FoodTrek: First Encounters of a Seattle Wine and Food Experience

I came, I saw, I ate a lot. And then I took some antacid when I got home before slipping into a massive Food Coma. A Sunday not to be forgotten, I attended my first Seattle Wine and Food Experience, an annual gastronomiconvention that showcases food and drink from the Seattle area, as well as the surrounding Pacific Northwest region. Sensory overload be damned, it was a Super Monstertruck Sunday of food and drink for your digestive system!

One stop on the Omnomnomicon - lovely rillette from Copperleaf Restaurant - Photo by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: The Drunken Prom I Never Had

For those about to wine/spirit taste their way through Woodinville... we salute you. I think that should be the gladitorial sendoff for any bacchanalian bender. For some, it was a lazy weekend afternoon, for myself and a few brave souls, it was a trial by alcohol fire, the passing of our livers and self-respect through the Valhalla of about a half-dozen different wineries and distilleries. We came out alive on the other side, fuzzy-headed, a bit hungover and craving greasy eggs and bacon. But alive. And victorious.

If I were a purple octopus, I would have looked exactly like this - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Woodinville seems to be on the blog's radar lately. Not for any reason beyond the fact that it's not miserable winter, and there's quite a bit of stuff out there to discover, if you've got the spirit of adventure in you. Or just a desire for distilled spirits, they have those too, along with a ton of wineries/tasting rooms -- the city is literally drunk with the good stuff! Some friends had out-of-town guests staying for a long weekend and they wanted to do something fun, so a plot for a wine tasting excursion was hatched. I have to say the most crucial thing for such a plot is summed up in two words: Safety First, aka, Party Bus. Yes, hire a car and driver for the day. We used a company called Seattle Green Limo; great drivers (ours was Todd, who was 100% Awesome) and their cars use biodiesel, which means the vehicles, much like myself, run on French Fries. It's win-win, having a wine country-knowledgeable driver safely behind the wheel, plus your loved ones and the local authorities will thank you for it. If it's a group as big as ours -- we had 10 people -- they have mini-buses that are like a prom on steroids, complete with disco lighting and coolers to keep your Dom or $5 bottle of Cook's chilled like a rap superstar. There's even an easy plug-in dock to attach your iPhone so you can blast that douchey playlist full of Color Me Badd and Vanilla Ice retro favorites. I see you nodding your head in "aw, hells yeah" agreement -- this is a good time.

Kicking things off at Novelty Hill - drunken parkour lessons to follow - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Our first stop was the Novelty Hill Winery. This is probably my favorite tasting room space -- it's beautiful with its modern-Northwest architecture, plus it has a full kitchen and on weekends you can order food like flatbread pizzas to go with your tastes. It does get busy on the weekends, so if there's a big crowd (like us) just be patient, wander the place and play some bocce in their outdoor patio. Their summer rosé is very refreshing, but in general, I tend to stick to their reds (Merlot, Petit Verdot), specifically the Januik wines for the rich flavors, but that's just my preference. This was a great winery to start out because it's so picturesque and for people coming from out of town, it's a strong start to the Pacific Northwest wine experience. It's also really close to the mainstays, Chateau St. Michelle and Columbia Winery, but on this day, there was a huge car show going on at the Chateau, so we didn't want to hassle with all that. And because the Novelty Hill location is so stunning, it's a great place to start out when you're dead-sober, so you can appreciate it before the wine buzz starts to kick in, and you start doing bad parkour off their outdoor benches.

Wonderfully weird times while wine and spirit-tasting - Photos by Wasabi Prime

We could somewhat customize the tour, so we requested Novelty Hill  as well as a visit to Woodinville Whiskey Company, which is just down the road from the winery. It's a nice thing to balance out the tour with things the fellas can appreciate. Not that girls don't like whiskey, of course, but for a  mix of people and their respective tastes, it's nice to keep things interesting. They've started to sell their barrel-aged bourbon and rye whiskey, beautiful packaging and the color is lovely -- gift quality, if you're thinking of Father's Day ideas. I like their rye in particular, I need to pick up a bottle of that when we make some room in our overstuffed liquor cabinet/shelf/cupboard. The skies were overcast and a little chilly that day, so the little sips of whiskey were just what Dr.Happiness ordered.
Party Bus means the drivers will have a list of places they usually hit, generally the Warehouse District of Woodinville, which has the greatest concentration of tasting rooms from the local wineries. Industrial parks are affordable, they have the space to accomodate the wine or spirit makers' equipment, and even though the exterior may seem innocuous, the interiors are always unique to the owner's creative whims. While it may not be as picturesque as some Mission-style wine kingdom in the gilded hills of Napa, Woodinville's Warehouse District is more like where the cool kids go. And you wanna be cool, don't you?

They don't let you play drunk ping pong or smooch taxidermied foxes in Napa - Photos by Wasabi Prime

We visited a few more wineries nestled in the Warehouse area -- Cuillin Hills and Patterson Cellars. I made a quick personal stop at Matthews Estate's satellite tasting room to pick up a bottle of their 2009 Claret before joining the rest of the group at Cuillin Hills. I particularly like Cuillin Hills because I'm a sucker for labels and wine names. With ones like The Dungeon (Syrah) or Shackled (blend of Syrah and Mourvedre), it would be great to have those for a game night with our Dungeons and Dragons friends. Yes, we're one of those weirdos, but no we don't dress up like Hobbits. Patterson Cellars is always a popular favorite, so by the time we got to their tasting room, it was full of people, but we managed to get a few sips in. I've had their Forbidden White, a nice clean blend of about six different grapes, including Chardonnay, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc; it's a nicely balanced summer sipping wine. I wasn't too fazed that the Patterson experience was so busy, luckily their wine is easy to find in restaurants, but I do want to spend more time browsing more of the wineries in that area. There's like 40 different wineries in that maze of buildings, many of them small, whose wines aren't available in wine shops, so this is the place to get the bottles direct from the people who made it.


Excellent question - Photo by Wasabi Prime

The darling of our Warehouse tour was Project V Distillery. And yes, I realize they're not a winery. I'd met them at an Eastside Bartenders Association event ages ago and was really excited to see more craft distillers setting up shop, especially so close to where we live. Wait, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Their Single Silo vodka is from Washington wheat, it goes through a pretty meticulous process using stills they built from the ground-up, to make a clean, yet flavorful product. I know that sounds weird, describing vodka with a taste, but I think people get used to super-filtered ones like Grey Goose, which is great for mixing, but as many have called it before, it's Drunk Flavored Water. Single Silo has a bready sweetness from the wheat, a natural sugar retaining a whisper of the ingredient that was used to make it, and it's just a fine product. The chai infusion vodka was popular, where you infuse their vodka with a house blend chai -- the Mister liked that in particular, so we took their chai infusion set home as a souvenir. But even on its own, Single Silo is good, and Project V's setup is as impressive as it is entertaining.

V is for Vodka, that's good enough for me - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The tastings at Project V ranged from tasty to knock-your-socks-off drunkfacewater. They wanted to show the balancing of the flavors, easing back on the heat of the alcohol to help develop their signature product, but whew, what a lesson; my liver still whimpers a little at the thought of it. But it does make you appreciate the care that goes into the bottle with their name on it.

Spending a day tasting local wines and spirits was as much for us locals as it was the people visiting. Sure, we had our fun being rowdy, drunk hooligans in a party bus, but life's not just about killing ourselves one brain cell at a time. I think the gang had a great experience discovering how many wineries are less than a half hour from their homes, these places are run by people who truly love what they do, and it crafts a story around each bottle. We see things on store shelves, they're more product than creation. Closing the gap between big industry and a small, independent company redefines what "The Good Stuff" really means. Not more expensive, not something douchey celebrities mix with Red Bull, just something genuine, crafted with care. That's something we can all drink to, no?

You never know what you'll find in a warehouse - Photos by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: Eastside Love for Eastside Bartenders Association

I've got a cocktail glass in my hand and I'm announcing in a slightly buzzed, but ever-jovial manner, "This one's for my Eastside Bartenders Association homies." And no, I'm not spilling some onto the ground as a ceremonial gesture because the EBA would be like, "Don't waste that, you moron, that's good booze."

Calling the first meeting of Eastside Bartenders Association to order, in a totally rad way - Photo by Wasabi Prime

There's a new social group on the horizon, pard'ners, and it's one you should acquaint yourself with, if you spend any amount of time east of Seattle, which is quite a large group of people if you think about it. Seattle is a fantastic place to live and play, but the truth is a lot of jobs are located "Eastside" of the 520 Bridge. Plenty of folks have to make the trek every day across Lake Washington and do their cubicle duty, and the spreadsheets and TPS reports trail as far as the day is long. But where to go and what to drink while waiting for that unholy traffic to die down? You don't want to spend your hard-earned Benjamins on anything short of top-shelf, as you need some quality decompression time. Well, now there's a new group of cocktail-smart experts to help guide your way towards spending that time with a quality frosty beverage -- get to know the folks associated with the Eastside Bartenders Association (EBA) and let them guide your way to libation liberation. *cheers!*

Raise a glass to the talented folks behind the bar -- liquid happiness, yo - Photos by Wasabi Prime

News Flash: I'm not a bartender, and Duvall is so east of Eastside, I hesitate to even say I live in the area, given our BFE status, but that doesn't mean I can't be a big ol' cocktail groupie and support cool new associations put together by incredibly passionate, talented people. I was very pleased to attend the inaugural EBA event over at Lot No. 3 in Bellevue. It was a combination of too many things I dig the most -- amazingly talented bartenders, a bar/restaurant I love to bits and the opportunity to meet and chat with half a dozen distillers who make some rock-your-socks-off craft spirits.

You don't necessarily have to be a bartender to be a part of the EBA, just the basic requirements of: appreciate a quality cocktail (if you ask for a Lemon Drop, I'm gonna have to smack you), respect the skill and talent of a bartender who knows their craft, and an enthusiasm and willingness to appreciate all the amazing things distilleries are doing in this wild and crazy world. Do you fit these basic requirements and live within the area? Then sign up here, on EBA's "Join" page to be on the mailling list for future events.

Lot No. 3, you had me at "maple bacon." - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Does it bring a little tear of joy to your eye? The sweet and savory bacon offerings, along with creamy deviled eggs and other salty goodies graciously put together by the lovely folks at Lot No. 3 were an excellent pairing to the gauntlet of tasty samplings from a gaggle, nay, a parliament of local distillers presenting samples of their craftily-made spirits. I was, as always, very pleased to see some of my favorite folks like Orlin Sorensen from Woodinville Whiskey Company, as well as Evan Martin with Novo Fogo, and equally pleased to meet so many new people.

Whew... getting a buzz just looking at these pictures - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I finally got to meet and chat with Steven Stone of Sound Spirits in Seattle, who created the Ebb + Flow vodka and gin. My Graphic Design-Self had been drawn to them from the get-go, as I think everything about their brand is incredibly well-designed and clever, so extra super-duper props that the product is pretty darn tasty! Pacific Distillery was also there, one of the early craft distillers to set up shop in Woodinville and help rally the call to cocktail arms, showing quality small-batch liquor is market worth supporting.Their Voyager Dry Gin is one of my absolute favorites -- pick up a bottle or seven. I had the pleasure of meeting the folks at Woodinvlle-based Project V Distillery, who make a really clean, grain-sweet vodka called Single Silo; reminds me a little of a reposado tequila, the natural sweetness is that apparent, and they had a chai-infused vodka that was winning fans. Another vodka maker, Skip Rock Distillers, over in Snohomish, is making a super-flavorful potato vodka. It's got a really hearty, creamy flavor, an intentional nod to the potato, and I was telling them that it would be really good with some mac n' cheese! For those with a sweet tooth, a berry-hued gem is Sidetrack Distillery, out of Kent. They've got several berry liqueurs that include strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry. It's an intense flavor and it's something that would shine in a mixed cocktail, but even on its own, it's sweet, but not a fake candy-syrup flavor. It's like a whole berry patch was squeezed into a single bottle, sunshine and all. I also met distillers who weren't necessarily presenting at the event, but showed much promise -- check out Wishkah River Distillery out in Aberdeen; much like all these distilleries, these guys are making products that are a labor of love and they're eager to meet thirsty fans!

You'll notice if you click on a lot of these websites, it's a lot of "coming soon" or primarily Facebook pages -- consider this your ground-floor opportunity to get on board with these distilleries as they move forward towards a very hopeful future for small-batch local craft distillers. These are small, family-run companies who have local roots and want to bring a quality product to the people. With groups like the Eastside Bartenders Association, I hope it helps get the word out to encourage people to support local businesses, whether it's the folks mixing the drinks or the ones putting the drinks in the bottle.