The inaugural Seattle Restaurant Week in April was such a success, another one is planned for October.

Four Queen Anne restaurants were involved in the first week, including Betty, Canlis, Crow, emmer&rye, How to Cook a Wolf, Ponti Seafood Grill, Portage, Ten Mercer, Paragon, and Via Tribunali. This time around, organizers are turning to Seattle residents to find out what restaurants they’d like to see on the list. Offer up suggestions via Twitter (@SeattleRW) or look for them on Facebook. Each restaurant submitted will be contacted to join in the 10-day foodie celebration.

The second Seattle Restaurant Week, from October 17 to 28, will offer the same deals as the first–a $25 three-course dinner menu and optional $15 three-course lunch menu, Sunday through Thursday.

New “seasonally inspired, locally derived” restaurant emmer&rye opened up at the top of the hill back in Jaunary, adding breakfast service to the menu in February and now lunch, which as of today is “officially open.”

They haven’t put the lunch menu up on their website yet, but according to the emmer&rye Twitter account, items will include soups, salads, sandwiches and fresh king salmon.

Also new to emmer&rye: you can now make dinner reservations online through their website, which displays times that still have tables available and walks you through the reservation process.

The inaugural Seattle Restaurant Week, described by organizers as “the biggest celebration of dining out that our region has ever experienced,” is kicking off this Sunday, April 18 when 106 of the best restaurants across town will offer 3-course dinners for $25 Sunday-Thursday until Thursday, April 29.

Not surprising, nine Queen Anne restaurants are on that list:

1. Betty Restaurant & Bar
2. Canlis
3. Crow Restaurant & Bar
4. emmer&rye
5. How to Cook a Wolf
6. Portage
7. Ten Mercer
8. Paragon
9. Via Tribunali

“Queen Anne is making a huge showing for Seattle Restaurant Week, drawing people from other neighborhoods and definitely keeping their own neighbors happy,” wrote SRW PR representative Heather Jensvold.

Take a look at the full list of participating restaurants, some of which will be offering $15 3-course lunch specials as well, here (.doc).

Seattle Restaurant Week is a project of the Seattle Restaurant Cooperative, a group of Seattle restaurateurs, and is being sponsored by our news partner, The Seattle Times, alongside many others. More information here.

In celebration of Washington Wine Month, emmer&rye will be offering all of their wines at half price on Wednesdays through the end of March. In any email sent out yesterday, Chef Seth Caswell wrote,

Yeah, that means that you can get a locally produced Cab Sauv for just $20. Or any of the yummy Oregon, Italian, and French selections. It’s a great opportunity to bring a group of friends and taste wine varietals about which you’ve always been curious.

If you haven’t tried Queen Anne’s newest “seasonally inspired, locally derived” restaurant, you might as well get a little extra wine while you can. There are two more chances to partake in half price wine Wednesdays – tonight, Wednesday, March 24 and next week on Wednesday, March 31.

The Queen Anne Farmers Market’s Art for the Market benefit last Sunday, March 7 raised $1,000 towards its $25,000 fundraising goal for the 2010 season, which will return to Queen Anne Ave N & Crockett St. bigger and better on Thursday, May 20.

Attendees of the benefit got the chance to schmooze with some of the local farmers represented at the market, enjoy tunes by Queen Anne resident and “neo-flamenco” guitarist Andre Feriante, and snack on appetizers by Chef Seth Caswell and the neighborhood’s newest restaurant emmer&rye, which shares the market’s seasonal/local fixation.

Supporters also got a sneak peak at artist Elizabeth Mullaly’s 2010 season poster, which was unveiled at the benefit. The new poster matches her designs from previous years, but instead of the 2009 beets theme, showcases a bushel (in the figurative sense) of naked carrots.

Every year Mullaly’s posters have become something of a collectors’ item, so if you’d like your very own, it’s better to get one sooner rather than later, because they do run out. The posters will be available for a minimum donation of $15 at Queen Anne Frame or at the market once it opens in the spring.

Couldn’t make it to the benefit? Read up on QAFM Director Julia Whitehorn’s take on the evening of seasonal snacks and farmers market frenzy.

To make a donation to the Queen Anne Farmers Market, click here. Find more information about the upcoming season here.

The Queen Anne Farmers Market is well on its way to having a bigger, better 2010 season, expanding hours, dates and vendors when the market opens again in May. One of the many ways the QA Farmers Market Associations keeps the market coming back every year is by fundraising like crazy–soliciting donations, and getting unique local artists to contribute their talents to the cause.

For example, Elizabeth Mullaly’s unique posters designed especially for the market every year. Her 2009 design, showcasing two red beets, was such a hit the market had to order reprints to sell to many wanting Queen Anne-ers and QAFM attendees.

Her new, highly classified poster, which will become the face of the 2010 season, will be unveiled at the Art of the Market fundraiser this Sunday, March 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Queen Anne’s newest locally emphasized restaurant, emmer&rye.

For a minimum $50 donation per person (or $80 for two people), attendees will get a sneak peak at the poster as well as an evening full of fun at the market’s first ever “hyperlocal cocktail fundraiser.” Art of the Market highlights will include:

• Unveiling of the new 2010 market poster and your own copy (signed by artist Elizabeth Mullaly if you wish)
• Delicious appetizers created by Chef Seth Caswell (including his famous farro fries!) with produce courtesy of Full Circle Farms
• Washington State wine courtesy of Ward Johnson Winery
• Live music by world-reknowned “neo-flamenco” guitarist Andre Feriante, fresh from his Valentine’s Day concert at Benaroya Hall
• A chance to win free poster framing, courtesy of Queen Anne Frame

“As Seattle’s only independent farmers market, we need your support to continue bringing the farmers to West Crockett. We can’t do it without you!” wrote QAFM Director Julie Whitehorn.

For more information, check the QAFM website. Buy tickets here.

It seems like every local eatery is hopping on the happy hour bandwagon these days, including two new neighborhood additions to the daily food and drink discount calendar – the Queen Anne location of Via Tribunali and the brand new emmer&rye.

Today Via Tribunali announced their new happy hour times, from 10 p.m. to closing (11 p.m.) daily. The menu includes $5 pizzas, $3 Italian beer and $8 half liters of wine. emmer&rye will be running their happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. daily. No word yet on what their discounted food and drink menu looks like.

Check out more neighborhood happy hour news here and here.

New “seasonally inspired, locally derived” restaurant emmer&rye, after having a “successful opening weekend” last week, according to chef Seth Caswell, will start serving weekend breakfast from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning this week.

A glimpse at the menu includes farro fries, poached egg, wild mushrooms with hollandaise, emmer&rye biscuits, house-made sausage gravy, roasted potatoes and for those with a sweet tooth, vanilla rum french toast with strawberry compote.

emmer&rye will also be introducing a happy hour menu soon. They haven’t finalized the selection yet, but the times will from 4 to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight daily.

Read about check Caswell’s vision for the restaurant here.

If you’ve been counting down the days to the emmer&rye opening since we first reported the new “seasonally inspired, locally derived” restaurant would be taking over the Julia’s on Queen Anne Ave, wait no more–the 70-seat restaurant is opening tonight.

Chef Seth Caswell’s (formerly of Stumbling Goat Bistro) newest creation utilizes the local agriculture of the Pacific Northwest to explore seasonal dishes –- what Caswell calls “new American cuisine.” Food writer and Queen Anne resident Lorna Yee attended a sneak peak of the restaurant earlier this week and had this to say: “The reasonably priced menu, ranging from $4-$17 and made up almost entirely of local ingredients, feels exactly right for this economy.” Read her full preview in Seattle magazine.

emmer&rye will be open from 5 to 10 p.m. today and tomorrow, and from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, serving brunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Get a look at the menu here. Call 206-282-0680 for more information or to make a reservation. Read our emmer&rye preview here.

Set to officially open its doors on Monday, February 1, taking the place of Julia’s on the top of the hill, emmer&rye owner and chef Seth Caswell says the new local-dished, seasonally inspired restaurant is all set to open. I caught up with Caswell yesterday, who confirmed talk that the restaurant is now taking reservations for its soft opening weekend, beginning in one week, on Thursday, January 28.

“We’re right on schedule and everything is looking great,” he wrote.

If you missed our preview of emmer&rye a few weeks back, click here to read up on chef Caswell’s vision and get a sneak peek at the menu. Call 206-282-0680 to make a reservation.

Julia’s on Queen Anne Ave N is closing, and soon to be in its place is the new emmer&rye from chef and owner Seth Caswell, formerly the chef at Stumbling Goat Bistro, set to open next month. I was planning to wait to post this until the manager from Julia’s returned my phone call, but as of this weekend it appears the news is out. Julia’s will be closing its Queen Anne location on Wednesday, January 20, though there are no current plans to close any of their other area locations in Capitol Hill, Wallingford and Issaquah. The seasonally and locally focused emmer&rye hopes to open on Monday, February 1.

I had the opportunity to chat with Caswell last week about his hopes for the new restaurant.

“For those that followed me in the past and ate my food, know that I’m a huge proponent for supporting local agriculture,” said Caswell, who serves on a number of local nonprofit boards that work to network farms and chefs, including the Seattle Chefs Collaborative, of which he is the president. “With that I’ve developed my tag-line for the restaurant, which is the food is ’seasonally inspired, locally derived.’ And that kind of defines the cuisine.”

The name, emmer&rye, is an homage to local farms, like Bluebird Grain Farms in Winthrop, Washington, that grows both organic grains. Rye is also a nod to the rising cocktail culture – In addition to offering organic, locally-grown, season dishes, emmer&rye will serve 15 different kinds of rye whiskey.

“In my world, the cuisine is seasonal. Some people call that new American cuisine, but my style of cooking draws on lots of different culture,” Caswell said. “What’s available dictates the menu.”

Although Caswell says the experience won’t be “upscale,” it will “fine dining.”. He’s extended the menu from that at Stumbling Goat, where the small kitchen meant there was only space for five entrees and five appetizers. The 100-year-old Victorian house currently home to Julia’s has a much larger set up that will allow Caswell to offer around eight entrees and appetizers each in sizes that “will encourage sharing.”

“A table of four could ostensibly go and order off the whole menu and have a variety of different tastes and try different dishes for a reasonable amount of money – we’re looking at a $35 check average,” he said.

And although Julia’s will no longer be on the hill, Caswell says they will be retaining some of the staff, including manager Dina, while the rest will have the option to transfer to one of Julia’s other locations or move on. “It’s not like we’re putting people on the street after the holidays,” he said.

In the meantime, Caswell is excited to open up in Queen Anne, a neighborhood he thinks will nurture his locally grown ambitions well.

“I anticipate a lot – I mean a lot – of interaction with the Queen Anne Farmers Market,” he said. “I am what they call a farmers market junkie. I go to markets all over and i love to talk to the farmers…being just a block away from the Queen Anne Farmers Market is just a real, real treat for me.”

Caswell plans on opening emmer&rye in phases, marked by the floors of the building. The first floor and main dining area will open first, seating 70 with full restaurant and drink service, but no bar. The second phase will see the opening of the bar, deck, patio and upper level seating in the summer. The top level of the building, which could seat 80-100, Caswell hopes to use for special events and private dining in the future. Once the main a la carte restaurant is up and running, he may even use this space to resume his Tuesday Night Dinner series.

“Given that there’s the availability in the house, I will still offer small dinners either on request or with set menus for people to do in groups of anywhere from ten to twenty,” he said. But for now his first priority is opening a community restaurant with a local vision. “Opening a neighborhood joint is important to me. It’s something you can tailor more specifically to what the people are looking for and i know that with dining trends people are eating healthier, whole foods – not the store – but healthier, more unaltered foods.”

You can check out Caswell’s sample menu here. One of his favorite vegetables happens to be my namesake – chard – a dish he’s promised me will be on the menu.