Out of curiosity, my partner and I recently did a quick 22-product grocery price comparison on the hill. Here’s how it worked. We chose 22 products that we purchase all the time. Your mileage may vary if these aren’t your preferred products.  We shopped the three closest grocery stores: QFC on Broadway, Madison Market, and Whole Foods on Denny. We compared exact products. We did not take into account member discounts, specials or sales; the prices shown are the base price to the best of our knowledge. All pricing was done between February 7th and February 17th of 2009.

Results: Whole Foods wins, at $5 cheaper than Madison Market. QFC is the clear loser, nearly $15 more expensive than Whole Foods for the exact same 22 item shopping list.

You can also play with our data,

Enjoy!

[x-posted to Livejournal , and my blog]

I sing with the 200+ member Seattle Womens Chorus — the largest LGBT womens chorus in the country. Our upcoming holiday concert is called “Dressed in Holiday Style”, and along with traditional carols will be specially commissioned carols written about different neighborhoods in Seattle. We’re covering West Seattle, Ballard, Fremont, the Central District, and Capitol Hill! The Capitol Hill song is called “Block by Block”, and it’s a great upbeat number with lyrics so modern they include a nod to the giant new parking lot on Pine.

The SWC is the sister group to the amazing Seattle Mens Chorus. Both groups have concerts coming up in the next few weeks, but only the ladies are singing for Capitol Hill! Please consider joining us at a show — if you like holiday music and Seattle, I promise you’ll have a good time.

Seattle Times Writeup
PI Writeup

8 p.m. Dec. 13
2 p.m. Dec. 14
at Meany Theater, 4001 University Way N.E., Seattle
$20-$50 (206-388-1400 or FlyingHouse.Org)

To celebrate my last day on the job and my girlfriend’s last day of summer school, we put together a Yam Crawl last night. We took some pictures to document the adventure, so here’s the shots and the reviews of the evening! Thanks to everyone who participated, we had so much fun and we ate SO MUCH YAM.

To Begin: Cafe Flora (2901 E Madison St (206-325-9100))

The team started at Cafe Flora for dinner and Yam Fries. Cafe Flora’s Bucket o’ Fries won us over from the start. The fries are a little floppy, large cut, not crunchy. Slight flavor on the fries, but the cayenne aioli dip is magical and transforms the already good fries into pure yam fry heaven. The table devoured two buckets, and scrapped the aioli cups completely clean.

Bucket of Yam Fries: $4.50

Smith Bar (332 15th Ave E (206-322-9420)

Smith Bar was packed but we managed to squeeze 8 into a booth with some supplementary chairs. We ordered up some fries right away. These fries had an identity crisis. They were over salted, good crunch but strange flavor — the yam inside was suspiciously white. Perhaps they were an odd type of sweet potato instead? The dip they came with was very odd, like tartar sauce with basil. Everyone chose ketchup instead.

Single serving: $5.00

Broadway Grill (314 Broadway E (206-328-7000))

Final Stop, Broadway Grill. These fries were the most fry-like: small, crunchy, no added seasoning. Came with two dips, but they were both a bit watery — we ended up dipping ours into ketchup.

Sweet Potato Fries: $5.00

We intended to hit Kingfish on 19th and table 219 on Broadway, but Kingfish was a 45 minute wait for a table. The fries at Smith weren’t that great, but the company and service was so good we lost track of time, so table 219 was closed by the time we got there. Thank goodness for Broadway Grill’s awesome hours!

Uh, it’s a little late for this, but I just got it via email so I thought I’d better pass it along…

Also, powhat?

Food – Music – Art – BBQ – Neighbors – Conversations

Tuesday, August 5, 6 to 11.30 pm

We close off Howell St between Olive and Bellevue.
Neighborhood artists are invited to bring a piece of their work to
display. A separate display area will be set up – no fees, no juries,
just a chance to show off your artwork.
Burgers, hot dogs and drinks provided by City Market, bring some of
your own food ideas to share.
BYO seating, fold up tables, games, sidewalk chalk art, etc. Other
ideas? Want to help set up? Play music, perform? Call Michael at 328
4736 or call Doug (335 0676) regarding questions about displaying your
art.
See you there!

Powhat stands for the Pine-Olive-Way-Harvard-Area-Triangle, the boundaries of our neighborhood. The POWHat Neighborhood Association meets on the first Wednesday of each month from 7 – 8 p.m. at the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church on Howell, between Boylston and Harvard. We are an ad hoc group of interested community members working to make our neighborhood safe and welcoming for all.

If you cannot attend the monthly meeting, but are interested in getting involved, please contact us at [email protected] for more info.