CHEF JOHN HOWIE'S BLOG

It’s pretty unusual for a 22-year-old man to be making beer. Considering that just 12 months ago, he wasn’t even allowed to drink it legally. And yet, that’s exactly what Duncan Starostka does. He’s assistant brewer at the world-class, 10-barrel Beardslee Public House in Bothell, WA. “It’s not often that people start a career in…

“This [America] will remain the land of the free so long as it is the home of the brave” — Elmer Davis May is Military Appreciation Month, when we redouble our efforts to serve the brave military men and women who are always serving us to protect American lives and American freedom. This year, Beardslee…

We first conceived of a lightly hopped pale ale as the base for our coffee beer because of the success of Georgetown Brewing’s Gusto Crema Coffee Ale, which won a gold medal at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival. Previously, I had always associated coffee beers with dark beer styles like stout and porter. In…

The first thing you notice about Mike Taib is his laughter. A deep, gutteral, bubbling sound that warms the cockles of your heart with its genuine, almost childlike spontaneity. And once you have heard Mike Taib laughing, you cannot help but also like this bartender-turned-distiller who describes himself as “happy, easygoing and often, downright silly”.…

  Nearly half (47%) of American parents say that they get to share fewer meals with their families these days than when they were growing up. Life has gotten so busy with school events, peer activities, late office hours and business travel that `scheduling conflict’ is keeping their spouses and children away from the Sunday…

When I opened my first restaurant 16 years ago, it was my hope to provide people with a great place to work, a great place to enjoy with friends and family, and a great place that supports its community. To accomplish this while remaining profitable is challenging, and something I’ve discussed before. I believe the…

Theirs is a pairing that came like an unexpected food-and-wine treat for residents of the Pacific Northwest in 2001. After 17 years, and multiple fine dining restaurants, a brewery, a sports bar and a distillery to their name, the duo is still going as strong as ever, in a friendship and partnership that couldn’t have…

What on earth is a `coffee sommelier’? And why is it that Erik Liedholm rarely tells anyone that he is the first accredited one in the city of Seattle? “I don’t even know if you can call it an accreditation,” says the celebrity wine sommelier and distiller, who would rather pass quietly under the radar…

“There is good living where there is good beer. Add food to the equation, and you go from `good’ living to `great’ living,” — Erin Peters (The Beer Goddess) When people think of food and beverage pairings, they usually think of wine. But with the sudden rise of craft breweries in the United States over…

Craft beer has become a national obsession these days, and Seattle is unquestionably the frontrunner among cities producing the most craft beer in United States with more than 174 breweries in the Seattle metropolitan statistical area. (Followed by Chicago: 158; and Denver: 148.) And the trend doesn’t stop with artisanal beverage either. A handful of…