Singles Dinner for Six – Ages 40s&50s January 8, 2011

Explore different restaurants each month while getting to know other singles in the age group of your choice . . . so even if there's no love connection you'll still have a wonderful time. You'll order off the menu and receive separate checks for your purchases. Our website allows you to view the profiles of those registered for each dinner, tracks who you've dined with so you meet new people every time, and then let's you send a private message to those you've dined with afterward.

For current space availability, to see who's going, and to register please visit our website at www.TastySeattle.com.

This week join us at Cicchetti.

"Cicchetti (chi-KET-tee) is all about hot food, good drinks, camaraderie - and the stylish spot behind sister restaurant Serafina in Eastlake is also very easy on the eyes. The name is the Italian term for small plates and tapas, and it is named after Venice's popular cicchetti bars, where patrons crowd in to eat and a drink standing at the bar or sitting at small tables. Hundreds of years ago the idea for cicchetti was brought to Venice by the Moors from Spain says Susan Kaufman, who owns both Serafina and Cicchetti. As you walk in to the cool-modern space you appreciate that beloved Seattle architect George Suyama designed and built it for his firm’s office in 1984. Nothing spindly or boxy here, just strong, elegant, airy rooms that look out on Lake Union, Queen Anne hill and downtown Seattle. At night the windows are full of our city’s lights. After she bought the building Kaufman had Suyama’s cohorts Jay Deguchi and Steven Lazen guide the building into a come-on-in restaurant and bar space with 80 seats. The main floor has three bar seating areas: one at the front door, a chef’s bar at the kitchen and a long wine and cocktail bar. Upstairs, where the views are the best, there is table seating for diners, cocktailers or private parties. From both levels you can’t help but see the 6-feet x 5-feet Venetian chandelier that Italian glass artist Antonio Seguso designed as he stood in the unfinished restaurant. The Mediterranean food rocks here. You’d have to dislike eating to get out without snarfing down at least one or two dishes. There are house- pickled vegetables ($4), Octopus with salsa verde and chickpeas ($7), Chanterelle mushroom and fontina pizzas, big enough for 2-3 ($13), Turkish fried eggplant sandwich with feta and crudo tomato sauce ($6) , Portuguese baked clams with spicy sausage ($11) Sicilia), an orange and fennel salad with black olive and arugula $4 and much more. Start or finish with Ricotta fritters with huckleberry sauce ($7). All the hot dishes are cooked in the applewood-fired oven. The bar menu is eight pages long, and the bartenders make infusions and tinctures (say, cardamom and mace) like mad alchemists. It would only be polite to try the Visigoth with its house-infused wolfberry whisky, dry sherry, Punt e Mes, lemon and bitters ($8), or the Rumbullion Mai Tai of silver and aged rums, lime, falernum and a float of dark rum ($7). Also sounding good is the Gin n’ Sin with lemon, grapefruit and local Scrappy’s grenadine ($7), and a couple of glasses of Mediterranean wine in the Quartino (two glasses) size." - Alicia Arter SeattleMag.com

Official Website: http://www.TastySeattle.com