09/05/07 - Alder Wood Bistro Pizza

08/24/07 - Our Review of Alder Wood Bistro

08/23/07 - Alderwood Bistro

08/04/07 - Rover's Summer of 2007

• smoked duck with a green olive tapenade
• a ripe red tomato with bucheron goat cheese - It's tomato season people, hint, hint.
• salmon with fava beans
• soft shelled crab with mussels
• lobster with corn kernels - Was this a tribute to the late Jean Louis Palladin?
• lamb medallions with flageolet and a grilled onion

07/25/07 - Exploring Seattle and The Local Vine

The walk down was spectacular, with Seattle's version of the painted ladies, perhaps a quarter of them being remodeled, and some spectacular views of the city and the sound.

It is often tricky to get a good glass of champagne in Seattle. The Hyatt hotel doesn't serve beverages in their lovely lobby, and most restaurants don't serve more than one or two types by the glass. Our best bets have been Cafe Campagne and the Sorrento Hotel. The local vine had seven or eight types of champagne (and sparkling wine) available. We tried two:

• Gossert Brut Excellence - a wonderful, rich champagne with an extra bite and a magnificent nose
• Gonet-Medeville Extra Brut Rose - an unusual pink champagne with a fascinating kumquat note

06/09/07 - The Kalebergs Check Out The Harvest Vine

Rover's is right across the street, so we kept putting off dinner at The Harvest Vine. We finally made a special trip, and we have to admit. The cuisine may be Basque, but maybe the Basque are just better cooks. This was the best Iberian meal we have had, ever. There was the expected, squid in its own ink, and the unexpected, venison with oyster mushrooms, and then there was the perfect, and we could go down a long list here starting with the sea urchin and porcini revuelto. Read our review to learn more.

04/12/07 - The Beaver Statue in Beaver, WA

It looks as if the Sappho maiden is gone for good. Our closest consolation is the carved wooden beaver statue in Beaver, WA. It's right by the diner. (Tuesday is Taco Night).

02/18/07 - San Francisco Update - Clearing Our Plate

We have finally gotten around to posting our San Francisco restaurant reviews. We were in San Francisco back in December and January, and we have just been too busy to post anything about it, until now. And about time.

We hadn't been in San Francisco in six years. That's a long time, and things have changed. The great food adventure of the 80s and 90s seems to have vanished, and, to be honest, we were a bit disappointed with the food in one of our favorite food cities. Seattle is a much more interesting food town these days. In San Francisco, too many restaurants seem to be just going through the motions.

This isn't to say that one can't get a good meal in San Francisco. We had plenty, but something has changed. Read our San Francisco page for more, or check out the individual reviews: Boulevard, Dosa, New Asia, Nopa, Terzo, Ton Kiang, Tres Agaves, Yank Sing, Zuni Cafe, and Marinus in Carmel Valley.

02/07/07 - Three and a Half New Seattle Restaurant Reviews

We've been rather remiss on our reporting, but we've been visiting new restaurants including three in Seattle. We've reviewed three of them on our website:

• Coupage - a wonderful Korean fusion place; surely a cuisine that has come of age
• Nishino - Japanese classics with a modern touch by a student of Nobu Matsuhisa
• Tilth - an organic country kitchen in the big city

The one half a restaurant is Tom Douglas's Serious Pie, his new pizzeria. We had to admit that the pies were very, very good, but we just had a slice or two and have to go back for more testing.

02/07/07 - Douglas Fir Based Eau d'Vie from Clear Creek

We first heard about this product at Coupage, a Korean fusion restaurant noted in the item below. One of their dishes was arctic char marinated in a Douglas fir based liqueur. We had expected it to be overwhelmingly pine flavored, perhaps even resinous. It was not. The flavor was clear, but unusual, and rather hard to place.

The very next day we saw the bottle on the right at a Washington State Liquor Store. Clear Creek, based in Oregon, makes the unusual alcoholic beverage shown to the right. According to the little tag, they use grape based brandy and young, hand picked douglas fir buds. They soak the buds in the brandy, then redistill the batch.

As for the flavor, it tastes a bit like rose water with that rich tang. It's a very clear, clean flavor. Think woodsy, not pine-y. We can't find it at the state web site, so it is probably a one shot item, or perhaps being sold illegally. We don't care. We like it.

12/11/06 - Our Review of Fra'Mani Salumeria

We have long been fans of Salumi in Seattle, so when we heard about Fra'Mani in Berkeley we had to check out the competition. The comparison was not as simple as we had thought, and Fra'Mani is a serious contender. Can you guess our favorite? We are being deliberately coy here in hope that you will read our review.

07/06/06 - Amazing Yukon Salmon at Bella Italia

We just had dinner at Bella Italia, and we had some of the best salmon we've ever had, and living out here in Port Angeles, that's saying a lot. According to our usually reliable source, this was salmon from up in the Yukon, a bit expensive, but worth it every bite. It was rich and fatty, and cooked very simply. There were no left overs. According to another of our other usually reliable sources, what made this salmon so special was that it was summer salmon, all fattened up, but not very far up stream yet. That's the kind you almost never get in restaurants, let alone at the supermarket. But, we do get it out here in Port Angeles. The word is that this salmon will be on the menu for the next few weeks. If you are in town for the Lavender Festival, this is your big chance to see what salmon can be.

05/19/06 - Fins Restaurant in Port Townsend

We haven't been to Port Townsend in a while, so when we went to see Duma, a charming movie at the Rose Theatre about a boy and his cheetah, we tried a new restaurant, Fins. Well, we still love the Fountain Cafe, but Fins is a serious contender. Now, if we can ever get back to Port Townsend for dinner.

04/09/06 - Update On Flying Fish

We were in Seattle the other day and had a really great meal. It had been a while, so we were pleased to find Flying Fish as good as ever, and now they are open for lunch.

Click here for our updated restaurant review of Flying Fish.

04/01/06 - Lake Crescent Opening Dates

The Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort has been open for a while now, but the two Lake Crescent resorts are still getting ready. We run Lake Crescent Cottage, a vacation rental on Lake Crescent, which is already open for the season, and some of our guests have been asking us about dining options in the area. So, for the information of our guests and anyone else browsing the web:

• Lake Crescent Lodge - wonderful NW cuisine- Opens May 6th
• Log Cabin Resort - breakfast, lunch, dinner, canoe rentals - Opens May 26th

03/22/06 - Blue Flame Is Coming Back

Blue Flame Barbeque is not closed as we had feared. They are moving to a real, indoors location right across the street on Route 101, just east of Port Angeles. We loved them at their old location with its outdoor smokers, and we are looking forward to trying them out when they reopen as a real restaurant.