Seattle Food Blogger Dinner (With Brief Review of Quinn’s Pub)

Tuesday night we had a gathering of a bunch of Seattle food bloggers at the relatively new Quinn’s Pub on Capitol Hill. I’d never met any of these folks before, so it was exciting for me to see everyone, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce you as well.

The night’s organizer was the fabulous Keren Brown, author of the Savvy Savorer, which is also mirrored over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as the Frantic Foodie. She has a knack not just for alliterative titles, but also creating very welcoming gatherings and bringing great treats to share. My favorite was the fig flavor of Greek Gods yogurt, but the Bacon Salt was good fun too. Who knew it was vegetarian?!? Keren was recently married in Israel and brought along her new husband Erez.

Then we have Katrin Rippel, who is actually not a blogger, but a specialist in menu translation and cultural customization for the dining and hospitality world. She’s built her own company around this fascinating niche. She told me that she can look at a plate of food and see what state of mind the chef was in when they made it, which I thought was fascinating! Katrin brought homemade candies to share, which I’m fervently hoarding.

Next we come to Ronald Holden, author of the very popular Cornichon.org and connoisseur of aged grape juice. I asked him a question about Hermitage wine and he instantly described not just the style and general area of France it was from, but the layout of the town and vineyards. As someone who can concentrate that way on food but never had the brain for wine, I was thoroughly amazed.

Candace Dempsey writes both about eating and travel in her Italian Woman At The Table blog and in books. She also teaches other folks how to write about food via an Internet class. She brought me a special treat of cumin powder direct from the souk in Tunis which tastes unbelievable! Candace came with her friend Annie Beckmann, who is a writer and editor at Antioch University.

Chow Foods, operator of 5 Seattle restaurants, is lucky to have Naomi Bishop as their marketing coordinator. She’s passionate about food, and you can read her about her personal cooking and dining experiences at The Gastrognome. Naomi is in no way gnome-like in real life. (Go back and read her blog name if that made no sense to you.

Rachel Belle isn’t a blogger (yet?), she’s a reporter and co-host of the popular Stick a Fork In It show on 710 KIRO radio. At the site you can download their short programs and listen to her amusing hidden-microphone banter with Dan Restione.

And last but not least, Jay Friedman, who is a staff author at Seattlest as well as a sex educator. Heck, sex and food go great together, makes sense to me! I hear he’s also working on a one-man show, which I’m guessing will be hilarious. He got my Maldon (aka the world’s greatest salt) Sea Salt in the gift exchange, can’t wait to hear if he likes it as much as I do.

Quinn’s was an ideal place to hold this get-together. They devoted a big communal table to us, giving us lots of space to share drinks and food There are a handful of vegetarian dishes on the gastropub style menu of relatively small plates.

I had a grilled romaine and bread panzanella-style salad that was super tasty, but I thought the bread could have been less soggy. My second dish was curried roast cauliflower, black lentils, and fresh mango with raita. Unlike many Seattle restaurants, Quinn’s is not afraid to use salt properly, which I greatly appreciate, especially with drinks. I’m not surprised that the food is delicious, Quinn’s is owned by Scott and Heather Staples, who also own the outstanding Restaurant Zoe.

So that’s the roundup! I hope you’ll check out the sites of some of our other fine bloggers and Quinn’s is well worth a stop.

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