The Huntington's Disease Society of America's "Dinner and a Show" fundraiser features the "Euro-cafe style" music of acoustic duo Cricket & Snail—whose sound has been said to evoke Jewish weddings and the circus—plus a dinner and a dessert auction. If you'd rather donate to the cause directly, you can do so here: https://www.hdsa.org/how-you-can-help/donations.html $10.
The Timbers Army supports the Portland Timbers. The Gorilla Football Collective supports the Seattle Sounders. What do they have in common? They both love beer! As part of Seattle Beer Week, come taste beers specially brewed in honor of the two soccer titans and meet your fellow fans. (The Southsiders, supporting the Vancouver Whitecaps, are also invited, though their beer remains a work in progress.) No cover, beers vary.
It’s a “showcase of gourmet soups” from Piatti, Aljoya, Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon, Wedgwood Ale House, and Stanford’s, served in a handcrafted bowl that you get to take home. In May. Still, it benefits the North Helpline Food Bank (donate directly and fill someone else’s bowl here), so: recommended. $25 in advance, $35 at the door.
For $25, you get food from nine different food trucks (including Skillet, Veraci Pizza, Hallava Falafel, and Seattle Biscuit Company), tastings from local distilleries and breweries, live music, and the warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the U-District Food Bank’s new facility—which will feature low-income housing plus job training and counseling spaces, and move the food bank line inside and out of the rain.
$25 admission, $100 donation for Community Cookbook.
Unnamed “premier chefs” prepare a five-course meal paired with local wines, benefiting the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center. The featured speaker is Rick Bayless, host of Mexico: One Plate at a Time on PBS and Top Chef Master, who was named Humanitarian of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals for his work with small Midwestern farms. Good guy, good cause: recommended. $250, $350 VIP.
Hey, look: It's Seattle Beer Week, with more than 200 beery events from May 9 through 19 (because a beer week should be longer than a regular week, obvs.). The sloshy fun includes the Tour de Pints bicycle-powered-beer-crawl, a beer-can-car derby at the Pine Box, and the Brewers Mini Golf Blowout in Interbay (“You can be sure there will be drinks on these links”). Check the website for more, and celebrate the best beer city in the world (according to Seattle Beer Week) with beer!
Fancy Dahlia Lounge “dresses down” for a four-course dinner of English pub classics with beer pairings from Seattle’s own Schooner Exact—an arguably good deal for 50 bucks. $50.
After seven years, the annual Guest Chef at the Waterfront moved inland to the Showbox Sodo. The lineup of more than 20 restaurants and 20 wineries/breweries includes Tulalip Resort & Casino, SkyCity at the Needle, and Duke’s Chowder House, but it does benefit FareStart, the local nonprofit that provides culinary training to disadvantaged individuals, so: recommended. $70 before May 1, $80 after, $125 VIP.
Celebrate Hot Cakes' first year with half-price molten chocolate cakes, $5 milkshakes, and more. Starred for the $6 “special boozy birthday cake shake,” which would be the best-ever show name for a fluffy white Pomeranian.
Learn how to make great foods with all-time-great chef Bruce Naftaly (of the late, great Le Gourmand, who is also really nice), with eating and drinking included. Chef shouts, via email: "FIVE COURSES! HOW TO DO IT! AND WINE WINE WINE!" $75.
Back in the day when most Copper River salmon was destined to be overcooked and encased in tin, local seafood hero John Rowley decided he could do better. Thirty years later, Kevin Davis makes a celebratory dinner. $65 plus tax and gratuity.
It’s a dinner paired with Bordeaux-style blends from Yakima Valley’s DuBrul Vineyard, hosted by winemaker Kerry Shiel. $150 plus tax and gratuity.
The Quilliascut Education Fund is dedicated to cultivating education for a sustainable future. Show your support while enjoying a lovely dinner at the Corson Building. You'll also hear how "Quilliascut" is properly pronounced. $200.
Among the simple delights of summer, a chilled glass of rosé ranks high. Rejoice in the sun’s return with live music from the Millionaires' Club, fresh-shucked oysters, and cheap glasses of wine. Starred for a lovely patio and ROSÉ! $3 tastes/$6 glasses of rosé, $2 oysters, food $5 and up.
Tavolàta's monthly Sunday Feast can be a good deal, with prices varying depending on the star ingredient/menu—though since they're served family-style at the 26-seat communal table, you might want to bring a bunch of friends to insulate you from people who use the word "foodie." Upcoming feasts: Northern Italian, Feb. 10; Strictly Seafood, March 10; Roasted Duck, April 21; Suckling Pig, May 19; Garden Vegetables and Wild Mushrooms, June 9. Price varies.
Celebrate Bastille Day at Le Pichet—this is the place to be if you cannot make it to France today.
“Seattle's second-best cocktail lounge” celebrates 6,000 consecutive days in business by offering all its food and drink items for a mere $6 (!). $6 food/drinks.
Seattle Greendrinks has been “convening and growing Seattle’s environmental community” through weekly get-togethers and special events for 10 years, and they’re celebrating in sustainable style with food, drinks, a thrift-shop-themed costume contest, and a “silent disco dance party.” BYOC (bring your own cup). $15/adv, $20/door.
Love wine but hate human slavery? Join SOZO Friends winery and Rescue: Freedom International for a wine-pairing dinner with a portion of the proceeds benefiting education for children liberated from slavery. $150 plus tax and gratuity.
Ethan Stowell, the man behind a bunch of restaurants (you know), hosts a charity cook-off in which you get to try 117-ish kinds of barbecue made by pro chefs and notable amateurs, plus lots of beer. Proceeds benefit the Fetal Health Foundation. $50.
The Stranger’s reviews of Cafe Nordo’s experimental dinner-theater-that-isn't-dinner-theater have been mixed. Thadius Van Landingham III thought the dishes uneven and the ambitions unmet in the company’s first show; Bethany Jean Clement found one of last year’s shows long but fairly rewarding, while Paul Constant delighted in the full-body pleasure of another. This spring, a modern spaghetti western. Will it be good, bad, and/or ugly—who can say? $130-$160 for season's membership, $600 for Chef's Table.
Join Jim Drohman (Le Pichet, Cafe Presse) for a cooking demonstration as part of the market's Summer Sundays Chef Demos. Chow editor Bethany Jean Clement says, "Jim Drohman is great, and we should all be lucky enough to learn to cook a thing from him. You can quote me on that." Attendees get to taste Drohman's dish after the demonstration. FREE.
Field trip! It's the Cascade Country Cook-Off, with championship competitions in the arenas of barbecue, chili, and dutch oven!
The Seattle Polish-American community gets festive at Seattle Center with jazz, folk art, an exhibition of Polish film posters, a beer garden stocked with Polish beer, and Polish food galore. There will be sausages. Free.
It's baaaaaack, for the sixth year in a row! Burning Beast—the world's funnest, most delicious, meatiest feast in a field, with whole beasts cooked over open flames by Seattle's best chefs—is set for Sunday, July 21. Burning Beast benefits and takes place at the very worthy, very lovely Smoke Farm, out in the country an hour north of Seattle. It will be hot and sunny (probably), and there is a river to swim in. Dear lord, speed us to the day of Burning Beast VI! TBA.