Food & Wine

The popular Sherry Cocktail served at Canon.

From the mid-to late 19th century, the Sherry Cobbler was one of the most popular cocktails  in America. It also made using  a  straw cool. This lost classic is making a comeback around Seattle. (Check out our story here.) It also happens to be very easy to make at your place.

Below is the  recipe from Bellocq in New Orleans, the bar that  helped make the Sherry Cobbler trendy two years ago.

Those whiskey and gin geeks from around the country are in Seattle this week, holed up at the convention center for  the 11th Annual American Distilling Institute conference. A good number of them were sober too, though many local distillers had a lot of reasons to celebrate. More than a dozen craft distilleries in Washington, from Woodinville Whiskey Co. to San Juan Island Distillery took home several medals at the award gala last night.
I was especially happy for Sidetrack Distillery in Kent, which won a gold medal for its “beet spirit.” I think it’s one of the most interesting products in our craft distillery movement. It has an earthy note, almost like tequila. You can even make a margarita with it.

Award list below. Winners from Washington state are in bold.

Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks? Not necessarily. At Safeco Field, this year’s menu includes fried fish that were dredged in batter made with Manny’s Pale Ale, a hometown brew. There will be hot wings topped with locally made Bonache hot sauce, oysters from Taylor Shellfish, and cocktails (invented by Rob Roy’s Anu Apte)…

At lunchtime, Peter Miller could choose between pizza or Thai, bakery goods or burritos, or many other options within a short walk from his Second Avenue shop. Or he could pull out a lunch box and unwrap a sandwich from home. Instead, there he is, as he has been for so many years, putting together…

Szmania’s restaurant in Magnolia will remain open, but chef-owner Ludger Szmania will be cooking elsewhere. Szmania, former executive chef of the Four Seasons Olympic Hotel, opened his namesake German-influenced restaurant with wife Julie in 1990. (At one point there was a Kirkland branch too.) Through the years and various updates, including a brief focus on…

Edouardo Jordan of Bar Sajor is the only Washington-state chef in the running for Food & Wine magazine’s “The People’s Best New Chef” award. He was nominated in the Northwest & Pacific category along with six Portland chefs and three from Hawaii. The restaurant in Pioneer Square is usually referred to as another…

Looking for what’s new from one of the best pastry chefs in Seattle? Eager to try goodies from an aspiring new baker? Craving croissants from a veteran of the city’s top kitchens? Wait for upcoming weekend mornings, when all three will be trying out pop-up pastry shops where the public will have just a few…

Long-time Seattle chef Renee Erickson, whose recent restaurants brought her to national prominence, was named a finalist Tuesday for the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northwest. It was the first time Erickson has been a finalist for the distinction; her fellow finalists in the category, who have all been nominated multiple times,…

Seattle has become Ramen Central in recent months, with enough new restaurants dedicated to the Japanese dish or chefs adding it to the menu that it made our list of delectable and desirable 2014 food trends. Is what we’re slurping up really ramen, though? Seattle-based food writer Jay Friedman, whose resume includes a regular…

Neil Robertson, the James Beard semifinalist for “Best Pastry Chef” talks about his favorite croissants in the Seattle area. Photo by John Lok/ Seattle Times

Right here, right now. I’m calling a moratorium on cronuts /croughnuts.

Our subject today: croissants, as in our bakeries have gotten really good at making them recently. Have you noticed? Who better to discuss this with then Neil Robertson of Crumble & Flake Patisserie on Capitol Hill who’s in the running for the James Beard Award for “Best Pastry Chef” in the country.