Spring has nearly sprung! And not a moment too soon; this winter has seemed interminable. And while that’s a great excuse to continue the cold weather binge of hot toddies and comfort food, we’re looking forward to those first glimpses of asparagus and rhubarb on spring’s seasonal menus. Here are a few things to put on your calendar for the month:

Dine around for less.
Frugal food lovers should know that Dine Around Seattle is returning March 5 through 23. We wrote about November’s event here, and this promises to be an impressive lineup—use it as an excuse to check out new places Chinapie, Circadia and Vestal, or revisit old favorites like Skillet Diner and Poppy. 

Meet some new meat.
Wood Shop BBQ has been a crowd favorite among food truck connoisseurs since 2014, and now they’ve created a brick-and-mortar temple to meat in the Central District that opened a few weeks ago. The owners’ backgrounds mean there’s Kansas-style barbecue and Texan brisket (a great combo, to be sure). We personally love the mac-and-cheese bowls: gooey heaps of smoked jalapeno mac topped with pulled pork or brisket, pickled onions, and the house sauce.

Speaking of the Central District…
The neighborhood is blowing up—Central District Ice Cream Company opened in December (arguably not the best month for opening a creamery, though there’s no wrong time in our book). This month, they’re teaming up with Hood Famous Bakeshop for a gloriously purple ube cheesecake ice cream that sounds so good. 

Drink for St. Patrick’s Day—but don’t forget the corned beef.
A pint of Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day is almost necessity (no Irish heritage required), but we particularly love the philosophy of Mulleady’s, who write on their Facebook page: “We have no desire to be overrun with ‘overly festive’ people though profitable it simply is not fun, respectful of our neighborhood nor responsible as a business.” As such, they’re opening at 9 a.m. for pre-work beers (hey, March 17 is a Friday!) and brunch, but they plan to close at 3 p.m. in order to get ready for a prix fixe dinner service. “We also like dressing up and serving a nice meal every so often and we have found the St. Patrick’s is a great day for that,” their page says. Now that’s a classy way to celebrate!

Get into Filipino food.
This is a tease, because both seatings are sold out, but tonight Tom Douglas Restaurants is hosting Naks Naman!, a Filipino-themed dinner made by 12 TDR cooks/sous chefs/chefs. We’re drooling over this menu of dinuguan, sisig, Penn Cove mussel sinigang, and triple coconut cream biko—we’re mostly just putting this on your radar so you, too, can encourage Douglas to open a Filipino place. He’s already got the talent.