While many people who read Northwest Notes regularly might not believe it, Spencer and I are aficionados of The Cheesecake Factory in downtown Seattle and often enjoy Saturday or Sunday lunches there while we are downtown running errands or going to the nearby Meridian or Pacific Place movie theaters.

A few Saturdays ago, we were pleased to discover the popular chain restaurant now offers a Skinnylicious menu, described as “a collection of fresh and delicious menu options with lower calories and signature rich taste. Skinnylicious redefines low-calorie flavor in The Cheesecake Factory tradition.”

Intrigued, especially since we have recently adopted “la vida low-carb” (the low-carb lifestyle), we were pleased to find not only Skinnylicious Small Plates & Appetizers (all under 490 calories), Salads (590), Specialties (590), Fresh-Baked Flatbreads (490), and even Skinny Cocktails (150 calories or less).

Here is the Beets with Goat Cheese small plate I enjoyed, although I turned it into a main-dish salad by adding a piece of grilled salmon.

Spencer adored his B.B.Q. Chicken–charbroiled chicken breast (three of them pounded thinly) served with green beans and corn succotash. (While the corn succotash is probably not the most low-carb item, a guy has to splurge every now and then!)

We’ll be back to try the Chicken Lettuce Wrap Tacos (butter lettuce leaves filled with grilled chicken and your choice of Asian, Mexican, or Mediterranean accompaniments) or the Skinnylicious Asian Chicken or Herb-Crusted Salmon Salads, perhaps even accompanied by a Skinny Margarita or Red Sangria.

Now, if they could just figure out how to make the cheesecakes and tortes Skinnylicious, too!

We’ve long been fans of Vito’s restaurant on Seattle’s First Hill (Ninth and Madison) and I’ve blogged about it several times. It’s our go-to dinner place when we have concerts or lectures at nearby Town Hall or St. James Cathedral.

On a recent Saturday-night visit (Miss Ruby Bishop was at the piano and the place was hoppin!) I found out that Chef Michael Bruno and company are now offering a special Two-Martini Lunch the first Friday of every month from 11:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.

Menu items include a Gin or Vodka Martini for $7, Caesar Salad (($8), Bruno’s Grinder ($9), Cannelloni ($10), and even Braised Lamb Shank ($15).

Our friends at Tourism Vancouver sent word that the 10th annual Dine Out Vancouver, the largest restaurant festival in Canada, will run this year from January 20 to February 5, and will feature new events, special hotel offers, and the highest number of participating restaurants to date–a whopping 225!

They report that three-course, prix-fixe menus will be priced at $18, $28, and $38, with suggested BC VQA wine and beer pairings courtesy of Wines of British Columbia and Kronenbourg 1664, available at an additional cost.

Participating hotels will offer rooms priced at $78, $108, and $138 per night, and some are featuring special Dine Out packages, too.

In celebration of Dine Out Vancouver’s 10th birthday, the list of daily dining experiences has expanded to more than 70 events. Samples from this year’s tantalizing schedule include Plated & Paired at the Public Market, featuring fresh eats and wines from 10 top B.C. wineries; Kronenbourg 1664’s popular Brasserie Mystère; the brand-new Street Food Cart City; and “Salt & Pepper” events featuring salsa dancing, an exclusive chef’s table experience and more. Tickets for paid events range from $25 to $150.

Mark your calendars now. . .

For the Seattle Wine and Food Experience, the premier showcase for wine and food in the Northwest.

The event will take place Sunday, February 26, 2012, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, 305 Harrison Street in Seattle.

Guests will experience a world tour of wine, beer, and all things culinary, according to a recent press release.

The event benefits The Giving Grapes Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that assists local charities who provide financial assistance to service industry professionals.

Event features include:

Wines from around the world

Featured Wine Region: Oregon

Beer and cider exhibit

Sip Northwest Distillery Row

20+ chefs preparing gourmet bites

Viking demo stage hosted the “Chef in the Hat” Thierry Rautureau

Fonté Coffee Lounge

Artisan Food “Shop”

Washington Beef Bistro

Live Music

Wineries from a variety of countries as well as Washington State, California, Oregon, and Idaho are participating in the event.

“Our wines have always enjoyed a strong following among Seattle wine lovers, and the Seattle Wine and Food Experience is a premier event,” said Steve Burns, Oregon Wine Board Interim Executive Director. “To be the lead regional sponsor is an exceptional opportunity for Oregon’s top wineries to build and strengthen their following in Washington.”

Tickets are $49.

While we’re taking a little break, this is a reprint of one of our favorite blog posts from prior years of Northwest Notes. Enjoy!

Last month, while dining at Canaletto, the complimentary, family-style Italian restaurant on Holland America Line’s M.S. Veendam, I ordered a lovely Limoncello Creme dessert.

Big surprise was a shot of the luscious lemon-y liqueur on top of the tart, tempting pudding.

This would be an easy, and elegant, way to bump up any pudding-based dessert, especially an English Trifle. Imagine the possibilities of Limoncello-soaked sponge cake layered with summer stone fruits (juicy peaches, apricots, or cherries) or berries (straw or blue) or winter citrus (oranges or satsumas) plus slightly sweetened whipped heavy cream!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I wrote a blog post about the launch of a tasty new brand of tequila–Familia Camarena Tequila–in Washington State.

And now the 100-percent Blue Agave tequila is back–taking the taste of Mexico to the streets with a mobile taco truck blitz across Seattle!

Featuring a free Familia Camarena Tequila-infused gourmet menu created by Seattle-based Chef Yajaira Carreon, the Camarena Taco Truck will spend one month in Seattle, making stops at the city’s hottest venues, events, and street corners.

The Taco Truck has already enjoyed successful runs in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Chicago, and Austin. Seattle is the latest stop on the Camarena Taco Truck’s national tour.

In each city, a local chef has been chosen to execute an authentic menu of Latin street fare, utilizing Familia Camarena Tequila. In Seattle, Chef Yajaira Carreon, resident chef at one of the Maple Leaf neighborhood’s hottest new Mexican eateries, was up to the task. Born in Durango, Mexico, Chef Yajaira Carreon credits her creativity and inspiration in the kitchen to her family’s enthusiasm for preparing, sharing and enjoying delicious food.

For the latest Camarena Taco Truck updates, visit Familia Camarena Tequila on Facebook or on Twitter.

With just about every chef and restaurateur in Seattle opening second “small-bite/casual” restaurants and/or offering up killer deals for cheap eats during daily happy hours, sometimes I wonder if fine-dining is dead in our fair city.

So a couple of weeks ago, I made a Saturday-night-at-eight-p.m. reservation at The Georgian, the stunning main dining room in the venerable Fairmont Olympic Hotel to find out.

As we settled in with a glass of bubbly (me) and a gin martini (Spencer) and perused the menu, we were (frankly) amazed at the reasonable price points for such a glamorous setting, with soaring ceilings, a live-music duo of pan flute and upright bass, extensive wine list, etc.

We could have ordered à la carte or opted for the three-course prix-fixe dinner ($69 per person with wine pairings; $49 without), but decided to go all out.

We chose the five-course dinner (including a dessert soufflé!), plus wine pairings, for $99 per person ($69 sans vino).

Here’s the gorgeous bread-and-butter set-up–with four flavors of butter and spiky strips of crunchy lavash cracker–that set the tone for a tone-y meal to come.

After a bit of a wait, the lovely first course came out–Tempura Morel Mushrooms with Truffle Camembert and Morel Shooters (light and lovely mushroom juice in test-tube-like shooters!).

Toothsome and gooey-good, the tempura morels paired perfectly with Domaine Schönheitz 2008 Pinot Gris from Alsace.

Gotta love that sterling-silver skewer and swipe of mushroom dust that makes this plate presentation so pretty.

The second course was another visual knock-out and tasted just as good. Deadliest Catch included razor-thin shavings of the sweetest Alaskan King Crab along with Dungeness Crab Fritters, artistically topped with Arugula Salad. It also went well with the Alsatian Pinot Gris.

Inspired!

I adore beets in just about any form, so was super-pleased with the third course, Roasted Baby-Beet Salad with Candied Pecans (like the best fruit-and-nut bar I’ve ever tasted, probably due to lots of added butter), Goat Cheese, and Walnut Vinaigrette.

The goat cheese is the white blob on the right-hand side and was done molecular gastronomy-style–it was light and fluffy in texture and simply the essence of chèvre.

Unlike me, hubby hates beets, so our server graciously substituted the Olympic Caesar Salad from the three-course prix-fixe dinner and didn’t even charge anything extra.

Both salads were paired with Poet’s Leap Winery 2008 Riesling, one of our all-time fave off-dry Rieslings, and another thoughtful pairing from The Georgian’s long-time (seven years) sommelier–Joseph Linder.

After so much good food, we could hardly believe that entrées were yet to come!

Here’s my gorgeous Smoked Alaskan Wild King Salmon. It was served with Shaved Granny-Smith Apples, Locally Foraged Morel Mushrooms, Yukon-Gold Potato Balls (fun to eat!), and a rather sweetish-sauve containing Olympic Rooftop Honey.

Rex Hill 2008 Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley was a truly wonderful wine for this perfect pairing.

We both gasped in wonder when we saw the artistic shapes, dots, and lattice-work on Spencer’s gorgeously plated Roasted Rack of Lamb with Tomato Crust, Kalamata Olives, Sweet-Pea Quinoa, and Grilled Spring Onion.

The lamb was flavorful without being too gamey; the pea quinoa is something I’d like to make at home; and the lattice work grating is something I’ll gladly leave to Georgian Executive Chef Gavin Stephenson to prepare.

Spencer was more than happy with his entrée’s wine pairing: Château de Clairvoy 2005 Côtes de Bourg from Bordeaux.

Sad to say, but because they are labor-intensive and temperamental to cook, few restaurants bother with making soufflés any more. Lucky for us, The Georgian still turns out a stellar daily-changing version.

Ours was called the “Black and White,” served with Crème Anglaise and a chocolate-covered strawberry, but they also offered up Chocolate Mint. Hard to go wrong with either one!

Although there were occasional service gaffes (a long delay between aperitifs/cocktails and the first course, being seated at a table facing away from the musical duo, the hostess setting up our table after we had been seated), we left thinking that, at least when it comes to its food-and-wine offerings, The Georgian still offers up very fine dining in Seattle.

We’re embarrassed to admit it’s been a full two months since we had our first tantalizing taste of a fabulous new tequila that’s just been introduced to Washington State and elsewhere throughout the country–Familia Camarena Tequila–at downtown Seattle’s tony Alexis Hotel.

But more than a tasting, this event was billed as a “Home Mixology Happy Hour,” where my fellow journalists and I got to mix it up, as it were, by making our own cocktail.

Each cocktail showcased one of Familia Camarena’s two grades of Tequila–Silver (unaged) and Reposado (aged two months in new and used American oak), made from 100-percent blue agave.

Both are expertly crafted by the Camarenas, a family that’s been in the tequila business in Mexico since the early 1700s, opened its first distillery in 1938, and bottled its first tequila almost 75 years ago.

Today, the family’s pure, smooth (very!), easy-drinking spirits are stylishly packaged and very reasonably priced at $20 for a 750-milliliter bottle.

Just this week I learned that one of the well-crafted cocktails we mixed that heady evening–Copa de Arandas–won the Chairman’s Trophy as the best original tequila cocktail of 2011 at the nationally recognized Ultimate Cocktail Competition held in New York City.

With Cinco de Mayo fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to share the award-winning recipe with you. It will make the perfect party sipper for the big day. . .something that stretches geographical boundaries and taste buds beyond the more-common Margarita.

Copa de Arandas

2 ounces Camarena Silver Tequila

1/2 ounce Blanc (white) Vermouth

1/2 ounce Sweet Vermouth

1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 ounce Italian Amaro

3 ounces ginger ale

Fresh mint leaves, for garnish

1. Combine the Tequila, Blanc Vermouth, Sweet Vermouth, lemon juice and Italian Amaro in a highball glass. Mix well.

2. Fill the glass to the brim with ice.

3. Top with ginger ale, and stir gently with a bar spoon. Garnish with mint.

My latest Seattle Times article for Pacific Northwest magazine features a love story about local cocktail king A.J. Rathbun.

He and wife Natalie, and their two 80-pound dogs, Sookie and Rory, set out for Italy last fall, and will be back stateside in April.

Meanwhile, they’re enjoying la dolce vita in a rented villa in Italy.

Here’s their story and a recipe for a Spanish-Cava-based cocktail called “The Very Vernalagnia.”

Cin cin to lovers everywhere!

Yesterday, my latest article for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine ran. Entitled, “In the Spirit of Tradition,” it chronicled the career of Berle, a.k.a. Rusty, Figgins, a successful winemaker turned craft distiller.

Here is Rusty pictured at The Ellensburg Distillery in (you guessed it!) Ellensburg, Washington.

And here are his award-winning products–El Chalán Peruvian-Style Grape Brandy, Gold Buckle Club Frontier-Style Malt Whisky, and Wildcat White Moonshine.

The spirits pick up color and flavor as they age in oak barrels (just as wine does). Rusty’s Gold Buckle Whisky rests in new American Oak for one year!

Photos by Spencer Johnson