They say April is the cruelest month, but, if it means local food and drink establishments offering specials like lemon meringue pie cupcakes (Trophy Cupcakes) and Chocolate Caramel Potato Chip Cupcake ice cream (Salt and Straw), we'd say it's pretty okay. We've gathered all the seasonal specials available this month in one convenient place, so you can scheme which ones to try before they're gone. We'll update this list throughout April as more specials are announced, so make sure to check back—and, if you're looking for more inspiration, be sure to check out our list of places to find rhubarb in Seattle and our complete food & drink calendar.

Note: Availability may vary. Call ahead to check to ensure specials are still available.

Bluebird Ice Cream
Easter is over, but you can still indulge in a Caramel Creme Egg flavor from the microcreamery: "a deconstruction of our favorite Easter candy; caramel and sweet creme ice creams with fine chocolate shavings," available for a limited time.

Central District Ice Cream
For April only, the ice cream company is offering the following lineup of its characteristically delicious and distinct flavors: chocolate munchies (an ode to Momofuku Milk Bar "cookie queen" Christina Tosi, with coffee, kettle chips, butterscotch, pretzels, graham crackers, oatmeal, sesame and chia); vanilla bean creme brulée (vanilla bean custard ice cream with bruléed sugar pieces); lavender chocolate chip (lavender-infused ice cream with dark chocolate chips); blue raspberry basil (blue raspberry ice cream swirled with basil ice cream); coffee brownie batter (coffee ice cream with dark chocolate brownie batter); rhubarb mimosa (champagne ice cream swirled with rhubarb compote); matcha oreo (matcha ice cream with Oreo pieces); and buko pandan (coconut pandan leaf ice cream with macapuno).

Cloudburst Brewing
Cloudburst's new IPA Bad With Directions "refuses to pay attention to the malt bill, insists on ramping up the classic PNW hops and ends up in a crisp, snappy area that’s close enough."

Cupcake Royale
Just for this month, the cupcakery is selling their petite pastries in three seasonal flavors: key lime cheesecake ("our vanilla cupcake filled with house made key lime curd, swirled with whipped cream cheese frosting with lime zest, and topped with a sprinkle of graham cracker crust"), carrot walnut ("spiced carrot cake with chunky walnuts throughout, topped with a thick swirl of rich cream cheese frosting"), and Big Dipper ("rich chocolate cake, piped with fluffy meringue, dipped in chocolate, and topped with a candied pearl," also available gluten-free).

Delicatus
The Pioneer Square sandwich shop paid tribute to the passing of beloved NPR host Carl Kasell with a special sandwich named in his honor, the "Carl's Kasell": 7 oz hot corned beef, stone-ground mustard, and pickled cucumbers on rye.

Fat's Chicken and Waffles
Marcus Lalario's Southern cafe's latest special is a pulled pork po' boy with fries, available only for a limited time.

Frankie & Jo’s
The plant-based ice cream shop will have three flavors for April: Sweet Pea Mint Chip, a "grown up version" of mint chip with a coconut milk base, fresh mint, sweet peas, and 70% dark chocolate freckles; Roasted Banana Super Cookie, an "adaptogenic cookie dough ice cream" with roasted caramelized bananas in a coconut base with cookie dough chunks and a ribbon of dark chocolate sauce; and Veracruz Vanilla, a coconut-based vanilla with beans from Veracruz grower Gaya Foods, vanilla caramel, and brown sugar blondie chunks. They'll be available until May 1 or while supplies last.

General Porpoise Doughnuts
Renee Erickson's lovely coffee-and-doughnut shop currently has a seasonal rhubarb flavor, the perfect thing to pair with a cup of coffee on a spring morning. In addition, they also have a honey yogurt flavor and a Pink Lady apple and Cara Cara jam flavor.

Hot Cakes
The molten hot cakery's spring menu includes Rhubarb Bread Pudding (a vanilla bean bread pudding made with Gaya Farms vanilla beans and rhubarb from Puyallup's Richter Farms, topped with chunky roasted rhubarb jam, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and drizzled with rhubarb syrup), Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shake (a vegan shake made with house-made cinnamon toast crunch cereal, cinnamon-steeped coconut milk, and Frankie & Jo's brown sugar vanilla ice cream), Ambrosia (an ambrosia salad-inspired molten cake flavor with toasted coconut marshmallow meringue, orange pineapple marmalade, vanilla ice cream, dried pineapple flower, and maraschino cherry), Lemon Herb Shake (a shake made with housemade lemon curd, vanilla ice cream, and a basil-thyme-mint paste), Gaya Vanilla Pudding (a vanilla pudding in a Mason jar with dry-burned vanilla caramel and house-made vanilla wafers), and a Smoked Chocolate & Lahproaig Boozy Shake (made with alderwood smoked chocolate, vanilla ice cream and Laphroaig Scotch).

Hood Famous Bakeshop
The culty Filipino bakery's seasonal spring cheesecake is inspired by the classic Hawaiian elixir POG, with three layers: passionfruit, blood orange, and guava.

Juicebox
Kari Brunson's health food haven rolled out a new spring menu, which includes a green mint chip smoothie (banana, spinach, Theo cocoa nibs, pepita date milk, and mint essential oil), a strawberry rhubarb shake (rhubarb, strawberry, date, orange, and coconut milk), and a spring sesame bowl (brown rice, lettuces, red cabbage, snap peas, roasted mushrooms, cilantro, pickled carrot, carrot sesame vinaigrette, and nutritional yeast gomaiso).

JuneBaby
For April, a.k.a. Mint Julep Month, Edouardo Jordan's acclaimed, James Beard-nominated Southern restaurant is serving the JB Julep, their take on the classic refreshing cocktail.

Katsu Burger
The tonkotsu-style burger joint has reprised its popular Ranch Kudasai burger, a Japanese-style chicken bacon ranch sandwich with nori flakes and spicy mayo.

La Marzocco
The KEXP cafe's current roaster-in-residence is Boston-based George Howell Coffee. Among other things, Howell is known for his role in the development of the Frappuccino and for pioneering a freezing method that preserves the freshness of green coffees grown months or years ago. He'll bring some of these coffees to La Marzocco, as well as signature drinks like the Cloud 9 ("a fruity, sangria-like base steeped with San Antonio, Colombia coffee, and dolloped with Ethiopian honey whipped cream") and the famous La Esmeralda Gesha from Panama.

Lady Yum
The macaron maven has brought back their popular passionfruit flavor for the month, as well as a seasonal flavor, Apricot Amaretto Lux.

L’il Woody’s
The burger joint's current weekly special is the Peas in a Pod Burger, with mascarpone cheese, a bacon, mint, and spring pea salad, and grass-fed beef (available until Tuesday, May 1). We'll update here when the next week's special is announced.

Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge
A marshmallow peep perches atop the retro 24-hour diner's Milkshake of the Month, which is a birthday cake shake with whipped cream and sprinkles.

Macrina Bakery
The beloved bakery's spring menu, available through May 13, includes columba pasquale, brioche, chocolate pecan babka, rosemary raisin rolls, buttermilk dinner rolls, tropical mousse cake, chocolate raspberry cake, very berry pie, carrot cupcakes, bird's nest cupcakes, coconut cream pies, mini lemon cheesecakes, mini rustic almond cake, mini banana walnut bread, spring brown sugar shortbread cookies, and sweet wafers. Their product of the month is a mini lemon sour cherry coffee cake, with lemon and dried cherries and a lemon-sugar glaze.

Maslow’s
The downtown American eatery run by the laudable nonprofit FareStart, whose mission is to provide “a community that transforms lives by empowering homeless and disadvantaged men, women, and families to achieve self-sufficiency through life skills, job training and employment in the food service industry," has a monthly "Maslow's Meal" special created by a local chef in collaboration with their FareStart apprentices. For April, guest chef Joe Ritchie of Goldfinch Tavern created a dish showcasing marinated albacore alongside herbed green beans, watercress, and smoked garlic aioli.

Mighty-O Donuts
The vegan donut shop's current seasonal flavor is Bunny Whiskers, a pink donut rolled in shredded coconut.

Molly Moon’s Ice Cream
Molly Moon Neitzel's local ice cream shop's current seasonal sundae is the Strawberry Patch sundae, in honor of the beginning of gardening season and "inspired by raised garden beds overflowing with bright red strawberries": sweet cream ice cream topped with house-made hot fudge, strawberry jam made with Viva Farms strawberries, an organic chocolate cookie "soil" (a throwback to the dirt cup desserts of childhood), finished with whipped cream and a Chukar cherry. As for their current seasonal flavors, they also have Black Sesame, a flavor made with roasted and stone-ground sesame seeds for a "nutty, earthy, and just slightly bitter ice cream that is densely rich and creamy in texture"; Hibiscus Tea Sorbet, a refreshing fuchsia dairy-free flavor made with hibiscus and lime; Vegan Coconut Chunk, a dairy-free coconut sweet cream base with toasted coconut flakes and 70% Theo dark chocolate flecks; and Birthday Cake, a cake batter ice cream swirled with cake batter pastry cream and sprinkle-dotted Swiss buttercream to celebrate the chain's tenth birthday.

Parfait Ice Cream
Small-batch ice creamery Parfait currently has a dairy-free peach bellini sorbet, made with Tonnemakers Orchards peaches frozen during their prime in the summer, a black sesame flavor, and Meyer lemon and Creamsicle flavors, available while supplies last.

Rachel's Ginger Beer
The soda shop's current seasonal flavor is the POG-inspired Passion Orange Guava, available on tap and in growlers.

Salt and Straw
For its current seasonal flavors (available starting April 5), the Portland-based artisan ice cream maker has temporarily reprised six previous favorites that fans voted to bring back: Pots of Gold and Rainbows (made with hand-sorted Lucky Charms cereal, with rainbow marshmallow charms folded into a whole grain cereal-milk base), chocolate caramel potato chip cupcake (a salty-sweet malted flavor with ganache-covered cupcake chunks, chocolate-covered potato chips, and house-made caramel), Meyer lemon meringue pie (toasted Nilla Wafer-infused ice cream with Meyer lemon curd and marshmallow fluff), smoked sea salt with chocolate-covered feulletine (cherry-wood smoked sea salt ice cream base with chocolate covered-feulletine—which are crispy flakes made of sweetened crepes), and sweet corn and waffle cones (a sweet corn ice cream with chocolate-covered waffle cone chunks, salted brown butter freckles, and vanilla caramel ribbons, made in collaboration with chef April Bloomfield).

Shug's Soda Fountain and Ice Cream
The old-timey soda shoppe has a pistachio ice cream sundae with strawberry rhubarb sauce, whipped cream, and a waffle cookie.

Trophy Cupcakes
The gourmet cupcake maker has a lemon meringue pie flavor, with lemon cake filled with house-made lemon curd with a graham cracker crust bottom, topped with a "Hi-Swirl" of toasted marshmallow meringue.