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I think most restaurants would welcome the opportunity to pre-sell you a gift certificate and either email you or send a paper certificate. I received one from Canlis a couple of years ago - it was a small card tucked into a suede envelope tucked into a smallish box. Very classy. La Medusa sent a paper certificate in a fancy envelope. You might have to do a preliminary card with the info and follow it with the actual certificate if your timing is that tight. Another good option would be Ethan Stowell's restaurant group - lots of options to choose from. Here is one of the 4 (am I missing one?): http://www.howtocookawolf.com/ Nice parting gift! If you know what neighborhood they are moving to, we could suggest something that might be close to home.

As always, the hungry L and H were just there. Here are their links: Pine State: http://www.thecookbookchronicles.com/blog/?p=3651 Sprints: http://www.thecookbookchronicles.com/blog/?p=3659 Barista and Laurelhurst Market: http://www.thecookbookchronicles.com/blog/?p=3674 Tanuki: http://www.thecookbookchronicles.com/blog/?p=3672 have fun...

Gastropubs (Spur, Quinn's) and speakeasies (Tavern Law, Knee High, Bathtub Gin). Cupcakes (CupcakeRoyale, Trophy Cupcakes, Yellow Leaf, Sugar) and freshly made ice cream (Full-Tilt, Molly Moon, Bluebird). Tom Douglas expansion and spin-offs - SpringHill in West Seattle is particularly good. Whole beast cooking and eating. The return of Mistral. Sustainable sushi (Mashiko). The reemergence of the Pike/Pine Corridor. Matt Dillion's Corson Building in Georgetown. Life in Georgetown. Pizza, everywhere.

ChefShop. Online or in person. Sorry if this came too late.

Hate me now - it took till my late-40's but I ended up with an ex-chef, ex-restaurant owner, ex-restaurant critic. He makes me dinner almost every night. We go out to eat often - not extravagantly, but frequently. We talk about food, travel as a way to eat new food, he shops the Farmer's Market, the ethnic food stores, and is always happy to have me cook if I feel like it. He cleans up too (in his own way.) He's also taken me out for the fanciest dinners I've experienced. He grows tomatoes and cooks with whatever I bring him - some specialty I find in the shops, or weird vegetables I grow. His eyes light up when he eats something good, or if he thinks I am really enjoying my food. Remarkably, we have other things to talk about as well and he has stayed close by me through some very difficult times.

First thread I could find on LU's. Walked into the grocery to see a display with LU Petite Madeleine Cookies. And a pad of $1.00 coupons. So, of course, I had to try them. Well, they are plain butter cookies sandwiched with dark chocolate. Not a terrible cookie, but only the shape bears resemblance to a Madeleine. Oh well.

Night Kitchen? Is that taking the spot on Stewart? What a great name and concept - but location? What more do you know about this - who, what, etc?

Just to put a little West Coast love out there, go Holly! Funny that she turned down Top Chef Masters, but said yes to this show.

Never ate one of these...next walk through the market, I know where I am going.

I don't know anything about making ice cream, but had a small portion of Full Tilt's (Seattle) vanilla vegan. Made with coconut milk. Tasted like coconut cream to me - off texture - smooth but sticky? Think I'll stick with their ice cream (local blackberry cinnamon (not local) this time.)

I was there last week and a couple of times this spring. The kick off for the sustainable seafood party here. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

Both. Neither. Varies too much to arbitrarily select one over the other. And you are leaving out the rest of the world - and some superior options.

Rock Salt - that's one crazy menu!

I used to use it for sweetened tea. It has its own distinguishable flavor that no longer sits well for me. I was using it for some of the health properties it was touted to have in conjunction with the addition of FOS - Frutafit Inulin Fiber - beneficial bacteria to help the immune system, help control the formation of free radicals, improve regularity. I think continuing studies are concluding that FOS isn't all that. I don't use any of the non-sugar sweeteners, unless you count honey and molasses. And those don't generally go into my tea or coffee. On the other hand, it was fun to grow stevia, but I had no idea what to do with the leaves. Plant is long gone.

A friend just got back - said there is a restaurant right at the ferry dock with excellent food. After her third visit (in two days) she saw an clipping on the bulletin board or such, that the chef had worked at El Bulli. And the other one, French Laundry? Sounded worth a visit at least. Name?

Rocky forgot to mention that Crave has been closed for some time. His other comments are spot on. There are some other breakfast spots in Seattle that are quite nice, depending on what you are looking for. I always vote for Geraldine's Counter (daily!) and brunch at Verve - but that may be because I can walk to them. Springhill has had mostly excellent reviews. Monsoon is so good - weekends only for brunch - with a wide range of offerings.

Henrybuilt, an American company, offers plywood boxes in their standard cabinets. They also have a new company, Viola Park, at an easier price point. My understanding is that Ikea's Blum hardware (used in many high end cabinets) are made in a separate factory and are not fully equivalent in quality to those used by other companies or sold retail. I can't give you a footnote for that. But I have also heard of lots of contractors using Ikea boxes, adding custom doors and drawer fronts. They say, what shows, sells.

Baker's chocolate is convenient and serviceable. Much better options out there for flavor. But I'm not an expert. Cook's Illustrated did a comparison in 2002. Online article doesn't give you the results - and many new companies have started producing in the last 7 years. I prefer cocoa based brownies, so we may not have much in common here.

Closed.

That's so funny. If you aren't being ironic, it was the hot gossip of the year. Here's one account and lot of comments: and do read the comments!

Yay! Two from Seattle. Ate at Branzino just a week ago.

I have no idea, but just read about Locavore - to help find farmer's markets and such. local in more ways than one!

Buh bye Oceanaire. I may have only eaten there once, but it is a good memory.

From yesterday's doings - chocolate cranberry graham cracker bars - child's play: (argg - too small an image!)

Having a poor match of marshmallows to graham crackers, I ended up with crackers. Made Gale Gand's graham cracker cranberry chocolate bars. Kid stuff, but I had the ingredients and could manage to have the oven on for ten minutes. Almost no bake. It will be nice to have them around the house for a couple of days.