Astra Hotel's new rooftop bar, which offers sweeping views of the Seattle skyline, started serving drinks and small bites in South Lake Union on September 7.
Perched 16 stories above the corner of Terry Avenue North and Thomas Street, Altitude Sky Lounge features an open deck with cushioned armchairs surrounding gas firepits and stools facing the edges of the rooftop, one facing west toward the Space Needle, the other directly facing South, toward a wall of downtown skyscrapers.
Even the interior of the lounge offers stunning views - the nearly all-glass walls swing open on sunny days, and patrons can take in the views while sitting at the bar, standing around a couple of counters, or sitting back in the long, couch-like booth in another area of the bar around the corner.
The food menu features little bites to be eaten with drinks, like several sizes of charcuterie boards, a serving of Marcona almonds and crispy chickpeas, and various dips (golden beet and dill, albacore tuna dip, pork and carrot rillette, and duck liver mousse.)
The bar serves several local beers on draft, a couple of glass-pours each of red, white, rose, and champagne, and a cocktail list with drinks like La Brujeria, made with Mezcal, lime, basil, blackberry, and ginger beer, which run between $15 to $20.
For the first time since 2019, the Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival, also known simply as Crabfest, is back in Port Angeles from October 7 to 9. It offers the opportunity to eat fresh Dungeness crab, harvested and cooked just 30 minutes east by car of the crab's namesake town.
During its last rendition, the festival served nine tons of crab in three days, and executive director Scott Nagel uses his own fleet of crab boats to supply the festival every year, which harvest the Dungeness crab from the nearby Strait of Juan de Fuca. The crabs are all harvested in the week leading up to the festival and are brought alive to the festival each day, where they're cleaned and cooked on site and served with corn and coleslaw. They weigh around two pounds each.
Preorders for crab dinners are going for $40, or $21 for half a crab, on the festival's website. The festival is also offering curbside pickup Friday and Saturday. You can also order a cooked and cleaned crab with no sides for $35.
Beyond the crab, the festival will have live music, a beer and wine garden, and 60 seafood-focused dishes from local restaurants, serving dishes ranging from Caribbean seafood stew to pan-seared Alaskan weathervane scallops.
On September 29, around 50 local restaurants are participating in Dining Out For Life, a fundraiser by Seattle's Lifelong, a quickly growing organization that delivered 339,000 medically-and-culturally tailored meals to people in need in 2021, many of whom can't accept food from other organizations due to medical or cultural dietary constraints.
Participating restaurants this year include notable Seattle area restaurants and bars like Renee Erickson's Bateau and Boat Bar, Shubert Ho's Fire & the Feast, Rhein Haus, and Plenty of Clouds, and they're all donating a generous 30% to 50% of proceeds to Lifelong on the day of the fundraiser. Find the full (still evolving) list on Dining Out For Life's website.