Congrats to Dr. Kris Sasaki- Seattle Top Doctor!

We’re so pleased that Seattle Magazine chose our client Dr. Kris Sasaki of Vida Integrated Health as Best Seattle Chiropractor in their annual Top Doctors issue. This is the first year that Seattle added the Alternative Medicine category and the Vida team scored two awards for Best Chiropractor and Best Naturopath. If you don’t know about Vida, check out their website for details about their new Seattle location on Capitol Hill and their integrated approach to functional health and healthy lifestyles.

Seattle Met Sneaks a Peek at The Old Sage from Chefs McCracken and Tough

Allecia Vermillion snuck in to check out Chef McCracken and Tough's newest spot to open soon.  The top things she's excited about in the new bar?  Vermillon wrote, in part:

"The meats. The Old Sage is not barbecue and it’s not a charcuterie bar. It is an assemblage of meats, each one getting a different smoking treatment.

The malts. Here the term applies to both whiskey and beer. Service director Anne Magoon and budget director/whiskey maven Angela Kimber researched the hell out of both and came up with a beer list (bottles plus 12 taps and a 13th nitro) full of deep, sour, smoky, blowout flavors. (“It makes you want the food Magoon intoned over a La Folie sour brown ale from New Belgium’s Lips of Faith line). As for the whiskey side of things, an entire wall is dedicated to single malts, and the bottle count will keep growing long after doors open.

 

A familiar face behind the bar. Charles Veitch, whom my esteemed predecessor termed “more gentlemanly history professor than blustery bartender,” will be a fixture at the Old Sage.

 

Tons of tiny touches. The cutting boards behind the bar are made of walnut, the fruit bowls and water pitchers are glistening copper. Magoon says the staff training included some nervous moments when everyone eyed the artful Akiko’s Pottery tableware and the unforgiving concrete floors. The guys even got some custom aprons, made of a waxed canvas, with copper grommets and leather ties. Plus, you just hose ‘em down at the end of each shift and give them a regular waxing.

 

Hello, there’s a spray-paint portrait of Arthur Denny. Sue me—I’m a sucker for founding fathers of the local and national varieties. This one, overlooking the lounge, is by local muralist Joey Nix, and Denny’s visage is done entirely with aerosol paint. There’s also a mural of a train. Because, why not?"

 

Read the entire story here. And thank you Allecia! www.theoldsage.com

Eater on Woodinville Whiskey Co. and Josh Henderson's Hollywood Tavern

Eater posted the news about this Woodinville collaboration.  Julien Perry wrote, "Cofounder Orlin Sorensen says the new distillery will be highly interactive and will let visitors step onto the production floor, surrounded by corn cooking and barrels being filled.


Photo from Redmond Patch. 



As far as Hollywood Tavern goes, soft-serve, cheap beer, fun bar snacks, corn hole, a killer patio, and a cocktail list designed by Maggie Savarino are all on deck."

Can't wait for autumn.  (Did I just say that?)



Seattle Times "All You Can Eat" Describes Hollywood Project in Woodinville as having "Star Power". Woodinville Whiskey Co.

Read Rebekah Denn's article today on the new Hollywood Tavern and Woodinville Whiskey Co. distillery opening in Woodinville this Fall?  "Woodinville’s old Hollywood Tavern is getting some star attractions.  We’ve known for a while that Josh Henderson of Huxley Wallace Collective (best known for Skillet Street Food) was setting up a farm style restaurant in the old bar space, which is expected to open in September. Now there’s news that the Woodinville Whiskey Company, known as one of the state’s top craft distilleries, will share the property."

Thanks Rebekah.

Woodinville Whiskey Co.'s New Distillery: Allecia Vermillion of Seattle Met Tells Us About the New Project at Hollywood Tavern

Thanks to Allecia for a terrific article on the new distillery, just down the road, that Woodinville Whiskey Co.'s opening later this fall.  Seattle Met describes the project: "We’ve long known that Woodinville’s Hollywood Tavern is getting a makeover as a cheeseburger-and-whiskey-fueled restaurant courtesy of Joshua Henderson. But here's the lowdown on the whiskey component. And it's a big one.

www.Point32.com www.HuxleyWallace.com www.WoodinvilleWhiskeyCo.com

Woodinville Whiskey Co., one of the biggest, most established players in the state's young distillery culture, is moving its operations to a new complex being built around the historic tavern, which previously lived a long life under the name Mabel’s. The plan: Preserve the original tavern, which long predates the wine culture that has sprung up around it, but make it part of a destination that fuses whiskey, dining, and a killer patio where you can play cornhole.

The new distillery will be four times the size of the original. Cofounder Orlin Sorensen says a new still will arrive in October from Germany; the 1,320-gallon pot still will be one of the largest in the western United States.

Sorensen and cofounder Brett Carlile grew up in the area; Sorensen has fond memories of the tavern, from having to keep his distance as a minor to enjoying a Pabst or two inside when he came age: “It was so unique, this little bar right between Ste. Michelle and Columbia and Redhook,” he recalls. So when developer Point 32 (also behind the Bullitt Center) approached the guys, they loved the idea of moving their business to the tavern site. And in the intervening two years, the distillery grew to a point where it actually needed more spacious digs.

The new Woodinville Whiskey will offer tours three times a day, says Sorensen, and the distillery is designed to be highly interactive; visitors can even step onto the production floor, surrounded by corn cooking and barrels being filled." 

Point 32 (Bullett Center sound familiar?) is the developer. Henderson's named Chef Angie Roberts as the Hollywood Tavern's Chef (there will be soft serve ice cream) and the drink list's being dreamed up by Maggie Savarino.  Scoot over here to read the entire story.  You need to hear if Joshua's keeping cheap beer on the menu, after all. 

(Thanks Allecia from Lesa Linster and all of us!)

Sharing the News: Client Youth Wellness Campus Awarded $1 Million Grant by C. Keith Birkenfeld Memorial Trust.

The news via client Patricia Hennessy that we're thrilled to share:  The C. Keith Birkenfeld Memorial Trust Awards a $1 Million Dollar Grant to the Youth Wellness Campus, Soon to Break Ground in Bremerton with Master Plan by Architect Steven Holl.




This photo, from the Steven Holl Architects website, depicts an earlier model of the Youth Wellness Center at night.



The Youth Wellness Campus has been awarded a $1 million dollar grant from the C. Keith Birkenfeld Memorial Trust managed by the Seattle Foundation. The grant will be used to support the organization’s ongoing capital campaign.

Mr. Birkenfeld, a member of a Kitsap County pioneer family, passed away in 2005 leaving his substantial estate to be distributed through grants made annually to non-profit organization in Kitsap County and to other select organizations. Grants are intended to build a lasting impact in the communities the organizations serve and to inspire others to give. 2013 marks the eighth year of the funding with a total of $7.8 million in grants made to date, primarily benefitting Kitsap County non profits.



Mr. Birkenfeld grew up in Bremerton and graduated from Bremerton High School in 1956. He was an educator and philanthropist with wide-ranging civic and cultural interests. He was also a resident of Bainbridge Island contributing the vitality to the community through his support of arts, education and environmental causes. “We are incredibly grateful for this generous grant, the mission of the Youth Wellness Campus is very much in alignment with what Mr. Birkenfeld believed in,” said Peggy Templeton, Board President. “This investment should be an inspiration to all of us, it will help create a lasting legacy for community youth for many generations to come.”



The Youth Wellness Campus, being constructed on the site of the former East Bremerton High School, is a public-private partnership focused on collaborative efforts to advance education, nutrition and overall health. Once complete it will be home to leading organizations with programs serving youth and their families in the Kitsap County region. The master plan of the campus has been designed by world-renowned architect and Kitsap County native Steven Holl.  (Here, in a February Wall Street Journal feature, Mr. Holl discusses, among other things, the first home he designed, back in 1974, right next to the cabin he grew up in, in Manchester, WA near Bremerton in Kitsap County.)



Current partners in the project include the City of Bremerton, Bremerton School District, Kitsap County Health District, Boys and Girls Club of South Puget Sound and Lindquist Dental Clinic for Children. As the project advances, there will be partnerships with sports and fitness organizations, health care agencies, arts and music programs and, collaborative efforts with local chefs and farmers. Redevelopment of the property includes renovation of the existing gymnasium, construction of a facility to house a variety of services, and building a small year-round marketplace featuring local food and craft products.

Other organizations that were awarded grants for 2013 include the Quilcene Historical Museum, Central Kitsap Food Bank, the Marvin Williams Center and Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County. Previous grants from the C. Keith Birkenfeld Memorial Trust include awards to the Boys & Girls Club of South Puget Sound and Lindquist Dental Clinic for Children for the construction of their building on the Youth Wellness Campus. Both organizations are partners on the Youth Wellness Campus. For more information about the campus, please visit www.bywc.org.

Chefs McCracken & Tough's SPUR is in This Month's Hemispheres Magazine (United Airlines In Flight Mag)

In the "Better Together" story on "tired food trends (that) get an injection of new life from visionaries who recognize the power of hybrids", United Air's Hemispheres mag takes a look at everything from Speakeasies and Tasting Menus, to Pop-Up Dinners and Farmers Markets.  In the section "Molecular Gastronomy + Gastropubs = Pub Food Chemistry" readers learn about Chef Wylie Dufresne's New York-based Alder plus Chef Brian McCracken and Dana Tough's Seattle-based SPUR.    Spur's tagliatelle with slow cooked duck egg adds "molecular impulses to Northwest outdoorsiness" they report.

Thank you to Chaney Kwak for a great article and for spotlighting Chefs McCracken and Tough's SPUR.