chadum

I tried NY Cupcakes in Westlake Park a few months ago. It was not a great cupcake and looked much better than it tasted. I tried their signature cupcake: NY Black & White. The frosting tasted midling and the texture was gritty as if the sugar had not been creamed with the fat long enough. The cake itself was low on flavor with an mediocre texture. It's quite poor for being focused on just the cupcakes. I'm not sure if they were working through kings; I haven't been back since.

I like panettone this time of the year from local bakeries. I've tried Macrina and Grand Central with Grand Central being my current favorite. What sources have other folks found for this seasonal goodness?

The cannoli is not traditional. It's like a cross between cannoli and a churro. Very good, just not traditional.

Excellent! I really want more dessert cafes/lounges in Seattle. She is certainly the chef to do it in this city. I think that space, across from the Harvard Exit theater is probably a good location. Not as close to my home in Belltown as I would like, though I recently went to Room 4 Dessert in New York City and I was very impressed by the concept and execution.

Mercado Latino (near Mr. D's gyros place) at Pike Place has had it. Not sure if it's seasonal, though.

Torero's Mexican in Belltown has papered up the windows and put out a closed sign. It's the former location of Fandango. It's a great space. I hope it's not cursed.

Also: Macrina makes excelent cakes. These are cakes created to eat not just to look at. You will need to order in advance to pick one up: http://www.macrinabakery.com/Cakes.htm

One block north (up the hill) is a Dilettante shop. It sells the chocolates. There are also several Dilettante cafes that server hot chocolate and cakes in addition to the chocolates. These are sprinkled through downtown and one on Capito Hill. The most central one is in Westlake Mall downtown.

That sounds exactly like what I want this time of the year. Well, maybe with a little truffle oil. Truly, I don't expect Pagliacci to do that let alone on budget.

Rama is usually at the Wedensday Pike Place Market Organic Day. They are by far my favorite peach vendor. Last week I was told, by Rick Lynn, that they had reached the end of the Red Havens and would be bringing in later varieties soon.

Vivanda at the Market had a for lease sign in the window today.

My wife and I are going to be enjoying our anniversary in Vancouver this year. We're staying at the Wedgewood. I think I've found plenty of lunch & dinner recommendations by searching past topics. I haven't seen anything particular about brunch. We are very big fans of breakfast/brunch. Are there recommendations for weekend brunch places? We like small, cafe settings that really care about this particular meal. We also tend to prefer the sweet side with waffles & pancakes and do venture towards the occasional omelet ;-> . We live in Seattle and the brunch at Macrina Bakery is an excellent example of this. thanks

If you are referring to the 'provolone picante' then that is imported. The mozzarella is made in-house.

They'll use the baguette if you ask and they have enough. I think the round, soft bread is from La Panzanella bakery. The bread does serve well to soak up the olive oil-based dressings they use. I like the bread although I do think it is too much and offsets the bread/meat ratio. I simply pick things apart as I eat.

My wife and I have found that lemon verbena is very easy to grow around here. We're growing it in a mid-size pot on our condo deck. It goes dormant in the winter and starts back up in early spring. It's a wonderful plant just for the lemon-drop smell and makes an excellent, excellent sorbet.

"The Belltown" in, well, Belltown has a big banner on it saying --- Coming Late March 2005 A New Restaurant From your Friends & Family at BluWater Bistro --- In other local news: The place being constructed across Battery from Lampreia: Volta, is now labeling itself a 'lounge' with an ad. for bar staff.

I ate at Pasion! in Philadelphia on a recent trip. My wife and I had ceviche for the first time. We were amazed at the combinations of seafood and spices. We eat plenty of sushi and it was also a great contrast in what mostly-raw seafood could be like. Can anyone recommend a ceviche restaurant in Seattle? I figure sushi can't be all of the raw fish in the area.

Something that my wife and I have noticed is that at some restaurants the 25/$25 deal is too much food. When dining normally we will often order one appetizer, two entrees and one dessert. The 25/$25 adds an additional appetizer and dessert. At a restaurant that serves normal portions this is often too much food. If you add in the natural increase in drink purchases the total cost is often the same without the deal. Kinda ironic, I know.

The Pike Place Creamery has had a sign indicating that you can order raw milk from them. They also carry the Faith Dairy non-Homogenized milk.

The best chocolate cupcakes, if you allow some range in your definition of 'cupcake', are the chocolate ganache ones at Macrina. They are a creamy, sticky, chocolate wonder.

I've seen work going on in the old Belltown Pub over the past month and today they actually put up a menu for "theBelltown" They appear to be serving lunch & dinner with something of a seafood italian/northwest blend with things like calamari salad, breaded pork medallions, ling cod in buttermilk batter, etc.

I took my wife there in May for her birthday. We were the first diners there and for half of our meal. I thought the food was very good - obviously there was a tremendous amount of attention paid to each preperation. It is very European I suppose, in the small plates, successive courses with palate cleansers. The service was stuffy but in a manner that was completely expected and appreciated for this kind of meal. Each course was described in detail, the soup was poured at the table (which I have seen at Cascadia one block away recently.) and the cheese course was presented as secret treasures to select from. overall I thought it was worth the price but certainly a special-occasion type of place for the likes of me. I think fussying over price can be downright depressing since with many things, dining is a diminishing return type of experience: spending progressively more money only gives you slightly better experience but that is often the cost of going that high.

When I read the article and saw the photo my first reaction was: ick! eating sushi off of plastic wrap

thanks, I think ;-> I live in Belltown (above Macrina) and have lived in various other parts of the country before moving here 4 years ago. What I'm fearing with the chains is how generic the food scene will become. It's not even a personal loss that I fear since very few restaurants I like have closed and I've found many new ones. Chains work differently economically since they can afford to invest much more early on, run for a loss, and advertise better than an independant restaurant, usually. Our personal influence is to eat at not only the places that we like, but the places that we would like more of. I can only understand why people will wait for an hour to eat at Cheescake Factory when there are plenty of other restaurants around when I think that Cheescake Factory seems familiar and comforting (not really, in my experience) compared to non-chain restaurants.

There is an article in today's Seattle Times about several chain restaurants following Cheescake Factory's lead and opening downtown. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/busi...downtown29.html I'm split on how I feel about this. On one hand I don't like the idea of chains opening and pushing out independant restaurants, but I do understand that a vacant retail/restaurant space downtown is not a good thing.