Back when O'Toole was more dashing, ascots on airplanes were de rigueur.

​The second Wednesday of every month, Seattle Weekly (along with 107.7 The End) sponsors the ultimate rationalization of a midweek buzz: Happy Hour for Hope. Through the generosity of a bar-about-town, a portion of the sales of a featured drink is donated to a worthy charity, stuff is auctioned off to benefit that charity as well, and there's some sort of entertainment.

But at this month's event, February 9 at Grim's (1512 11th Ave) on Capitol Hill, there's a chance legendary actor, drinker, horse bettor, and cocksman Peter O'Toole might show up. And the featured cocktail contains a rare South African liqueur and is named in honor of a pioneering British aircraft that Peter O'Toole probably flew in back in his roguish prime. That makes this Happy Hour for Hope especially special.

More >>

photo courtesy Joshua Huston

​

I spent almost a week thinking about the dish pictured above. Dreaming about it. Wondering how one small plate could contain so much goodness.

I only ate it once (mostly out of fear that trying it a second time could only bring disappointment) and, at the time, it didn't look quite so centerfold-ready as this one does. But it was an amazing plate--one of the best apps I've had in as long as I can remember.

So now the question is, can you guess what it is. And more to the point, can you guess where I'm eating?

Clues after the jump...

More >>

​

One of the great things about eating Indian food--above and beyond the pure excellence of it as a cuisine, absent the cool intermingling of flavors and the way, unlike any other cuisine, it plays with the notions of hot and cold, spicy and sweet--is the way that a meal progresses. Not in courses, necessarily, but in wild flights of fancy. If you do it right (which means to order a lot, from all over the menu), it is like a steady progression of surprises, of pretty little bites, followed only by more.

MORE New clues after the jump

More >>

​

Seattle is a crab cake kind of town. I can't count the places that have crab cakes listed among their appetizers--done well, done poorly, done with maddening amounts of celery or bell pepper or other distractions, done as sliders, as sandwiches or, as in this cake, just laid down on the plate in all their crabby glory and left to fend for themselves.

With crab cakes so ubiquitous on menus, and the love of them so ingrained in the populace, this Guess Where I'm Eating quiz will either be very easy or very impossible for people. The possibilities are vast, the clues in the picture scant. But I have faith in you folks, so tell me...

Can you guess where I'm eating?

First clue after the jump.

More >>

​

I wish that I could eat dim sum every day. One of these days, when that coveted critic's position opens at the Guangdong Times Picayune, I am going to be the first guy on a plane to China--laptop bag in one hand, fork in the other. And the minute I touch down, I will start eating shrimp balls and chicken feet and char siu bao and I won't stop until the authorities find me, some months later, fat and dead in a low-rent hotel room with a half a shu mai in one hand and a smile on my face that'll take a team of plastic surgeons to remove.

In the meantime, I practice by getting as much dim sum into myself as possible, as often as possible, right here in Seattle. And that's what I was doing this weekend. So I ask you, can you guess where I'm eating?

First clue First two clues after the jump, guesses in the comments section below.

More >>

​

Okay, folks. This is one for the champs. As you can see from the picture above, this is a burrito. It's a big burrito. It's a big burrito smothered in red chile and stuffed with beans and carne asada.

Because taking a picture of it in its natural environment would've been an instant dead giveaway, I had to get this one to go. And I managed to take only one small bite before snapping this picture for our game this week.

Need some more clues? Look for them after the jump...

More >>

Carmen Irish

The 2010 award for human waste sustainability goes to...

​This, folks, is the repurposed keg shell that, on August 4, will be named Seattle's Best Urinal. How could it not be, really? It's gorgeous, and how many times have you heard a urinal described as gorgeous? Plus it fits the bar it's in to a tee, and counts as recycling--ingenious recycling. Can you guess what bar it's in? If anyone nails it in the comments, I'll spill the beans, as a sneak preview of sorts for the upcoming Best of Seattle issue, for which we need your vote(s).

More >>

Photo courtesy Peter Mumford

​

What with the 4th of July just past, I figured what better way to celebrate summer than with a quick, BBQ-centric round of Guess Where I'm Eating.

As always, first clue first TWO clues THREE clues now, after the jump, and updated as necessary. Guesses in the comments.

More >>

​

Here's this week's challenge. See that burger up there? Looks like nothing special, right. Kinda thin, with a big puffy bun. But don't be fooled. It's a great burger. And guessing it should be a cinch--anyone who knows this place will know this plate in a second. But those who don't? Well, it's not impossible to make an educated guess. First clue after the jump...

More >>

​

Okay, so maybe a rainy day in Jet City ain't exactly the best time for ice cream, but the urge overtook me anyway and I just had to score some. In looking around for the proper place to feed my ice cream jones (which, by the way, was the name I worked under while acting in various 1970's blaxploitation films), I found the one place in town that regularly served a flavor I'd never seen anywhere else.

Can you guess where I ended up?

As always, first clue after the jump...

More >>