If you haven’t already, you need to buy your tickets for one of the best parties of the year: Sunset Supper at the Pike Place Market.

Enjoy food from Seattle’s best restaurants and the region’s premium winemakers and microbreweries.

Dance under the stars and buy a raffle ticket or spin the wheel for great prizes to support the Pike Place Market Foundation and all the good work they do.

Other upcoming dates of interest to Market lovers include:

Market Anniversary Celebration: Tomorrow–August 17

Downtown Home Tour: September 18

Second Annual Pike Place Market Artisan Food Festival: October 1-2

We have been VERY remiss in welcoming a lovely new tasting room and event facility to the Pike Place Market neighborhood: Patterson Cellars.

Grand-0pening events took place the last week in January, when we finally marched ourselves down the hill to sip some wine and sample some apps from Volterra Restaurant.

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Folks in our ‘hood, lucky locals and travelers to the Puget-Sound region no longer have to venture to Woodinville, where Patterson Cellars is based and still operates a second tasting room. For now the winery is bringing its value-priced, award-winning wines to Seattle!

With wines such as 2010 Rosé and Chardonnay, 2008 Forbidden Red, 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2007 Syrah, there’s plenty of good stuff to choose from!

Cheers, Patterson Cellars, and welcome to the ‘hood!

Coordinates:

Patterson Cellars Seattle Tasting Room

1427 Western Avenue, Seattle (on Western Avenue below Pike Place Market adjacent to the Pike Street Hill Climb)

More about the winery: Patterson Cellars offers two exciting places to try their wines, an urban tasting room located near the Pike Street Hill Climb, on Western Avenue, below the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle, and at the Woodinville tasting room and winery in the wine warehouse district. Both venues offer a unique space and experience for tasting their approachable new world style wines, and for parties and events. Crafting wines for over 12 years, from crush to cork, Patterson Cellars focuses on producing wines as unique as the grapes themselves sourcing grapes from Washington State’s Columbia Valley, Red Mountain, Lake Chelan, and Horse Heaven Hills AVAs.

It’s never too late to update your calendar with key dates of all the fun events that take place each year at the “soul of Seattle,” a.k.a., the Pike Place Market.

Daffodil Day, Friday, March 18, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.: The Market community and volunteers take to downtown-Seattle street corners to pass out thousands of locally grown daffodils and celebrate the arrival of spring.

Care for the Market Luncheon, Monday, May 16: Join Market supporters as they gather together to raise money for all the ongoing good work of the Pike Place Market Foundation.

Sunset Supper, Friday, August 19: The best bash of the year as the city’s key chefs and restaurateurs hit the pavers to cook at sunset while lucky party-goers sip, sup, and dance under the stars.

Happy to report that my “Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook” was selected to be included in Random House’s Electronic Book, or ebook, publishing program.

Ebooks are designed for easy reading on popular electronic reading devices, such as Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Apple iPad.

Needless to say, as much as I adore (and was weaned) on more traditional sorts of books (trade paperback and hardcover), I’m excited to be included in this new publishing opportunity. Cheers!

A January snow in the Pike Place Market

The good folks at the Pike Place Market sent out word of a new scavenger hunt that starts January 30, with other hunts continuing through June. According to the press release:

“Around the Market in 80 Minutes” takes game players around the Market in a timed and scored contest for prizes. Team up or go solo in the newest game in town, which takes place one Sunday each month through June from  11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Players will search high and low for 10 Market destinations based on clues in the “Passport” they receive at the beginning of the game. Passports are free, available on each game day starting at 11 a.m. at the check-in tent near Rachel, the bronze piggybank.

Each player needs to go to at least five of the destinations to qualify. When players arrive at each correct destination, a “Customs Agent” will stamp their “Passport” and give them a randomly chosen sticker that goes on the “Passport.” The stickers play a role in helping participants get the lowest score possible.

That’s right—the person with the lowest score wins a prize!

Each participant turns in his or her “Passport” upon completion. Any tie is broken by the fastest completed “Passport.”

The dates for the other “Around the Market in 80 Minutes” are as follows:

February 27

March 27

April 17

May 29

June 26 – the Championship, with previous winners invited to vie for the Grand Prize.

“With all the renovation work happening this winter and spring, we wanted to have fun in spite of the dust,” said James Haydu, Director of Marketing and Programs for the Pike Place Market PDA. “The Market is open during all construction work happening during the renovation. That’s why every participant gets a yellow construction hat when they start the game, while supplies last.”

Just in time for the New Year, here is your Pike Place Market Planner for 2011!

March 18: Daffodil Day

May 14-15: Seattle Cheese Festival

June-September: Farm Days on the Cobblestones–Look for farmers on the street Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays

August 17: 104th Birthday Party

August 19: Sunset Supper

Sept 18: Buskers Festival

Sept 24-25: Pike Place Market Artisan Food Festival

October 4: Feast at the Market

November 26: Magic in the Market Kick-Off

Please note that these dates are subject to change. Visit pikeplacemarket.org for more information.

Just in time for the holidays, the good people at the Pike Place Market are offering free parking on Saturdays from December 5 until January 1,  10 a.m. until 5 p.m., except Christmas day, when the Market is closed.

Here’s how it works: On those Saturdays, park at the Public Market Parking Garage at 1531 Western Avenue. Look for the entrance next to the tattoo shop. There is also an entrance off Alaskan Way across from the Seattle Aquarium. Purchase a minimum of $35 in merchandise from any Pike Place Market merchants, farmers, or craftspeople, and ask for receipts. Bring your receipts and garage-entrance ticket to the Information Booth at First and Pike for validation and a pass for the garage. The pass is good for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. that Saturday only, one per customer.

“We’re happy that we are able to offer this gift to local shoppers of the Pike Place Market for their holiday shopping,” said James Haydu, Director of Communications & Programs at the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), which manages most of the historic public market’s nine acres.

Just about a week ago, I enjoyed my very first oysters of the season at the new Bar Campagne in the Pike Place Market. The bar features a simple, and more lengthy menu than before, with items such as Fried Oysters with Lemon-Caper Aïoli (which I can attest to are plump, crispy, and perfectly fried), Baked Tuna and Anchovy Toast, and Bagna Cauda (fresh veggies with warm anchovy dip).

The briny beauties as crisp and clean as breathing fresh sea air

We stopped by for a nosh and a nip (or three) after a “Tea-up” (tweeting event with tea) at The Perennial Tea Room in honor of the fourth annual Northwest Tea Festival, which runs Saturday, October 2, and Sunday, October 3, in the Northwest Rooms at Seattle Center.

Julee Rosanoff (foreground), who has co-owned The Perennial Tea Room in the Pike Place Market along with business partner Sue Zuege since 1989 and is one of the founding members of the Northwest Tea Festival, talks tea while Anna Li of The Essential Baking Company looks on

It was a truly educational and fun event where we learned that all forms of tea (green, black, oolong) are produced from the same plant (Camellia sinensis). The tastes of tea range from buttery to new-mown grass to fruity to malty–even chocolate!

Two tasty tea breads from The Essential Baking Company, a locally owned artisan bakery

We also learned that The Essential Baking Company was chosen to be the festival’s official food vendor. The locally owned artisan bakery will dish up soups, salads, sandwiches, pastries, and a new product launched especially for the festival–tea cakes–in the Northwest Tea Festival’s Tea Garden Café in the Olympic Room. We were among the first people to try the organic cakes in enticing flavors of Blueberry Orange, Lemon Raspberry, and Carrot Pineapple. . .all moist, full-flavored, and not too sweet. . .just perfect for that morning, afternoon, or evening cuppa!

No to fear. Even if you can’t be among the estimated 2,000 tea aficionados to attend this year’s festival, you can try the tea cakes at The Essential Bakery Cafés in Wallingford, Madison Valley, and Georgetown beginning this weekend.

Mark your calendars for September 25th and 26th, when the first annual Pike Place Market Artisan Food Festival hits the cobblestones alone Pike Place!!!

The festival celebrates local food, sustainability, and biodiversity with tastings, seminars, chef demos, live music, a busker stage, and a beer-and-wine garden.

The Artisan Food Festival replaces the long-running Pike Place Market Street Festival that was traditionally held in June, and benefits the Pike Place Market Foundation.

Here’s a list of the chef scheduled to appear on the Chef Demo Stage:

11 a.m. – Café Campagne: Daisley Gordon
12 p.m. – Steelhead Diner: Anthony Polizzi
1 p.m. – Le Pichet: Brent Harding
2 p.m. – Sur La Table: Anne Haerle
3 p.m. – Lowell’s: Mark Monroe
4 p.m. – Matt’s in the Market: Chester Abel

The 2010 Artisan Food Festival sponsors include the Pike Brewing Company, Charlie’s Produce, Caffe Vita, The American Lamb Board, Mahatma Rice, Clockwork Studios, and CWP Music Productions.

People love the Market for myriad reasons: the farmers, musicians, restaurants, good smells. . .even the daily rummage sale.

And now the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), the organization that manages the Market, wants to learn all the wonderfully different reasons, from well-known to quirky, in prose or poetry. Creativity is encouraged.

Each week a new photo and caption will be featured with a link on www.pikeplacemarket.org and will be highlighted on social media sites.

It’s easy! Just take a photo of yourself at the Market and write a caption of up to 25 words that evokes your personality and why you love the Pike Place Market.

Love the Gum Wall, street performers, bakeries, the fishmongers, or mini-donuts? Other loves? Let the PDA know your confessions of true love for the Market.

Email your photo, caption, name, where you live, and phone number to ilovepikeplacemarket@pikeplacemarket.org. Write “Your Market, Your Story” in the subject line.

Bring on the photos.