The 5 Spot to Secede From Seattle. And some lucky sucker wins a trip to Florida

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Seattle—April 23—The 5 Spot, soon to be known as “The Coffee Pot Republic” will declare its independence from Seattle at 9:00pm on Wednesday, April 23^rd. Upset over the current carpetbagger ownership of the Sonics and the team’s pending move from the city, Co-owner, Peter Levy and General Manager Dave Kearns decided that the restaurant will, on April 23^rd, secede from Seattle.  The two drew inspiration for this move when researching the upcoming Key West menu at the 5 Spot.

This April 23^rd marks the 26^th anniversary of the secession of the Florida Keys from the United States.  In 1982, angered over a roadblock set up by the Border Patrol on Highway 1, Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow unsuccessfully sought an injunction in federal court.  Rejected, the next day he declared the secession of “The Conch Republic” by breaking a stale loaf of Cuban bread over a man dressed in a U.S. Navy uniform.  After one minute of rebellion, the now Prime Minister Wardlow turned to the Admiral in charge of the Navy Base at Key West, surrendered and demanded $1 billion in foreign aid and war relief to rebuild his nation after the long Federal siege.

True to the spirit of independence, the 5 Spot plans to demand that the city of Seattle and the NBA require the “Oklahoma Dust Bowl Buddies” sell the beloved Sonics back to a local ownership group and that the group fund an appropriate play palace for the team.  In keeping with the Key West tradition, on Wednesday night at the 5 Spot, there will be a ceremonial bopping on the head of likenesses of the miscreants that have all but sent our team packing.

The eve of Wednesday April 23^rd will be a big night at the 5 Spot, as they roll out the new Key West menu with such treats as Brown Bag Bollos and Mojo de Asada Skirt Steak.  The bar will be pouring $1 mojito “independence shooters” while celebrating the 26^th anniversary of the independence of the Conch Republic, and, of course, declaring the

5 Spot’s Coffee Pot Republic own secession from the City of Seattle. 

 

All diners in the restaurant between 5-9pm on Wednesday the 23^rd will also be able to participate in a “Florida Trivia Contest”.  Those contestants that get all of the right answers on the quiz will be entered into a drawing for one round trip ticket to Key West (or Oklahoma City if they wish) with some pre-conditions set by the 5 Spot.  All this will be capped off at 9pm when the “ceremonial bopping” will occur, the winner of the contest will be announced and the 5 Spot’s independence will be declared. 

The 5 Spot serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily with food and drinks available until midnight. The 5 Spot is located at 1502 Queen Anne Ave. N.   206.285.7768 or 206.285.SPOT. The 5 Spot is one of 6 CHOW Foods restaurants, the others include Coastal Kitchen, the Hi-Life, Endolyne Joe’s, Atlas Foods and Mioposto. CHOW Foods are Seattle’s Neighborhood restaurants. See www.chowfoods.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

Dine for Darfur March 4, 2008

The title pretty much says it all. See the website at www.dinefordarfur.org.

For those who don’t know, this event began with and is wholly organized by Chow Foods. So eat and enjoy and know you are helping out!

Thanks

Katrina Fundraiser Today at All Restaurants

Today all six CHOW Foods restaurants will donate a portion of their sales from the day to support revitalization of the arts in New Orleans. The money raised will buy art supplies and musical instruments for the students of Fannie C. Williams Middle School in Katrina-ravaged East New Orleans.  The 5 Spot General Manager, Dave Kearns, was inspired to organize this event after his trip to New Orleans with Chef Brandon Karimi-Naser. “The city, food and people are all amazing; however, New Orleans has a long way to go before it is back to pre-Katrina grandeur.  Part of the tragedy is the people that have been displaced are the people who make up the flavor of New Orleans. The musicians, cooks and artists are struggling to get by,” Says Kearns. Taking this to heart—and because the Big Easy is all about excess—he took his fundraising to the next level and asked all 6 of the CHOW Foods restaurants to participate.

 

For the entire day on December 11^th, 50% of the revenue generated by the fundraiser at the 6 restaurants will be donated to the Fannie C. Williams School. The school has over three quarters of the students on free or reduced price lunch, but is blessed with a professional musician and art teacher on staff. The money from this fundraiser will go to providing these teachers with the instruments and supplies they need to pass on their knowledge to the children who will rejuvenate the culture of music and art in New Orleans.

 

Within the 5 Spot, Kearns, with the assistance of noted local artist, Molly Norris, assembled a group of local artists to donate artwork portraying the unique vibrancy of the city. Each of their works will hang in the restaurant for the duration of the menu while being sold by silent auction. The auction, with all proceeds also going directly to the middle school’s art and music programs, is running through Christmas Eve.

New Orleans Art Auction Benefit at the 5 Spot

In conjunction with the 5 Spot’s current New Orleans menu, the restaurant is featuring the paintings of local artists depicting New Orleans. All of these one of a kind pieces are available for purchase in our benefit auction. Each artwork was donated by a local artist and all of the proceeds from the silent auction will go to buy art supplies and musical instruments for the Fannie C. Williams School in New Orleans. The auction runs until Christmas Eve.

The Fannie C. Williams School is one of the few schools to have reopened as a part of the Recovery School District. It is lucky to have a proffesional musician in its employ and a skilled art teacher; however, without the proper supplies and instruments, they are unable to pass on the beautiful traditions of New Orleans. The city has long been famous for music and art and it is these children who will grow up to pass on that legacy. By supporting this auction, you can help them to revitalize and rejuvinate the culture of the city.

Stop by the 5 Spot and immerse yourself in the beauty that eminates across the country from New Orleans. Jazz on the stereo, shrimp and grits in your bowl and beautiful paintings of the French Quarter which you can make your own.

For more information on the art auction, call the 5 Spot at (206) 285-SPOT.

Pumpkin Carving at the 5 Spot

I can’t believe I haven’t posted this yet! I thought I had done so a while ago. Hopefully you can still make it to this awesome event. GM Dave has been really excited about working to make the 5 Spot a real community gathering place, so be sure to turn out for his event.

Outsourced Screening Party

Last night at the Hi-Life our wonderful chefs had an opportunity to flex their culinary muscles a little when they cooked up a great after party following the nearby screening of the movie “Outsourced“. The movie, which looks hilarious, is the story of a man who must go to India to train the people replacing the outsourced jobs from his company in the U.S. In keeping with the theme of the movie, our chefs provided a brilliant party menu to feed the crowds following the screening. I thought the dishes sounded so interesting that I would share them with all of you.

Outsourced Menu:

Beef and Goat cheese flatbread

Leek and Gruyere tart

Vegetable and Beef Samosas with mint and cilantro chutney

Coconut Lamb with apricot chutney

Crab cakes with spicy aioli

Garbanzo Dosas: Delicate crepes stuffed with garbonzo spread, pickled cucumbers and radish sprouts

Lamb burgers

Sesame prawns

Pancetta Flatbread with dried fruit marmelade

Polenta rounds with quince paste and paneer cheese

Bhajis: salt cod fritters with zucchini

Serrano Manchego Tart

Squash Bites with hazelnut pesto

Tandoori chicken skewers with tomato chile sauce

Page Ahead for Literacy Tonight at Atlas Foods

Here at CHOW foods, we always love to help you give back to your community. Tonight, Atlas Foods is offering you the easiest way to do so: just EAT! A percentage of all money spent tonight at Atlas will be donated to Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program. This is the perfect time to come see our new menu. Don’t worry, we haven’t gotten rid of any of your old favorites, though! Please stop by and support this great cause while enjoy a delicious meal.

Banner Sale at the 5 Spot

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to all those lovely banners that hang in the restaurant during festivals, we sell them! Usually you can buy them right away and pick them up after the end of the festival and your money goes straight to the painter–and they are all painted by our wonderful and talented CHOW Foods Employees. If the banner doesn’t sell, the employee can take it home to hang in their own lovely homes, or at times they get abandoned in the restaurant to sit sadly in a basement. UNTIL NOW.

 All this lovely artwork will be available for discounted purchase as we clean out our storage area. These are handicrafts representing a variety of American regions. To recap, in the last year we have been to the Chicago, the Rio Grande River Valley and Hawaii!  So how do you claim one of these masterpieces for yourself? You get thyself to the 5 spot the weekend of September 29th-30th and they will all be hanging in the back room for your perusal.

Sunset Supper Recap

For those of you who didn’t justify the $75 enterance fee to Sunset Supper, you might understand why it was easy for others by the end of this post. Given that all the food and beverages are donated, all of your ticket price is going directly to benefit the Market Foundation, which funds the Senior Center, Childcare, Clinic and Foodbank–and you thought it was just some people selling food.

After the Pike Place Market closed on Friday, Coastal Kitchen, the Hi-Life and Atlas Foods as well as 65 other establishments set up tables of food and drink for event goers. With decorations by artist Molly Norris Curtis, the three Chow booths were getting admiration even before the food began for being the most festive booths.

The Ahi tuna looked beautiful at Coastal Kitchen’s booth, seared on the outside, a beautiful pink on the inside, it sat on top of a crunchy slice of green cucumber, with the bright red charmoula on top. They were served on convenient little one bite spoons that made everything easy to grab.

The Sangriatinis at the Hi-Life were another crowd favorite, especially after sous-chef Janae’s description, “if Sangria and a martini had a baby…” Over at Atlas they were serving up huge platefuls of albacore tuna poke. Tuna seemed to be a common theme at the event, but as Atlas chef John pointed out, ours was the biggest! It was also delicious, with a crunchy slaw underneath to add texture to the fish.

As the night ran on and the food was grabbed away by the excited customers, CHOW did some wandering to find out what else was being served. Duck and tuna seemed to be the stars of the night, with one stall even serving duck bacon. The dishes ranged from the simple, like Beecher’s world famous Mac & Cheese, to the upscale, like the Hunt Club’s smoked salmon terrine with paddlefish caviar (yes, it was amazing). The night was great, CHOW got to see lots of people enjoying the foods of Coastal Kitchen, the Hi-Life and Atlas Foods. We hope that next year you can justify putting your dining dollars towards this amazing fundraiser.

Servin’ up Seafood at Seafood Fest

This past weekend, if you missed it, was the fabulous party known as Ballard Seafood Fest. Chef Anthony was out there helping to serve up delicious crabcake sandwiches and took this picture of our beautiful menu for those of you who want to see. Crabcakes were fun, the weather held up and the music was great! If you want to sample more great food, be sure to check out Sunset Supper at Pike Place Market on August 10th.