Beacon Hill Blog

Hot dog! Late night food outside the pub

We mentioned it before, but tonight was the first night I’ve dropped by to sample the new hot dog cart on the sidewalk just outside the Beacon Pub, near Beacon Avenue South and South Hanford Street. (It’s not the first time we’d tried — our last two attempts were coincidentally just after they’d closed for the night under their old hours.)

From the cart, you can order up hot dogs, bratwurst, hot links, italian sausage, veggie “sausage”, italian and beef sandwiches, tacos, grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, meatball subs, sliders, black bean veggie burgers, even pasta. An entire table is packed with condiments from ketchup to cream cheese and everything in between. Also available are nachos, pretzels, chips, popcorn, candy and pop.

When I stopped by tonight, Kris Coty was working the grill. She and Laurie Lusko run the operation. Laurie owns the pub, too. She’s had the place for the last twelve or so years.

Being outside the pub, it’s okay to come with the kids, and it’s a great way to satisfy a late-night hot link craving. Maybe stop in and play pool or belt out a song on karaoke night, too.

Hours:
6pm-1am Thursday
3pm-1am Friday
1pm-1am Saturday
11am-8pm Sunday

Tags: beacon pub, hot dogs, late night

Beacon Hill plum tree is front-page news

Heidi Risse pointed out their plum tree’s front-page appearance on today’s issue of the Seattle Times. The Risses’ tree, with a bumper crop of plums this year, is featured in an article about City Fruit (previously mentioned here), an organization formed earlier this year to not only help harvest urban crops, but to assist and educate tree owners in pest control, pruning and processing. Check out City Fruit’s calendar for classes on canning and more.

Find out how the 75 pounds of bounty will be put to use in the article at the Times.

Tags: city fruit, fruit, trees

Light Rail restaurant review: Baja Bistro

Baja Bistro and Java Love are actually conjoined twins: a bar on one side and a coffee shop on the other, sharing a kitchen. There are a few tables and chairs outside and small seating areas in both restaurants.

Baja Bistro has a full liquor license. They sell a limited number of bottled beers and probably have some wine–but the reason we go here is for the margaritas. Whether you go for traditional lime or upgrade to a house pomegranate-lime blend, you will not be disappointed. Drinks are served in pint glasses and balance great taste with moderate alcohol–and they’re within walking distance of my house!

I also rave about the tacos patatas–potato tacos. Trust me, they are incredible! Crispy, filling, but not greasy or heavy. Perfect with a margarita or other summer beverage. Also be sure to try the fish tacos, the mole enchiladas, and the incredible tortas (bolo sandwich with rich avocado and mayo spread). The homemade chips and salsa are also a treat, or you can upgrade to nachos.

Service at Baja Bistro is sincerely friendly. Everyone is made to feel welcome. Everyone on staff seems to enjoy being there and it’s clear they expect you to linger for a while. Service is quick, but the atmosphere encourages hanging out and enjoying a conversation (or a book). Baja Bistro is also kid friendly, at least on the Java Love side. The owner lives on Beacon Hill and received an award from The Stranger for being one of “Seattle’s Sexiest Baristas”. Someone should really nominate his younger brother for the award next year…

Regular prices are reasonable (meals for two are generally around $20-$25, more if you order drinks) and Happy Hour prices are very happy: $3 tacos and $5 margaritas.

Thanks to Link Light Rail, people who aren’t fortunate enough to walk to Baja Bistro will be able to take the train. Baja Bistro is two blocks north of the Beacon Hill light rail station. Come on up and enjoy some good food, great drinks, and outstanding company!

They close at 5:00 pm on Mondays, and stay open until 9:00 pm Tuesday-Friday. Enjoy breakfast and other items from 9:00 am-3:00 pm on weekends.

Neighborhood: Beacon Hill
2414 Beacon Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 323-0953

Tags: baja bistro, java love, light rail station, mexican food, restaurants

Light Rail restaurant reviews: La Cabaña

La Cabaña is Tex-Mex style cooking: lots of gooey cheddar cheese & smothered stuff. It’s not health food, but it is delicious!

Family-run and super friendly, this is where we take visitors when we want to spread out and enjoy a lot of good food without spending very much money. Portions are LARGE–you’ll have enough for lunch the next day. Dinner for 3 usually totals about $35, including drinks.

Try the mole enchiladas, the tostados, and the tamales. Rice and beans are basic and good. Two kinds of salsa and all you can eat chips (with ongoing refills) come with every meal. My niece loves the horchata (sweet rice drink) and my sweetie loves the Negro Modelo beer. I stick with water or occasionally a wine sangria. No hard alcohol here.

It’s almost always empty, but they’ve been around forever. The booths are roomy and the staff are always happy to see groups with kids. Decor is kitschy, in an adorable way.

I love La Cabaña. If you live on the Hill, walk on down. If you’re visiting on the train, it’s just a couple of blocks from the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station.

La Cabaña
2532 Beacon Ave S
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 322-9643

Tags: cheese, La Cabaña, mexican, restaurants

Light Rail restaurant review: Thai Palms

Every so often, we drive along MLK to observe light rail construction progress. It’s been really fun lately to see trains running. We went out to Kubota Gardens a few weeks ago and stopped off at Thai Palms on the way home.

Thai Palms is located on a busy stretch of MLK, near the Othello light rail station and not far from Holly Park Greenhouse & Nursery.

The restaurant is clean and comfortable, decorated with wicker and bright flowers. Our server met us immediately at the door and was attentive and polite. He brought two delicious iced coffees immediately. My dining companion was disappointed to hear there was no beer–Thai Palms doesn’t have a liquor license yet.

We were impressed by the extensive menu–at least four pages listing everything from Thai standards (phad Thai, Lard Na, Tom Yum) to items I didn’t recognize and can’t remember how to spell. If you have a favorite Thai dish, they probably make it here.

We started with fried egg rolls. They were fine–nothing special, but hot and brought out quickly. Next time, I’ll definitely go for the fresh rolls and/or the salt & pepper tofu as a starter.

I ordered a Massaman curry and jasmine rice. The curry was rich with coconut milk and spiced just right. 3/5 stars was perfect here–warm enough to make my nose tingle, but not so hot I cried. Shane enjoyed his Phad Thai, which contained traces of tamarind and shrimp paste and lacked the ketchup-induced sweetness and pink hue so often found in that dish.

Service lagged between our egg rolls & the main dishes. I couldn’t tell if it was simply because the main dishes were being fresh made, or because there was a shift change. We would have appreciated drink refills and some idea of when our food was coming out.

Overall, I recommend Thai Palms. It was tasty, inexpensive (less than $30 for two entrees, coffee, and an appetizer), and nearby. Once the trains start carrying passengers, we’ll venture down again.

Neighborhood: Rainier Valley
6715 Martin Luther King Jr Way S
(between Holly St & Willow St)
Seattle, WA 98118
(206) 721-7777
thai-palms.com

Tags: light rail, restaurants, thai palms

Lunch Counter, Swinery follow Culinary Communion to oblivion

The Culinary Communion/Swinery/Lunch Counter saga continues. Last month, Culinary Communion, the cooking school located at 2524 Beacon Avenue South, announced via a farewell letter from owners Gabriel Claycamp and Heidi Kenyon that they would be closing because of a combination of the bad economy, and permitting issues with the city involving required exits in the basement. However, at that point the Swinery and the Lunch Counter (both located in the same building, and also owned by Claycamp and Kenyon) were expected to stay open. (The Swinery, however, has had its own run-ins with regulators, including a recent situation involving Swinery meat being supplied to a Fremont restaurant without proper permits in place for doing so.)

The “dramatic tale of oh!”, as Nancy Leson put it in her All You Can Eat blog at the Seattle Times, was not yet over. This week Claycamp sent out an email stating that King County has now given him permission to sell the Swinery’s bacon legally. But on the other hand, they have now lost their lease and “will be for sure out of the building by the end of the month.” Lunch Counter? Closed. (That was fast.) Swinery? Sort of closed, but they say they have “24 days to make and sell some bacon,” along with t-shirts that read “BACON PIMP.”

And this is where the situation gets even more convoluted. While the Swinery now has a permit to sell bacon (and only bacon, no other cured meats) legally, the annual permit to run a restaurant/food establishment from the Culinary Communion House on Beacon Avenue expired on March 31. The bacon-selling permit assumes that the bacon will be sold from a legally-permitted establishment, which CC House is not. Unfortunately, the fees to renew CC House’s restaurant permit are not pro-ratable, so Gabriel and Heidi would have to pay either a year’s fee or a six-month seasonal fee to be able to sell bacon they plan to sell for the rest of April.

Claycamp has also withdrawn his application to sell at farmers’ markets, so the Ballard Farmers’ Market sales mentioned on the Swinery web site won’t be happening, nor will any other market sales.

There are more messy details, both in Leson’s story and from Rebekah Denn in Eat All About It.

The one result we can be sure of at the moment is that the Culinary Communion House on Beacon is going to be very vacant, very soon. Perhaps a nice pizza restaurant could open there instead?

Tags: culinary communion, gabriel claycamp, lunch counter, swinery

Beacon Bits: Lunch planning

• Hungry Girl visits Lunch Counter
• ColorsNW on the Presidential vegetable garden and the Beacon Ave P-Patch
• House values down 12 percent in Beacon Hill notes the Ballard News Tribune
• Eat The State is looking for south-end distributors
• And don’t forget about the Transit-Oriented Development meeting Saturday starting at 9

Tags: garden, housing, lunch counter, p-patch, planning

Weekday lunch counter opening at Culinary Communion

Adrienne at Culinary Communion writes:

Culinary Communion is going to begin operating a weekday lunch counter. While the official grand opening isn’t until April 1, we will have a “soft opening” during the month of March and will be open for business on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (with a few exceptions – please check our website at www.culinarycommunion.com) from 11am-2pm. We will offer a variety of sandwiches – using the Swinery meat (when available) and homemade bread –- plus, a salad, soup, and hot entrée of the day. Menu items will be priced between $6 and $9. Lunch is available to eat-in or take out. No reservations necessary. Questions can be directed to info@culinarycommunion.com or 206.284.8687. Look for more information about the grand opening soon!

Culinary Communion is located at 2524 Beacon Avenue South in North Beacon Hill.

Tags: culinary communion, lunch, restaurants

Street food market site sought; could this be the place?

Skillet, the folks who serve bistro cuisine in an Airstream trailer, have an idea:

Hey skillet nation !!

an idea……

we have an idea we would like to implement. Seattle doesn’t have enough street food, and we want to help change that. We are toying with the idea of creating a weekend street food market. We would like to have a parking lot of some kind perhaps in a neighborhood say ballard, fremont, cap hill, udistrict, beacon hill etc…where us and maybe 5-10 other street food vendors could set up for a saturday and sunday during the day and perhaps even into the evening. I believe it could be a great experiment (and successful) and perhaps couple it with some farmers, musicians etc…anyways…if you have any suggestions or perhaps a location…please don’t hesitate to email me (josh) at eat@skilletstreetfood.com…

and thanks…we want to make seattle the epicenter of street food..!!!

Beacon Hill currently lacks a farmers’ market. Something like this would be an interesting alternative. Perhaps at El Centro, next to the train station (once it’s opened)? An event like this would draw visitors to the neighborhood, potentially helping the Hill’s economy, as well as giving us something interesting to do on the weekends. However, it’s possible the local restaurateurs would feel threatened by potential weekend competition. Have an opinion? Let Josh know at eat@skilletstreetfood.com.

Thanks to Slog for the heads-up.

Tags: attractions, farmers market, street fair

Bourbon Bar Night and Beacon Hill resident discount at Culinary Communion

Culinary Communion is hosting a Bourbon Bar Night tomorrow, Friday, February 6 from 9:00 -11:00 pm. Here’s what they tell us:

“After our Bourbon Tasting class, we’ll open up to the public and have our first bar night serving bourbon elixirs from $8 each and wine by glass for $5. We’ll offer a sampling of appetizers, as well.”

They would also like to announce a Beacon Hill Resident discount for their hands-on cooking classes. To get the 10% discount, use promo code BHN10 when calling the office to register for a class. The Culinary Communion house is located at 2524 Beacon Avenue South, and their phone number is 206-284-8687.

Tags: alcohol, culinary communion, local discount

The Swinery’s supposed shortcuts

Rebekah Denn at Devouring sEATtle follows up on her previous article about the surprise and sudden shutdown of fledgling cured meat emporium The Swinery. Getting the story from the Seattle and King County Public Health department, it sounds like a series of straight-ahead permitting problems, for both the sale and previous production of the meats. A hearing is set for today.

Additionally, the article has attracted plenty of anonymous grousing about proprietor Gabriel Claycamp and Culinary Communion. Take appropriate anonymous-internet-commenter precautions when reading.

Check out the article hosted by the P-I.

Tags: culinary communion, inspection, meat, permit, public health, swinery

Local restaurant health inspection results posted online

The King County health department restaurant inspectors recently made a tour through North Beacon Hill, visiting some of our favorite establishments. No one failed an inspection, though a few restaurants did have some violation points. Most violations were relatively minor. Curious? Click through to the results for Galaxie/Victrola, Chinatown Café (in the Red Apple), El Centro de la Raza, El Quetzal, Beacon Pub, Kimball Elementary School (no violation points at all!), and Kusina Filipina.

This page lists the food establishments in the 98144 area code. As you can see by browsing through them, most restaurants have a few points against them, so don’t take the presence of a few points as an indication you shouldn’t eat in a particular restaurant.

When we visited London recently, we noticed the “Scores on the Doors” program, in which restaurants had stickers in their front windows touting their recent inspection results. This would be a great idea here, wouldn’t it?

Tags: health department, inspections, restaurants

Swinery shut down?

The Devouring sEATtle blog hosted by the P-I reports that the The Swinery, the cured meat operation recently started at Culinary Communion, has been shut down. Indeed, the Swinery website has been wiped. (See it as it was in the Google cache.)

The word is that it was shut down by the health department in some sort of retaliation for an underground restaurant project called “Gypsy“.

Let’s hope this is just a speed bump and not a dead end for delectable locally cured meats.

Further details in the original “Swinery shutdown” post at Devouring sEATtle.

Thanks for the tip, Anita!

Tags: bacon, culinary communion, health, swinery

Chef Bobby Moore of Barking Frog at Culinary Communion tonight at 6:30

Thinking about tonight’s dinner? You might be interested in this announcement which was forwarded to us earlier today. I’m posting it in its entirety so I can get this online for you as soon as possible, since I wasn’t here to post it earlier:

Dear Foodies:

Tonight: “Surf and Turf” is a classic combination of flavors but what happens when seafood and meat are in the adept hands of one of our favorite local chefs? Find out when you join us for a purely delicious meal from renowned local chef Bobby Moore of Barking Frog. Succulent, sweet Dungeness crab is in his lineup as well as tender and flavorful Kurobuta pork. Though our mothers tried to raise us here at Vagabond with polite table manners, we can’t guarantee she’ll be proud as we gather around for this menu…

• Warm Dungeness Crab Salad
  Roasted Apple, Braised Leeks, Apple Cider Gastrique, Candied Walnuts
• Braised Kurobuta Pork Shank
  Controne Beans, Swinery Bacon, Laccinato Kale
• Artisan Cheese
  Oregon Blue Cheese Souffle, Fig Jam, Marcona Almonds

Invite friends and neighbors to join you to celebrate winter’s delicious bounty at its best and receive recipes to re-create the feast at home. Vagabond is the best deal in town especially this month!

Chef Bobby’s Vagabond dinner takes place tonight at 6:30pm and will be held at the CC House at Beacon Hill. Cost for our Vagabond demonstration class is $45 per person. Wines by the glass can be purchased at the event. Register now!

Thanks and see you soon!
The Culinary Communion Team

Culinary Communion, LLC
www.culinarycommunion.com
info@culinarycommunion.com
206.284.8687
2524 Beacon Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98144

Tags: culinary communion

Dining out can help support Maple Elementary

If you eat at Orient Express (the old Andy’s Diner on Fourth Avenue South) on Thursday, February 12, the restaurant will donate 20% of your food bill to the Maple Elementary School PTSA. The money will be used to help fund fourth and fifth grade camp next fall.

We reviewed the Orient Express in November, and found the food to be excellent. With the economy the way it is now, this probably isn’t the easiest time to be opening a new restaurant, so by visiting the Express on February 12, you can both help a Beacon Hill elementary school and contribute to a new local restaurant’s success.

The Orient Express is located at 2963 4th Ave South in Sodo, and they serve Chinese and Thai food in vintage rail cars, including one once used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Tags: maple elementary school, orient express, restaurants, sodo

The Swinery brings home the bacon — again!

After selling a half-ton of bacon in less than one day, The Swinery at Culinary Communion announces another half-ton currently curing will be available later this month, just in time for the holidays! You can pre-order on their new Swinery website, and they’ll even deliver orders of 50 pounds or more.

If bacon’s not your thing (what??) they’re also offering other meats, from duck to veal to pancetta. And they’re looking for contacts that can help them get their delectable wares into farmers markets around town. Let ‘em know if you can help out.

Tags: bacon, culinary communion, meat, swinery

Culinary Communion finally gets a liquor license

You may remember the fuss a few months ago when the State Liquor Control Board told Culinary Communion on Beacon Avenue that they could no longer have alcohol at their cooking classes — not even to cook with. Apparently, it’s illegal without a liquor license. Who knew?

But it’s now safe to make wine sauces and other spirited dishes at CC’s cooking classes; the school was approved for a spirits, beer and wine restaurant/lounge license on November 26. (You can find the info at this page by choosing King County.)

Perhaps now their “Living Room Wine Classes,” which were held in a private living space, can move into the class space at CC House instead.

Tags: alcohol, culinary communion

Happy Thanksgiving — try a pie!

It’s Thanksgiving, and here at the BHB Jason and I are thankful for our wonderful readers, who have made our first month and a half of publishing such fun! To thank you, here’s a great pumpkin pie recipe from my grandma’s recipe collection. I’ve used this recipe many times and it is very good.

Pumpkin Pie

Start with 1 recipe pie crust. Set the uncooked shell aside.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Put 2 cups pumpkin (or one small can) into mixing bowl.

add:
2 eggs beaten slightly (Egg Beaters work just fine if you want it to be lower-fat)

add:
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

then add:
1 c. scalded milk (skim milk works fine if you wish to use it, and so does
soy milk)

Mix all together. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes, turn
the heat down to 350, bake 45 minutes. It’s done when you can stick a knife in the
middle and it comes out clean.

Makes 1 pie. For two pies, use a large can of pumpkin and double everything
else exactly.

Enjoy!

Tags: holiday, pumpkins, recipes, thanksgiving

Half a ton of world-class Swinery bacon — cheap!

We mentioned the coming of The Swinery from Culinary Communion previously.

Now, by way of Chris Bailey on the mailing list and in the comments to our most recent mention of Culinary Communion, some delicious, delicious news:

Bacon Fundraiser at Culinary Communion!

Calling all friends of Culinary Communion, bacon lovers and foodies alike, we need your help! We need to move 1,000 pounds (yes, you read it right, 1,000 pounds) of bacon. It’s a long a story . . . but, in order to secure permitting and to start selling at farmer’s markets in 2009, the city needs to do one final inspection of our new space and 1,000 pounds of our house-cured, incredibly delicious bacon is standing in the way!

So, we need you, your friends, family and co-workers to buy our bacon! Selling for only $10/lb., our famous bacon is made from 100% organically-raised Berkshire heirloom pork and cured on-site at the CC house. It has been gaining considerable acclaim all around the city and you will see why when you taste it! Plus, what better time to have a couple pounds of homemade bacon on-hand. Think: Thanksgiving stuffing, weekend brunch, hostess gift or freeze a bunch to use throughout the year. This is an opportunity not to be missed (and a great way to support a local business during these crazy financial times)!

Swing by Culinary Communion any time to get your bacon on (even until noon on Thanksgiving Day). Not sure you have time to make the trek to Beacon Hill? Give us a call and we’ll do our best to bring the bacon to you! And, one more thing, consider starting a “Community Bacon Drive” at your office. Forward this to your co-workers, collect their orders and we’ll stop by your office with a special delivery. (Plus, we’ll throw in an extra pound for your help.)

Thanks in advance for helping us making our goal of selling 1,000 pounds of bacon a reality! Who knows? Maybe we’ll even make the Guinness Book of World Records . . . Most Bacon Sold in Least Amount of Time!

Our very best to all of you this Thanksgiving. We are thankful for the continued support you’ve given us over the years and the enthusiasm and excitement you’ve shown for our new endeavors. Thank you for being a part of it!

Yours,
The Culinary Communion Team
Our Founders: Chef Gabriel & Heidi
The Kitchen Staff: Katie, Tom & Pip
The Office Staff: Zora, Michael, Adrienne & Jenny
House Managers: Gloria, Virginia & Teresa

Culinary Communion, LLC
206.284.8687
2524 Beacon Avenue South
Seattle, Washington, 98144
info@culinarycommunion.com
http://www.culinarycommunion.com

Stock up and save! Makes a great Christmas gift!

Random bolding mine. Thanks for the info, Chris!

Tags: bacon, bargains, culinary communion

Learning pizza production at Culinary Communion

Rhonda from the Mortgage Porter blog recently took a pizza-making class at Culinary Communion on Beacon Avenue, and posted a Flickr set of photos of the class. If you’ve wondered what their classes are like, this gives you a good look at a class in their kitchen, and at some very tasty-looking pizza! My favorite photo, though, was the one of the chalkboard with ideas for different topping combinations: pear, prosciutto, bleu cheese; egg, bacon, spinach, feta; pumpkin, cranberry, sage, and bleu cheese… hey, that sounds like Thanksgiving Pizza!

Tags: culinary communion, north beacon, pizza