The record-high number of COVID deaths recorded this week is a stark reminder that abiding by social distancing guidelines remains crucial, so we're back with another roundup of things to do over this three-day weekend (thank you, MLK Like List !) without spreading germs. See them all below, from Pacific Northwest Book Award winners to pick up from local bookstores (like E.J. Koh Past Event Like List 's The Magical Language of Others) to the best fish sandwiches to try (like the ones from Seattle Fish Company Like List ), and from the MLK Day Rally and March Past Event Like List at Garfield High School (which will also be livestreamed) to the SnoTown Dark Beer Fest Past Event Like List . For even more options, read our guides to the best online events this week Like List , the best movies to watch this week Like List , and the best things to do all month long Like List .

Jump to: MLK Day | Food & Drink | Books & Movies | Other Picks & Happenings

MLK DAY

Honor MLK with a walk in the park. This three-day MLK Day weekend is supposed to see clear skies, which is the perfect excuse to head to Mount Baker for a stroll through MLK Memorial Park, a grassy hill built around a sculpture and reflecting pool commemorating the civil rights leader. To round out the day, pay a visit to a Black-owned business in the neighborhood, like Baked from the Hart, whose "warm buttery fragrance of baking pie will wrap around you like the best-smelling, coziest scarf in the world," reads the bakery's bio. Emerald City Fish and Chips, whose blue-ribbon batter has the perfect amount of spice, is also close to the park for your takeout needs, as is the Original Philly's, known for its cheesesteaks and chicken. For a quick Eastside road trip, Lake Sammamish State Park has an official MLK Day Walk in the Park Past Event Like List throughout the weekend that invites you to walk from Tibbetts Beach to the Sunset Beach bathhouse, where the pathways are peppered with famous MLK quotes, and Bainbridge Island is inviting all Washingtonians to walk a mile Past Event Like List in MLK's honor. For more ways to celebrate this weekend and beyond, check out our guide to MLK Day events in Seattle, Portland, and nationwide Like List . 

Support Black-owned restaurants across the city. In addition to the Mount Baker spots mentioned above, turn to our directory of Black-owned restaurants to find other places worthy of your patronage, both this weekend and every day. Some of our favorites: Communion Like List , JuneBaby Like List , Marjorie Like List , The Station Like List , Catfish Corner Like List , Central Cafe and Juice Bar Like List , The Comfort Zone Like List , or Emma's BBQ Like List . The community-focused Shoreline coffee shop Black Coffee Northwest Cafe Like List , which offers a barista training program, a weekly youth outreach program, after-school study hours, Zoom "coffee chat" conversations on important topics, a coat drive, and other programming, has also been the target of racist harassment and threats since it opened in October and temporarily closed for two days this week after finding swastikas graffitied outside their shop on Tuesday. If you can, consider supporting them by making donations and by making purchases when they reopen on Saturday, or by fulfilling items from this post with a list of their current needs.

Other notable weekend events:

MLK Day Rally and March Past Event Like List
After an 11 am rally at the Garfield High School parking lot, the Seattle MLK, Jr. Organizing Coalition will lead their 39th annual march beginning at noon to cap off their week of online MLK events and workshops Past Event Like List . Both the rally and march will be broadcast live on Rainier Avenue Radio's Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch pages for those who don't want to attend in person due to COVID. 
Garfield High School, Central District (Monday) 

Greater Everett Community MLK Drive-By Parade Past Event Like List
Get in your car or put on some walking shoes and a mask and make your way from the Snohomish County Courthouse to Everett Community College celebrating Martin Luther King's civil rights legacy with NAACP Snohomish County. If you can't make it in person, tune in online the day before for live music and performances on Facebook Live. 
Snohomish County Courthouse, Everett (Sunday-Monday; in-person event Monday)

MLK Day of Service 2021 Past Event Like List
This year's MLK Day of Service roles are toned down due to COVID, but opportunities include harvesting beets for the hungry in the Snohomish River Valley and helping keep the peace at the Garfield High School rally and march listed above.
Various locations (Monday)

Melanated Market Past Event Like List
Treat yourself to some BIPOC-made goods for the new year, from bath and body products to home decor to jewelry, in the former Sports Authority space at the Outlet Mall.
The Outlet Collection, Auburn (Saturday-Sunday) 

FOOD & DRINK

Celebrate National Bagel Day. Friday is National Bagel Day, so why not treat yourself to a chewy, blistered ring of dough slathered in a cream cheese schmear today? Many have long lamented Seattle's dearth of bagel shops, but the city's burgeoning bagel scene is getting bigger all the time. Case in point: The well-received, sourdough-fermented bagel business Rubinstein Bagels Like List just opened its first shop near the Amazon Spheres, and the team behind the erstwhile Manolin Like List has launched Old Salt Like List , a pop-up with bagels, cream cheese spreads, house-smoked fish, and smoked fish and veggie bagel sandwiches. Westman's Bagel and Coffee Like List has made a name for itself slinging New York-style bagels in the last couple years, and Macrina Bakery has thrown their hat into the ring with their own version, their organic sourdough "MadRy" bagels. Food writer and noted bagel enthusiast J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (who recently relocated to Seattle) has had high praise for the bagels found at Porkchop and Co. Like List , Bagel Oasis Like List , and Eltana. If you can get your hands on a coveted bagel from the delivery service Mt. Bagel Like List , which is known for selling out in seconds when its Monday preorders go live, you're a very lucky person indeed. And finally, while it'll be too late for National Bagel Day, the pop-up Loxsmith Past Event Like List will be at Nacho Borracho Like List on Sunday, January 24.

Celebrate Dry January. If you're abstaining from booze for the month of January, there are still some spots where you can indulge in a special sip (while toasting to the inauguration, perhaps?). First Hill's iconic Italian lounge Vito's Like List has an alcohol-free Spring Gimlet mocktail made with zero-proof spirits from Seedlip, house lime cordial, and fresh lime juice, plus non-alcoholic amaro-inspired sodas from Casamara Soda and Sanbitter. TÖST, a nonalcoholic sparkling beverage made with white tea, white cranberry, and ginger, is also available at places like Central Co-op Like List and Trophy Cupcakes (the latter also sells it as part of a sparkling mocktail kit). For more inspiration, pick up Julia Bainbridge's book Good Drinks, which offers guidance for making incredible non-alcoholic drinks that are more centerpiece than consolation prize—it's backordered at Book Larder Like List or Elliott Bay Book Company Like List , or, if you act fast, you can purchase one of the last three copies available on Amazon.

Try the best (fish) sandwich in Washington. Food and Wine has proclaimed Seattle Fish Company Like List 's fish sandwich to be the best sandwich in Washington, and it's up to all of us to go try it ourselves to investigate the veracity of this claim. Looking for other seafood-centric sandwich options? We suggest the po' boys and fish burgers at Emerald City Fish and Chips Like List (also an incredible Black-owned business) and the lobster rolls and fish sandwiches at Local Tide Like List .

Try a beer tasting event (or create your own). This time of year usually brings a glut of beer festivals, and though the pandemic has definitely put a damper on many of them, there are still socially distanced and virtual craft beer events to be found with plenty of superlative brews. Check out the socially distanced SnoTown Dark Beer Fest Past Event Like List or the 2021 Virtual Winterhop Brewfest Past Event Like List , or make your plans now for Brew Five Three Past Event Like List or Magnolia Virtual Craft Beer Past Event Like List . Or assemble your own home tasting with a selection of brews from a local supplier like Chuck's Hop Shop, The Growler Guys Like List , or The Pine Box Like List (which has sought-after brews like Fremont Brewing Like List 's B-Bomb and Rusty Nail in stock—try comparing and contrasting versions from different years).

Explore vegan restaurants. If your New Year's resolution involves reevaluating your meat and/or dairy consumption, adopting a vegan diet, or going plant-based for the annual "Veganuary" challenge, you've got plenty of delicious options to ease you through the transition. We've rounded up a list of vegan restaurants worth trying Like List , from the brand-new comfort food spot Allyum Like List  to the beloved diner Wayward Vegan Cafe Like List . 

Other notable weekend events:

Better than Brunch! Because you are in a Beer Garden! Remind Like List
Married couple Lisa Zack and Travis Post's Sichuan-inspired restaurant has a new modified outpost in Ballard, offering online and walk-up orders paired with Cloudburst Brewing Like List offerings (to enjoy in their outdoor beer garden) every Saturday and Sunday.
Dump Truck by Plenty of Clouds, Ballard (Saturday-Sunday) 

Saltadena Pop-Up at Super Six Past Event Like List
Preorders are closed, but you can still try your luck at snagging a limited supply of macarons, cookies, caramels, pudding cups, and "Lil' Scrappy" cake bowls in person (until 2 pm) from Bellingham's Saltadena Bakery when they swing through Columbia City. 
Super Six, Columbia City (Friday)

Winter Vegetable Feast: Just Keep Diggin' Past Event Like List
To "warm your heart and your belly during these cold winter months," the Tavolàta team is cooking up a hearty and comforting meal featuring seasonal winter vegetables, with dishes like persimmons with beet tartare, bone marrow aioli and endive, celery root soup with scallops and nduja, and cabbage accompanied by smoked black cod and potatoes. Vegetarian options are also available.
Tavolàta, Capitol Hill (Saturday-Sunday)

BOOKS & MOVIES

Catch up on this year's Pacific Northwest Book Award winners. Every year, the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Association honors "excellence in writing" from regional authors, and the 2021 roster of PNB Award winners from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia are all worth picking up from your local bookstore this weekend. (Elliott Bay Like List , Third Place Books, the University Book Store Like List , and the Queen Anne Book Company Like List happen to carry them all.) Repping Seattle, E.J. Koh (who is joining Elliott Bay next Friday for a virtual chat Past Event Like List with Kathy Park Hong) brought us The Magical Language of Others, a memoir punctuated by letters the author's mother sent her throughout her childhood in California, where she essentially raised herself and her brother after their parents went to South Korea for work. "Like any good poet, Koh uses up everything—every image returns, and every idea chimes with another, so that the book's short 200 pages contain the emotional and philosophical heft of a doorstop," wrote Rich Smith. Seattle musician Tomo Nakayama is also a fan Like List . Hailing from Issaquah, Donna Barba Higuera won for Lupe Wong Won't Dance, a middle-grade novel about a half-Chinese, half-Mexican girl whose gym teacher makes her conquer her worst fear—square dancing—before she can pursue her true passion of baseball. We approve of the opening sentence, which reads, "My gym shorts burrow into my butt crack like a frightened groundhog." Other winners include Eugene, Oregon's Kim Johnson for This is My America, Vancouver, B.C.'s Silvia Moreno-Garcia for Mexican Gothic, Hood River, Oregon's Tina Ontiveros for rough house, and Portland's Aiden Thomas for Cemetery Boys.

Follow Tomo Nakayama's guide to things to do in Seattle during COVID. Earlier this week, we asked the Seattle musician (whose latest album, Melonday, and new singles "With the Radio On" and "Paper Snowflakes" are available now on Bandcamp) how he's been staying entertained in these wild times, and his suggestions ranged from ordering bahn mis from Oh's Sandwiches Like List to getting coffee from Porchlight Coffee & Records to binging the Canadian Netflix show Kim's Convenience Remind Like List . Read the full scoop here Like List .

Other notable weekend events:

Sheltered: Artists Respond to COVID-19 Past Event Like List
Find inspiration and solace in Pacific Northwest artist responses to the pandemic.
Schack Art Center, Everett (Friday-Sunday) 

Repetition Suppression Past Event Like List
Seattle artist Natalie Krick's photographic works slice and reconfigure bodies in suggestive ways, pulling the viewer into her beautifully saturated and colorful pieces. Her photos best reflect the experience of being a woman and being seen: fragmented, pieced together, more than the sum of our parts. There's an elusive sensuality to her work that subverts expectation. In her show, Repetition Suppression, Krick plays around with the idea of the femme fatale from Hollywood crime melodramas of the '40s and '50s, crafting mysterious and alluring figures in each photo. The exhibition title alludes to a phenomenon called repetition suppression, a reduced neural response observed when certain stimuli are presented more than once. It's an acknowledgment of the femme fatale as a now-common trope of an unknowable, ambiguous woman. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Specialist, Pioneer Square (Saturday-Monday; opening Saturday)

Traver Gallery Annual Group Exhibition Past Event Like List
Traver Gallery is one of the best places in town to see innovative sculpture and glass art for free, as well as two-dimensional works, so you shouldn't miss their annual group exhibition if you have any interest in the medium. This year, you'll be able to admire pieces by Preston Singletary and other as-yet-announced artists. 
Traver Gallery, Pioneer Square (Friday-Saturday)

Other notable weekend events:

Drive-In Movies at the Blue Fox Remind Like List
Ninety miles north of Seattle, this outdoor theater and go-kart destination screens family-friendly double features on weekends. Admission is first-come, first-served, and masks are required (duh) when visiting the snack bar or arcade. Outside food is not permitted. This weekend, catch the Liam Neeson film The Marksman and the 1995 Will Smith vehicle Bad Boys.
Blue Fox Drive-In Theatre, Oak Harbor (Friday-Sunday)

Drive-In Movies at Rodeo Remind Like List
For a treat at the end of your road trip to Bremerton, stop by this long-running outdoor theater (which opened in 1949) for screenings of under-the-radar double-features. They have plenty of concessions, like hot dogs, corn dogs, pizza dogs (?), Philly cheesesteaks, and candy for sale onsite. As for tickets, you can buy them online. This weekend's showings are The Marksman, Wonder Woman 1984, News of the World, Promising Young Woman, Honest Thief, and Into the Storm.
Rodeo Drive-In, Port Orchard (Friday-Sunday)

TOY STORY 4 | Open Air Cinema Nights Past Event Like List
Watch 2019's Toy Story 4 on the big screen at the Outlet Collection's open-air drive-in theater.
The Outlet Collection, Auburn (Saturday) 

OTHER PICKS & HAPPENINGS

Lace up your skates for private sessions at Southgate Roller Rink. Like List As of January 13, the White Center mainstay is offering private, socially distanced skate sessions for parties of six or fewer under new Phase 1 guidelines for Entertainment Establishments, starting at $78 an hour. Give them a ring at 206-707-6949 or shoot them an email at info@southgaterollerrink.com to make a reservation. Masks are required. Hotpants and feathered bangs are optional. 

Other notable weekend events:

Lake Chelan Winterfest 2021 Past Event Like List
Lake Chelan has scaled down their annual two-weekend festival of wintery fun into a single three-day weekend, promising ice sculptures, two fireworks shows, and more COVID-safe family-friendly activities to downtown Chelan and Manson.
Lake Chelan (Friday-Monday)

Lusio Past Event Like List
Nine local artists have created light installations around Pioneer Square, viewable in a COVID-safe manner throughout the month.
Pioneer Square (Friday-Monday)

State Parks Free Days Past Event Like List
If you don't have a Discover Pass but you still want to take in Northwest wildlife in all its evergreen-hued glory, take advantage of free admission to Washington state parks on special days throughout the year, including MLK Day.
Various locations (Monday)

WildLanterns Past Event Like List
The Woodland Park Zoo is taking a more realistic approach to its beloved annual holiday light display by lining its paths with glowing lanterns in the likeness of tigers, snow leopards, aquatic creatures, zebras, and other exotic animals.
Woodland Park Zoo, Phinney (Friday-Sunday)