one pot

Hebb/One Pot embark on Master's Fellowship with MCDM at UW. Focus: Social Ritual + Digital Narrative.

2011-10-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

[In an effort to open source this collaboration, here is the syllabus from our first session. The goal of the Fellowship is to develop academic rigor/curriculum and new digital tools/strategies for the work we have come to call *tablemaking, *social ritual and on occasion *radical hospitality. MCDM = Master of Communication in Digital Media // University of Washington]

Lunch Session Number One: The Salon, The Symposium, and The "Erotic" Life of Small Gatherings.

Special Guest: Stephanie Snyder, Curator Reed College Museum, Getty Fellow, Writer, Artist, Friend. Stephanie will be joining us via Skype from 12:30 to 1pm

>>>Hakim Bey - Communique #6 1. Salon Apocalypse "Secret Theatre"

>>>Allan Kaprow. Notes on The Elimination of the Audience.

>>>Michael Hebb - Tablemaking - TEDx Rainier

>>>Diedrich Diederichsen. People of Intensity, People of Power: The Nietzsche Economy

>>>Stephanie Snyder. Letters from the Symposium.

>>>Anne Lill. The Symposium, Wine, and the Ethics of the Polis. Trames, No 3, Vol 3, 1999

Menu:
Fall chicories, walnuts, goat ricotta, pickled peppers, banyuls vinegar, spanish olive oil.
Slow roasted tomato and pork sugo, trenne, cracked pepper.

photos by Filiz Efe and Scott Macklin

NEGLECT

2011-10-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

So many things have been happening in utter silence in the ONE POT world. We might get better about this neglect thing, and we might not. In the meantime head over to NIGHT SCHOOL to see the public facing pretty stuff we have lined up for Seattle Washington.

Dream Hampton, Kimya Dawson, Mark Bowden, Cameron Sinclair, Y La Bamba, Adam Braun, Sean Carrasso, Ellen Gustafson, Warby Parker, Matthew Segal, and Eric and Encarnacion are all joining us in the next month. WWW.NIGHTNIGHTNIGHT.ORG

DJ Spooky / came / conquered

2011-10-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

Night
School with Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky on Ice from Scott Macklin on Vimeo.

Night School // ~5 min. Lesson // DJ Spooky // Book of Ice

On September 25, the second season of Night School kicked off as Michael Hebb brought the accomplished composer, multimedia artist and writer Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky to the Sorrento Hotel for a gathering of music and discussion around his latest work, The Book of Ice. Thanks to a unique partnership with the Master's of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program at the University of Washington, a video series giving viewers an inside look into Hebb's events will be created throughout the year.

What emerges is an intimate look into DJ Spooky's recent travels to Antartica and his thoughts on climate change, symphonic hip-hop and the future of humanity itself. Mix all of that in with a string quartet playing Spooky's newest compositions that are all inspired by the sounds of ice and you get the essence of what can only happen at Night School. Check it out.

stadler's nafta tour; sf, la, seattle and beyond.

2011-06-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

matthew stadler's 12 city nafta tour ends in seattle with the sweet music of john roderick and deep pots of carne en su jugo. july 6th.

(oh, and matthew's heavily anticipated new novel Chloe Jarren's La Cucaracha, with books made fresh that day, like thick tortillas, for each and every guest.)

i will let matthew explain this spectacular twelve city carpet ride (see below), which we are honored to have a small part in... but first, grab tickets here, includes the book, hebb will be cooking, roderick will be singing, and we will be in conversation with our hometown hero mr. stadler.

buy tix, fifty dollars.

facebook event page

penthouse of the sorrento (seattle).

Publication Studio NAFTA Tour 2011

Chloe Jarren's La Cucaracha, made expressly by Publication Studio and Third Place Press for that day and gathering.

more info and dates here...

Matthew Stadler is the author of five novels, including Landscape: Memory, The Sex Offender, and Allan Stein, for which he's been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and a United States Artists Fellowship, among many other prizes. He was the literary editor of Nest Magazine; his stories and essays appear in ArtForum, Domus, Wiederhall, The New York Times, and Fillip, among other journals.

stadler and hebb in sf and la.

june 21st - san francisco - we are taking over the intersection for the arts gallery / hubsf with chef leif hedendal cooking. grab tickets here.

june 27th - los angeles - we are invading a falling-down-mansion in los feliz with chef colleen french cooking. grab tickets here.

The Other Side of Nashville and evening w/ Bobby Bare Jr, Tucker Martine, Carey Kotsionis, Kevin Murphy (The Moondoggies), Jason Dodson (The Maldives)

2011-06-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

the other side of nashville, a night of songs and stories. june 19th. 7pm. penthouse of the sorrento (seattle).

bobby bare jr. is a nashville superstar, and an indie rock demi god, and one of the most entertaining charisma-rich brilliant human beings we know. tucker martine is straight up one of the most in-demand producers of our generation (hot off the billboard number one decemberists album) and he is a nashville native and one charming man, and carey k. will melt your heart, period. kevin and jason are heroic musicians, and this night is going to be quite memorable.

from bobby:

"there is more than one type of music made in music city and more than one type of kid that is born in nashville. hear the stories of 2 sons of the city and a handful of remarkable special guests as we evoke the other side of nashville."

grab tickets here. fifteen bucks.

facebook event page (because i am certain you want to invite every last friend)

!Flash! Night School Symposium with Little Bee Author Chris Cleave.

2011-05-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

A very very very last minute engagement with NY Times Bestselling Author Chris Cleave.

In Conversation with co-founder of Seattle Reads Chris Higashi and director of Sweet Crude/Seattle City Council candidate Sandy Cioffi.

Tomorrow. 8:30pm. Fireside Room. No Charge.

Q: Have you been to Nigeria and witnessed the horrors that are at the center of Little Bee?

Chris Cleave: No I haven't and no I wouldn't - not to the Niger Delta area where the Nigerian parts of the book are set. Westerners there are frequently kidnapped and ransomed. I wouldn't dare. Everything I know about that area is from journalists, much braver people than me.

(In 2005-2008, Sandy Cioffi made four trips to the volatile Niger Delta in Nigeria to film Sweet Crude, documenting conditions there and interviewing the region’s key stakeholders, including leadership of the armed resistance movement. In April 2008, she and her film crew were detained by the Nigerian State Security Services and held in military prison for seven days. She completed Sweet Crude, which has garnered several awards including the Lena Sharpe Persistence of Vision Award at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2009. She is currently running for Seattle City Council.)

Chris Cleave's debut novel Incendiary, about a terrorist bomb in London, was published in Britain July 7, 2005, the day of the London subway and train bombings. It won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, won the United States Book-of-the-Month Club’s First Fiction award 2005 and won the Prix Spécial du Jury at the French Prix des Lecteurs 2007. His second novel is titled Little Bee in Canada and the US, where it is a New York Times #1 bestseller. It is titled The Other Hand in the UK, where it is a Sunday Times bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards. Chris Cleave has been a barman, a long-distance sailor and teacher of marine navigation, an internet pioneer and a journalist. Cleave is in Seattle May 12-14 for The Seattle Public Library’s Seattle Reads Little Bee program.

one pot returns to seattle. dinner with sharifa, tomorrow night

2011-04-19T10:02:00.001-07:00

the past three months have been a w h i r l w i n d, our little picnic-basket-we-call-one-pot has missled down in nyc several times, landed in la for multiple explosions, ignited a cruise ship on the open seas, started a small fire on a quiet caribbean island, gathered combat veterans in the hills outside of san diego, and erected several trenches in the embrace of san francisco. we could easily write several volumes. the sheer joy at these tables has been crushing, in a good way.

tomorrow night, one pot comes home. we are so tired we can only copy and paste... from our newsletter.

tomorrow night. join me. i will cook. you will share pots of food with renowned writer and scholar sharifa rhodes-pitts. we originally thought that this would be better as a symposium, but at the final hour we are changing gears and lengthening the table, and making this a communal feast. the table and the conversation will be fortified by the likes of charles mudede, sandra jackson-dumont, and nick licata.

i have ten seats left. get 'em here:

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/166075

.

more info on sharifa below:

Penthouse Symposium / One Pot Dinner.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, author of Harlem is Nowhere. April 20th. 7pm.

In Conversation with Nick Licata, Charles Mudede, and Sandra Jackson-Dumont. Food prepared by Michael Hebb / www,onepot.org.

"This is a lovely book about the romance-and dangers-of bibliophily...Beguiling." Zadie Smith

Topic: Sharifa's new book: Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America.

$40/person, includes a hearty dinner prepared by michael hebb/one pot and a copy of Harlem is Nowhere.. Tickets available here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/166075

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Harper's, The Nation, Boston Globe, Transition, and Times Literary Supplement. She has received awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Originally from Houston, Texas, she graduated in 2000 from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom. Sharifa is writing a trilogy on African-Americans and utopia; her first book, Harlem is Nowhere, will be published in 2011 by Little, Brown & Company.

"Rhodes-Pitts is one of that rare breed of writer who, on the strength of her hypnotic voice and idiosyncratic thinking, can turn ever sentence into a crooked finger, impossible to resist." Laura Miller, Salon.com

"It makes a startling, alive sound, one you cock your head at an angle to hear...Ms. Rhodes-Pitts drops us inside her wide-scanning cranium as she searches for her own version of Harlem..." Dwght GARNER, New York Times

More about Harlem is Nowhere below...

Vogue.com
http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/q-a-with-sharifa-rhodes-pitts-author-of-harlem-is-nowhere/

NPR, Talk of the Nation
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/31/133377760/dreams-and-reality-forever-intertwined-in-harlem

The HARLEM IS NOWHERE mixtape, by DJ Rupture, featuring Shabazz Palaces!
http://www.domusweb.it/en/mixtape/domus-mixtape-2-the-sound-of-harlem-nyc/

What to do on Monday in Seattle.

2011-02-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5

Feb. 7th : No 5

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Cold Landscapes"

Mount Eerie with the OdeonQuartet and rising-star Kaylee Cole.

(Odeon quartet features members of the Seattle Symphony)

These three musical outfits will explore the relationship between music and place, and specifically cold and frozen places.

Ticket: $18 (only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.

Facebook Event Page

Chamber vs. Chamber. As the musical fraction of the Sorrento's Night School, Chamber vs. Chamber endeavors to spark a dialogue between rock and traditional chamber music, combining classical chamber performances with indie-rock theatrics. Each Chamber vs. Chamber evening will include multiple illuminating performances and a lively post performance conversation between the musicians, hosted by City Arts editor Mark Baumgarten.

Performer Bios:

OdeonQuartet

Formed in 1999, OdeonQuartet is comprised of distinguished artists who are dedicated to presenting concerts of the highest artistic quality and building new audiences for chamber music through performances and educational outreach programs. The artists include Gennady Filimonov and Artur Girsky violin(s), Heather Bentley viola and Rowenna Hammill cello. Gennady has been soloist/concertmaster in collaboration with Rod Stewart, Linda Rondstatt, Tony Bennett, Sarah Brightmann, "Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" , "Heart" and many others. Artur has been a member of Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 2006. Heather has appeared as soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Rowena joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble with which she performed for ten years, eventually as Associate Principal and serves as Associate Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Opera.

Mount Eerie is Phil Elvrum. The 31 year-old multi-instrumentalist has played in other bands, and worked as a producer, but remains best known for this solo project, which began under the name the Microphones in 1997. In 2003, he renamed the project Mount Eerie (and added an "e" to his last name, Elvrum) after returning from a trip to Norway, where he lived alone in a remote cabin for a winter. To date, his most critically acclaimed album is the Microphones' 2001 epic The Glow Pt. 2. The first official Mount Eerie album-following the Microphones' final 2003 full-length, also called Mount Eerie-is 2005's No Flashlight: Songs of the Fulfilled Night. It was followed by 2007's Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, a 132-page, hardcover book of his photography, packaged with a 10" picture disk. In early 2009, the journals he kept and drawings he scribbled in Norway were released as a 144-page hardcover book called Dawn. It came with 16 color photo cards and a CD of songs he wrote while living in the cabin.

Kaylee Cole played her first Spokane show in April 2007. By January 2008, she was out in Seattle on a mini seven-show tour that warmed the ears of repeatedly rapt audiences. Cole's diverse audiences across Pacific Northwest gigs have gobbled up her two EPs, waiting hungrily for the release of the album. Recorded in September 2008, her self-released album We're Still Here Missing You, collates Cole's unpretentious lyricism with a style of music that does not waver in its organic attention to unique, charming melodies. Now living in Seattle, Washington Cole spends time touring and working on her new record with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.

TEDx: Rainier: Tablemaking. Talk finally up for viewing...

2011-01-25T11:12:00.000-08:00

Huge thanks to Nassim Assefi for making TEDx Rainier a magical reality. And David Llama for editing out a mountain of "ums and buts" and making the whole thing so much prettier.

Night School is back in session.

2011-01-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

...five months of upcoming night school events at the ever-glamorous hotel sorrento: perched on first hill in the emerald city known as seattle. we couldn't be more excited about the mash-up of strange and lovely offerings ahead, wallace shawn, simon ford, a metal band named lesbian, the portland cello project, sharifa rhodes-pitts, odeonquartet, absinthe, blindfolded vodka, erick castro, mount eerie, kaylee cole, chopin and silent reading...

clearly the "only thing all of these things" have in common is....

Night School at the Sorrento: Winter/Spring Term commences...

Penthouse Symposium No. 10: Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson. No. 11: TBA No. 12: Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts.

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5: Odeon Quartet, Mount Eerie, and Kaylee Cole. No. 6: Portland Cello Project and Lesbian.

Drinking Lessons No. 17: Blind Vodka Tasting. No. 18: Master class with Simon Ford and Erick Castro. No. 19: Absinthe Soiree Part Deux with American Standard Time

The Silent Reading Party continues with Kyle O'Quin playing Chopin....

Winter term begins with some lovely news, City Arts will now be co-producing the Night School series and documenting each event in a series of journal entries authored by editor Mark Baumgarten and available at cityartsonline.com. We have an incredibly rich line-up of happenings at the hotel, here is the complete line-up, (sorry about the length) stay tuned for a few late Spring additions.

Penthouse Symposium No. 10 : Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson.

Thursday, January 20^th.

Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson. Topic: Wallace's new book Essays.

The Penthouse Symposium concept is simple: we will continue to host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for an intimate and casual course on a subject of their choosing. Past Symposiums guests have included: Atul Gawande, Garry Wills, Lesley Hazleton, Bill Mckibben, Alan Khazei and many others.

*Upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. In a Symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$40/person, includes a hearty stew and a copy of Wallace Shawn's new book. Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Our thanks to Town Hall Seattle for making this event possible.

Wallace Shawn. Known to stage and film audiences as an extraordinary character actor, Shawn is also an Obie Award-winning playwright and best-selling author. His celebrated works include The Designated Mourner and The Fever, along with the poignant film My Dinner With Andre, which Shawn co-wrote. His most recent work, Essays, released in 2009, is a highly personal, often self-deprecating collection of Shawn's perspective on life, politics, morality and the power of art.

Sean Nelson is a Seattle writer/musician/filmmaker. Probably best known for being the lead singer in Harvey Danger, which disbanded last year, he was also in the Long Winters, and has recorded with Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Robyn Hitchcock, the Minus 5, and many other bright lights besides. His debut solo LPs, Make Good Choices and Nelson Sings Nilsson, are due out in 2011. Nelson co-wrote and starred in Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance. His debut as a screenwriter/co-director, Treatment, will be making the film festival rounds this year.

Penthouse Symposium No. 11: TBA

Penthouse Symposium No. 12: Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, author of Harlem is Nowhere.

April - date TBA. *Pick up the current copy of Harper's for a feature excerpt from Harlem is Nowhere. **Sharifa will appear on NPR's All Things Considered Jan 31^st - check local listings.

Topic: Sharifa's new book: Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America.

$40/person, includes a hearty stew and a copy of Harlem is Nowhere.. Tickets available Feb. 1^st at Brown Paper Tickets.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Harper's, The Nation, Boston Globe, Transition, and Times Literary Supplement. She has received awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Originally from Houston, Texas, she graduated in 2000 from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom. Sharifa is writing a trilogy on African-Americans and utopia; her first book, Harlem is Nowhere, will be published in 2011 by Little, Brown & Company.

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5 and No. 6.

Feb. 7th : No 5

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Cold Landscapes"

Mount Eerie with the OdeonQuartet and rising-star Kaylee Cole.

(Odeon quartet features members of the Seattle Symphony)

These three musical outfits will explore the relationship between music and place, and specifically cold and frozen places.

Ticket: $18 (only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.
Facebook event page.

April 17^th: No 6

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Metal and Resin"

The Portland Cello Project and Lesbian.

Portland's celebrated Cello Project will perform pieces ranging from classical compositions to Motörhead and beyond, fusing the beautiful with the brutal. PCP's collaboration with artful noise architects Lesbian will combine lush string arrangements with their epic musical meanderings, making for an undoubtedly unique and unforgettable evening.

Co-produced by KEXP Seek & Destroy host and City Arts Magazine columnist Hannah Levin.

Ticket: $15 (Only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Performer Bios:

OdeonQuartet

Portland Cello Project. Since the group's inception in late 2007, they have performed with a veritable "Who's Who?" list of Portland musicians, from Laura Gibson to The Dandy Warhols, Horse Feathers, Mirah and Loch Lomond, just to name a few... The group's newest full-length is being released on June 9th, 2009 on their new label, local independent Kill Rock Stars. This CD and indeed the relationship forged with this well-suited record label embodies the group's belief that "collaboration is the cornerstone of independence and artistic freedom." Two of the artists who have collaborated with PCP: Thao Nguyen of Thao With The Get Down Stay Down and local musician Justin Power, contribute four songs each to this CD, the Thao and Justin Power Sessions. And the other four songs on the record are strategically placed examples of cello sublimity and madness: from a Pantera cover, to a solemn religious piece by John Tavener.

Lesbian http://www.myspace.com/lesbianwitch

Drinking Lessons No 17,18, and 19.

Jan. 24^th : No 17.

"Vodka... Blind"

7pm. Fireside Room.

Andrew Friedman, owner of Liberty and the President of The Washington State Bartenders Guild is co-hosting this unique evening dedicated to understanding and appreciating that fine white liquid known as vodka. Expect a blind tasting of 8 local and imported spirits. Everyone has a favorite vodka, but how will yours stack up? Reserve your seat now and help us pick the winner- taking the crown as the Drinking Lessons Vodka of the year.

$20/person per class. Sorrento Hotel, Fireside Room. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook event page.

March 2nd: No. 18.

"Gin Roundtable and Master Class with Simon Ford and Erick Castro (Rickhouse/SF)"

Simon Ford is hands down one of the most renowned bartenders and liquor professionals in the world, and we are thrilled he will join us to teach two courses on a subject he knows better than almost anyone. Star mixologist Erick Castro from the renowned Rickhouse in SF will be joining Simon for two distinct Drinking Lessons.

March 2^nd. 6:00pm. Penthouse/Sorrento room. Gin Roundtable - only twenty tickets available. Engage in a two hour exploration of the history of gin with Simon while Erick mixes golden age gin cocktails. $40/person. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook Event Page

March 2^nd 8:30pm. Penthouse/Sorrento room. Gin Master Class - only twenty tickets available. Previous bartending experience suggested. 2 hour course on gin history, cocktail technique, and philosophy. $30/person. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook Event Page

Simon Ford (Industry Visionary and International Ambassador) currently works in the capacity of International Ambassador for Plymouth Gin and the Director of Brand Education for Pernod Ricard USA. Over the past seven years, this role has taken him across the globe training the experts and first-time barkeeps alike as well as directing on-premise strategy for a portfolio of brands in the US. From running a wine shop to opening some of England's most lauded cocktail bars, judging spirits in competition and marketing some of the biggest brands on the planet have made Mr. Ford a highly respected voice in the spirits industry.

Simon received the award for Best Brand Ambassador at New Orleans Tales of the Cocktail 2007 and was named an Industry Visionary in the UK. His bar in the UK has won numerous awards including Best New Bar, Theme Magazine 2002, Best Bar, Theme Magazine 2003 and Best Cocktail offering, Theme magazine 2006 in addition it was named in the Guardian News Paper as one of the top 10 cocktail bars in the UK and as one of the Great Cocktail Bars of the World by the Diffords Guide.

Erick Castro / Rickhouse. After earning his chops at Bourbon & Branch, Castro was assigned the beverage director position at its newest sister bar, Rickhouse. Since it opened in June of 2009, and under the direction of Castro, Rickhouse has been named one of the World's Top Bars by Food & Wine magazine. Recently, it also won The Cheers: Benchmark Award for Top Cocktail Lounge 2010.

April 18^th : No 19.

"Absinthe Soiree Part Deux with American Standard Time"

7pm

"An absinthe soiree" with Gwydion from Marteau Absinthe and Marc from Pacifique Absinthes and star bartender Nathan Weber from Tavern Law. Held in the Fireside room - the more the merrier. This more casual drinking lesson is only $20 and includes absinthe tasting, history, tasty bites from the kitchen, and several absinthe based cocktails will be available. Greg Vandy of KEXP fame and American Standard Time will be spinning "absinthe" inspired tunes throughout the evening.

$20/person per class. Buy Tickets Here.

Facebook Event Page

Behind the Bar:

Gwydion Stone. Maker of Marteau absinthe, Gwydion founded The Wormwood Society, an organization devoted to absinthe education...

http://www.absinthemarteau.com

Marc Bernhard. Owner and distiller of Pacific Distillery, makers of Voyager gin and Pacifique absinthe, Marc professional background is in herbs and spices...

http://www.pacificdistillery.com

Nathan Weber. Star bartender and Bar Manager at Tavern Law, awarded top 25 bars in America by GQ magazine.

DJ Greg Vandy, Was once a bartender but is better known as the famed DJ behind KEXP's Roadhouse and author of the spectacular new blog American Standard Time.

The Silent Reading Party continues...

Five new dates for the Reading Party, now with special guests and music. Kyle O'Quin (Wild Orchid Children and Kay Kay) will play Chopin and other delights on that piano. Come early! January's reading party was sitting-on-the-floor-packed.

Upcoming Dates: February 2^nd, March 2^nd, April 6^th, May 4^th

Special Guests: each month we bring in luminaries from the Seattle community, to read silently, and entertain us with their post reading party "book reports" published on the SLOG. Past special guests have included: John Roderick, Heather Mchugh, and Dow Constantine.

The Reading Party runs from 6pm - 9pm in the Fireside Room. There is no charge. Happy hour menu is available for the duration of the event.

Facebook Event Page

"The Reading Party. Silent sustained reading at a bar, because no one wants to read alone."

- Christopher Frizzelle

Mr Frizzelle has more to say about these popular gatherings here...

What is Night School?

Night School is a collaboration between the Sorrento Hotel, Michael Hebb, an array of intellectuals, artists, writers, filmmakers, mixologists, chefs and the leading cultural institutions in the Northwest. Night School was established to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Sorrento Hotel. Please visit www.nightnightnight.com for more information.

TEDx Rainier. Talk and Slideshow. 10/10/10.

2010-10-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

The fancy video version should be up soon. But here is the talk from yesterday.

[for a better version of the slideshow - click here]

TEDx Rainier. 10/10/10. 9 minutes. Benaroya Hall, Seattle.

I have had the good fortune of traveling around the world with my table - like one would a boat - bringing coffee farmers together on their farms at a common table to document their stories, as Nassim mentioned my table has ended up on i-5 medians as a tool to spark dialogue about commerce and use of space, this table I speak of has gathered many of the countries leading musicians to sing and share eating and drinking songs, and I have used my table to recreate the classic Greek model of the symposium with thought leaders ranging from Gore Vidal to Mary Robinson to Spike Lee.

A few of my adventures at the table are going to slide by behind me. My hope is that these images create more questions than answers.

These Table-based travels are at the core of a hunch I’ve had for fifteen years

That hunch – is that The Table – the place where we come together and share food – is one of the most important cultural sites in the modern world.

And the second part of the hunch – the common table is in a state of peril.

"We don’t eat together anymore. "

I don’t need statistics to point to today’s bleak conditions of conviviality. The breakdown of the family meal, the prevalence of the drive through, and the rise of the solitary dinner are self-evident modern realities.

Arising from that backdrop there are two main tenets shaping my life’s work

1. The world of progressive ideas is in dire need of civic rituals. If these wonderful ideas we are sharing today will ever take root and leave today's stage and effectively re-shape the world. We need to rethink how we gather, how we convene, the table needs to be part of this rethinking.

2. And secondly, I am incredibly proud to be an active part of the local food movement, and the achievements of the past decade –. But – without meaningful, powerful, new, evocative, inspiring models of how we can share local food, how we can sit together and eat local food – this esteemed movement – will plateau.

In order for the food revolution to gain real, culture-shifting momentum – we need to put the proverbial horse back in front of the cart. Without re-considering, and re-imagining how we eat in community – real progress will elude us.

I am appalled at how little consideration, energy, and thoughtfulness is invested in models for sharing food – and blown away by the remarkable work that is being done in small pockets of this country to reinvigorate the rituals of dining.

This is the departure point / the context within which I have chosen to dedicate my life and work. On this unsteady footing I have put a strange flag into the ground – and decided to call this practice:

Tablemaking.

I have already gotten feedback that it is too leaden or too sloppy a term. But perhaps with some tenacity I can slip it into low-grade usage.

Tablemaking – working definition. The thoughtful or imaginative or progressive use of the common table. Any action that reinvigorates the common table, i.e. any action that inspires people to eat together.

There are have been profound uses of the table throughout history – here are 3.
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas understood the importance of the table and the hearth – as the quintessential site of cultural exchange – a modernist revolution found its earliest spark at the salons and dinners hosted in their Parisian apartment. The NY Times calls the Stein salon “The First Museum of Modern Art”

Every year millions of members of the Jewish faith gather at the SEDER table – history is literally consumed, faith becomes flesh, gratitude for ancestors is solidified and a new year opens up. The artistry and elegance of the Seder ritual should be considered a masterpiece of performance art, it is a grand opera, an extraordinary dance, ageless theatre – and the Seder - got new wings this year when Obama hosted the first ever White House Seder, White House staffer Eric Lesser. "the first time in history that gefilte fish had been placed on White House dishware," Obama’s 2010 Seder was the result of a dark basement interlude. In 2008 Eric Lesser and two other staffers gathered an ad hoc Seder in the basement of a campaign outpost. Obama happened upon them – was intrigued - and sat down to dinner.

Katharine Graham was hailed as the most powerful woman in publishing, at a famous dinner party in the mid seventies – a decade after she took over control of the Washington Post and not long after her renowned efforts during the Watergate Scandal – K. elegantly crushed an age old dining tradition. After the last course was served – she told her host Joseph Alsop – that she would rather go home than be excluded from the standard male-only postprandial cigar and whisky discussion. She was invited to stay – and soon became the most sought after dinner and post dinner companion – and a seat at one of her own celebrated dinner parties became known as the most powerful seat in DC.

So we have Obama Katharine Graham, and Gertrude Stein all activating the table in poignant ways – but the more commonplace examples deserve mentioning, the thanksgiving feast, the communion, the ritual of family supper and to me the most important historic use of the table – I call it the harvest feast.

And by this I mean a dinner that results when your neighbor decides to kill a large animal – lets call it a pig. Pigs are big. One family cannot consume and entire animal at one or even several sittings. Historically your neighbor would pick up the phone and ask you to: come eat pig.

And with that simple telephone call - a brilliant and complex interaction of gift culture is established - you are going to need to feed that neighbor.

What do we call the modern / urban harvest feast?

The dinner party.

What makes a dinner party distinct from making a reservation at a fabulous local restaurant - the future - a dinner party implies a future - it is what Marcel Mauss calls "the obligation to return” you might not be roasting a whole pig in return – but a basic obligation to return the cultural exchange is established.

It can be argued that the commonplace urban dinner party carries with it the root of all civil society. The world of giving.

Heady shit for offering up a little stew.

Another thing the basic dinner party has in its favor: the hearth. A center point – what Eliade calls “the axis mundi” - that contains the identity of an individual / a family. There is very little risk, very little vulnerability – and perhaps equally little reward in making a reservation at a restaurant – but inviting someone into your home is human, scary, gorgeous.

Secretary of State Clinton:

"Hearths, whatever they look like, and wherever we gather around them, where we tell our stories and pass down our values, bind families together."

Stated during her Clinton Global Initative talk last month.

And I don't mean to beat up on the restaurant - only to underscore the notion that we need more options - we need many models - and not just the type of dinner parties our parents had - but evocative, compelling new reasons to eat together.

I might also submit that the fear of cooking for other people – the fear of entertaining – is likely encroaching on the fear of public speaking as our nations biggest fear.

Before we wrap I up I urge you to consider the work of my under-discovered colleagues - that are deeply challenging how we can and should come together around food - the folks at OPENrestaurant in the Bay Area, Sunday Supper at Kurtwood Farms on Vashon, Highlands Dinner Club and FEAST in Brooklyn, Outstanding in the Field, and a stunning example Maverick Farms – that is using communal meals in the Blue Ridge Mountains to bring attention to the deeply endangered farming community in North Carolina.

I will have successfully spent my time on this stage if you return home today and cast a different type of glance at your dining room table. And more importantly - if these two questions flit around in your brain and inspire action.

How can we expect to revolutionize our food system without a deep investment in how we eat the food from that system?

And How can we expect to create a progressive state without meaningful civic ritual?
Will you even remember the ideas shared today - how will TEDx Rainier become flesh - I assert that a conversation you are about to have - at lunch - will be equally if not more memorable than anything I have said in these nine minutes. Sharing food intimately can turn the ethereal into a palpable reality.

By now – you should have received a strange kind of dinner invitation. Go ahead and open that up. It is an invitation that actually requires you to conceive, design, and host a dinner.
Yep – it is more of a challenge and less of an invitation - I challenge everyone in the audience – and anyone who has taken the time to listen to this talk on the web – to gather a group in the next week and eat together – with a degree of intentionality or fervor or thoughtfulness And enter into a talk with that group of individuals about the importance of eating together – And I want to know how these dinners go, I want to know what you cooked, or had someone else cook, and how the discussion went – simply jot your experience down on one pots facebook page.

We can start another national movement. And get that word Tablemaking some mileage.

Thank You.

Night School = Alan Khazei Penthouse Symposium. Sept. 27th.

2010-09-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

Night School and the Penthouse Symposium series continues with CITY YEAR founder and author of Big Citizenship, Alan Khazei, Monday September 27th, 7:30pm. In conversation with Reuven Carlyle, Tim Burgess, Joel Connelly, James Kelly, Gaurab Bansal, Susan Rich, Stephanie Delaney and special guests.

Monday, September 27th
Doors open at 7:30pm.
Stew served at 8:00.
Conversation begins at 8:15.
Alan Khazei. BIG CITIZENSHIP: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America.
Get Tickets Here.

The Penthouse Symposium concept is simple: we will continue to host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for an intimate and casual course on a subject of their choosing. The Symposiums are held in the historic Sorrento Hotel penthouse "Top of The Town". We have been lucky enough to host Garry Wills, Bill Mckibben, Atul Gawande and many other remarkable thought leaders.

Upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. In a Symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$30/person, includes a hearty stew made by onepot.org, a cash bar and a copy of Alan Khazei's new book Big Citizenship (Retail $25.95). Makers Mark is a generous sponsor of the Penthouse Symposium series.

BIG CITIZENSHIP

Two months before the 2008 Election, Alan Khazei capped a twenty-five year career as a social entrepreneur by persuading Barack Obama and John McCain to appear together on national television to agree that national service was good for America. With their backing he helped frame the Edward M. Kennedy Service Act, which was signed into law within 100 days of Obama's inauguration-an extraordinary example of effectiveness in action.

In Big Citizenship, Khazei shares his experiences founding and growing his City Year program, saving Americorps, and creating the new national campaign called ServiceNation, offering inspiration as well as practical advice. He addresses how to balance private and public funding; work with all levels of government; build bipartisan support on even the most contentious issues; attract volunteers, and get young people involved.

Alan Khazei is the founder and CEO of Be the Change, Inc. Alan previously served as the co-founder & CEO of City Year, a youth service corps that helped to inspire the development of AmeriCorps. Alan serves on the boards of City Year, New Profit, and Share our Strength. In 2006, US News & World Report selected Alan as one of America's 25 Best Leaders. An honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Alan currently lives in Brookline with his wife, daughter, and son. Full bio here.

Reuven Carlyle: Democratic member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 36th district since 2009

Tim Burgess: Seattle City Council Member and chair of the council's Education Committee

Joel Connelly: Political Columnist for the Seattle P-I.

Gaurab Bansal: Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee.

James Kelly: President of the Urban League.

Susan Rich: a Seattle poet, author of three books, most recently, The Alchemist’s Kitchen, published by White Pine Press, New York. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, Amnesty International Student Coordinator, and Electoral Supervisor in Bosnia.

Stephanie Delaney: a college administrator and lifelong volunteer. Her current volunteer activities including serving on the Self Help committee of Legal Voice and coordinating the volunteers for the St. Martin de Porres ministry for homeless men at Christ the King Parish.

it has been a busy couple of months....

2010-09-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

quietly making tables with/for gloria steinem, hedgebrook // ben affleck and whitney williams and their remarkable eastern congo project // and aegis trust and a bunch of global leaders in nyc for the clinton global initiative...

and carefully creative directing a lovely arts fest: city arts festival - oct. 20th - 23rd. we promise there will be more frequent posts now that summer has faded... more pics here...

photograph by barbara kinney. eastern congo intitiative dinner and discussion. seattle, wa.

soul cities.

2010-08-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

fall + winter = heaviness. summer should be more like... a little dress or really small shorts.

a new one pot joint in collaboration with dj cooky parker and many others.

number one. neumos. tuesday august 17th.
dj cooky parker, dj riz, dj mike nipper
+ a special performance by theesatisfaction.

you can: come to dinner: 7pm
or
you can: come to dance: 9pm

this is a series: we will be holding one event every two months or so: we will be focusing on one soul city per evening: the food, the music, the history: the dinner will erupt into a dirty soul dance party: featuring the best damn soul dj's spinning rare 45's and extraordinary cuts: this is an exploration of the word, the music, the food, and the culture we know of as soul. the first dinner / party focuses more widely on north america / and the larger sense of the word.

dinner by: one pot, joshua henderson of skillet, rahwah and crew from HIDMO, and dj cooky parker. forty dollars. email onepotorg@gmail.com to reserve.

dance party: 9pm to late. click here to grab tix. five dollars. or just come down the night of...

some words from dj cooky parker:

The "afterlife" is a baffling and controversial thing, so let's leave it alone for now and come together to deal with something much less frustrating
food
music
and dance

Soul:
The word itself has very little to no negative meaning in any language. This conclusion then leads to the understanding that anything associated with the word is going to be good, really really good

Case in point: Unless "soul" food is made by incapable hands it tends to cause elation and then a deep sense of satisfaction. In even rarer cases; unless the r&b/soul singer is given a clunker of a song, the music often causes awe and a sudden urge to dance one's ass off.

Tonight we will provide both the food and the music, the dancing will rely on you.

For those who come to dinner you will be asked to involve yourself in a discussion on the history of soul music, the merits of it and the importance of it. Some records will be played, some singers and writers will be focused on and everyone will surely walk away with a much deeper understanding of the depth and scope of this truly amazing American art form known as Soul and R&B music. For those that come after, the party will have already begun so just jump right in.

12 writers + 12 musicians = 12 conversations. Monday, August 2nd

2010-07-28T11:17:00.001-07:00

12 writers + 12 musicians = 12 conversations.
Monday, August 2nd. Sorrento Penthouse
A Night School event, in collaboration with Bumbershoot, as part of the 40 Ways to Celebrate Bumbershoot's 40th Festival.
A fundraiser for 826 Seattle.
7pm - 10pm. Suggested Donation $15 - $30
Space extremely limited please email Kerri@hotelsorrento.com to reserve.
All Ages.

12 intimate conversations between past and present Bumbershoot writers and musicians, nestled into 12 resplendent and well-mic'd hotel rooms. Voyeurs can expect spontaneous song, life-changing conversation about the arts, and well stocked bars.

12 books : the Sorrento will feature books by these authors in the 12 book store for the next three months. 12 books is a small carefully curated bookstore in the Sorrento lobby - hotel guests are able to order these books as a Room Service option from a handsome book menu.

Musicians

Rachel Flotard - Visqueen (2003, 2005, 2009, 2010)
Jesse and Kimberly - The Dutchess and The Duke (2009)
Scott Reitherman - Throw me the Statue (2008)
Rob and John - Awesome (2006)
Sportin' Life Crew - Fatal Lucciauno (2010), Spaceman (2009), D. Black (2007,2009)
David Bazan (2010)
Sarah Rudinoff (1998, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009)
Tilson (2006, 2007, 2008)
Lori Goldston (1997, 2004)
Spencer Moody (2000, 2007, 2009)

Writers

Ryan Boudinot (2007)
Stacey Levine (2007)
Matthew Stadler (1999, 2004)
John Roderick (2003, 2009)
Storme Webber (2004)
Anne Focke (1971, 1972, 1973)
Greg Lundgren (2007, 2009)
David Schmader (2008, 2010)
Lesley Hazleton (2004)
Rachel Kessler (2000, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010)

Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival, taking place this year September 4-6 at Seattle Center, is celebrating its 40th annual festival. As part of the 40th festivities, Bumbershoot invites the community to participate in 40 Ways to Celebrate Bumbershoot's 40th Festival, a summer-long series of events, programs, and contests currently underway, which highlight Seattle's rich history of creating and supporting music, art, culture and community.

For more information on Bumbershoot, please visit www.bumbershoot.org

lauren bush + ellen gustafson = midnight symposium may 24th.

2010-05-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

lauren bush and ellen gustafson have sold over 546,000 feed bags in three years and as a result served over 55 million meals to the hungry. on monday night they are joining us for a midnight symposium about hunger and changing the system.

midnight symposium with lauren bush and ellen gustafson. may 24th. doors at 8pm.

tickets are $60 - over half of that goes to haiti (in the form of a haiti feed bag you get to take with you) the rest goes toward a big pot of stew, a big bottle of whisky - and a clutch of wine - and the rare opportunity to spend an evening with two of the most remarkable young philanthropists in the world. there will be required reading. click here for more details and click here for tickets.

a midnight supper in pdx. april 22nd. iacp.

2010-05-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

these are the pictures.

this was the invite:

caffe vita, one pot and maggie savarino
invite you to a midnight supper.

on thursday, april 22nd,
in a gilded room at the se corner of 3rd and ankeny, at midnight,
seattle and portland converge at high temperatures.

doors at 10pm. supper served at 11:30pm.
music at midnight.

caffe vita is providing the gilded room and fire.
christian krogstad of house spirits is bringing the white dog.
y la bamba, tahoe jackson & friends will provide the acoustics...
...to bounce off the golden walls
...with wine from our most beloved pnw artisans.

and there will be food:
michael hebb/one pot, naomi pomeroy/beast,
mark fuller/spring hill, jason french/ned ludd,
will come together to cook out of a massive wood fired oven,
built by Neapolitan masons.

and of course: caffe vita farm direct coffee will be served.

Night School. Chamber Vs. Chamber No.3 with "Awesome"

2010-05-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 3 with "Awesome" + Sarah Rudinoff, Nick Garrison and Special Guests.
chamber music vs. chamber (indie) rock

"Lessons from West" : Sunday, May 23rd 2010, Fireside Room, 6:00pm doors, $12.
Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/110388

A night of music and operatic lushness with "Awesome" and very special guests + post-concert conversation hosted by Mark Baumgarten, City Arts Editor, Matthew Richter (director of West), and the musicians. Photos by David Nixon.

As the musical fraction of the Sorrento's Night School, Chamber vs. Chamber endeavors to spark a dialogue between indie rock and traditional chamber music, combining classical chamber performances with indie rock theatrics. Each Chamber vs. Chamber evening will include multiple illuminating performances and conversation between the musicians and leaders in the classical and indie rock canon.

After "Awesome" fills the Fireside Room of the Sorrento with musical banter, Mark Baumgarten (Executive Editor of City Arts Magazine) and Matthew Richter (Director of West) will lead a discussion between the audience and musicians, touching on the inspiration behind the music, and the influences of both classical and indie rock repertoires. This specific Chamber Vs. Chamber will focus on the historical trajectory that includes the advent of opera and the evolution of theatrical music through the compositions of Kurt Weill, "Awesome", and others...

"West"

West was developed and premiered to much critical acclaim and sold out shows at On the Boards April 2010.

"In "West," their epic-scale and near-epic-length new show at On the Boards, the video wizardry of "Awesome" has taken a quantum leap.
- Seattle Times

"Awesome"

Part band, part art collective, "AWESOME" combines lush, dense vocal harmonies with a unique mix of electric and acoustic instruments including: guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, accordion, mandolin, banjo, theremin, typewriter, kitchen utensils, and anything else lying around that makes an interesting sound.

"Awesome" aren't the best at what they do...they're the only ones that do what they do. To see them is to be completely awed by what masters and visionaries they are.
- Seattle Weekly

Sarah Rudinoff // Nick Garrison.

These two superstars require little introduction...

"Sarah Rudinoff is so talented it's goddamn ridiculous. A pageant of moxie, a carnival of fabulous."
Adrian Ryan, The Stranger

"Nick Garrison is a pocket-size Piaf who could galvanize a room with his outsize charisma and chameleon's gift to become whatever song he sings."
Steve Wiecking, The Seattle Weekly

**Sarah and Nick we will be joined by Chris Jeffries (1st Stranger Genius Award Winner in theatre, composer extraordinaire) on Piano and Brendan Kellogg (of We Are Golden) on Cello.

12 books poetry and hip hop salon presented by Night School, Larry Mizell Jr., Hedgebrook, and Whit Press.

2010-04-19T22:29:00.001-07:00

April 26th, 8pm - Penthouse - Sorrento Hotel This event is free. All ages. Full bar

Poets: Ruth Forman, Karen Finnyfrock, Rich Jensen, Kary Wayson, Trent Moorman, Jeremy Richards, Rachel Kessler, Storme Webber, and Tara Hardy

MC's: Larry Mizell (Mash Hall), Geologic (Blue Scholars), Gabriel Teodros, D. Black, Fatal Lucciauno, Hollis and Lioness(Canary Sing), Tilson (The Saturday Knights).

Why? Because Seattle has one of the most remarkable hip hop communities in the country & Seattle is home to some of the best poets and publishing houses on the globe... And we think it is important to bring these two essential crafts together.

What? A casual evening of readings in the gorgeous penthouse of the historic Sorrento hotel. Picture a lavish room overlooking the city, candlelight, full bars, and about 75-100 people lounging about in decadence and listening to verse. Conversation among the artists/writers will be encouraged.

More information on the Sorrento Hotel's unique bookstore, 12 Books, HERE. Plus we well be announcing the Spring 12 books list at the salon.

An Absinthe Soiree: March 7th. Drinking Lesson number 14.

2010-03-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

An Absinthe Soiree. Forget the Academy : The Green Goddess is better than the Red Carpet...

*With Robert Hess, Gwydion from Marteau Absinthe and *Marc from Pacifique Absinthes, and esteemed cocktail historian Paul Clarke. Held in the Fireside room - the more the merrier. This more casual drinking lesson is only $20 and includes absinthe tasting, history, tasty bites from the kitchen, and a bar selling several absinthe based cocktails. The evening will feature the sounds of French cabaret performers Nikki Dee & Bonnie Birch. Tickets here.

* they will show you how to drink copious amounts of the mythic spirit. it is in the ever luscious fireside room, there will be live cabaret music to get dizzy to...

drinking lesson no. 12. max watman + christian krogstad = feb. 28th

2010-02-24T16:15:00.000-08:00

max is a brilliant writer, an nea fellow, and author of a hugely anticipated new book called chasing the white dog ; an amateur outlaw's adventures in moonshine. christian is owner of house spirits and one of the most celebrated micro-distillers in the country. guests receive the new book, cocktails, food, and the quiet shoutings of two amazing boozy minds. there are only a couple seats left... fifty five dollars. click for 6pm. click for 8pm.

let the silence begin.

2010-02-23T16:34:00.001-08:00

12 books. The Reading Party with Christopher Frizzelle

An Invitation from the Editor of the Stranger - who usually is not so short on his words:

"The Reading Party. Silent sustained reading at a bar, because no one wants to read alone."

Join the silence: February 24th, March 10th, March 24th, and April 7th in the Fireside Room, from 6:00-9:00pm. This is a free event. The Hunt Club's happy hour menu will be available until 9:00pm on these evenings.

More information on the Sorrento Hotel's unique bookstore, 12 Books, HERE.

Songs For Eating And Drinking Featured on Apple.com

2010-02-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

My super-genius partner Chase Jarvis got some serious love from Apple for the launch of the new Aperture application - and they chose to highlight the work we do together on our lil project Songs For Eating And Drinking.

Watch The Apple Aperture Documentation HERE.
Watch Our Vids from The Night HERE.

The evening in question was the hottest night ever recorded in Seattle - the venue Penthouse of the Sorrento - members of Mudhoney, The Dandy Warhols, The Moondoggies, The Long Winters, The Blakes and so so many more brilliant musicians took possession of the Hotel

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 2 “Valentine’s Day is Over” : a night of music and romantic agony with Sean Nelson, Erin Jorgensen, and very special guests.

2010-02-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

A night of music and romantic agony with Sean Nelson, Erin Jorgensen, and very special guests + post-concert conversation hosted by Mark Baumgarten, City Arts Editor.

Saturday February 20th, Fireside Room, 7pm doors, $12.
Tickets Here

Pairing a French-lyricist and classically trained marimba player with the former lead singer of Harvey Danger, the second installment of Chamber v. Chamber looks at the sounds we create when we want forget about the holiday of Love.

As the musical fraction of the Sorrento’s Night School, Chamber vs. Chamber endeavors to spark a dialogue between indie rock and traditional chamber music, combining classical chamber performances with indie rock theatrics. Each Chamber vs. Chamber evening will include multiple illuminating performances and conversation between the musicians and leaders in the classical and indie rock canon. Take this link to see videos of the first Chamber event: Loch Lomond, Spectratone, and Lori Goldston.

After our musical guests fill the Fireside Room of the Sorrento with rich melody, Mark Baumgarten--editor of City Arts Magazine--will lead a discussion between the audience and musicians, touching on the inspiration behind the music, and the influences of both classical and indie rock repetoires.

Sean Nelson is a Seattle writer/musician/filmmaker. Probably best known for being the lead singer in Harvey Danger, which disbanded last year, he was also in the Long Winters, and has recorded with Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Robyn Hitchcock, the Minus 5, and many other bright lights besides. His debut solo LP, Make Good Choices, recorded as Sean Nelson & His Mortal Enemies, will be released by Absolutely Kosher Records this Spring. Nelson co-wrote and starred in Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance, and just wrapped Treatment, his debut as a screenwriter/co-director.

Erin began playing piano when she was 4 and eventually graduated to mallet percussion in marching band. This led to a stint in drum corps and eventually a partial college education at Western Washington University, where she studied Percussion Performance and Music Composition. She dropped out to focus on playing marimba and has since become Seattle’s “premiere punk rock marimba player” (The Stranger). She plays music ranging from J.S. Bach to Johnny Thunders, as well as original compositions. More info at erinjorgensen.com

Midnight Symposium Winter Schedule.

2010-02-01T21:59:00.001-08:00

Monday, Jan. 11th
Atul Gawande. THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO: How To Get Things Right. Click for tickets.

Monday, Feb 8th.
Garry Wills. BOMB POWER: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State. Click for tickets.

Tuesday, April 20th
Bill Mckibben. EAARTH: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Click for tickets

The Midnight Symposium concept is simple: we will continue to host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for an intimate and casual course on a subject of their choosing.

*Upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. In a Symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$50/person. Includes a hearty stew, a big bottle of whisky to be shared, and some wine. If you like to drink heavily we encourage you to bring additional bottles. For reservations email: nightschool@hotelsorrento.com

Atul Gawande

A surgeon and a writer, Atul Gawande is a staff member of Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the New Yorker magazine. He received his B.A.S. from Stanford University, M.A. (in politics, philosophy, and economics) from Oxford University, M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. He served as a senior health policy advisor in the Clinton presidential campaign and White House from 1992 to 1993. Since 1998, he has been a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine. In 2003, he completed his surgical residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and joined the faculty as a general and endocrine surgeon.

He is also Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Research Director for the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health. He has published research studies in areas ranging from surgical technique, to US military care for the wounded, to error and performance in medicine. He is the director of the World Health Organization's Global Challenge for Safer Surgical Care.

In 2006, he received the MacArthur Award for his research and writing. His book COMPLICATIONS: A SURGEON'S NOTES ON AN IMPERFECT SCIENCE was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002 and is published in more than a hundred countries. He was editor of THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2006. His most recent book, BETTER: A SURGEON'S NOTES ON PERFORMANCE is a New York Times bestseller and one of Amazon.com's ten best books of 2007. He and his wife, Kathleen Hobson, live outside Boston and have three children: Walker, Hattie, and Hunter.

Gary Wills

Garry Wills is a Puitzer Prize winning author, journalist, and historian specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. He has written nearly 40 books and has been a frequent reviewer for the New York Review of Books since 1973.[1]

A conservative and early protégé of William F. Buckley, Jr as a young man, Wills became increasingly liberal through the 1960s, driven by his coverage of the civil rights and the anti-Vietnam War movements. Although a Catholic, he has been an excoriating critic of the Vatican and its policies and theology.

He won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction[4] for Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (1993), which describes the background and effect of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. He was awarded the National Medal for the Humanities in 1998. He has twice won the National Book Critics Circle Award, including as a co-winner for nonfiction in 1978 for Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

Bill Mckibben

An American environmentalist and writer, Bill McKibben is the founder of 350.org, an international climate campaign. Bill is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine. Read full bio here.

Drinking Lessons 10, 11, and 12.

2010-02-01T21:58:00.002-08:00

Our Winter Line-up (click date for tickets)

January 18th: Jamie Boudreau
February 21st: Neyah White + Duggan Mccdonnell
February 22nd: Neyah White + Duggan Mccdonnell
February 28th: Max Watman + Christian Krogstad
*March 7th: Robert Hess Absinthe Soiree.

Drinking Lesson guests can expect an animated two hour lesson in the preparation and history of (at least) three distinct cocktails. To temper the libations the Hunt Club will pepper the evening with a few small bites from the kitchen. Sessions are limited to twelve individuals only.

In an effort to not only imbibe – but also to document the new American cocktail we are honored to continue partnering with the web-based cooking encyclopedia Foodista.com. Foodista will have staff on hand at all Drinking Lesson events to document the recipes, transcribe them to the web in real time, and create a web-based event out of the proceedings so that people around the globe can take part in the intimate experience at the bar. $55/person per class.

+ Our first edition of recipes Drinking Lesson: Volume One is now available at the Sorrento. Featuring recipes by Murray Stenson, Ryan Magarian, Robert Hess, and Jeffrey Morgenthaler. $10.

*Robert Hess Absinthe Soiree – we will have details very soon.

The Bartenders:

Jamie Boudreau. Legendary Canadian mixologist named one of the greatest bartender’s in the world by WIRED magazine… Read full bio here.

Neyah White. Bay area bar star from renowned SF restaurant/bar Nopa… Read full bio here.

Duggan Mcdonnell. Food and Wine recently hailed Duggan one of the best mixologists in the country… Read full bio here.

Max Watman. NEA writing fellow and author of the forthcoming CHASING THE WHITE DOG: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine… Read full bio here.

Christian Krogstad. Founder of the renowned distillery House Spirits in Portland, OR... Read full bio here.

Robert Hess. Celebrated cocktail historian and founder of the American Cocktail Museum… Read full bio here..

City Arts documents Chamber Vs. Chamber no. 1

2010-02-01T21:58:00.001-08:00

Loch Lomond and Spectratone share the chamber
December 17, 2009 at 2:11 PM | by MARK B

While billed as something of a smackdown, the first ever Chamber vs. Chamber event was anything but. Held within the woody confines of Seattle’s charming and historic Sorrento hotel in early November, the event featured a bevy of musicians who are as friendly and considerate as they are spirited and transfixing. The original concept for the evening was to pit a traditional chamber group against a pop chamber group. But what it became was an evening of performances where the only challenge was in seeing how many eager music fans could fit into the Sorrento’s space to witness a gut-punch performance by Portland pop group Loch Lomond and the energetic compositions of the internationally inflected folk instrumentalists of Spectratone.

The evening began with Spectratone member Lori Goldston. The cellist, whom you might remember from Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged, performed four songs, including this Bach Cello Suite.

Lori Goldston was then joined by the rest of Spectratone, including Kyle Hanson on accordion, Kane Mathis on oud and Jane Hall on percussion. The group performed its own compositions, with a tip of the hat to contemporaries the Black Cat Orchestra, as well as chamber innovator Bela Bartok

Loch Lomond closed out the night with a full set of music from throughout its five year history, including this electric performance of “Elephants and Little Girls” from a split 12-inch the band released with fellow Portlanders the Builders and the Butchers in 2008.

Shortly after this song, the band was beset with technical difficulties due to the building’s aged electrical system (the price for all that historic beauty) and abandoned their electric instruments for all-acoustic versions of their songs to closeout the night. A seeming disaster, the hiccup felt purposeful as the band’s music washed over the assembled crowd with no help from modern technology. For a moment, it was timeless.

Keep an eye out for the next episode of Chamber vs. Chamber hosted by City Arts and the Sorrento this spring.

All videos filmed and edited by Brad Curran.

p.s. we will be hosting a midnight symposium with atul gawande on january 11th

2009-12-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

(we are pissing ourselves excited). let me know if you want to pre-reserve. onepotorg@gmail.com.

anu apte and zane harris. night school at the sorrento. drinking lesson no. 8. dec. 7th. 6pm/8pm. (seattle)

2009-12-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

if you follow our strange meanderings you might know about drinking lessons. i think there are a couple seats left at our sparkling next installment. anu and zane are damn smart and they make damn smart cocktails at their establishment rob roy and they will make you damn smart as well. about booze that is… and maybe about other things.

6pm class / $50 / includes many drinks and small bites
grab a seat
8pm class / $50 / includes many drinks and small bites
grab a seat

john roderick is a brilliant beast. dec. 6th with matthew stadler @ mississippi studios (portland)

2009-12-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

i can hardly imagine a better night. john roderick (of the long winters) talking and singing. renowned author matthew stadler talking and not singing. a big densely packed table precariously anchored in the middle of a-jewel-box-of-a-night-club – a wintry stew – brown spirits, local wine. buy tickets here.

tonight. be there. goddamn!

2009-12-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

the big first annual GIVE SEATTLE BENEFIT SHOW as part of giveseattle.org. thanks to caffe vita I have my hands deeply inside this little project – which began as a benefit compilation of 36 seattle bands – put together by over 40 partners and organized by my friends at caffe vita. one hundred percent of the proceeds go directly to arts corps and local food banks – let's call it an aggressive and passionate new model for give-ing back. and if you love music and you love (love) then you would be deeply missing if you missed first annual give benefit show.

buy tickets for the show here // buy the damn-beautiful-bundle of music here

Vita Table with Rafael De Utrera. Nov. 8th.

2009-11-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

Just got word that Brian Parks the new chef at Quinn's and former sous chef from Casa Mono/Bar Jamon (Mario Batali + Andy Nusser's amazing Spanish food mecca in NYC) will be joining the kitchen for this dinner. Our good friend and James Beard winner John Sundstrom from Lark and Licorous will be cooking as well - alongside the one pot crew and our Spanish friend and chef Miguel.

We are incredibly fortunate to have Rafael De Utrera joining the Vita Table directly from Sevilla for an evening of flamenco song, dance, and conversation. Rafael will be joined by his hosts and local flamenco heroes Eric and Encarnación from Children of the Revolution. Expect Spanish cuisine from One Pot + a crew of the cities best chefs - and an experience that should transport us directly to the streets of Seville. Those of you who joined us for the Master Musicians of Jajouka dinner can attest that the intimacy and sheer power of these small gatherings = a damn good time. All of the funds raised from the dinner with go directly to Flamenco Seattle in their ongoing effort to bring us remarkable performers and artists from Spain.

Dinner begins at 7pm. $75/person. Price includes dinner, vino, music, salvation. Click Here to Grab Seats.

Vita Table is part of the ongoing collaboration between Caffe Vita and One Pot.

Chamber Vs. Chamber = Indie Rock Vs Classical... Death match. Loch Lomond, Lori Goldston, Spectratone

2009-10-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

The Sorrento Hotel, City Arts Magazine and Night School present “Chamber vs. Chamber”.
Nov. 7th, 2009. Fireside Room @ The Sorrento. 7:30 PM. $15.
Loch Lomond, Lori Goldston (solo cellist) and Spectratone.

Mozart, Hindemith, and Brahms are sadly losing relevancy by the day, symphony audiences are dropping, and “chamber music” is not a word you read on twitter.

Yet in the midst of this shift away from the classical repertoire, indie rock musicians like The Decemberists, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, Loch Lomond, Portland Cello Project, and Jherek Bischof are thriving and incorporating chamber instruments, classical music sensibility and theory into their music--and filling clubs across the country doing it.

Night School at the Sorrento suggests that we spark a dialogue between these two related musical disciplines and combine classical chamber performances with those of indie rock darlings. Each “Chamber Vs. Chamber” evening will include multiple performances that culminate in a conversation between musicians and leaders in both the classical and indie rock universes. We will fill the Fireside Room at the Sorrento with music, people, cocktails, a roaring fire, and thoughtful conversation.

Our inaugural event combines performances by celebrated cellist and composer Lori Goldston, rising chamber indie rock stars Loch Lomond and cross-disciplinary veterans Spectratone. The evening’s conversation will be hosted by the Executive Editor of City Arts Magazine, Mark Baumgarten and classical music critic and historian Zach Carstensen (www.gathernote.com). To close the festivities, Loch Lomond and Spectratone will perform together. City Arts will capture video and produce films documenting each “Chamber Vs. Chamber” performance.

Seating is very limited, and tickets are available at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/85366
facebook event page
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164027301921

Night School at the Sorrento: Night School is a collaboration between The Sorrento, Michael Hebb, an array of intellectuals, artists, writers, filmmakers, mixologists, chefs and the leading cultural institutions in the Northwest. Stay tuned…

godtable - compassion and mindfulness in christianity, buddhism, islam, and judaism. oct. 15th

2009-10-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

this will be a stunning evening spent investigating several world religions. we will be gathering in honor of our dear friend shauna shapiro and her sparkling new text "the art and science of mindfulness" – and to broaden the conversation we have invited renowned authors sylvia boorstein, lesley hazleton, and nassim assefi to join the table. additionally we will be joined by several esteemed religious scholars including rev. ebenezer ben mudede – this event is happening in the gorgeous alcove known as the sanctuary. seating very limited. a remarkable meal will be prepared and served by several of seattle's top chefs.

oct. 15th - 7pm - at the sanctuary in west seattle
dinner = $40. byow.
email: onepotorg@gmail.com to reserve

Midnight Symposium continues

2009-10-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

Midnight Symposium with Lesley Hazelton, celebrated author of After the Prophet, the epic tale of Shia-Sunni split in Islam. November 11th 8pm.

Our first Symposium was a riotous success, with sold-out attendance, and much bawdy inquiry into the F-word with Jesse Sheidlower. Expect a podcast of the evening soon. We continue the series with acclaimed journalist, novelist, and all around grand dame of letters Lesley Hazelton.

The Midnight Symposium concept is simple: we will continue to host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for a casual course on a subject of their choosing. On Nov. 11thth 40 guests will take the elevator to the 7th floor Penthouse of the Sorrento, glasses will be filled, bellies will be sated and a late night symposium will begin.

Symposium Number Two: "The Ugly American: arrogance, ignorance, or innocence abroad -- or are they all related?" with Lesley Hazelton. November 11th 2009.

*Upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. In a Symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$50/person. Includes a hearty stew, a big bottle of whisky to be shared, and some wine. If you like to drink heavily we encourage you to bring additional bottles. For reservations email: nightschool@hotelsorrento.com

LESLEY HAZLETON is the author of four acclaimed books about the Middle East—After the Prophet, Israeli Women, Where Mountains Roar, and Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Other books include: Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother and Jezebel. A former psychologist, she reported from Israel for Time magazine, and has written on Middle Eastern politics for The New York Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books.

12 books Launch Party: Text/Context No. 1 with Bruce Benderson and friends. 7pm. Nov. 12th Fireside Room. No charge, all ages.

2009-10-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

We are thrilled to include Benderson’s much anticipated Pacific Agony on our 12 book list and delighted that Bruce will be reading at the Hotel as part of our first Text/Context event. Joining Bruce is American Book Award winner Matt Briggs, who will be reading from his newly re-printed novel Shoot the Buffalo. Songwriter/Musician/Journalist John Roderick of the Long Winters will be reading from his new volume Electric Aphorisms, and singing a song or two. Beloved Seattle native Matthew Stadler will finish the evening with a hosted conversation among the writers. Matthew will also have on hand publications from his new guerrilla press Publication Studio and discuss the controversy surrounding his bootleg editions including Pacific Agony.

12 books – a different kind of book store.

As part of Night School and in collaboration with Elliot Bay Book Company and University Book Store – we are establishing a small carefully curated bookstore in the Sorrento lobby - in an effort to give greater resonance to the literary events beginning to fill the walls of the Hotel. Additionally, hotel guests will be able to order books as a Room Service option from a letter pressed menu of the 12 books.

Our selections will reflect a sampling of books that are presently being published or written in or about the Northwest. We will also include titles that specifically touch on Hotels, public/private space, and authors that collaborate with the Sorrento to host readings, symposiums, and various literary happenings.

Our first 12 books:

Jesse Sheidlower The F-word
Joey Veltkamp Scenes from a Hotel
Bruce Benderson Pacific Agony
Maurice Sendak Where the Wild Things Are
Lesley Hazleton After the prophet
Nassim Assefi Aria
Wayne Koestembaum Hotel Theory
Heather McHugh Upgraded To Serious
Matt Briggs Shoot the Buffalo
Ryan Boudinot Misconception
John Roderick Electric Aphorisms
Josh Beckman Your Time has Come
Drinking Lessons Volume One

This is what can happen at 2am during a Midnight Supper...

2009-09-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

2am in the morning. Last night of Music Fest NW. At The Woods, an old funeral parlor reduxed as a Venue. Midnight Supper in full swing - 75 people at the table drunk on the food of One Pot, Nedd Ludd,and Tahoe Jackson steps up for an impromptu performance - she has never played with these boys before - she calls out a 6/8 beat and they kill it...!!!!!

drinking lessons 3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9.

2009-09-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

our first two late night boozy seminars were packed with eager drinkers and volumes of knowledge. take a moment to browse through the real-time documentation of ryan magarian and murray stenson as they delivered their respective sermons: captured by foodista: . www.foodista.com/nightschool

the series continues as several more of the countries leading bartenders and drink historians take up residence at the hunt club bar. here are the dates.

september 20th - 6pm/8pm robert hess
september 22nd - 6pm/8pm jeffery morgenthaler
october 5th - 6pm/8pm lucy brennan
october 20th - 6pm/8pm erik hakkinen
*november 16th - 6pm/8pm kathy casey
*november 23rd and 24th. 6pm/8pm alex day and toby cecchini
*december 7th - 6pm/8pm anu apte and zane harris

*we will not be accepting reservations for the nov/dec dates until October 21st.
** follow all classes online with real-time documentation by www.foodista.com/nightschool

drinking lesson guests can expect an animated two hour lesson in the preparation and history of three distinct cocktails. To temper the stiff drinks the hunt club kitchen will pepper the evening with a few small bites. guests will receive a copy of our quarterly drinking lesson recipe books in the mail in the weeks following the lesson. sessions are limited to twelve individuals only. this is a night school event. $55 includes tax. $10 for chapbook of recipes. for reservations email: nightschool@hotelsorrento.com

Unplugged + Midnight Supper = MFNW

2009-09-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

1. midnight supper + music fest northwest + throw me the statue + nick jaina band + nurses + the woods = september 19th : pdx.

caffe vita and one pot are taking the midnight supper franchise on the road. for the pat three years we have closed out the capitol hill block party with a completely debaucherous feast of song, heavily laden tables of food, and deep pints of distilled spirit. this year we are honored to head south to invade the halls of portland’s most profoundly beautiful new venue – the woods – a re-claimed funeral parlor and a gorgeous place to spend an evening. the terribly handsome boys from throw me the statue and the nick jaina band will be offering up some late night music from the table. one pot is joined in the kitchen by nick castleberry (sitka and spruce) and our old friend jason french chef/owner of ned ludd. doors open at 11:00pm – parade of food begins at midnight – music mixed in here and there. party goes late.

to reserve a spot at the table – click here.
or if you want to just hang about and join the party – please just come on down.

1.1 caffe vita + kexp + the woods = unplugged music fest northwest performances. saturday 9/19 3pm-11pm @ the woods

In the hours before the midnight supper kexp and vita will be hosting a steady march of the best performers at mfnw – including langhorne slim at 3pm, the lonely forest at 4pm and many many others… free and open to the pubic. mfnw passes not required. stay tuned here for final schedule…

one pot newsletter. 9/14. midnight is the new midnight

2009-09-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

there will be errors in this communique - probably many and probably egregious.

1. midnight supper + music fest northwest + throw me the statue + nick jaina band + the woods = september 19th : pdx.
2. night school at the sorrento continues… and gets bigger brighter and dirtier. october 4th = midnight symposium
3. drinking lessons 3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9.
4. godtable - compassion and mindfulness in christianity, buddhism, islam, and judaism

1. midnight supper + music fest northwest + throw me the statue + nick jaina band + the woods = september 19th : pdx.

caffe vita and one pot are taking the midnight supper franchise on the road. for the past three years we have closed out the capitol hill block party with a completely debaucherous feast of song, heavily laden tables of food, and deep pints of distilled spirit. this year we are honored to head south to invade the halls of portland’s most profoundly beautiful new venue – the woods – a re-claimed funeral parlor and a gorgeous place to spend an evening. the terribly handsome boys from throw me the statue and the nick jaina band will be offering up some late night music from the table. one pot is joined in the kitchen by nick castleberry (sitka and spruce) and our old friend jason french chef/owner of ned ludd. doors open at 11:00pm – parade of food begins at midnight – music mixed in here and there. party goes late. if you don't want to grab a reserved seat - just come on down for the festivities.

p.s. there are kexp/vita hosted performances goin on all day at the woods – langhorn slim, the lonely forest, etc – free and open to the public – click here for details….

location: the woods pdx
time: doors open at 11pm, dinner at the stroke of midnight
price: $40.00 (+cash bar) 21+
brown paper tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/82401

2. night school at the sorrento continues… and gets bigger brighter and dirtier. october 4th = midnight symposium

midnight symposium number one: the f-word and the evolution of obscenity in the english language with jesse sheidlower (author of the f-word and the editor at large of the oxford english dictionary. )

first, these events start closer to 8pm, not midnight, but they often will stretch into the midnight hour. second, this is the beginning of a semi-monthly series that will include in-depth conversation focused on a specific topic, brown spirits, red wine, and a well-crafted stew.

the concept is simple: we will host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for a casual course on a subject of their choosing. on oct. 4th 40 guests will take the elevator to the 7th floor penthouse of the sorrento, glasses will be filled, bellies will be sated and a late night symposium will begin.

*upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. in a symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$50/person. includes a hearty stew, a big bottle of whisky to be shared, and some wine. if you like to drink heavily we encourage you to bring additional bottles. for reservations email: nightschool@hotelsorrento.com

future symposiums to incude: lesley hazelton, nassim assefi, charles mudede and many more… dates tba.

3. drinking lessons 3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9.

our first two late night boozy seminars were packed with eager drinkers and volumes of knowledge. take a moment to browse through the real-time documentation of ryan magarian and murray stenson as they delivered their respective sermons: captured by foodista: . www.foodista.com/nightschool

the series continues as several more of the countries leading bartenders and drink historians take up residence at the hunt club bar. here are the dates.

september 20th - 6pm/8pm robert hess
september 22nd - 6pm/8pm jeffery morgenthaler
october 5th - 6pm/8pm lucy brennan
october 20th - 6pm/8pm erik hakkinen
*november 16th - 6pm/8pm kathy casey
*november 23rd and 24th. 6pm/8pm alex day and toby cecchini
*december 7th - 6pm/8pm anu apte and zane harris

*we will not be accepting reservations for the nov/dec dates until October 21st.
** follow all classes online with real-time documentation by www.foodista.com/nightschool

drinking lesson guests can expect an animated two hour lesson in the preparation and history of three distinct cocktails. To temper the stiff drinks the hunt club kitchen will pepper the evening with a few small bites. guests will receive a copy of our quarterly drinking lesson recipe books in the mail in the weeks following the lesson. sessions are limited to twelve individuals only. this is a night school event. $55 includes tax. $10 for chapbook of recipes. for reservations email: nightschool@hotelsorrento.com

4. godtable - compassion and mindfulness in christianity, buddhism, islam, and judaism

october 15th. still finalizing the details but this will be a stunning evening spent investigating several world religions. we will be gathering in honor of our dear friend shauna shapiro and her sparkling new text “the art and science of mindfulness” – and to broaden the conversation we have invited renowned authors sylvia boorstein, lesley hazelton, and nassim assefi to join the table. additionally we will be joined by several esteemed religious scholars including rev. ebenezer ben mudede – this event is happening in the gorgeous alcove known as the sanctuary. seating very limited.

dinner = $40 byow.
pre-reserve by emailing onepotorg@gmail.com

on the hottest night of the year...

2009-08-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

mudhoney, dave bazan, the dutchess and the duke, throw me the statue, the pica beats, the blakes, rocky votolato, sera cahoone, and folks from the long winters, the dandy warhols, pete international airport, the moondoggies, and say hi took pirate-like-possession of the history rich top floor of the sorrento hotel. as seattle dripped sweetly below this cosmic cast of musicians made music-upon-music atop-food-atop-drink-atop-mirth. the images and moving frames captured by chase jarvis tell a story only tom wolfe could commit to words… this is what we call songs for eating and drinking.

drinking lessons. high priest or pusherman?

2009-08-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

ryan magarian spoke from the pulpit with passion and fury for hours last night - he was a freight train - he is a man on fire. and thanks to the remarkable efforts of foodista.com we have some beautiful real-time documentation of this sermon.

www.foodista.com/nightschool.

implied violence live gala cocktail bash + deep preserved lemon action = tonight

2009-08-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

implied violence: live at the hideout. with lemons.

tonight i am honored to join the seattle-uber-troupe and stranger genius award winners implied violence in celebration of their pilgrimage to the illustrious governors island. i will be crafting jars of preserved lemons - which people will buy - and which will play a critical role in i.v.'s 2011-super-mysterious-insanely-ambitious-cityofseattle-wide-performance. and christ - what better thing to do on a hot night than get blatantly drunk at the hideout?

from i.v.:

"Come one, come all to the classy and close bar/parlor The Hideout for a party in support of the classy and close theater/troublemakers Implied Violence. For the evening of Wednesday, August 19th, Implied Violence will be holding court at The Hideout, located at 1005 Boren Avenue on First Hill. Featuring the artful making of lemon preserves by Michael Hebb, opera singing by Implied Violence Ingénue Pile of Meat, and I.V. gear hawking (get your swagger on), this one-night event, hosted gracefully by Greg Lundgren & The Hideout, is a fundraiser. It's free to get in, but come thirsty with your wallets greased. All proceeds from this evening go towards getting the Implied Violence crew to New York City, where they will be premiering their new experimental work "The Dorothy K." for The New isLand Festival on Governor's Island. It's the talk of the summer, so some say. Implied Violence needs a little extra help from the community to realize our vision. The times are tough but, Implied Violence, with your support, is tougher.

Who: Open to the Public, 21 +
What: Implied Violence: Live at The Hideout
Where: The Hideout, 1005 Boren Avenue
When: Wednesday, August 19th
Four pm till 2am
Why: $$$"

night school begins.

2009-08-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

drinking lessons. august 18th, august 24th, and dates tba.

murray stenson + toby cecchini + ryan magarian + alex day + jeffrey morganthaler + jamie boudreau + the rest of leading bartenders in the country = drinking lessons at the sorrento hotel

what we have here is a rare thing. the sorrento hotel has agreed to let me gather the american cocktail gods behind their gorgeous bar . one after the other they will arrive. take up residence. and we will begin a full on study of the american cocktail. these charming savants (click here for bios and the full list of those that have committed thus far…) are deeply in the midst of rethinking the cocktail – and we are lucky enough to get an opportunity to drink their craft.

while we imbibe we will come to understand the techniques and histories at the core of each drink. think of it as the most sensually appealing seminar ever. only twelve seats per session; expect three remarkable cocktails, an earful of history, and some well crafted bar snacks from matthew mina to soften the soft blow of the booze. (if you haven’t been to the hunt club bar think don draper, 3pm, 1962, tucked into his third martini imagining the bedrooms above)

August 18th : Ryan Thomas Magarian 5:30pm and 8pm
August 24th : Murray Stenson 5:30pm and 8pm

the lovely thing: despite the fact that we have only 12 seats per session – those gin-loving encyclopedists at foodista.com will be on site documenting each session – posting the recipes and media in real time and allowing people in iceland to join in. you can follow the action here (starting next week) www.foodista.com/nightschool. we will also be publishing small quarterly chapooks of the recipes.

Cost: $50 (+ $10 for the quarterly Drinking Lesson recipe chapbook)
To make a reservation request click here: nightschool@hotelsorrento.com

this is part of a new collaboration with the sorrento hotel called night school.

Suddenly Seattle Opens on Friday. Corridor IIII on display.

2009-06-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

photograph taken by Michael Mcmanus of Hannes Wingate digging a fire pit in the I-5 median near mile marker 27, WA

SUDDENLY: WHERE WE LIVE NOW
AN EXHIBITION EXPLORING THE AESTHETIC LIFE OF CITIES
JULY 3-15, 2009
312 OCCIDENTAL AVENUE
SEATTLE, WA, 98104
GALLERY HOURS: JULY 5-15, CLOSED JULY 4
12-6 P.M. FREE

suddenly: where we live now will be on view from July 3 through July 15, 2009 in a storefront space in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. An opening reception with curator Stephanie Snyder, director of the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, and participating artists Elias Hansen, Michael Hebb, Michael McManus, Hannes Wingate, and Molly Dilworth will be held at the space on Friday, July 3 at 9:00 p.m.

Visual artists exhibiting work in the Seattle iteration of suddenly include: Marc Joseph Berg, New York; Zoe Crosher, Los Angeles; Molly Dilworth, Brooklyn; Elias Hansen, Tacoma; Michael Hebb, Seattle; Hadley+Maxwell, Berlin; Michael McManus, Portland; Boris Sieverts, Frankfurt; and Hannes Wingate, Portland.

In addition, a bookstore has been created in the space, offering works by suddenly artists and participating writers: Fritz Haeg, Los Angeles; Frank Heath, Brooklyn; Anne Focke, Seattle; Lisa Robertson, San Francisco; Thomas Sieverts, Frankfurt; Stephanie Snyder, Portland; Matthew Stadler, Portland; Storm Tharp, Portland; and Oscar Tuazon, Paris.

suddenly was born of German urban planner Thomas Sieverts’s observation that “the shaping of the landscape where we live can no longer be achieved by the traditional resources of town planning, urban design, and architecture. New ways must be explored, which are as yet unclear.” suddenly seeks to imagine the possibilities of spaces and experiences that have an indigenous history (the parking lot, for instance), but that exist beyond historical definitions of city and countryside, and conventional material cycles of development and disuse. Through a myriad of objects, texts, and activities constructed as symbolic and strategic alternatives, the artists and writers in this project are re-imagining our relationship to the built and natural environment—its materials, textures and histories. suddenly explores the where we live now as an independent identity to be reshaped in the hands and minds of its occupants.

suddenly comprises a set of exhibitions curated by Stephanie Snyder, an annotated reader edited by author Matthew Stadler, and a series of additional publications and public events by a variety of suddenly artists and contributors. The exhibition projects began on June 29, 2008, in Portland, Oregon with Michael Hebb’s Corridor Project expedition to Ross Island—a culinary expedition onto to an uninhabited island in Portland’s Willamette River. suddenly has since evolved in various forms in projects in Oregon, California, New York, and now Washington, and will continue around the globe for the next few years. For additional information, including event listings and audio recordings, and to order project publications, visit: www.suddenly.org.

The visual art exhibitions and related projects of suddenly: where we live now are a collaborative initiative of the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. www.reed.edu

corridor IIII: habitat: begins.

2009-06-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

On June 22nd Michael Hebb, Hannes Wingate and Michael McManus will enter the wilderness of the Interstate 5 and endeavor to survive and create habitat in one of the freeways generous median areas. This will be a three day exploration of what it means to live, eat, and create shelter in this unique landscape. Our efforts will be documented and made manifest at the exhbition: SUDDENLY Seattle.

“Can asphalt be a political territory? Is the bourgeois State and its power the street, or in the street?

No more riots, no need for much repression; to empty the streets, it’s enough to promise everyone the highway.”

Paul Virilio. Speed and Politics.

“The subject himself, suddenly transformed, becomes a computer at the wheel, not a drunken demiurge of power. The vehicle now becomes a kind of capsule, its dashboard the brain, the surrounding landscape unfolding like a televised screen (instead of a live-in projectile as it was before).

Jean Baudrillard. The Ecstasy of Communication.

Only in Marco Polo’s accounts was Kublai Khan able to discern, through the walls and towers destined to crumble, the tracery of a pattern so subtle it escaped the termites’ gnawing.

Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities

July 3rd. Dinner with Sieverts. And Suddenly Seattle Opens.

2009-06-20T15:07:00.001-07:00

This is third Suddenly Exhibition. And the documentation of the Corridor Project IIII: Habitat: will be on display. Check back for gallery hours and specifics. But By All Means Join us for the opening of the Exhibition at 9pm on July 3rd - free and open to the public. Occidental Plaza.

To grab a seat at the July 3rd dinner with German urban planner Thomas Sierverts... click here.

Much Depends Upon Dinner = Gloria Steinem. July 9th.

2009-06-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

MUCH DEPENDS ON DINNER - A community table dinner table event for 50 people featuring five renowned Hedgebrook writers. The Sanctuary, a beautifully restored church and elegant event venue, will provide the perfect intimate ambiance for our dinner and conversation.

FEATURED WRITERS: Gloria Steinem, Stephanie Kallos, Amy Richards, Nassim Assefi, and Samantha Thornhill

THE DINNER. Dinner will be a community-table prepared by Chef Michael Hebb (One-Pot) and a remarkable team of local chefs: Danielle Custer and pastry chef Lucy Damkoehler from Taste, Xuan Che from Spring Hill, Theo Chocolate’s Autumn Martin, Melissa Nyffler from Dinette, Monica Dimas from Spinasse, and Erica Burke from the Volunteer Park Cafe. We will be serving the new 2007 vintage of Hedgebrook’s signature wine, a special blend created by Whidbey Island Winery.

WORDS RISING AND CONVERSATION HAPPENING. Our featured Hedgebrook writers will be seated with guests around the dinner table. While writers’ words are sure to rise organically out of dinner table conversation, our guest-writers will also read brief selections from their recent or forthcoming works throughout the evening.

THE MUSIC. Local singer/songwriter J. Tillman (also of the Fleet Foxes) and Aja Pecknold will provide music for the event.

To Purchase Tickets Click Here.

one pot + art of the table + things that swim = june 16th

2009-06-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

dustin ronspies, the chef at the art of the table has been garnering heaps of praise over the past couple years – and we finally have a spare moment to host an evening together. the setting will be unreal – directly on shilshole bay – at the shilshole beach club- overlooking the puget sound and peering up at the olympics. the club is also home to seattle's center on contemporary art – and we will have a chance to spend time amongst new work by tracy boyd.

dustin just got back from a mind blowing eating tour along the coast of spain - add in the watery setting – and we decided an evening in honor of those lovely "things that swim" would be perfect. expect a few courses. and a few surprises.

$45/person. cash bar.
email onepotorg@gmail.com to reserve

vita table continues with dr. richard wrangham = june 9th

2009-06-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

the vita table continues with harvard anthropologist richard wrangham and his provocative new book, CATCHING FIRE: how cooking made us human.

did cooking – more than the use of tools or meat eating – push forward our evolution and make us human?

wrangham posits that the innovation of cooking food – breaking down its components to more digestible forms – is what unleashed sufficient energy and nutrients to make possible the fueling of the mighty human mind. he also delves fearlessly into controversial implications for the raw foods movement, the diet industry, our food labeling system, and even gender roles.

one pot, caffe vita, and kim ricketts will set a festive table amidst the towering bags of green coffee on capitol hill to welcome dr. wrangham in conversation and heavy feasting. a team of chefs including michael hebb, conor donahue (range, farralon), kurt timmermeister (kurtwood farms), and mark fuller (spring hill) will be cooking a seasonal meal in a neapolitan wood fired oven. renowned author greg atkinson, dr. andy mcshea and debra music from theo chocolate and michael hebb will launch into an in-depth conversation with dr. wrangham.

$45/person. includes a signed copy of catching fire. byo wine.
make a reservation here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/69522
location: 1005 East Pike 7pm

The Vita Table

Seattle is renowned as the most Literary and Educated city in the country. To celebrate our city and the power of IDEAS three distinct organizations (caffe vita, one pot, and kim ricketts) have banded together to launch an intimate series of events that gently removes THE SPEAKER FROM THE PODIUM.

We have been lucky enough to bring some of the leading thinkers, writers, musicians, cultural leaders, academics, and filmmakers to our table.: Bill Mckibben, Spike Lee, Marco Pierre White, Cameron Sinclair, Mark Roth, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, DJ Spooky, Jennifer 8 Lee (the list continues).

This is a series about provocative ideas, dangerous ideas, musical ideas, culinary ideas, life-changing ideas; the ideas that form our culture. In the spirit of the SYMPOSIUM, we think that the perfect place to hold this dialogue is over food and drink and at a common table.

first annual potlatch after sasquatch. *arthur and yu, say hi, shawn smith, and mount eerie = june 4th

2009-06-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

thursday june 4th. breaking the ban and giving it all away! 7pm – 10pm
caffe vita capitol hill. 1005 e pike. $15/door. all proceeds go to the vera project. www.theverproject.org.

featuring intimate sets by *grant olsen of arthur and yu, say hi (solo), mount eerie/phil elverum, shawn smith of brad. one pot will be preparing and giving away bowls of soup, caffe vita will be handing out mugs of their farm direct coffee, music will fill the cafe and pour out onto pike street and artist ty willman will be donating the proceeds from his new work. this region has a long history of "potlatch" gatherings; we might not be burning canoes or breaking coppers on june 4th but there certainly will be much offered in the way of song, food, and coffee.

pot·latch noun; a party or celebration that could involve extravagant or competitive giving and destruction of valued items.

potlatch ban. potlatching was made illegal in canada in 1885 and the united states in the late nineteenth century, largely at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it "a worse than useless custom," and found the flagrant generosity objectionable.

Songs For Eating and Drinking with John Richards.

2009-05-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

The Local Music Show visits with Chase Jarvis and Michael Hebb, creators of Songs for Eating and Drinking, an event that brings together local musicians over food, drink, and music. Performers include Stone Gossard and Barb Ireland, Head Like a Kite, and Geologic from Blue Scholars.

Check out all the videos at www.songsforeatinganddrinking.com

SPIKE LEE DINNER. MAY 26th.

2009-05-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

It ain't cheap - but all the money goes to SIFF. More info here...

through the looking glass. one pot and vita return from SUMATRA

2009-05-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

big thanks to brian eno and david byrne for the musical genius that underscored this little unprofessional journey into the gayo mountains of northern sumatra!

one pot + hedgebrook = may 8th

2009-04-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

hedgebrook might be the best kept secret in the literary world - it is a cultural jewel - i was blind with joy to discover something like this even exists and am thrilled to see it continue to thrive - and and and i am even happier (and deeply honored) to be able to work with them. they tell the story best - so here are the details about may 8th straight from hedgebrook (hammad and steinem pictured above):

Hedgebrook extends its community dinner table to Seattle with FEAST - an uncommon dinner event featuring three electrifying female poets, live music by extraordinary female artists, and a magnificent meal prepared by One Pot. Erika Burke from Volunteer Park Cafe, Autumn Martin of Theo Chocolate fame, and other leading local chefs.

FEAST features three rising star Hedgebrook poets: SUHEIR HAMMAD first came to public attention with her appearance on in the Tony award winning Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, then HBO. A Palestinian-American writer and political activist, Hammad's books include ZaatarDiva, Born Palestinian, Born Black. Also an actor, she plays the lead in the recent Cannes Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival Selection "Salt of This Sea". The powerful voice of UCHECHI KALU emerges with rare grace, on topics from the very personal to very public. Her work appears in literary journals, anthologies, and on the radio. Writer and poet, RUTH FORMAN, wrote the award winning poetry collections We are the Young Magicians and Renaissance, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. About Forman, theater artist Peter Sellars commented: "This young magician has entered into her full powers of womanhood. Her new body of work is vivid, immediate, available, consoling and tender. It is arriving on schedule for the new America."

Tickets for FEAST are $100 (all proceeds go directly to Hedgebrook)
make a reservation by clicking here
Friday, May 8, 7 pm
Fremont Abbey
4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle

FEAST launches Hedgebrook's 2009 series of Seattle events called Much Depends on Dinner – designed to raise awareness of Hedgebrook's extraordinary roster of women writers; and funds to support their residencies. Featuring readings by and conversation with Hedgebrook writers, these unique dinner events are produced with partners Hebb and Nicole Vandenberg of Vandenberg Communications.

Hedgebrook is a Whidbey Island retreat for women writers who come from all over the world to write, rejuvenate and be in community. We provide space and time for them to write, and produce innovative programs to bring their work to new and diverse audiences. Thousands of literary works have been created at Hedgebrook impacting readers and writers all over the world. As alumna Gloria Steinem says; "Hedgebrook isn't a retreat…it's an advance."

www.hedgebrook.org

The next event in the series, RISE, on July 9th, will feature luminary Hedgebrook alumna Gloria Steinem.

one pot + vita + sumatra feast + the burke museum + famed scholar mark pendergrast = april 9th

2009-04-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

caffe vita and one pot just got back from yet another coffee sourcing adventure - returning from the once-treacherously-violent gayo mountains of northern sumatra. to celebrate and further investigate the culture and the coffee of this region we are hosting a remarkable feast with several scholars from the university of washington, the curators of the burke museum "the world in your cup" exhibit, and famed scholar mark pendergrast author of uncommon grounds - and - for god, country, and coca-cola...

we will be showing our video footage of the grueling journey and resplendent coffee harvest, cupping many coffees of the gayo region (and the notorious kopi luwak), eating the food from those lush mountain villages, and embarking on a conversation with pendergrast and professors max savishinsky and joshua tewksbury. and enjoying chocolate from our inspired collaborators theo chocolate.

"Few coffee drinkers suspect that they are affecting American foreign policy, the domestic policies of Latin-American and African countries, and the habitat of migratory birds. Pendergrast shows how and why they are. He has taken on a huge subject, but he organizes the facts skillfully and puts personalities in the perspective of their times. This encyclopedic volume is the entertaining result." --New Yorker on Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast.

Only four seats left for this dinner - $40/person reply asap to grab them... (I had a computer glitch so if you did email earlier about this dinner - please remind me)
location: cap hill caffe vita.
email - onepotorg@gmail.com

Second Sumatra Feast April 22nd... possibly even more rad than the first. $40.

vita loft series: a parent and kid night with food genius nina planck and the folks from the experience food project = april 23

2009-04-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

alright - so the details are still being determined, but this is what i know for sure:

the sparkling-brilliant-provocateur nina planck will be on hand with both of her groundbreaking books urging america to eat REAL FOOD.

this is an evening primarily for adults and their kids - but we welcome everyone. nursing moms, kids who don't want to hang with their parents, single folks, etc.

tom french from the experience food project will be on hand to talk about school food policy - and what he is doing to change it. and andrew radzialowski will be with me in the kitchen - and we are hoping we get some EFP kids to come join us as servers and cooks as well.

this will be a damn fun night - we want to involve the whole table in a conversation about the absolute need to change what our kids eat - what our country eats - and how in the hell we are going to make this shift happen - now.

plus you get a copy of one of nina's books. signed, sealed and delivered.

$60/person (infants no charge)
*proceeds go to the experience food project.
location: still working this out.
click to grab a seat

**** huge thanks to kim ricketts for co-producing the VITA LOFT events listed above.

mad rad. anarchy at the table. songs for eating 2.0

2009-03-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

"anarchy" is perhaps too complimentary - these guys are from some earlier murkier more primal state of chaos. mad rad puts on one of the most electrifying live shows i have seen - that is if you can see them - mad rad is presently quarantined from just about every venue in seattle. chase jarvis and crew brilliantly captured this blistering and plain f#cked performance of my watermelon. if you invite them to dinner - i suggest a padded room - or at least a real interest in getting dark and breaking shit.

www.songsforeatinganddrinking.com

one pot + caffe vita = sumatra. the unprofessional study of coffee continues.

2009-03-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

on sunday night caffe vita and i head off over the horizon for the fourth part in our global mini series whereby we cook with, feast with, and delve into the (sometimes dark) realities of coffee production with coffee farmers around the world. this episode has us headed to the jungles of sumatra - and up tangled roads into the aceh region which became a household name during the 2004 tsunami. when we return expect a series of dinners where we will be sharing what we learned. one such dinner is happening on april 9th in collaboration with the burke museum and UW - i will be in conversation with professor max savishinsky and archeologist peter lape about life after the tsunami, guerilla warfare, corporate responsibility, jung's theory of neurosis.and (as it turns out) coffee.

details on the event TBA.

history of the mouth continues: one pot + cremant + andrew will + mfk fisher = march 29th

2009-03-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

the mouth has had a long - super hot - history. our series continues with a tremendous wine fueled homage to mfk fisher at the precious-french-gem CREMANT. winemaker david oldham from andrew will (will) be showing off his newly released vintages and chef brendan mcgill is spending the month re-exploring a piece of writing that has left an indelible mark on his culinary career "the gastronomic me" penned by my favorite culinary siren mfk fisher. expect: four courses of sumptuous MFK inspired fare, four brilliant andrew will wines, a post-modern-cozy space imagined by none other than roy mcmakin and a few snidbits of MFK offered with glasses raised.

$80/person. gratuity not included. location: cremant.
grab a seat here.

*the history of the mouth series has included indulgent explorations of such texts as the work of apicius, the work of brillat savarin, the alice b. toklas cookbook, and a dinner/exhibition with artist jim riswold entitled Bad People Have to Eat Too. people are encouraged to bring their favorite MFK passage or just come and stuff themselves with wine and food.

islands of l.a.

2009-03-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

One of the many items I forgot to include in the previous communiques about the 32 mile LA expedition (the artifacts and documentation of which are currently on display at the Pomona College Museum of Art) was the boisterous efforts of a remarkable arts organization called islands of LA. ari and his merry pranksters have made quite a bit of noise by using the traffic islands of los angeles as a place to gather, picnic, play tetherball, hosts lectures. apparently (and I tested this theory with a nice member of the LAPD) traffic islands are a legal place to assemble. Ari joined us for the feast at the end of the arduous walk and we transformed a quaint traffic island into a kind of modern bacchanal. www.islandsofla.org

VITA LOFT: steven rinella: author of american buffalo. march 25th

2009-03-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

there are only a couple seats left at the steven rinella dinner. you will be hearing more and more about this talented young writer and misfit in the coming years. in fact you might kick yourself two years from now as he takes a bow for some famous award and you think "damn, I could have broken bread with that man!"

oh yeah.. he just won the 2009 pnba..

"If Jack Kerouac had hung out with Julia Child instead of Neal Cassady, this book might have been written 50 years ago. ".

"Steven Rinella's American Buffalo is a boldly original and ultimately refreshing book. It is also fearsome and occasionally frightening, and one wonders if the author is quite mad. There are insights into nature and American history here that will be totally unfamiliar to the reader." Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall

Expect a feast (not sure if it will include buffalo), and in-depth conversation with one of our countries most unique voices.

$45/person includes an autographed copy of american buffalo, in search of a lost icon.
location: VITA LOFT (gorgeous soaring loft replete with a stage and a wood fired oven). to grab a seat click here

new farm direct video. guatemala.

2009-03-06T12:21:00.001-08:00

here is the farm caffe vita recently visited in guatemala - i had the pleasure of hosting a one pot on the farm last year with about 25 local farmers and exporters - the shit got hot and heated - a big argument about fair trade coffee erupted - and here is an essay i penned about the experience...

Caffe Vita Farm Direct: Finca Nuevo Vinas Guatemala 2009 from hebberoy on Vimeo.

SPEAKING AT CAA

2009-02-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

As Part of The College Art Associations Annual Conference + Afterall (serious art journal) I will be speaking about the Pomona Walk with curator Stephanie Snyder (Reed College Cooley Gallery) this Thursday in Los Angeles. The lovely and piercingly talented Zoe Crosher will do most of the talking as she is much more eloquent about her work than i will ever be.

The Info From Afterall:

As a complement to the College Art Association's 2009 Annual Conference program sessions, Afterall hosts a series of 30-60 minute conversations offering insights into Los Angeles and its cultural history, present and future. Scheduled events include interviews with local artists, roundtable discussions, and talks by critics, curators and scholars that bridge the distance between early artistic developments and current practice.

Thursday Feb 26:
12 pm: Artists Zoe Crosher and Michael Hebb with Stephanie Snyder (Curator, Reed College)

for more info click here

VITA LOFT DINNER WITH THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA

2009-02-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

VITA LOFT: master musicians of jajouka: feb 18th

on february 18th we begin the VITA LOFT series with a rare opportunity to raise a glass with the master musicians of jajouka from morocco. caffe vita has partnered once again with one pot to bring more thoughtful-provocative-conversation-and-dining to seattle. coffee culture has always included the heated exchange of progressive ideas – on that bedrock we have built this series. In the coming months expect dinners with authors stephen rinella, paul collins, luis alberto urrea, nina plank, tom standage, a short list of leading songwriters, and we are working on getting jane and michael stern and marco pierre white back for a return visit.

mick jagger summed up the master musicians of jajouka rather succinctly "one of the most musically inspiring groups still left on the planet". i will be cooking all day with the eight famed moroccan master musicians – and the night will include much music, a feast, and a conversation with bachir attar, the leader of the master musicians. this dinner is a fundraiser – all proceeds go directly to the mmj in their effort to cross the u.s. and share the ancient music of the blue djebala foothills of northern morocco.

dinner and fun. $70/person. wine provided.
location: Vita Loft (gorgeous soaring loft replete with a stage and a wood fired oven)
email hebberoy@gmail.com to request a reservation

songs for eating and drinking: i heart seattle hip hop

2009-02-03T15:30:00.000-08:00

the microphone was cast aside – glassware hit the ground – the punchbowl weighed heavy, candles flickered – and a four hour session of straight forward, engine-hot-rhyme dropping took hold of the room. it couldn’t be stopped – stripped bare – only a few occasional beats from the turntables – and just one damn fine poet after another gathered the room and laid it down, smack down. the gravity of the room was deeply cut – and the community was on.

for more than a year we had been trying to put this night together, as we’ve long known that seattle has one of the most vital and important hiphop communities in the country. we owe gratitude to charles mudede, renowned filmmaker, intrepid civic philosopher, and poet of the city for the spark to take this on; and we owe even greater thanks to sabzi for his help in bringing the night to fruition.

at one point during last week’s event, mudede wandered up and whispered our my wine-soaked ears “this night will go down in history.” if that is the case, so be it. -michael and chase

here is a teaser... geologic of the blue scholars.... a dozen more performances to come. go to www.songsforeatinganddrinking.com for mas mas mas.

gourmet wrote a lovely article.

2009-02-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

alex van buren was one of the four trekkers to take on the 32 mile mission. she did a bang up job of capturing the trials and tribulations of the road.

check it

the first batch of pics from the pomona walk...

2009-01-31T09:05:00.000-08:00

there will be more - and there will be words - but i wanted to get these up immediately - the walk and dinner was amazing and transformative and fucking exhausting.

go to the museum at pomona college to see the installation - the video - and the rest of the remarkable exhibition curated by stephanie snyder...

these pics were taken by ashwin balakrishnan.

Corridor Project: Dinner 3. The Pomona Walk.

2008-12-14T16:35:00.000-08:00

TO JOIN THE WALK EMAIL HEBBEROY@GMAIL.COM.

The Corridor Project continues with GOOD Magazine

2008-12-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

a protest song - from the table.

2008-11-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

The song Ohio - written by Neil Young - may very well be the most financially successful protest song of all time. I don't say that to undermine its power - or the purity of the response - released a month after the shootings at Kent State - the song quickly climbed the billboard charts - and further strengthen the passionate anti-war rally...

many have covered this song - but few have nailed it like hometown heroes Head Like a Kite. Chase Jarvis captured this beautiful performance during our second songs for eating and drinking dinner...

Jennifer 8 Lee Returns - the modern symposium project continues...

2008-11-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

one pot + jennifer 8 lee returns + the fortune cookie chronicles = november 24th.

the last time we had jennifer (and her nytimes best selling book) at dinner I turned away over 150 requests - her insanely engaging book about chinese food in america made a huge splash in the emerald city - six months later we are lucky to get jennifer for a repeat performance - since her last visit her book has appeared everywhere and received endless praise.

we are lucky to have a return visit by the chef du jour scott emerick of cremant - expect some nw-franco-chinese versioning - and don't be scared - jennifer will make it very clear that sampling and appropriation are core to chinese food.

jennifer gives an amazing multi-media presentation - expect to leave with a completely different perspective on chinese food, america, life. (thanks again to mrs. kim ricketts for making this one go...)

$60 - includes her book - byow. email hebberoy@gmail.com to reserve.

ONE POT + FAT + CREMANT + JENNIFER MCLAGAN = NOVEMBER 20th

2008-11-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

james beard award winning author jennifer mclagan will be joining us with her new book FAT an appreciation of the misunderstood ingredient on the 20th - her book begins "for all of history, minus the last thirty years, fat has been at the center of human diets." and through the rest of her lush book jennifer makes a powerful sensual and scholarly argument for the reification of FAT.

the ever-talent scott emerick of cremant will be cooking beautiful fat-centric food - this will be held in caffe vita's beautiful private loft - wood fired oven, gorgeous capitol hill location, cozy and lush. bring your own wine - leave with a copy of the book FAT (included in the price) and spend the evening in discussion with Jennifer - Stranger contributor Angela Garbes is going to be sitting down to pepper the author with question and question. (and we owe this delightful event to kim ricketts...)

reserve now. $60. byow. email to reserve: hebberoy@gmail.com

One Pot + DJ Spooky aka Paul Miller aka That Subliminal Kid = Nov. 1st.

2008-10-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

One Pot + Caffe Vita + The Stranger's own Charles Mudede will be throwing a little dinner in honor of our old friend Paul Miller better known as the internationally renowned recording artist DJ Spooky. a last minute feast in honor of my old friend paul miller - better known as the internationally renowned recording artist dj spooky. paul might be the most versatile artist I know - his work seems to pop up everywhere - the venice biennial, the whitney biennial, the andy warhol museum - then one night he told me he was headed to antartica to live and produce a multi-media suite on glacial un-rest, before that he confided that he had covertly bought the rites to the d.w. griffith classic birth of a nation which he later turned inside out re-mixed as rebirth of a nation and made some angry white men angrier (the power of appropriation has rarely been sweeter). his musical volumes are seemingly endless and staggering in their intensity and beauty - and his writing is moving and sharp edged and also voluminous.

I could go on - but the important part is that we get paul for a few hours - he is playing at nectar later in the evening - but from 6-10 we are going to eat like kings, share conversation with paul and his old buddy charles mudede, play some tunes, and drink in honor of his new book SOUND UNBOUND.

this event is happening because of the continuing generosity and support of the arts that is caffe vita - we will be supping in vita's gorgeous capitol hill loft - every diner gets a copy of his new book and music collection. come hear what one of the countries most vital artists has to say for himself...

$45/person. limited space. email quickly. includes Sound Unbound
or $30/person - come after dinner at 8:30 for the conversation, book siging, etc. r.s.v.p. required. includes Sound Unbound
push to reserve.
and then head down to nectar to catch him make beautiful sounds.

"From Raymond Scott to the hidden racism in digital circuitry to a history of easy listening, there is enough inspiring weirdness here to fuel some musical fires for a good while." David Byrne on Sound Unbound

email onepotorg@gmail to pre-reserve...

GOD IN A CUP DINNER

2008-10-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

one pot + god in a cup + caffe vita = oct. 21

michaele weissman's critically acclaimed new book "god in a cup" hit bookshelves this summer – an elegant and carefully researched ode to the new frontier of coffee – she headed off to farms in east africa and central america with our friends from intelligentsia and counter culture, had a daunting run-in with the founder of stumptown who offered her a bong hit during their first interview, and lost much sleep decoding the mystery behind the panamanian esmeralda that cost about as much as diamonds.

michaele and i have plenty to discuss – since my travels with caffe vita have been equally far flung. expect a casual evening of deep pots of food, conversation, and coffee – the talented scott emerick of cremant fame is going to be joining me in the kitchen to cook a couple dishes i prepared with guatemalan coffee farmers on a recent vita/one pot excursion – and vita will be serving forth farm direct coffee from the very same guatemalan farm. we will be tucked inside caffe vita's well-hidden private loft - the space alone is worth the ticket.

yet again we have the talented kim ricketts to thank for making this evening possible.

october 21st. caffe vita's private capitol hill loft. 6pm. $40/person. byow.

email hebberoy@gmail.com to make reservations

forget toulouse-lautrec. joey draws absinthe. better.

2008-10-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

mr. joey veltkamp crafted several charming drawings for the tablecloth at the recent dinner one pot and caffe vita hosted at cremant. chef scott emerick killed it - with little vine dried tomatoes stuffed with pork and foie gras sausage, a lush celery root and chanterelle soup, the big yellow pot filled with dense and lovely cassoulet, and a chocolate cognacs to finish. thanks scott and tanya.

corridor project: directions to the ross island table

2008-09-27T12:13:00.001-07:00

here are the directions to the 18 foot table we installed on ross island. the table is rather pretty - and smartly designed by my beloved friend and artist mark lakeman. if you head out to the island please let us know. it is in a no-trespass zone - not the most scenic setting if you like "pretty" - but it is a powerful place to consider the city of portland, its charms and a couple of its dirty secrets. the lagoon in the center of ross island is none other than a 200 foot deep hole in the willamette river - quite literally the negative space that built much of the city - and much of the structure of the interstate 5 - and in the process tragically degraded the river.

for more about the 2 year inquiry that is the corridor project...

next stop: pomona college - for a two day hike to the interstate - through city and woods and concrete jungle...

one pot + absinthe + cremant = sept. 24th

2008-09-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

the ever talented chef scott emerick of my favorite neighborhood bistro in the west - cremant - has just received a shipment of some kind of bonafide absinthe - you can expect that I will be merely sipping the myth-rich spirit - but I suggest you go full throttle and find out exactly why verlaine shot rimbaud and drove the young poet off to ethiopia to sell coffee. I have asked scott to re-animate a couple items he was taught while cooking at the michelin 3 star guy savoy in paris. don't expect a degustation menu - this is about absinthe and pots of food - but it shouldn't be missed - 20 seats only. and of course some fine coffee from ethiopia will follow...

7pm. $70 person - includes absinthe and wine and food and merriment.
email onepotorg@gmail.com to reserve.

from the ross island dinner.

2008-09-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

some new photos of the first leg of the corridor project. for more information on this 2 year inquiry into the interstate 5 corridor... go here...

the corridor project is part of a gathering of artists and words and ideas called suddenly - corridor project work + the work of many remarkable artists can be seen/experienced at reed college starting sunday september 21st.

photos by sergio

extra special private reception with The National

2008-09-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

September 19th at the Moore Theatre (seattle)

ONE POT and Caffe Vita have been helping put together a lovely fundraiser for the National Co-op Grocers Association. Come early – pay a little extra – and get small bites from Scott Emerick of Cremant, Scott Staples of Quinn’s, and Ericka Burke of the Volunteer Park Café – and then before the masses arrive pick out front row seats for The National (possibly the best new indie album of last year – tho my vote still goes to Arthur and Yu) and pdx darlings Menomena. This is a damn fine opportunity to see some amazing music – up close – and eat some splendid food. Everyone can thank the gentlemen at Neumos for making this event a reality.

Early super rad private reception: $50. 5:30 - 7:30. Front Row Seats. email hebberoy@gmail.com.

General Admission Concert. buy tickets here...

songs for eating and drinking + arthur and yu

2008-09-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

the darling seattle band arthur and yu makes music that makes the world stop a bit - i consider that a profound achievement - i listened to their first full album (hardly art 2007) a couple million times - i will listen a couple million more.

i was honored and honored and honored to have grant at the table in early august when we launched songs for eating and drinking - he played my favorite song in their young repertoire - a bonus track that didn't make the cd - a song about "horse meat" - thank you grant.

for more songs from the common table go to songsforeatinganddrinking.com

bumbershoot... is... over...

2008-09-06T15:05:00.001-07:00

it was a wild three days - or rather 8 months - of planning, sweating, cooking, filming, damn - i am still too exhausted to write much more than that - it left me very fulfilled and completely spent.

we are working on post production - and should soon have remarkable sound and video of:
matthew caws of nada surf
enchanting musical rants by the nick jaina band
genius award winner rebecca brown singing paul revere
wunderkind photographer chase jarvis
tilson of the saturday knights
the maldives getting sentimental
a brilliant sly contribution by a hero of mine chip kidd

and dozens of others ranging from age 8 to age 88 (how old is deedee rainbow?) drawing attention at the table and contributing some damn moving shit about 1968.

and since i don't have anything finished to show yet - here is link to some initial photos from drew and a new video from the first songs for eating and drinking dinner - featuring ritchie of loch lomond singing his pretty heart out.

videos of stone gossard, arthur and yu, the saturday knights, head like a kite, fences, plus insanely beautiful pics, recipes, at songsforeatinganddrinking.com

and to close the bshoot post... a huge shout out to:

the bumbershoot production crew who ended up being remarkably supportive - matt stegner who spent a multitude of hours capturing some brilliant audio recordings - michael and wendy on cameras, holly, stephanie, theo, johnathan, alicia, rachel, emily, matt, erin, juniper, amy, drew, dustin, the ice cream man.. i am missing someone - all put it in hours upon hours, and whitney and sam made the thing happen.

and a huge thank you to adobe, nw film forum, frank's produce, , urban hardwoods, macrina bakery, pedersen rentals, and big mario for making this project possible.

ONE POT + BUMBERSHOOT: THE TOAST

2008-08-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

if you can't make dinner - here is the kindof toast that will fill the room to get things rolling - it will be less cardboardy and pretentious when i shout it out to the room - i would love to have your digital submissions as well - creating a kind of digital bumbershoot table - add them as comments - or email them to hebberoy@gmail.com - we will add them to the site.

The kind of toast i might make on saturday, sunday, monday night:

greetings - you are here at one pot at bumbershoot so that i can feed you - but also so that i can get something from you - the basic request is one of reciprocation – I cook you dinner and you bring me something – it seems to be that this basic exchange is the root of most culture. money is an unfortunate substitution for basic reciprocity – it is silent, and generally rather dirty, "it don't sing and dance
and it don't walk" - many cultures have (had) great ritual in the matters of the table and the guest/host relationship – the greeks in the classical era were famous for long treatises on the importance of proper exchange – the table was central to this – the collapses of this code often resulted in calamity. take for instance when paris decided to take more than food from the the table of menelaus (he slipped helen of troy into his pocket) the result was the most mythologized war if all time. so don’t steel my woman – I will burn down your village.

restaurant tables do not offer this kind of currency. this table was built as a kind of modern agora for an exchange about a very important time – 68 changed our world – I don’t profess to be of high knowledge about this era – this year – in fact I wasn’t even born – but I launched this project to learn about how it came to pass that all the way around the globe thought and ideas turned into action – the world is filled with ideas – and yet the world has arguably never seen as much action as it did in 1968. why?

so you are here – I offer you a simple stew – and bread – a proletariat meal if you will – hopefully you drank heavily prior to arriving. clink your glass and tell me something about ’68, or civil disobedience, or social uprising, or the basic magic of thought turning into action… be it a song – a piece of writing, a reading from one of the texts that clutter our table, an artifact, a story, a sound. or just leave here and tell of the experience – in a matter that will be just as powerful.

(the sound of glasses clinking - and bowls filling with stew)

SONGS FOR EATING AND DRINKING LAUNCHES

2008-08-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

This may be the most exciting moment in One Pot's short history. Take a quick look at the remarkable video above created by Chase Jarvis and Co. (the handsome man playing guitar is the famed guitarist Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam) and then take a spin over to www.songsforeatingandrinking.com...

This night caught by flashing cameras and perfect microphones will forever be etched in my memory - stone gossard, tiny vipers, arthur and yu, loch lomond, sarah rudinoff, the saturday knights, and fences all performing show-stopping songs about eating and drinking while sharing a tremendous feast of baby back ribs, succotash, and strawberries and little delicate pastries... (thank you ericka burke) The photos and the videos tell the story - go go go go...

ONE POT + BUMBERSHOOT

2008-08-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

One Pot will be "in residency" this year at the Bumbershoot Festival. We are taking one of the massive Northwest Rooms hostage for the entire weekend. The idea is rather simple - I will be cooking some very lovely, very simple dinners - you will be coming and bringing some very thoughtful words, songs, artifacts... you bring something - i cook food - you bring something. simple.

And something a little more specific than anything.

We are taking advantage of this amazing space - building a long gorgeous table from a tree that recently fell down in Marysville, WA - constructing a kitchen - and sharing food - in the honor of an odd but important anniversary - 1968 - a year that saw more riotous uprising than any other year in the history of man - or so they say. They also say 68 reshaped the world, they also say 68 will never happen again. 68 is the topic - but your contribution to the dinner could also have something to do with radicalism, uprising, rebellion, etc etc in any form. I wasn't even born when the trouble started in Prague in the springtime of '68 - so don't be discouraged.

So to recap - you come with something - literally - some piece of writing - some piece of music you want to perform - some piece of literature you found - some kind of artifact - to be shared at the table. dinner is free. bumbershoot is not.

email me if you would like to pre-reserve a spot. hebberoy@gmail.com

Dinner:

6pm Saturday August 30th
6pm Sunday August 31st
6pm Monday September 1st.

Midnight Supper. Capitol Hill Block Party.

2008-07-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

the pictures tell it best. but quickly: a midnight performance by seattle stars Throw Me The Statue, a candlelight romp with Chromeo, a 1000 degree brick oven in which we cooked baby turnips, sweet carrots, plump sausages, dreamy squash, delicate beet greens, bloody lamb ribs, all served alongside bowl after bowl of vibrant aioli - it went till 3:30 am - it was a brilliant end to a phenomenal weekend of music...

a dinner with christian lander. july 15th.

2008-07-02T17:40:00.001-07:00

white people like christian lander. it is harder to tell whether or not christian lander likes white people. i had one presumably non-white person tell me they were deeply offended i was doing a dinner with christian lander. i didn't know how to respond. anger, remorse, laughter, confusion and in the end it just left me stumped. i think his blog is laugh out loud funny. i am white.

and.

i want to talk to christian. i want a thirty people to talk to christian, intimately. and i want to do it at the hideout in the company of greg lundgren and friends. and i want to raise a glass to his remarkably amusing effort: www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. i am still stumped. but gladly. is this really all that controversial?

dinner with christian. 6pm. the hideout. $60. includes his new book. email onepotorg@gmail to request a seat.

book signing and cocktail imbibing with christian. 8pm. the hideout. free and open to the public.

this event happening because kim ricketts is rad.

the corridor project begins. late june.

2008-06-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

the 1 maybe 2 year engagement under, along, in the middle of, arching over, and floating next to the interstate 5 corridor begins late june. the first dinner is not being televised for fear of giving the folks in the yellow and black boats too much notice. more on the project...

an introduction - late night october 2006.

2008-05-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

in october of 2006 i woke up at 3am - shaken from sleep - thumbed through some channels - and eventually grabbed my computer. i had been trying to figure out what was next - how i could work in the world of food, but not be constrained by the conventions that didn't suit me - i had responded to this context in the year 2000 when my former partner and i formed family supper and ripe - but things had changed - i was different - and i wanted different things from the table - and wanted to contribute different things to our culture at large.

i scribbled these paragraphs together - and without much of a thought posted them on onepot.org - two years later one pot is coming into some kind of self awareness - still amorphous - still.

first one pot description:

"one pot is meant to be a bit more than a way of cooking, or a way to gather people, or a way to make some cash. it is meant as a gesture – a gentle fuck you – to the corporate little box we reside in and are supposed to dine in – you might see one pot plastered around town with an upside down trademark, an underscore, a conflation that says I am open source. if you are in nebraska, toledo, alabama, please take the name one pot, use it, put up posters, tag it, cook something simple, gather people and charge them money, or charge nothing, do it in a monastery, do it on a hill, your apartment, wherever, or don’t do it at all.

you want something more clear: I’m not a big fan of the transparent, a clumsy tool – but i will let you know the way I am personally using this thing called one pot - this brand that i am offering to any takers who feel the call – my little corporate one pot world headquarters in seattle washington will be hosting dinners in various locations – some open to the public and listed here, some deeply private and not listed anywhere, where we cook one simple thing in one simple pot and serve it to a group of willing participants. the main thing served on said evenings will have cooked long and hard and slow in an aged vessel. it is hardly any more complicated.

if you do decide to start your own one pot thing – be it a dinner, or a boxing match (food is not required - nothing is actually required) let me know and i will do my best to promote your endeavors, however tired, brilliant, or just plain not they may be… your event will be listed here - indiscriminately - with my own - it will be talked about in our email newsletters, it will get noticed. but. you need to send me some pictures, a broken plate, a story, some kind of talisman that speaks of what happened. if you are serious and ready (or just amused or like sending spineless little insults) email me at onepotorg@gmail.com. ‘till then."

one pot + gabriel and sam's liberation seder = april 24th

2008-04-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

a remarkable night. more soon.

one pot + the raconteurs = april 21st.

2008-04-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

from our new unofficial headquarters in the pike street fish fry there will probably be several opportunities to cook large unruly dinners for traveling indie legends. the fry is precariously perched in the neumos tree fort and just about every rock world darling worth their salt passes through the increasingly glamorous club/bar/fishfry complex – sometimes it will just be a quick bite of fish but occaisionally we will convince a road weary band that sitting down to a long table and eating deeply and drinking wide are worth the time – the American indie rock tour seems to be unsurprisingly attention deficit disorder-ed. bands spend little to no time in each place – eat complete crap from whatever is in a 2 block radius, knock out a show and hit the road often directly after the performance. the only respite from this march seems to be in towns and cities where friends reside – I have seen many a band rescued from the battle ground for 2-3 hours fed some vegan specialty and dropped back at the club. I have alternately gained new respect for musicians that tour and desaturated any fantasy I ever had about living the life of a rock musician.

from that vantage point I am thrilled to provide something a bit more cultural than the taco-bell-take-out-window for the road bound– our first opportunity came in the form of a person I have idolized from afar for years – yep – jack white. the raconteurs newest tour was self described as “a small club tour” – but the band didn’t seem to reduce their production staff to reflect the size of the venue. we got word that they were interested in sitting down together – supping in the one pot style – sharing food and wine with the band, the opening act and the entire production crew. i must say I was rather peeing myself with excitement – not really just to meet jack – as I knew it wouldn’t be some kind of Gilgamesh like reunion of two lost brothers – I have found celebrities to be rather distant and often difficult to converse with – but just to insert a genuine food experience in the middle of their tour had me whistling with excitement.

then it happened – the American thing – 5 minutes before dinner – things changed. this wasn’t some slopped together feast – super star chef and dear friend matt dillon from sitka and spruce fame was upstairs in the fry kitchen hand rolling cous cous, deep frying whole radishes, making a sumptuous fish stew. the table was set for 25 – the candles were aflicker – we were swishing about in an electric fashion – anticipating – and then the production manager whispers in my ear.

it looks like we are going to need to do this a bit differently… the raconteurs are going to eat alone….

why? good question. but that is how it went down – the band members took their seats in the middle of the long long very long table. and we very politely served them – brendan benson was a supreme gentleman – thrilled about the food, fascinated by the nettle salsa verde – and very curious about the entire one pot project. jack was a bit more regal and aloof...

one pot + ethiopia = capitol hill

2008-04-14T13:43:00.001-07:00

we brought our experiences in ethiopia home. a sprawling evening of ood (ethiopian incense), honey wine and stunning food by HIDMO. again more soon on this one as well.

see more pics and some videos from the ethiopia voyage here.

one pot for naught = april 9th

2008-04-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

a dinner with justin neideremeyer of pian pianino.

one pot + las estacas mexico

2008-04-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

there have been anonymous one pots reportedly held around the globe - i have gotten dispatches from slovenia, kentucky, quebec, dinners that people decided to put together under the one pot banner. some of these wonderful people send over pictures, and accounts of the evening - here is one such fete held in an ecological park in morelos mexico. the pots slowly stewed in a solar cooker - still waiting for the details of the menu.

photos by sandro canovas.

one pot + the fortune cookie chronicles = march 30th

2008-03-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

a perfectly captivating evening with the sparkling jennifer 8. lee - author of the equally sparkling new book the fortune cookie chronicles. i will write more on this soon - jennifer is one of the sharpest pens in the food world. we are planning round II presently.

see some pics and here more about the evening on jennifer's overflowing blog.

one pot + sidamo = february 28th

2008-02-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

there is much to say about this trip - and the two one pot dinners - one deep in the wilds of sidamo with thirty tribal coffee farmers and one in addis ababa with many of the leaders of the ethiopian coffee industry. i promise i will shed light on this voyage soon.

one pot + implied violence = jan 11

2008-01-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

hard to explain this cacophonous event.

piles of cut lemons, men shaving, barley girl getting slapped - 5 courses - hard to remember the menu - so many things - avant theatre group implied violence owned the night - one pot merely filled in the corners.

one pot + detroit II = date tbd

2007-12-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

we did this once – we are going to do it again – and probably again. I tried to actually manifest one of these tents in rio last week – but it just wasn’t the right time, but those lovely rio folk (cariocas) have insisted that I come back down and do it – and do it right – they want to eat and drink and talk detroit, what did marcio botner say.. “it is just such a f#cked up idea, we need to do it.”
god bless ‘em.
so instead of blasting you with the details – click here for the invitation to the first one, the upcoming dateless thing will be similar
and talk to me about detroit – I need old family recipes, photos, whatever – we are opening pandora’s box here, give me stuff. -MH
location: the hideout

one pot + hideout = dec 23

2007-12-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

once again we are going to take over the main flank of this brilliant room of drinks - the hideout will remain open - their regular customers will be quite confused when they find a 30 foot table anchored in the middle of the floor… - MH
SOLD OUT

one pot + arcade = dec 6

2007-12-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

thursday night swing by rainier square. we will be having a little shindig with the fine folks at arcade. for those of you new to the journal it is one of the clearest most respected voices on architecture and art and design in the region – they decided perhaps foolishly to give me the reigns for the upcoming issue – it is their first look at food and how it intersects with the more refined forms of culture. beast meets koolhaas. this is a simple gathering – drink some wine – eat a few snacks – and pick up the freshly printed pieces of pretty paper. everyone is invited.
location: rainier square atrium – 1333 5th avenue – enter on 4thtime: 5:30- 10details: gratis – and no reservations required. this is just a reception.
http://www.arcadejournal.com/
- MH

photos by drew zandonella-stannard
www.onemoresalute.com