Cantinetta Eastside Opening

Joanne & Ted Baseler, Cathi & Ken Hatch

Ken and I enjoyed checking out Cantinetta, the sleek, yet comfortable feeling, new restaurant that just opened in our neighborhood on Main Street last week.  We attended the private pre-opening evening for friends and family and could see that they obviously have alot of friends and family as the opening was standing room only.  It was one of the few hot evenings in Seattle this summer and the HVAC system was definitely overwhelmed.

Restauranteur Trevor Greenwood, welcomed us to his new Eastside restaurant where we ran into several old friends and met new ones as well.  We were happy to see our good friends, Joanne & Ted Baseler and shared a glass of wine at the bar.  Cantinetta Ambassador, Columba McGlynn, was there with his cousin, Kevin McGlynn, and doing a great job of introducing people to one another and connecting them.  He introduced us to some of the original customers of the existing Cantinetta, located in Wallingford in Seattle, Joe Schneider and Kim Clements who have promised to get us a table at the Wallingford Cantinetta when we are in the neighborhood.

Joe Schneider, Kim Clements, Columba McGlynn, Cathi

I look forward to going back soon to try the food!    

More love. NO H8.

Earlier this week, I joined JJ McKay at the W Hotel for a VIP photo shoot for the NO H8 campaign. Famed celebrity photographer, Adam Bouska, was there to take photos of each of us. Our instructions were to appear in a plain white t-shirt and channel the inner-model in each of us.

Once we arrived, we signed a release form and a temporary tattoo was placed on each person’s cheek. At the time of the actual photo taken by Adam Bouska, a piece of grey electrical tape was put over each of our mouths.

Courtney Womack & Nicole Vogel

Some of the other friends joining JJ and me included Stacy Lill, Courtney Womack, Janie Hendrix, Leslie Coaston, Deborah Rosen, Marnie Roozen, Desi Bailey, Cassie Redstone and Nicole Vogel.

Our special photo shoot preceded the open to the public photo shoot later that afternoon at which I was told over 800 people lined up to participate. I was relieved that we were already across the street at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel Lobby Bar sharing conversation and cocktails by the time the main photo shoot began.  Whew!

Super Tuscan Wine Tasting & Name the Puppy Contest!

Tonight we hosted the PONCHO and PNB Super Tuscan Wine Tasting Party at our home. All day we couldn’t decide whether to set up the party indoors or outside (20% chance of rain and pouring this morning at my house!). Our co-host, Dan Heidt (who organizes this auction party opportunity each year with me), promised sunshine so ultimately we did set up outdoors and it turned out to be a great decision since the sun came out and we had a very pleasant evening.

Hans Miller, Michael & Patti Brustkern

Guests purchased individual spaces for the party at the PONCHO Wine Auction which included Super Tuscan wines for tasting and beautiful small bites from Jonathan Sundstrom of Lark. The food was incredible and included slightly frozen foie gras bon bons with white peach coulis and aged balsamic vinegar; ricotta cheese, heirloom tomato, and mint crostini; lobster mushroom soup with toasted garlic; grilled wild boar sausage with rosemary and olives; marinated octopus with peppers and oregano; eggplant caponata crostini with basil; and Fiore Sardo Wagyu skirt steak crostini with blue cheese, arugula, and sweet onion jam. Dessert was a petite vanilla bean panna cotta with red wine blackberries and lavender shortbread crumbles atop. Every bite was absolutely amazing!

Lisa Rongren, Christopher Chan, Peggy Reddy

Lisa Rongren, from John Howie Steak, was the sommelier this year and did a fantastic job of explaining the individual wines and keeping us on track with the tasting. We tasted nine Super Tuscan wines and my favorite was the Sassicaia, considered one of Italy’s top Bordeaux-style red wines.

Michael & Peggy Swistak

Cathi, Z-Puppy, Dan Heidt

Randy Houtz, Z-Puppy

We are puppy sitting for the week (with an option to purchase!) and the guests took turns passing the puppy around and cuddling her. She seemed to be enjoying the whole party from start to finish. I decided that we should have a “Name the Puppy” contest and several guests suggested potential monikers. The contest rules are that the name should either start with the letter “z” or the sound of the letter “z” (i.e. Czarina would qualify). She will be coming to the ZINO Society office each day and her title will be “Z-Puppy”. If you send in the winning name (I am the primary judge but will include Ken and the Z-Team in the selection decision), you will receive a fabulous prize (yet to be determined!). Please send in your names soon so we can name the currently “nameless Z-Puppy”!

Gourmet Dinner Aboard The Katania

Teresa, Ken

Bruce, Cathi, Mark

Last night we were invited to join friends Bruce & Rebecka Milne aboard their beautiful yacht, The Katania, for a wine tasting and dinner cruise. The yacht is an elegant refurbished 50 year old Burger that has been stretched to 100 feet and has beautiful wood detailing and furnishings. Bruce has had the yacht painted with a dark blue hull which is very striking.

Rebecka, Cynthia, Jeff

We met new friends Mark, Cynthia, and Teresa & Jeff and had a wonderful time getting to know one another and tasting some fantastic wines before dinner including selections from Waters, Fidelitas, Amavi Cellars, Novelty Hill and a spectacular 1982 bottle of French Bordeaux that Bruce had found under the master stateroom bed.

I took my wine upstairs to the fly bridge and thoroughly enjoyed the slight breeze coming off the water while identifying friends’ homes on the lake on Hunt’s Point, Evergreen Point and Medina. It was an ideal evening for a cruise on Lake Washington.

Dinner was a feast for the eyes and palate including Steak Oscar with a crabcake atop a perfectly cooked filet of beef with tarragon-laced Bearnaise sauce and the amazing mango flan for dessert. A great Januik wine accompanied dinner.

Thank you, Rebecka & Bruce! We had a wonderful time! Happy Birthday to The Katania!

Five Years Old!

Andrea Baseler, Joanne Baseler, Bonnie Elgin, Peggy Reddy

Thursday night at the ZINO Society biggest party of the year, our 5 year Birthday and Magnum Party, we had a blast celebrating with over 200 members and friends. Our landlord, Terry Thompson of Urban Enoteca, brought a fantastic magnum of Cabernet Sauvignon from Pride Mountain Vineyards, one of my favorite Napa Valley wines. Have you ever made the crazy winding drive up to their winery? JJ McKay and John & Bonny Midby brought huge bottles of champagne which was a great way to get the celebration started. Dozens of very high quality magnums of wine were brought to share, though someone actually brought a magnum of Yellowtail! Ugh! I’m sure it was NOT a ZINO Society  member or wine professional who did that!

The party started early still missing our Wine Professional Member sommeliers who had agreed to help open bottles and pour, so Mary and I went behind the bar for the first 20 or 30 minutes and it was like a comedy routine that we think we may actually have to repeat next year!  Meanwhile Ken Hatch, nursing his bad knee, sat at a table all evening surrounded by his fans.  Someone said to me that, "Ken is like the Pope and everyone is going over to kiss his ring!"

Stacy Lill, Lorna Kneeland, Cathi Hatch

ZINO Society investors, Ron & Bonnie Elgin, brought a bottle from their cellar and ZINO Society brought a bottle too for the special toast of ZINO VINO Cabernet Blend 2005 which was a meritage of Cabernet Sauvignon that we produced at the ZINO VINO Blending Dinner the first year that ZINO Society existed with juice from Pepper Bridge, JM Cellars, Dunham Cellars, and Mark Ryan Winery. It was delicious!

Our esteemed event sponsors Berntson Porter and DeLille Cellars were there to help us celebrate and following a steel drum rendition of “Happy Birthday”, both Greg Porter of Berntson Porter and Greg Lill of DeLille Cellars proposed great toasts. You will have to ask Greg Lill about his toast that celebrates lying, swearing, cheating and killing!

The Z-Team led by Chief Marketing Officer, Mary Holmes, along with Director of Membership, Robin Moore, Events Coordinator, Elizabeth Larned and our unbelievable summer intern, Christine Gilbert were “Masters of Schlep” producing a thoroughly wonderful summer party. But after setting up all day and then standing and schlepping all night, we were all ready for pedicures and a foot massage by the end of the evening!

Surprise! Grilling Class at The Ruins

Our dear and crazy friends, Patty and Jimmy Barrier, said they were taking us out for a surprise this evening. The hardest thing was to figure out what to wear when we didn’t know where we were going. Would it be a Mariner’s game (but they were playing out of town), Catapalooza sponsored by the Humane Society (Patty & Jimmy are huge cat afficianados), or an auction to raise money for animal causes? No! None of the above!

Ruins Bistro Chef, Andy Dekle

Jimmy chauffeured us in a beautiful, white Porsche Panamera to The Ruins where we arrived in time for a grilling class and dinner. Ruins Bistro Chef, Andy Dekle, took us through some of the basics of grilling and prepared a delicious grilled dinner with marinated pork tenderloin, spice rubbed skirt steak and grilled potatoes and succotash. Dinner ended with ice cream and cookies and Ken was surprised to have a candle arrive in his ice cream and his birthday celebrated one more time. Thank you Patty!

I was fascinated that Chef Andy had a chef’s knife tattoo on his forearm. It seemed such an appropriate tattoo for a chef!

We left with special spice rub to try out at home.  And now I am eagerly waiting to see if Ken will use any of his new-found grilling knowledge!

PJs Optional for This Event

JJ  flanked by the "Mr. Bubble" twins, Seeley  and Nancy

Last night I went to JJ McKay’s Summer Pajama Party and saw scores of old friends and acquaintances and met some new friends. The party was at the beautiful home of Jennifer McCausland in the Mount Baker neighborhood with a spectacular view of Lake Washington and the I-90 bridge.

It was really fun to see what people decided to wear! The outfits ranged from very sexy, glammed up short and long nightgowns to pajamas and robes to scrubs to sleep shorts and tee shirts. Most everyone got into the spirit of the party and a few clutched teddy bears to their sides all evening long. A couple of cute and sexy matching outfits were worn by Nancy Wallace and Seeley Springman who told me that they were the Mr. Bubble twins.

I wonder what theme JJ will choose for his party next summer! Do you have any ideas that I can share with him?

Who Says Biggest is Best?!

Kathleen & Allen Shoup with Hobbs

Bob Cremin, "da judge", Pepper, and Patti Payne

Yesterday at the Dog Days of Summer Party at Dave & Sally Maryatt’s beautiful home and gardens in the Highlands, it was hilarious to watch the big and little dogs interact with one another. My favorite one to watch was Connie Blumenthal’s little Pug/Chihuahua/Boston Terrier mix, Valentine. She looked like a tiny black speeding bullet rocketing around the lawn as she enticed the big dogs to chase her. The dogs would race around the people as if they were part of the obstacle course until Valentine would ultimately run underneath a chair where the big dogs would get stuck and couldn’t follow her. She got this same game going over and over again.

Rufus, the party host Golden Retriever, snarled at the Shoup’s Hungarian Vizsla, Hobbs, during the dinner and Hobbs was so embarrassed with the encounter that he faced the wall for the rest of the dinner. Sitting at the same table at eye level with the guests was Lorna Kneeland’s sister’s dog, Tony, a HUGE Alaska Malamute that was twice the size of Lorna.

The dog that had the most impeccable manners was definitely Lilly, Kevin Swett’s beautiful Yellow Lab that is a highly trained companion dog and recently birthed her first litter. Also, during dinner, Dave McGinnis’ dog, Leo, wrapped his leash around the leg of the pop-up awning (that luckily wasn’t needed since there was no rain) and just about brought the whole thing crashing down on top of the tables. That crisis was happily averted at least a couple of times.

To see a list of all the dogs and their awards, please check out this link on the ZINO Society blog.

With the death of our little Callie the Maltese in April, Ken and I have been “dogless”, but this party really got me in the mood to put my heart out there again and fall in love with another puppy . . . soon! All in all, it was a perfect day for dogs and dog-lovers.

Thank you Bradley!

Z-Team

Today was our valued intern, Bradley King’s last day working for ZINO Society.  He has worked directly with Executive VP, Kristie Lanum assisting in entrepreneur communication and follow up to help get us ready for our ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum coming up on September 15^th.

Bradley is an incoming senior studying finance at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management, which has been ranked as a top business school according to BusinessWeek. He is a candidate for the CFA level II exam, and will be taking on a leadership role in his university's Investment Banking Club in their Research division this year. He built his resume this summer through internships with ZINO Society and The Rainier Group.

To recognize his great work and contribution on behalf of ZINO Society over the past few weeks, the Z-Team including Mary Holmes, Kristie Lanum, Elizabeth Larned, Robin Moore and I took him to lunch to thank him.

Thank you and good luck, Bradley.  We hope to see you back for ZZIF!

Up on the Rooftop

Today, the Z-Team climbed up on the roof above the new ZINO Society at Urban Enoteca offices to envision the roof terrace planned to be added at some point in the future and to view the Blue Angels practice round.  It was an adventure climbing up the steep red ladder located in the mens’ room and climbing up through a hatch onto the roof.

Once comfortably ensconced and while the Blue Angels thundered overhead, our ever charming and hospitable landlord, Terry Thompson, who is the proprietor of Urban Enoteca, brought a selection of chilled white wines to share with us.   He gallantly served us as well.

When we saw the six F-18’s fly over us, one by one, with their landing gear down towards Boeing Field, we knew it was time for us to return to our offices to finalize the last minute details for our Dog Days of Summer Party this weekend.  

Happy Birthday Ken!

This week we celebrated Ken’s birthday with friends and family at three separate small get-togethers.  First, we celebrated at home on the terrace with three of Ken’s four children and their families.  We missed Liffy who is in Los Angeles, but celebrated with Ken’s eldest son, Sean, and his partner Troy; second son Ryan and wife Teresa and daughters, Kylee and Nicole and youngest son, Michael with wife, Alicia, and sons Jackson and Spencer.  See top two photos above.

Next our friends, Gary & Susan Neumann, took us to the Rainier Club, where we thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Ken’s birthday over an intimate dinner.  And then on his actual birthday, friends Jimmy & Patty Barrier surprised him with a small birthday lunch at Daniel’s Broiler with friends Kjell Schei and Patti Payne.  See bottom two photos above.

Though he always insists that he doesn’t want or need any gifts, he did receive a few fun things including home-baked bread, lavender scented slipper booties (I have my eye on those for myself), a couple of books, a bottle of champagne, a cast iron griddle and a miniature model of a hot Porsche Panamera.  Now if only that box had come with a set of car keys instead!

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall . . .take one down. . .

This week, Ken and I were invited to join Charles and Rose Ann Finkel for lunch at their incredible Pike Pub & Brewery just above Pike Place Market in Seattle which they founded in 1989, sold, and then bought back from an interim owner just four years ago.  Neither one of us had ever been there before and it is an incredible place.  It is actually a working gravity-flow brewery and a pub and restaurant that seats 300 people!

The interior is a riot of color and beer memorabilia which Charles has collected over the years.  There is hardly an inch of wall and booth space that isn’t covered with a display of beer memorabilia.  Each individual section of the pub has a color scheme; one is red, one pale green and one yellow.  We sat in the red room at the “King’s Table” perched with a bird’s eye view of the restaurant.  In addition there is a separate space that is the “Beer Museum” which has a visual world display of the history of beer all the way from before and during the time of Christ in Mesopotamia, through Prohibition, up through today.  This room would be a great place for a ZINO Society get-together!

For lunch we ordered delicious corned beef sandwiches with a “schtickel of pickle” and though neither Ken or I like to drink at lunchtime, we were urged to at least sip and taste a “Pike Sampler” which included six two-ounce portions of the Brewery’s beers served atop a wooden paddle.  They have many additional brands besides these six, but I love the names and descriptions of the sampler choices (Charles’ creative branding brain) so share them with you here.

PIKE NAUGHTY NELLIE – Golden Organic Artisan Ale: named for the madam at the LaSalle where Pike was founded.  Light and curvey with plenty of sex appeal.

PIKE PALE ALE – Heirloom Amber: Classic full-bodied ale with copper color and nutty malt flavor.  The first Pike beer brewed in 1989.

PIKE IPA – India Pale Ale: Deep golden amber color with an awwertive hop character and a delicate floral bouquet.  One of “300 Beers to Try Before You Die”, by Roger Protz

PIKE KILT LIFTER – Scotch Ale: Ruby-amber color; medium hops; sweet malt character.  Brewed with a small amount of peated Scotch whiskey malt.

PIKE TANDEM – Double Ale: Dark brown ale brewed with barley, 10% wheat, hops, plus coriander and candy sugar and Belgian ale yeast for a complex rich flavor and a finish of baked bread and treacle.

PIKE XXXXX – Extra Stout: Sensuous and X rated with a gorgeous reddish-black color, great head, a deep dark-roasted flavor with tones of chocolate and coffee with a satisfying aftertaste.

Following lunch, Charles and Rose Ann took me on a tour of the entire space and I had a chance to taste the roasted barley and see the brewery operation along with the bottling line working.  Click here to see the working brewery.  Fascinating!