Le Gourmand - Birthday

There's no Food Service of America trucks here.

Chef-owners Bruce and Sara Naftaly of Seattle's Le Gourmand restaurant have, in the true spirit of the food movement, been creating local - so local in fact that many ingredients were sourced from backyards in Ballard - organic and seasonal cuisine for the last 25 years. Tarah and I recently took part in one of Bruce's monthly Sunday dinner classes. We thought of it as a treat - considering its $75/person price - but it turns out the class is mostly regulars, some of which have been attending nearly every month for 15 years. We (~14 people) sat around the kitchen precariously perching our wine on whatever surface we could wile trying to take notes and eat as Bruce described in detail and cooked a delicious four course meal from first principals right before our eyes. Well not totally from first principals, he used chicken and fish stock that he makes fresh daily. There was a paired wine with dinner that went into 3 of the 4 courses and was available for bottomless pouring. I definitely recommend the experience.

Art Walk

We had a great night tonight at the First Thursday Art Walk. We ended up running into a number of people we know, bought some great art - Janet Miller http://www.plantejanetart.com/ - and just had a great time.

We tried Collin's Pub in Pioneer Square for dinner. It has a great beer selection, with tons of local and interesting brews; we split 4 schooners - one of which was from the new greenwood brewery, Naked City - and the food was good to great, with a significant amount of interesting game on the menu - I had the elk. This brings up a good point that it would not be a great choice for a vegetarian. It's definitely a gastropub, which I like, but it has multiple TV that are viewable from most any seat in the house which makes it feel kinda like a sports pub. I'm not at all into TVs so this would be my one significant complaint about the place.