We all love our kids, but sometimes a night away with from being a parent is just what the doctor ordered. When you’re ready to call a sitter and get out on the town with your special someone, check out these great ideas for date nights in North County. Click through the slideshow for ideas from bonfires to beer tours.
Where are your favorite spots for date night? Are we missing anything in North County?
— Allison Stabile
Make date night a priority and leave the kids in good hands. Sittercity can help you quickly and easily find a local, qualified sitter in your neighborhood, so you can spend the night away knowing your little ones are safe at home and having a blast.
Go on an excursion beyond the walls of your living room with a date night that doesn’t involve watching reruns of your favorite shows on the DVR. Click through the gallery to discover seven date night ideas that will get you through the summer months and make you remember how much fun date nights can be.
What’s your choice of date night? Tell us in the comment section below.
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, let us give you a little advice garnered from our years of experience (ha!). Instead of struggling to book a last-minute restaurant or trying to wedge your way into a crowded bar, make that special someone a deliciously flirty cocktail at home. Here are five possibilities that taste scrumptious and fit the “Be Mine” mood. A.J. Rathbun of Seattle Magazine writes:
Lover’s Moon
One warning with this nutty, lush number: it might make you sing. Which might not be a bad thing on Valentine’s Day, depending on the song. If you can’t find Kahana Royale Macadamia Nut Liqueur, sub in Frangelico, but take it down to an ounce in this recipe from Dark Spirits: Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice cubes. Add 1-3/4 ounces bourbon (Woodinville Whiskey’s bourbon is nice), 1-1/2 ounces Kahana Royale Macadamia Nut Liqueur, and 1 ounce heavy cream. Shake well. Add a cherry to a cocktail glass. Strain the mix into the glass. Sure, the cherry will vanish for a minute, but like the moon, it’ll reappear.
Fancy Free
I originally found this lovely liquid number on genius Seattle-based cocktail writer Paul Clarke’s blog The Cocktail Chronicles (a must for anyone who likes a good cocktail), and it’s a drink for any couple that like to kick up their heels a bit – as it has a bit of a kick itself. Fill a mixing glass or cocktail shaker halfway with cracked ice. Add 2 ounces bourbon, 1/2 ounce maraschino liqueur, and 1 dash each of Angostura bitters and orange bitters (go with Scrappy’s orange bitters here). Stir well and then strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.
Find out the rest of these tantalizing cocktails over at Seattle Magazine.
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
photo credit: Melissa Punch
Oh, thank you, Earl of Sandwich, the first man to put meat between slices of bread. And thank you, too, people of Hamburg, Germany, who, legend has it, made a steak of ground meat and called it a hamburger. That was 300 years ago, give or take. Since then, the splendid taste of a salty-meaty patty, with pickles, lettuce and onions on a sesame seed bun, has become an icon of Americana, more American than apple pie.
The hamburger is a taste we never tire of, and one that local chefs can’t help tinkering with. So for our celebration of all the best burgers in Seattle, we set up some “ground rules”: Patties must be made of ground meat (chicken breasts don’t count, Californians) and they must be served on a bun (salad doesn’t count, carbophobes).
Let the burger worship begin:
Find the complete list of Seattle’s 25 best burgers over at Seattle Magazine.
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
Oh, thank you, Earl of Sandwich, the first man to put meat between slices of bread. And thank you, too, people of Hamburg, Germany, who, legend has it, made a steak of ground meat and called it a hamburger. That was 300 years ago, give or take. Since then, the splendid taste of a salty-meaty patty, with pickles, lettuce and onions on a sesame seed bun, has become an icon of Americana, more American than apple pie.
The hamburger is a taste we never tire of, and one that local chefs can’t help tinkering with. So for our celebration of all the best burgers in Seattle, we set up some “ground rules”: Patties must be made of ground meat (chicken breasts don’t count, Californians) and they must be served on a bun (salad doesn’t count, carbophobes).
Let the burger worship begin:
Find the complete list of Seattle’s 25 best burgers over at Seattle Magazine.
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
From Cabs to Syrah to, yes, even Merlots, these are the Best Red Wines in Washington state that this panel of experts think you should be drinking now. Our friends over at Seattle Magazine have scrounged up the top wines for 2012 and complied them into a list for your imbibing pleasure.
Merlot under $20
Winner: Columbia Crest H3 2009, Horse Heaven Hills, $15
Created to highlight the Horse Heaven Hills AVA, this lush Merlot (with 3 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 1 percent Malbec) has aromas of dust/minerality and dark cherries, with black pepper and chocolate-covered cherry lushness that Merlot drinkers love. Winemaker Juan Muñoz Oca aged this wine in mostly neutral French and American oak for a velvety texture. It’s hard to beat such a well-made Washington Merlot—in a state where there’s a lot of great Merlot—for the price. Paterson; 509.875.4227; columbiacrest.com
Nominees:
Blacksmith 2008, Columbia Valley, $18
Chateau Ste. Michelle 2009 Indian Wells Merlot, Columbia Valley, $18
Jones of Washington 2008 Estate Merlot, Wahluke Slope, $14.99
Merlot over $20
Winner: Abeja 2009, Columbia Valley, $38
Winemaker John Abbott calls this Merlot his “gentle giant.” And truly, it is a big wine, a product of the near-perfect 2009 vintage, which imparted luscious fruit of dark cherries and plums, with aromas of chocolate and espresso, along with earthiness and minerality and a backbone of tannins that help this Columbia Valley wine feel extremely balanced on the palate. The fruit is 100 percent Merlot, from Heather Hill, Abeja’s estate vineyard in the Mill Creek area of Walla Walla Valley, and Sagemoor’s Bacchus Vineyards on the banks of the Columbia River near Pasco in the Columbia Valley AVA. Abbott has a magic touch, and that, along with nature’s best work, makes this wine a true winner. Walla Walla (tasting room open seasonally to mailing-list members or overnight guests at its inn); 509.526.7400; abeja.net
Nominees:
Hestia Cellars 2009, Columbia Valley, $28
Pedestal 2008, Columbia Valley, $55
Soos Creek Wine Cellars 2008 Palisade, Columbia Valley, $24.99
Check out the complete list of must-try wines and their descriptions over at Seattle Magazine.
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
There’s something ironic about a museum devoted to documenting a city’s progress getting booted out of its home in the name of progress.
Then again, the team at Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) understands better than most that civic progress does not happen without demise and demolition.
Housed for the last 60 years in a Montlake building originally designed by Paul Thiry (principal architect of the 1962 World’s Fair), MOHAI has been forced to find a new home for its vast collection of regional artifacts due to the expansion of State Route 520; the Montlake facility will be razed to make room for additional traffic lanes.
This isn’t the first time SR 520 has come crashing through the MOHAI space. In 1962, just 10 years after the museum opened, the path of the then-brand-new floating bridge and highway forced MOHAI to muck up its original design, shuttering the stately southern entrance and improvising a door on the opposite side of the building.
You couldn’t blame museum staff members for wondering what SR 520 has against MOHAI, but instead, they see this year’s move to the former Naval Reserve Armory Building at South Lake Union as a tremendous opportunity (and not just because it’s a chance to get far away from SR 520). Ann Farrington joined MOHAI seven years ago as creative director of new museum design, having previously worked on the Experience Music Project, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Newseum in Washington D.C. She believes MOHAI’s “reinvention” offers a wealth of positives: “the blending of a national historic restoration with a dynamic exhibition space, the opportunity to revisit the unseen richness of the collection and use it to tell the stories of our region, and to bring the history as close to the present as a history museum can hope to achieve.”
To read more about MOHAI, click here for the full story.
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
Oprah may have flown Ezell’s chicken out to Chicago whenever she had a particular craving, but there are plenty of other crispy Northwest recipes for this comfort-food favorite.
Crafting the fried chicken with gochujang and honey-hot mustard sauces is a two-day process: On the first day, chicken is soaked in buttermilk; the next, it’s dipped in batter and double fried, coated in soy sauce powder, ground bonito, shiitake mushrooms and konbu seaweed. $19 half chicken/$38 whole chicken; call ahead to reserve. West Seattle, 4437 California Ave. SW; 206.935.1075
On Sunday nights, legions descend upon this South Lake Union hub for the fried chicken dinner, for which pieces are brined in dill pickle juice and dredged in an Old Bay–spiked flour. $14. South Lake Union, 310 Terry Ave. N; 206.971.0717
Still looking for more finger-licking chicken in Seattle? Check out the rest of the list over at Seattle Magazine.
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
Autumn is a season of unmistakable change, as the days grow shorter and the sun moves south. It’s time to set aside the refreshing, playful beers of summer and explore more contemplative beers with greater character and substance. Our local brewers provide plenty of options to help you prepare for the longer nights and colder days; you can ease your way into the season with a crisp, traditional German-style Oktoberfest beer, or jump in with both feet and grab a bold, bodacious stout or rich and luscious brown ale. More and more brewers are experimenting with fresh pumpkin, discovering ways to infuse their beer with the meat of the gourd along with a variety of spices. This is also hops harvest season, so do not be afraid of beers with intense hop character. Here, we offer some beer recommendations for the fall of 2012.
Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
Elysian Brewing Company
Dick Cantwell, the brewmaster at Elysian Brewing Company, is obsessed with pumpkins. Each fall, Cantwell’s brew crew creates as many as 12 different pumpkin beers for Elysian’s annual Great Pumpkin Beer Festival (see page 49). The festival features dozens of locally produced pumpkin beers, along with beers from as far away as Norway. This style of beer is usually brewed using pumpkin meat along with the grains and hops normally used for brewing. Pumpkin beers frequently include spices that conjure visions of pumpkin pie, such as clove, cinnamon and nutmeg; tinges of ginger and allspice taste right for the season. Of all of Cantwell’s gourd-inspired creations, some of which border on the bizarre, Night Owl Pumpkin Ale is the most approachable. The beer pours in a beautiful shade of deep reddish orange and weighs in at 5.9 percent alcohol by volume. Night Owl Pumpkin Ale is widely available from August through October, so look for it now at most grocery stores or bottle shops in 12- and 22-ounce bottles. You can get it on tap at any of Elysian’s three Seattle brewpubs, but I recommend visiting the company’s flagship location on Capitol Hill (Seattle, 1221 E Pike St.; 206.860.1920; elysianbrewing.com)
Brave American Brown Ale
American Brewing Company
This beloved beer has just been rereleased after a discouraging dry spell. In the summer of 2011, American Brewing created an original brown ale to serve at the Brave Horse Tavern: Brave American Brown Ale. Those who enjoyed it at the tavern were not surprised when the beer brought home a coveted bronze medal from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado, in September 2011. Soon thereafter, American Brewing Company suspended production of the beer. (Always leave them wanting more!) To commemorate the first anniversary of the victory, the brewery released a special version of the award-winning beer. This interpretation of traditional English brown ale with hop influences from the Northwest weighs in at 6.5 percent alcohol by volume and features rich, toasty caramel overtones balanced perfectly with a subtle hint of citrus as the beer finishes dry on the palate. The best place to enjoy Brave American Brown Ale on tap is at the Brave Horse Tavern, where it will be pouring through the end of October, or enjoy it straight from the source at the American Brewing taproom (Edmonds, 180 W Dayton St.; 425.774.1717; americanbrewing.com).
To read more about the best seasonal beers for fall, click here for the full story.
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
Whether you choose to watch your weekly football game in the comfort of your living room, or from the back of your car in the stadium parking lot, our friends at Seattle Magazine have rounded up 5 awesome drink recipes to compliment your game-watching party. A.J. Rathbun of Seattle Magazine writes:
One of the most important seasons is upon us: tailgating. I believe football has also started. I’ve never turned down a beer served from the bed of a pickup truck, but I think it’s not a bad idea to serve a beverage that’ll set your pre-stadium experience above the rest. With that in mind, here are five fan-tastic drink recipes for pre-game parties.
Football Punch
My favorite football-watching beverage, this can turn a run-of-the-mill pigskin wing-ding into a memorable evening. It’s easy to make, super tasty, and serves a bunch of fellow fans. Heck, I like it so much I made a Football Punch video. This recipe is from Dark Spirits and serves about 10: Fill a large punch bowl halfway full with ice cubes. Add a 750-milliliter bottle of dark rum, 10 ounces sweet vermouth, 5 ounces freshly squeezed lemon juice, 5 ounces freshly squeezed orange juice, and 16 ounces apple juice. Stir with a pennant from your team of choice. Add two 25-1/2 ounce bottles sparkling apple cider, carefully, and then 2 apples cut into slices. Stir well. Serve in punch glasses, mugs, or little plastic footballs.
Check out the other cocktail concoctions over at Seattle Magazine…
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at Seattle Magazine, which keeps readers on the pulse of restaurants, personalities, arts, entertainment and culture that reflect the tapestry of our dynamic landscape. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a weekly dose of fantastic Date Night ideas throughout greater Seattle.
