Capitol Hill News

Well you’ll have a chance if you enter the "Thank-Your-Farmers Harvest Feast" contest.

The Neighborhood Farmer’s Market Alliance is challenging home cooks to cook a dinner from entirely local products.

To participate host a Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 26, of any size, featuring ingredients sourced from either one or all of these three Farmers Markets: Broadway, U-District, West Seattle. Then submit all the details of your festive feast.

The meal that is best sourced from local farmers at these three farmers markets will be named the winner!

Photo by Clara Ganey

Meza, the cozy Latin tapas restaurant tucked away on 14th Avenue, hasn’t even celebrated its first birthday, and it’s already teaching other neighborhood restaurants a bold lesson: savory authentic dishes taste even better when customers can afford them.

For less than $10 at Meza—which opened in late August and fuses cuisine from Venezuela, Cuba and Spain—you can get a small plate of well-seasoned grub. The eatery’s offerings are perfect for a light lunch or hearty snack on the way home from the bar (the place is open until 3 a.m. weekend nights).

The Toke de Pollo tapa is a staple. The $6 dish offers just enough generously marinated braised chicken atop caramelized onion to satisfy—but not enough to share.

Just $1 to $3 more will get you a Cuban or Spanish sandwich on thick, floury slabs of Macrina Bakery’s Guiseppe toast. One whiff of the Havana ($9)—a piping-hot Cuban pork sandwich garnished with banana peppers, melted cheese and a thin layer of shaved ham—and Meza’s attention to detail and flavor pairing becomes clear.

“I just want people to come and get something different that is affordable,” says owner Alex Meza. “It’s a kind of a little hole in the wall, but it’s good food.”

Dana Sims owns El Corazon, a music venue in Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood. And he just spent $100,000 putting in a new sprinkler system.

Sims isn't just being a nice guy. He went into debt in order to follow the law.

Under the new state law, fire sprinklers must be installed at dance or music venues larger than 350 square feet by Dec. 1.

And it's Asst. Fire Chief John Nelson's job to make sure the 70 Seattle clubs affected comply.

"We are trying to be as flexible as we can," he said.

But the events of Feb, 20, 2003 is the reason flexibility can only go so far.

A fire broke out at a club in Rhode Island, prompting a hectic stampede for the door. What became the fourth most deadly fire ever to burn at a U.S. took 100 lives and injured a hundred more.

Sound Transit announced yesterday that they are moving forward with plans to build a new streetcar line linking the city's First Hill neighborhood with Capitol Hill and the International District.

The city and Sound Transit have executed an agreement that includes an expedited construction timeline - the line is anticipated to open in 2013 instead of the 2016 completion that was earlier planned. The City of Seattle will build and operate the new line, which voters approved as part of the 2008 Sound Transit 2 ballot measure.

The First Hill Streetcar will serve major Seattle work centers, including Swedish Hospital, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle University and Seattle Central Community College. The line will provide easy access to the Link light rail system that opened this summer and the Capitol Hill light rail station when University Link opens in 2016.

The City plans to begin construction in 2012. The final route will be determined as part of the environmental review process over the next two years.