Joe Benish Chef, Manor House Restaurant Pleasant Beach Village, Bainbridge Island On your nights off, do you stay in? If so, do you cook, does someone else in the family cook or do you go out? On my nights off, I sleep! What is your favorite seasonal Pacific Northwest ingredient? Corn. Fresh corn is one […]
Alison Pride
Alison Pride is a Washington native who grew up east of the mountains and always longed for green. She moved west the first chance she got to attend college at Seattle Pacific University, where she majored in English and edited her college newspaper. Since then she’s lived as far south as Davis, Calif., and as far east as Bozeman, Mont., where she reported for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and first started poking through people’s houses in order to write about them. Happy to be back in Washington at last (and on the right side of the mountains), Alison lives in Gig Harbor, where she does freelance writing when she isn’t out exploring one of the area’s great beaches with her son and dog in tow.
Posted inFood & Entertainment
From Farm to Truck
Welcome to Farmer Rosie’s, a come-as-you-are kind of place. Meet an old friend for breakfast or make a new one. Arrive on foot, by bicycle or on horseback, or drive on up. Relax in the sun, indulge in that second lavender shortbread cookie or piece of strawberry shortcake, and contemplate the many proven benefits of […]
Posted inFood & Entertainment
Nightshade Manette
Can’t everyone just get along? At Nightshade Manette in East Bremerton, vegetarians and omnivores can. Nightshade is the most recent delicious result of the partnership between married couple Kimberley Campbell and Erik Kleiva. Campbell and Kleiva have owned and operated the popular Port Gamble General Store & Café for the past six years. They have […]
Posted inFeatured, People & Places
Celebrating the Season with Tom and Donna Torrens
Any time of the year, the home of Tom and Donna Torrens is an eye-catching affair. Sitting on 7 1/2 wooded acres in the Artondale area of Gig Harbor, the house and grounds are liberally sprinkled with Tom’s metal and wood sculptures, including several of the bells and gongs he is perhaps best known for […]
Posted inFeatured, Food & Entertainment
Two Favorite Local Restaurants Reimagined
Editor’s Note: In this issue, we revisit restaurant owners we’ve featured in the past to check in following either a major expansion or a complete transformation. In both cases, the resulting restaurants were different enough to invite a second look or — better yet — a second helping. Port Gamble General Store and Café When […]
Posted inFeatured, Food & Entertainment
The Culinary Life Education of Mama Villella
Everyone should have friends like Jamie Villella. When Villella, owner and operator of Mama Villella’s Personal Chef Service on Bainbridge Island, needed to test-drive her new business, she recruited her friends to be “pilot clients.” For their honest opinions about her food, they received one meal a week from Villella at a reduced price. Besides […]
Posted inFeatured, Home
Color Therapy — Connie LaMont Transforms Spaces Through Color
Color is fun. Color is confusing. Color is important. Color is overwhelming. Depending upon how you responded to the above statements, you may want to seek some help. If so, you may want to talk to Connie LaMont. LaMont is one half of LaMont Design, Inc. in Poulsbo; the other half is her husband, architect […]
Posted inFeatured, People & Places
Jim Valley — A Life Lived in Color
Much by his own design, Jim Valley inhabits a color-filled world. During summers on his property in the Cromwell area of Gig Harbor, for instance, he has only to look out the windows of his house to behold the rich, evolving tapestry of his gardens, including the multihued zinnias that were his first foray into […]
Posted inBlog, Gardeners Corner
Behind the Scenes with Musician Jim Valley
“Have you seen Jim Valley’s garden? You really need to see his garden.” This wasn’t the first time I’d heard Jim Valley’s name. I was standing at a party in Seattle, in a gathering of people who’d just seen “Her Aim is True,” an independent film about former Gig Harbor resident and renowned rock photographer […]