It's the first weekend without Trump stinkin' up the White House, but the pandemic rages on. If you're out of ideas for ways to stay entertained in these activity-restricted times, read on for our latest batch of suggestions, from hitting the Nordic trails Like List at Snoqualmie Pass to going on a scavenger hunt to help save Alki's historic Stone Cottage, and from places to go for National Pie Day (like Hood Famous) to restaurants newly opened for open-air dining (like Pho Bac Súp Shop Like List ). For even more options, read our guides to the best online events this week Like List and the best movies to watch this week Like List .
Jump to: Shop Local | Food & Drink | Outdoors | Arts
SHOP LOCAL
Stack up a post-inauguration reading list. The sighs of relief are palpable now that Trump is no longer the president, but the vastly improved Biden-Harris administration is no reason to let individual social justice work fall to the wayside—especially after witnessing the impact of such work over these chaotic past four years. In addition to keeping up with the events on our activism & social justice (FKA resistance & solidarity) calendar, start by educating yourself about the policy reform Biden has planned for his first 100 days in office with books that address everything from the ongoing pandemic to immigration to climate change. Portland's Powell's Books has put together a reading list that includes Evan Osnos's biography Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now, Anthony P. Carnevale's The Merit Myth (which argues for top-to-bottom public education reform), Jason Stanley's How Fascism Works, Zach Norris's We Keep Us Safe (which deals with criminal justice reform), Michael E. Mann's The New Climate War, and other essential tomes. For more options, be sure to tune in to Third Place Books' Social Justice Syllabus Book Club, which meets virtually on the last Sunday of each month to discuss books dealing with topics from immigration to the patriarchy. Next week's book is Asim Jabari's Stop and Frisk: American Poems.
Shop for glass art from Seattle's Blown Away contestants. Hub of glass-blowing talent that it is (Preston Singletary, Dale Chihuly, etc.), Seattle is the perfect city in which to marvel at the magical collision that occurs between flaming torches and liquid glass in the second season of the glass-blowing competition show Remind Like List that hits Netflix on Friday—especially given that it features Nao Yamamoto and Tegan Hamilton, two glass artists based right here in Seattle. If you're feeling inspired after binging the 10 episodes, check out the artists' work for sale via Seattle Glassblowing Studio Like List 's online shop, then sign yourself up for a virtual experience where you can make your own ornament, bowl, or glass pumpkin.
Upgrade your cold-weather beverage game with a new mug. While the snow forecast called by Seattle's operational meteorologists earlier this week has fallen through, it's still mighty cold in the Northwest. Whether or not we see flurries this weekend, now's a good time to level up with some new receptacles from which to sip your warm drink of choice. We're fans of this plant-y one from the Volunteer Park Conservatory Like List 's online gift shop, this maroon number from Porchlight Coffee & Records Like List , this classic diner mug from Mighty-O Donuts (if you stan regional fried dough chains, Top Pot has similar ones for sale IRL at their Capitol Hill location and General Porpoise has this camp mug with a lid), and this author mug set from Oddfellows Like List . The Fremont Vintage Mall Like List , which is open for in-person shopping, is another safe bet for quirky cups. Once you've made your selection and brewed your coffee/tea/hot cocoa/hot toddy, curl up and watch a cozy movie like Paddington 2 Remind Like List (trust), Kiki's Delivery Service, or Groundhog Day.
FOOD & DRINK
Celebrate Pie Day. This Saturday is National Pie Day, the first nationally recognized pie holiday of 2021. (There's also Pi Day on March 14 and another National Pie Day on December 1, but somehow, we don't see an issue with celebrating this one multiple times.) It can be observed by plunging your fork into some perfectly flaky, golden pastry crust—some of our favorite pie suppliers include A La Mode Pies, Pie Bar, Hood Famous Bakeshop, and High 5 Pie. If you're in the mood for something more savory, try Pot Pie Factory Like List 's comforting individual pies. And if you're up for a project, you could even try to recreate one of the mind-bending geometric creations from Seattleite Lauren Ko's playful book Pieometry, available at Book Larder Like List .
Visit a cat cafe. Inspired by Japan, cat cafes combine the spirit-lifting properties of a warm caffeinated drink and playing with adorable felines for a truly unique experience. Neko Cat Cafe Like List reopens this weekend in Capitol Hill with a bevy of new adoptable kitties to pet and offers a menu of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, wine, beer, cider, sake, and Japanese-inspired snacks. Seattle's first cat cafe Seattle Meowtropolitan Like List is another worthy destination, also featuring adoptable cats alongside themed beverages like "catpuccinnos" and "meowchas" with cat latte art. Don't forget to make a reservation online and to wear a mask.
Visit restaurants reopened for open-air indoor dining. Thanks to the state's increasingly complicated guidelines for COVID-safe dining, some restaurants can now open again for "open-air" seating, provided they can obtain a CO2 monitor. Some of the restaurants recently welcomed back into the fold include Brendan McGill's Neapolitan-style pizzeria Bruciato Like List on Bainbridge Island, the longtime Ballard brewery Hale's Ales Like List , and the stylish Little Saigon pho destination Pho Bac Súp Shop Like List (which has reopened its roomy Phởcific Northwest dining room with window ventilation).
Other notable weekend events:
Bagel Bodega Pop-Up
Past Event
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Inspired by East Coast-style bodega breakfast sandwiches, the bagel pop-up Loxsmith will sling sandwiches, including bacon, egg, and cheese and Taylor pork options, on bagels or challahs. The pop-up's usual bagel offerings will also be available for purchase.
Nacho Borracho, Capitol Hill (Sunday)
Cookie's Country Chicken x Bootleg Barbecue Pop-Up
Past Event
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Two of the city's most sought-after pop-ups, the fried chicken joint Cookie's Country Chicken and the oak-smoked, "Texas-ish style" barbecue pop-up Bootleg Barbecue, will join forces for a dream-team collaboration hosted from Cookie's new home in Quality Athletics. The menu will include brisket, smoked bacon, a collab fried chicken sandwich with Bootleg barbecue sauce, Nashville hot chicken-inspired sausage, baskets of fried catfish with hatch chile grits, and more.
Cookie's Country Chicken, Sodo (Saturday)
Hitchcock Guest Chef Street Food Pop-Up Series: Chef Alejandro Tress
Past Event
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Puerto Rican chef Alejandro Tress, who attended the famed Culinary Institute of America in New York and has cooked for the acclaimed Astrid y Gastón in Lima, Peru and Le Bernardin in New York as well as many celebrated Puerto Rican restaurants, will create a menu of classic Puerto Rican street food with an elegant twist, with dishes like Dungeness crab and pumpkin alcapurrias (Puerto Rican fritters) with cardamom-achiote aioli and mofongo (fried plantains) with spot prawns, chicharrones, and sofrito sauce.
Hitchcock Delicatessen & Charcuterie, Bainbridge Island (Friday-Sunday)
Winter Vegetable Feast: Just Keep Diggin'
Past Event
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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 (Friday-Sunday)
Smoky Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf: The King of Comfort
Past Event
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Tom Douglas will highlight the ultimate American comfort food—bacon-wrapped meatloaf—in a cozy, stick-to-your-ribs meal that includes Beecher's cheddar and chive mashed potatoes, sweet onion gravy, roasted broccoli, and Kozy Shack-inspired chocolate pudding cups. Add on a Negroni or a bottle of Sangiovese or Pinot Grigio.
Serious TakeOut, Ballard (Friday-Sunday)
Tom's "Trashy Coconut Prawn" Pop-Up
Past Event
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Tom Douglas will pay homage to the delightfully trashy coconut shrimp, serving his take alongside spicy chile and fermented black bean sauce, green papaya salad, and guacamole and wonton chips, plus cocktails, like the tropical "Pineapple Express," the Legally Blonde-inspired "Hibiscus Bend and Snap," and the vacation-worthy "Seatown Escape."
Serious TakeOut, Ballard (Friday)
OUTDOORS
Head to the mountain for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. As of Friday, the Nordic trails at Snoqualmie Pass are back open for the cross-country skiing and snowshoeing needs of masked households. With over 30 miles of not-so-hilly trails at the heart of the Central Cascades, the Summit Nordic Center Like List is a good option for those who don't want to brave those black diamond slopes. May we also suggest an easy round of tubing? Read about the mountain's COVID-19 precautions here.
Help save a historic Seattle house. Built by Eva Falk during the Great Depression, West Seattle's Stone Cottage is made of materials gathered from the beach near the Alki Lighthouse. With development planned for its longtime plot, the Save the Stone Cottage committee is trying to raise enough money to rescue the house by physically moving it to another location by the end of the month, before demolition begins. In addition to accepting donations, the committee has teamed up with the Southwest Seattle Historical Society to raise awareness for the cause by hiding stones around the neighborhood that contain stories about Falk, the cottage, and the early history of Alki, and posting riddle-like clues on Twitter to help you find them. Those who prevail will receive gift certificates to local businesses. The next challenge, "Walking in Eva’s Shoes," is this Saturday and "highlights the story of Eva Falk when, during the early 1930s, she enlisted the help of her children to tow wagon loads of beach stones from the Alki Lighthouse to where the house was being built on Harbor Avenue more than two miles away," explains press materials.
ARTS
Try out for America's Got Talent. NBC's long-running all-ages reality show runs the gamut of disciplines, from singing to dancing to magic trick-performing, and they happen to be on the hunt for West Coast talent for their 16th season. In light of COVID, submissions are being accepted via pre-recorded videos, so if you're reading this on the West Coast (which you most likely are), you've racked up some new skills during the lockdown, and you'd like $1 million and a headlining show in Las Vegas, make an audition clip and send it their way. The West Coast open call is on Monday, January 25, so this weekend is the ideal time to perfect your talent.
Have a wine and craft night over Zoom. If Bernie Sanders inspired you with his hand-knitted mittens and you're looking for creative ways to stay connected to your friends and family (and/or an excuse to raise a glass to the new administration), try a themed virtual hangout like a craft night. Flex your creative muscles by picking up supplies for a craft like embroidery, knitting, or crochet at Stitches Like List , then swing by neighboring wine bar La Dive Like List for a bottle of natural wine for your online stitching session. Other conveniently situated craft store and wine shop combinations to consider: the Fiber Gallery Like List and Champion Wine Cellars Like List in Greenwood, So Much Yarn Like List and DeLaurenti Like List ’s wine department downtown, and the Tea Cozy Yarn Shop Like List and Molly’s Bottle Shop Like List in Ballard.
Other notable weekend events:
Repetition Suppression
Past Event
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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 (Friday-Sunday)
Estefania Velez Rodriguez & Michael Siporin Levine: Like Apples and Knives
Past Event
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Through paints, drawings, collages, prints, and video, the artists explore "autobiography, abstraction, and narrative" related to their new routines.
SOIL, Pioneer Square (Friday-Sunday)
Tacoma Light Trail
Past Event
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A free tail of light art will cheer up the downtown Tacoma streets every night through the end of the weekend.
Downtown Tacoma (Friday-Sunday)
Transfigurations: Carbon Flow
Past Event
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While carbon is invisible, it can be found in nearly all life forms, including the human body. Rachel Loge's visual and sonic installation explores "the transmutation of carbon through natural, human, and industrial forms" through sounds and hand-drawn animation. You can see the show in person by making an appointment.
Jack Straw New Media Gallery, University District (Friday)
