar
Elysian Brewing Co. has closed down its downtown Elysian Bar due to development for a new condo building.
Downtown
OTHER FOOD NEWS
Iconiq returning in November
Chef Toshiyuki Kawai has announced that he will be re-opening Iconiq, his upscale Japanese-French fusion restaurant in Mount Baker, in the third or fourth week of November. Previously, Kawai closed the restaurant over a year ago due to traveling to Japan to treat a medical issue.
Shake Shack introduces online ordering
In an attempt to curb their sprawling lines, the popular NYC-based burger chain's new Seattle location has rolled out its online ordering app (although it only accepts a handful of orders every 15 minutes, from 11 a.m. to 9:45 p.m). According to a spokesman, the company will also introduce self-service kiosks for ordering to reduce wait times.
Hitchcock Deli expanding next door
Chef Brendan McGill's Hitchcock Deli will expand by moving into the space of a neighboring shoe store, which will be combined with the current location. According to Eater Seattle, McGill will make updates to the deli's current banquette and deli bar, and says in an Instagram comment that customers will be able to have a cocktail with their sandwich "and so much more."
Mark Fuller's Supreme coming to the U District
West Seattle restaurateur Mark Fuller of Ma'ono and New Luck Toy will bring a new location of Supreme, his West Seattle bar with boozy slushies and pizza, to the former space of Pagliacci on the Ave in the University District, in early 2019. The space will include an all-ages area with pizza available by the slice as well as a 21+ dining room.
Bounty Kitchen coming to the Denny Triangle
Yet another lunch spot for the Amazon crowd: This locally sourced, health-minded Queen Anne favorite serving soups, salads, sandwiches, and juices will open a second location in the Denny Triangle on November 10. The new location will also feature a bar with juices, cold brew, espresso, and a happy hour.
EVENTS
FRIDAY, NOV 2
Cook's Illustrated 25th Birthday Bash
In honor of Cook's Illustrated turning a quarter-century old, sample beer, wine, and spirits and unlimited food from big-name Seattle chefs, including Shota Nakajima of Adana, Nathan Lockwood of Altura, Ethan Stowell, Brendan McGill of Hitchcock, Lexi Ochoa and Tom Douglas of Hot Stove Society, Rachel Yang of Joule, John Sundstrom of Lark, Jason Stratton of Mbar, and Stuart Lane of Spinasse. Plus, try birthday cake and specialty birthday cocktails, meet the cast of America's Test Kitchen, and get cookbooks and copies of Cook's Illustrated signed.
The Feast: A Symphony of Food
Music, food, and film converge for this unique synesthetic feast, in which the Northwest Symphony Orchestra will score five short documentaries starring a farmer, a winemaker, a baker, a server, and chef Tom Douglas, examining the labor of love each puts into their respective crafts. Before the performance, VIP guests will sit down to a multicourse meal prepared by Douglas himself. Donations support Seattle Children’s Hospital.
A Whiskey Night at OOLA Distillery
Take a tour of OOLA Distillery, then learn how to shake and stir up some warming whiskey cocktails for winter from OOLA founder Kirby Kallas-Lewis and the rest of the team.
NOV 2-4
Sagra di Radicchio
Cheers for chicories! Inspired by the Italian tradition of the sagra (a festival usually celebrating local food), this weeklong event dedicated to the refreshingly bitter radicchio kicks off with a Restaurant Week of specials from local restaurants, followed by a daylong festival at Palace Ballroom and a Radicchio Pizza Party at London Plane. For even more radicchio revelry, check out the Hot Stove Society's Lunch Club cooking class and a cooking demonstration with Jackie Cross and Lexi Ochoa.
SATURDAY, NOV 3
America's Test Kitchen Seattle EATS Cooking, Food & Wine Festival
America’s Test Kitchen remains a perennial PBS staple for a reason: Its recipes are rigorously tested to within an inch of their life, and they’re proven to work. At this festival, you’ll get to mingle with the show’s cast, including hosts Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison, and have them sign books, plus watch cooking demonstrations and nosh on unlimited samples from Seattle restaurants, including Ba Bar, Central Smoke, Little Fish, Lady Yum, Heartwood Provisions, Molly Moon’s, La Spiga, and more.
Ballard Brewed Winter Beer Festival
Can't wait for winter brews? Try 11 of them from different local breweries like Bad Jimmy's, Hales Ales, Lagunitas, and Lucky Envelope. While you're enjoying those, sway to live music from the Gus Clark Trio and Planet Fly, and fill up on food from So Good Food Truck and Big Mario's, knowing that proceeds will benefit local nonprofit Bellwether Housing.
Cognac Celebration Dinner
Try specially selected cognac paired with a multi-course dinner from chef Ayhan Barlas.
Dim Sum for a Good Cause
Nosh on delicious dim sum to help raise money and awareness for the Lighthouse for the Blind.
Oyster New Year 2018
The apotheosis of the Pacific Northwest’s unofficial regional pastime, slurping oysters, is the eco-friendly Oyster New Year at Elliott’s Oyster House. The all-out briny bash features more than 30 varieties of bivalves shucked to order at a 150-foot oyster bar, a fresh seafood buffet, and local microbrews and wine from more than 60 wineries. Be a little superficial and cast your vote for the People’s Choice “Most Beautiful Oyster,” and don’t miss the oyster luge, in which a shucked oyster glides down a frozen slide in an ice sculpture, into your mouth, and down your gullet.
SUNDAY, NOV 4
Author Talk: Pie Squared by Cathy Barrow
A slab pie is basically a giant Pop-Tart: a rectangular pie filled with goodness and perfect for easily feeding a crowd. Author Cathy Barrow will discuss her new book Pie Squared, with over a dozen crust recipes ranging from cookie crusts to cheddar cheese crusts and sweet and savory filling ideas. Plus, guests can try some pie and get their copies signed.
Block Talk at Bateau
Bateau's house butcher Tom Coss will deliver an in-depth butchery demonstration, followed by Bateau burgers and brews.
NOV 4-8
Seattle Restaurant Week
Frugal gourmands everywhere rejoice over this twice-yearly event, which lets diners tuck into prix-fixe menus at more than 165 different restaurants hoping to lure new customers with singularly slashed prices: Three courses cost a mere $33, and many restaurants also offer two-course lunches for $18. It’s an excellent opportunity to feast like a high roller at an accessible price point and cross some otherwise spendy establishments off your food bucket list, including critically acclaimed restaurants like Tilth, Agrodolce, and Lark.
