NETTLETOWN IS OPEN!!!

We are finally open. Opened on Wednesday with a partial menu, and ramping up for the full menu next week. Come in and say hi!

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 3/6

Nettletime in nettletown, la la la, la la la........

It is time to purge out the rich winter feasting, that indulgent casserole of fireside libation, cookie sharing, and braised meaty essences with a spring cleanse I like to call nettletime. Once you have been touched by the nettles holy health sting, every springtime becomes nettletime. I recommend beginning by slowly starting to introduce nettles into your diet, poking them in between the last of the winter habits, like pumpkin cupcakes and brisket. As your constitution allows pick up the pace with some form of nettle daily. The healers of ol' could of said "a nettle a day will keep the doctor away". Sip in tea, throw in soup, bake with eggs - anyway is a good way.

Check out my previous post here with many details of this uber seasonal superfood.

This week at the markets

Stinging Nettles

Fiddleheads

Miner's Lettuce

Restaurant Website Launch

Nettletown restaurant website launched today! The address nettletown.com will now go to the restaurant site. Access the nettletown blog through the blog link or at nettletown.blogspot.com.

We have an opening date for March 16th! We hope to see you all soon!

In Progress

Nettletown restaurant is starting to come together - sliding all the little pieces into the crazy puzzle that is a restaurant.

planing the beautiful salvaged wood for the bar top


sunny days make work a little easier


Jason is creating the bar to highlight the character of the salvaged wood

new custom bar shelving!

Jared hard at work smoothing down the rough spots, notice the old linoleum floor - now you see it!......

...now you don't! Freshly unveiled concrete floors and a new wall in the kitchen!! Thanks to the Choi family crew for all the hard work scraping and sanding that old tile off!

the kitchen is starting to come together

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 2/13

Totem Poles in Vancouver Canada

Happy Lunar New Year!!!!!! Happy Olympics!!!

This weekend at the markets

Yellow Foot Chanterelles

Nettles

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 2/6

The warm weather is bringing in more greens and mushrooms than we usually see this time of year. It is always a hopeful feeling to see the first crocuses popping their pretty heads out in city yards, and it's the same feeling as seeing the first tender nettles poking out to get a move on their long season of prickly take over. Nettles and crocuses are some of the first new green growth here when the weather tilts its head towards spring. Early daffodils are on there way. Chickweed and other tender greens are sprouting in mats soaking in the moist soil too. I think I will have a real garden salad tonight.

chickweed and wood sorrel in my yard

At the markets this weekend:

Black Trumpets - only available at Ballard Market

Yellow Foot Chanterelles

Hedgehogs

Nettles

Watercress - only at Ballard

Nettletown is expanding!!

I am finally able to post my BIG NEWS- I am opening a restaurant in Eastlake! Nettletown the restaurant, is taking over the old Sitka and Spruce space in the lil' unlikely spot in a strip mall on Eastlake Ave. Sitka and Spruce is moving to a new bigger spot on Capitol Hill in the Melrose Project building. Matt Dillon, the owner and chef of Sitka, is passing me the torch but will still continue to have a part in the Eastlake space with me. Matt will be my partner, and because many good partnerships are born through friendship, I am overjoyed to have him as a strong support and anchor while I launch into the restaurant whirlpool. I will be heading the kitchen and everyday affairs and Matt will be there to egg me on. The opening date is slated for the end of February.

Nettletown will be a casual cafe with lunch and brunch service to start with and we will add dinners once we get into the swing of things. The food will be eclectic comfort food with influences from my culinary heritage(Chinese, Swiss) an and our collective Pacific coast geography. My boyfriend Jason's description - "Thoughtful creative yummy menu inspired by wild and pacific northwest ingredients at reasonable everyday prices." The menu will revolve around a base of dishes available all of the time along with many daily specials to take advantage of seasonal bounty. A few menu sneak peeks - Crab or fish(depending on availability) cakes with celery seaweed salad and aioli; nettletown noodles-egg noodles with roast pork, seasoned wild mushrooms, tea egg and toasted garlic; brioche french toast with ginger butter and huckleberry sauce.

What does this mean for Nettletown blog? Honestly, I am not sure exactly what this will become in this new era. I plan to continue use this as a place to celebrate wild and seasonal foods, though now it will have more of a focus on the new restaurant. I predict I will have less time for long features but will learn to post the short and sweet. One thing for sure, Foraged and Found Edibles weekly market posts will start up again very soon.

Check out this interview series on Voracious, the Seattle Weekly food blog, about me and the restaurant. Part one- culinary musings, part two- the lowdown on Nettletown, part three- two razor clam recipes.

Before - at the Sitka closing party
Before - Matt, one week before Sitka leaves its Eastlake location

During - Jason is a saint! he is doing the remodeling for Nettletown
During - The new "dragonfly" blue
Recarving the bracket for the chalkboard in its new location above the bar