Tankard and Tun will be chock full of owner Charlie Finkels collection of vintage tankards, but this heres one of their cute, logo-branded teku glasses.
Tankard and Tun will be chock full of owner Charlie Finkel's collection of vintage tankards, but this here's one of their cute, logo-branded teku glasses. Pike Brewing Co.

Tankard and Tun Opens This Friday

Tankard and Tun, Pike Brewing Co's venture into the fine dining scene, makes its official debut this Thursday. Whether or not the food is any good, the place is worth visiting simply because its an impressive feat of engineering. The space is a multi-level masterpiece, replete with a mezzanine, an oyster bar, a semi-open kitchen, and several 60-barrel fermenting tanks. The tanks, which would never fit through the front, were craned in via a window above the gum wall.

That said, I went to the media preview dinner, and the food was great. Oysters are a focal point, and one of the space's many levels will be a full oyster bar that features an up-close-and-personal view of the brewery action. I'm a huge fan of oysters and beer, but also pretty much all of the food chefs Gabe Spiel and Stuart Law put out, which trends toward semi-adventurous Northwest seasonal fare. Perfect for pairing with fancy beer!

Costco Makes a Burger, People Care

Apparently Costco's addition of a cheeseburger is a very big deal. Big enough to send the Seattle Times' Tanh Vinh to SoDo to investigate the deep, existentially important question of, "Is it better than the hot dog?" According to him, it's pretty good, but not better.

For my part, I haven't set foot in a Costco in a decade, and no burger—even one with organic beef and a likely very delicious challah bun—is likely to change that. Costco is a wonderfully ethical business, as far as massive warehouse retailers go, but I can barely make it through a bag of Trader Joe's salad mix in a week, let alone a seventeen pack of romaine hearts. Thankfully for busy single folks like myself, our city has an abundance of wonderful ways to shop small. Like Pike Place Market, for example, which just previewed its awesome Marketfront expansion project.

Pizza x Records Collab Coming to Pioneer Square

It'll be called RPM Pizza and Records, and it looks like it'll be in the former Il Corvo Pasta Studio/Pizzeria Gabbiano space.


There will be pizza, obviously, and the record selection will favor local artists, according to Eater. As sad as I was to see Mike Easton's venture's depart, I'm happy to see that space reactivated, and enthusiastically in support of both things they are selling. Also, if you like records and pizza and want to make money by selling those things, they're hiring.

Eric Rivera Leaves the Bookstore

The buzzy chef made some big changes while he was at the Bookstore Bar and Cafe, including adding an afternoon tea with rosé popsicles, but now he's now departing, Eater reports. They also report that split is amicable, and Rivera will be keeping himself busy with a pop-up series called Addo, which is Latin for "inspire."

New Location for Josh Henderson's Great State Burger

The latest outpost of the Huxley Wallace mastermind's burger chain will be in the International District's Publix building, which will also be the first Seattle location of the popular Dough Zone dumpling phenom, Eater reports.

Viennese Pastry Shop Opens in Phinney Ridge

Celine Patisserie is a new venture from a Moldovan couple at 6801 Greenwood Ave. N, according to PhinneyWood. They'll be offering up traditional Viennese pastries, which includes everything from monkey bread to macarons to smoked salmon sandwiches. Sounds bomb. They're open 7am-7pm Mon-Fri, and 8am-8pm Saturday. Closed Sundays for now.

Kamonegi Coming to Former AoT Space

Now that Art of the Table has moved to Stone Way, their old space is up for grabs. After leaving Miyabi 45th to have a baby, a career experience chronicled poignantly by Angela Garbes, chef Mutsuko Soma is making another go at the industry. Her latest venture would be a physical manifestation of her erstwhile soba pop-up series, Kamonegi, and if you want to support it, she's raising funds via Indiegogo. However, her liquor permit has already popped up on the Washington State Liquor Control Board's new license actions page, so things are definitely moving forward. Here's hoping it all works out, as having access to fresh soba noodles made by hand each day is a pretty rare privilege. Indeed, Soma thinks she may be the only person on the west coast making them.

Anchor End Pretzel Shoppe Twins Gettin' That Food Network Money

Amanda and Jessica Lewis, the twins behind food truck Anchor End Pretzel Shoppe just won big on Twin It to Win It, a Food Network show pitting teams of culinary twins against each other, MyBallard reports. They faced off against brick and mortar restauranteur twins from Sacramento and Virginia Beach, and say that they think their restaurant having four wheels made them ringers. As Amanda Lewis put it to MyBallard:

“When we met the other twins, I think it was automatically assumed that we were the underdogs, because we were the youngest, and we had a food truck, and the least amount of experience. I don’t think anyone saw us as a threat, which I think that made it better for Jess and I, because we’re so used to that in our industry. Being women, and being young – there are so very few of us.”

To really sweeten up the whole "being young women in a tough, patriarchal industry" thing, they first got on the Food Network's radar via Guy's Grocery Games, a show run by the network's notorious chili-dog-scarfing snowman, Guy Fieri. Their savory pretzel bun sandwiches look pretty delicious, but nothing is as sumptuous as the taste of sweet, sweet poetic justice.