Autumn Brews and Winter Views: Your Guide to Woodland Park Zoo’s 21+ Season
It’s that time of year! As the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, Woodland Park Zoo invites adults to celebrate the changing seasons with 21+ events designed to keep the fun going from autumn through winter in a carefree, kid-free environment. OktoBEARfest is back As the first leaves of autumn begin to fall, Woodland Park…
2026 Fall Arts Hit List—Dance and Theater
The must-see dance debuts and theatrical performances of the season.
September Dance Whim W’Him: FALL ’26 September 12–20, Erickson Theatre Off-Broadway and Vashon Center for the Arts One of contemporary dance company Whim W’Him’s most popular programs, the Choreographic Shindig puts the power of curation into the dancers’ hands. For the FALL ’26 show, they chose three female choreographers—Kayla Farrish, Annie Rigney, and Jessi Stegall—to…
Entertaining Like a Pro: Holiday Hosting Tips from Herban Feast’s Culinary Director
Holiday season means one thing for hosts: pressure. Whether you’re planning a corporate client appreciation party or an intimate gathering at home, the goal is the same: you want people talking about it well into January. Herban Feast, the Seattle-based farm-to-table catering company and award-winning creative force behind some of the region’s most memorable events…
2026 Fall Arts Hit List—Visual Arts
The must-see gallery shows of the season.
September The 2026 Recology King County AIR Program Exhibition Through September 12 Recology King County To wrap up its latest artist residencies, Recology King County presents the 2026 Recology King County AIR Program Exhibition, featuring fashion designer Janelle Abbott and photographer Eirik Johnson. Held at Mutuus Studio, the show is the culmination of a residency…
Renew Yourself in Bellingham, Washington
Images courtesy of Visit Bellingham Unwind and reset in 2026 with a trip to peaceful Bellingham, Washington. Located between the stunning Cascade Mountains and the tranquil Salish Sea, there’s no better place for a trip packed with quiet moments in nature combined with the amenities of a culturally rich college town. Bellingham is known for…
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Rearview Mirror: Seahawks Off the Field, Seattle on the Board, and Smoked Oysters
Restaurant Roundup: R-Day, Chowder Charity, and Bourdain’s Order
Studio Sessions: Colleen Louise Barry
Washington Has Incredible Oysters. Have You Tried Alaska’s?
Seasonal Shift: The September/October Issue Arrives
Steins Up: 8 Washington Oktoberfests to Celebrate Fall
Opening Night: Death & Co. Brings the Hype to Pioneer Square
Seattle Rock Band Stereo Embers Rekindles for One Night
Studio Sessions: Ling Chun
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Your Land, Your Legacy: A New Way to Build at Suncadia
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Seattle’s Best Plastic Surgeon is Dr. Javad Sajan
Lucien Postlewaite: Lessons from a Lifetime of Dance
What’s the Story? Contemporary Narratives of Home, Identity, and Connection, ArtX Contemporary
Moomins' Sea Adventures & Tove and the Sea, National Nordic Museum
Reframing Seattle’s Southeast Asian Histories, Museum of History and Industry
Star Trek 60th Anniversary, Sept. 5, MoPOP
5 Tips for Finding a Best-Fit College
A national leader in college counseling shares search advice
With nearly 3,000 four-year colleges and universities in the United States, how do you find the ones that suit your child academically, socially, culturally, and financially? In the College Counseling Office at UPrep, a 6–12 private school in Northeast Seattle, we remind students that finding the best-fit college is a match to be made, not…
Helsinki is Like Seattle—Only More Hockey-Obsessed
As the Kraken head to Finland in November for their first regular-season games outside North America, Seattle fans will find ferries, coffee, craft beer and a familiar devotion to life by the water.
We were maybe 15 minutes into our inaugural Helsinki stroll when my kid asked the question my jet-lagged brain had mulled over but filed under “later”: “Where are all the cars?” We were walking down Esplanadi on a bright June evening near the summer solstice, and the street noise was mostly gulls and the whine…
The Northwest’s Gateway to Wine, Culture & Adventure
Escape the crowds. Slow down. Savor fall in the Lewis Clark Valley. As autumn paints the hillsides in gold, crimson, and amber, the Lewis Clark Valley becomes a picture-perfect place to slow down and savor the season. Where Washington and Idaho meet, fall brings crisp days, colorful landscapes, harvest among the vines, and plenty of…
Opening Night: Sea’d In Tries Something a Little Different With Seafood
The new Chophouse Row restaurant dry-ages fish and cooks them over an open flame—old-school techniques that feel refreshing.
Seattle is full of seafood restaurants, for good reason—the water’s right there, and the city is home to several marine-focused culinary cultures—but sometimes eating yet another piece of salmon or black cod can feel stale, no matter how fresh the fish is. So why have I been seeing Sea’d In, a new seafood restaurant inside…
Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…
Studio Sessions: Gabi Nirino
Working with textiles to explore ideas connected to nature, community, and womanhood, Buenos Aires-born Gabi Nirino never stops experimenting with her medium.
Gabi Nirino carries bag of materials with her almost everywhere she goes. Cloth, thread, yarn, textile scraps, collected fibers—the pieces inside are a network of inspiration waiting for her hands. “You can work with textiles anywhere—on the floor, on a plane—which is why I always carry a project in my bag,” Nirino says. “It’s like…
Elevated Gaming, Now With a Luxury Stay
Debuting a new era in Pacific Northwest gaming, the opening of the now Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel, transforms a premier gaming destination into a full-scale getaway–pairing top-tier play with the convenience and comfort of an upscale luxurious overnight stay just 30 minutes from downtown Seattle. Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel offers one of the most expansive…
News
Mountain Bar Gets a Nutty Update
Brown & Haley introduces its first new Mountain Bar flavor in more than 50 years.
Tacoma confectioner Brown & Haley is raising the bar. Earlier this summer, the century-old candy maker rolled out a new Mountain Bar featuring rich milk chocolate and pieces of Oregon-grown hazelnuts. Developed in partnership with Oregon Hazelnut Growers, the release celebrates a crop with deep regional roots. Oregon produces 99% of the hazelnuts grown in…
The 2026 Washington State Book Award Finalists Are Here
Your fall reading list just got 41 books longer.
The 2026 Washington State Book Award finalists are in, and readers may want to clear some space on the nightstand. Judges selected 41 titles from 308 books written by Washington authors and published in 2025. The finalists span fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry, picture books, books for young readers, and young adult literature. Seattle is well…
Giving Black Artists Their Flowers
Now in its fifth year, Black & Loud Fest is building community, expanding the region’s sound, and making sure recognition doesn’t come too late.
Categorically, throughout the entire history of music and American culture, Black artists have not received the love and credit they deserve. When recognition does come, it is not until decades after their passing. From Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Seattle’s Tina Bell to contemporary pioneers like Fishbone, Black-fronted bands in the Pacific Northwest and beyond have…
Let Him Cook: Matt Broussard’s Rise From Restaurant Chef to Social Media Star
With a forthcoming cookbook and a Capitol Hill restaurant, the Seattle chef is taking his laid-back approach beyond the screen.
Matt Broussard doesn’t know how to describe his food. The chef’s forthcoming cookbook, Now We’re Cooking, has everything from his grandma’s dolmades—grape leaves stuffed with lamb and rice cooked in duck fat—to cantaloupe gazpacho and seared tuna steaks coated in fennel furikake. It’s a culinary hodgepodge that defies categorization, but Broussard defies categorization himself. “I…
Food & Drink
Restaurant Roundup: Bomb Banh Mis and Oktoberfest on the Water
Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.
Knowing where to take out-of-town guests is an art form. You know the dance. How do you show Seattle off just enough that it still comes off classy? Give them a taste of what they’re missing and send them home with a pair of emerald-tinted glasses. “The Nosh with Rachel Belle” has some ideas, like…
Onigiri on the Rise
Japan’s iconic snack is all the rage from baseball games to Seattle boardrooms, thanks to Onigiri Sen.
Anyone who’s been lucky enough to visit Japan has almost certainly made a pit stop at a 7-Eleven—and left with enough onigiri to feed a bus full of tourists. For the uninitiated, onigiri are rice balls stuffed with seafood or veggies and often wrapped in seaweed. It’s a culinary tradition that’s endured for centuries. Samurai…
Restaurant Roundup: Thick Burgers and Local Island Eats
Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.
Have you heard? Wallingford is home to one of the best new restaurants in the country, at least according to a recent ranking from Bon Appétit. The Wayland Mill is known for its yoshoku Americana cuisine—foods like biscuits and gravy or Buffalo chicken prepared with a Japanese influence—and continues to enamor Pacific Northwest diners with…
Restaurant Roundup: Pizza Pals and Paella on the Patio
Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.
Tackling a large pepperoni and cheese is always better with a friend. Now imagine that experience, but elevated to a Michelin-star level. That’s what you get from Pizza Pals, a one-night pop-up from Isaiah Ruffin of Pizza by Ruffin and Forrest Brunton of Roma Roma at the latter’s restaurant on Monday, Sept. 21 at 6:30…
Lifestyle
Rearview Mirror: A Legendary Cocktail Bar, Kayaking With Herons, and the Prettiest Water Bottle
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
DEATH (FINALLY) COMES TO SEATTLE After a few shifts in timing, Death & Co, the influential cocktail bar that opened in New York City’s East Village in 2006, is ready to welcome Seattle. Known for meticulous cocktails and a moody atmosphere, the company’s first Pacific Northwest bar will open inside Pioneer Square’s RailSpur development, joining…
Meet West Seattle’s “Freelance Beaver Detective”
A group of urban beavers helped Pamela Adams through a tough time. Now she’s returning the favor.
Pamela Adams was living in Port Townsend when her marriage fell apart. Little did she know at the time that she would soon find love again while doggedly pursuing the Five Families—not the ones of Mafia lore, but a four-legged sort living along the Longfellow Creek Watershed. Prior to moving to Washington, Adams resided in…
Rearview Mirror: A Buzz at Salish Lodge, Gourmondo’s Next Steps, and a Spooky Casino
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
NEXT STEPS, UNBOXED If you’ve lived in Seattle for any amount of time—especially if you work in a corporate setting—it’s likely that you’ve eaten something from Gourmondo, the longstanding Seattle catering and boxed-lunch company. Founded in Pike Place Market by Alissa Leinonen, Gourmondo recently celebrated its 30th anniversary with the announcement of Leinonen’s newest culinary…
Resistance Turned to Resilience
The Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority is celebrating 50 years of lifting up a neighborhood besieged by challenges from all sides.
On November 2, 1972—after a steady overnight rain cleared to leave a construction site near the King Street Station thick with mud—about 200 people gathered for the official groundbreaking of the Kingdome. A project that had seen its funding rejected several times by voters, the Kingdome was finally on its way, with the hopes that…
Barnes & Noble Is Coming Back to Downtown Seattle
The bookseller will open a new flagship at 520 Pike, marking the largest retail lease in downtown Seattle since 2020.
Barnes & Noble is returning to downtown Seattle for the first time since early 2020. The national bookseller has signed a 10-year lease for a new flagship at 520 Pike Street, a 29-story tower, taking over 17,538 square feet on the corner of Pike and 6th Avenue. The store is expected to open in the…
Lessons from the Land
At the Organic Farm School on Whidbey Island, the ground-to-table mindset is rooted in good intentions.
For some, it’s tough to choose between a perfectly sun-ripened summer tomato and a juicy strawberry—but not for my three-year-old. Tomatoes, always tomatoes. Especially one that he has picked directly off the vine, on a working farm filled with fresh produce, chickens, and pigs. As the juice dribbles down his chin, and the sound of…
I’ve Completely Slept on Shibuya HiFi
The Japanese-style listening bar is an absolute must-visit for music lovers.
Every once in a while, I stumble upon something in Seattle that I either didn’t know about or knew about but didn’t experience for months (or years), and become completely, can’t-stop-telling-people obsessed with it. Some examples include the Lonely Siren bar, Kraken games, and Lagree Pilates. My latest discovery is Shibuya HiFi, the Japanese-style listening bar…
Restaurant Roundup: Soy Sauce Tastings and Roman Pizza
Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.
“There’s never been more to SEA.” That’s the slogan for Visit Seattle’s new campaign designed to encourage people to get reacquainted with all downtown has to offer. With the Perks Pass (free to download straight to your phone), you can enjoy 40+ special offers not only at bars and restaurants but also at hotels, arts…
Travel
Remember When the Eastside Felt Like a Road Trip?
Months after the Sound Transit 2 Line began crossing Lake Washington, Seattle and the Eastside feel a whole lot closer.
There’s a particular kind of optimism and happiness you feel when a city decides to connect itself to its own future. World-class cities invest in the invisible things that make everything else possible. They make it easier for ideas to collide, for workers to access opportunity, for culture to flow. The East–West light rail Crosslake…
A Wellness Pilgrimage to the Olympic Peninsula
Two hours from Seattle, a new kind of luxury is taking root—one built on stillness, old-growth forests, and the subtle art of slowing down.
There is a school of thought among the overworked and overscheduled that the most subversive thing a person can do is stop. Put down the phone, close the laptop, and go somewhere that actively resists attempts to stay plugged in. The Olympic Peninsula has always offered this, in its blunt, mossy way. For some city…
Seabrook Is a Little Coastal Utopia
This walkable beach town gives families room to roam, relax, and leave the car parked.
There’s nothing quite like finding an edible mushroom in the forest with a five-year-old. The excitement and pride my son displayed when we found chicken of the woods were contagious, and after battering and frying the mushrooms, our wonderful day got even better. The dark, wet forests in which our mushrooms grew are part of…
The Power of a Long Weekend at Rancho La Puerta
A transformational stay at the wellness industry’s original holistic retreat.
“You have to go on the breakfast hike; it’s one of my favorite experiences here.” I was about 15 minutes into my orientation at Rancho La Puerta, a pioneering wellness resort in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico, when that week’s docent, a woman with gray curly hair and chic, dark-framed Gucci glasses, made this pronouncement. We…
Arts
The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever
PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.
Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair. I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…
Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026
Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.
Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…
Studio Sessions: Periko The Artist
The Mexican-born, Seattle-based artist paints vibrant figures that refuse to settle into fixed identities.
Can a painting ever contain an entire person? The works of Gerardo Peña, also known as Periko The Artist, leave room for their subjects to move and change, resisting the idea that any of us can be reduced to a single image or expression. Peña’s colorful, surreal figures capture something less fixed than a likeness,…
When Art and Tech Align
Xispa brings artists and technologists together in South Lake Union for residencies, experiments, and unexpected collaborations.
Discover xispa, Seattle’s new art and tech innovation lab in South Lake Union blending the PNW arts community with the city’s tech workforce. Step inside.
Podcasts
‘Explain yourself’: A Trump voter and Trump critic let you in
Moni is liberal. Travis Tripodi is conservative libertarian. Much of what he supports terrifies her… and vice versa. But when Trump returned in 2025, they knew they had to talk. In a new A Braver Way experiment, the two friends let you in on what’s become a critical exercise: bringing each other the headlines that…
Can political disagreement make you happier?
“Happiness” is the last thing many of us expect to find on a call with a stranger from the opposite political side. But when Axel Bouchon and his team placed one very unusual phone booth in deeply liberal San Francisco, California, and another in deeply conservative Abilene, Texas, that was exactly what they were hoping…
Lucien Postlewaite: Lessons from a Lifetime of Dance
After nearly two decades at Pacific Northwest Ballet—where he was one of the company’s longest-running principal dancers and an audience favorite—Lucien Postlewaite is stepping into retirement at the end of the season. In this episode of the Seattle podcast, Seattle magazine editor-in-chief Rachel Gallaher sits down with Postlewaite as he candidly reflects on his storied…
Andrew Yang: The AI Plot Twist, Politics, & What’s Next
Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang joins Seattle magazine publisher Jonathan Sposato to talk about AI and the economic shifts it’s driving. Yang reflects on the ideas behind his 2020 campaign, how automation is changing jobs, and what those shifts could mean for politics. He also talks about the Forward Party and whether another…
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Entertaining Like a Pro: Holiday Hosting Tips from Herban Feast’s Culinary Director
Holiday season means one thing for hosts: pressure. Whether you’re planning a corporate client appreciation party or an intimate gathering at home, the goal is the same: you want people talking about it well into January. Herban Feast, the Seattle-based farm-to-table catering company and award-winning creative force behind some of the region’s most memorable events…
5 Tips for Finding a Best-Fit College
A national leader in college counseling shares search advice
With nearly 3,000 four-year colleges and universities in the United States, how do you find the ones that suit your child academically, socially, culturally, and financially? In the College Counseling Office at UPrep, a 6–12 private school in Northeast Seattle, we remind students that finding the best-fit college is a match to be made, not…
The Northwest’s Gateway to Wine, Culture & Adventure
Escape the crowds. Slow down. Savor fall in the Lewis Clark Valley. As autumn paints the hillsides in gold, crimson, and amber, the Lewis Clark Valley becomes a picture-perfect place to slow down and savor the season. Where Washington and Idaho meet, fall brings crisp days, colorful landscapes, harvest among the vines, and plenty of…
Autumn Brews and Winter Views: Your Guide to Woodland Park Zoo’s 21+ Season
It’s that time of year! As the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, Woodland Park Zoo invites adults to celebrate the changing seasons with 21+ events designed to keep the fun going from autumn through winter in a carefree, kid-free environment. OktoBEARfest is back As the first leaves of autumn begin to fall, Woodland Park…