Eater Brannon Moore wanted more, and he was not happy when he wrote this week with bad news: Avila -- a restaurant that tantalized the tastebuds of many a critic, professional and otherwise -- has closed. I suspect he won't be the only fan to voice a lament like this one:

"My wife and I went there several times over their short lifespan, and liked it more and more each time," he said. "They were adventurous and experimental, sometimes to a fault; I don't think I ever had a plate there that wouldn't have benefited from the elimination of two or three major ingredients, or sometimes a major component. But the concepts were frequently innovative and fascinating, and the flavors, if not harmonious, were invariably stimulating and enjoyable. And the technique was always rock-solid, from the velvety radish soup to the obsessively meticulous brunoise of carrots."

Avila's handmade strudel with smoked salmon and sweetbreads. Note the meticulous brunoise.
[Seattle Times photo/Mark Harrison]

Brannon continued, "Whatever criticisms could be leveled against the food, they were always in the territory of excessive enthusiasm, and undisciplined exuberance. Hardly a damning complaint, and exactly the sort of thing that a restaurant deserves to be given the time to rein in. But no -- another envelope-pusher bites the dust. Apparently, Seattle can only support so many trailblazers. Wallingford doesn't lack for excellent cuisine (what with Joule, Sutra, and Tilth within two blocks of Avila either way), but we're still poorer for the loss of this culinary adventurer." Amen, brother. I'm right there with you.

To all the food bloggers, chef bloggers, food photographers and All You Can Eater commenters who make my work less like "work" and more like fun, I've just got to say: "Thanks for sharing!" And to others who pooh-pooh the concept of (over?) sharing online, I have this to say about that: I get it. You see, it wasn't too long ago when I learned you can trust someone under 30 -- and the tech-toys that come as naturally to them as singing "I'm Old Fashioned" did to Ella Fitzgerald.

My brave new food-focused world, always at my fingertips. That's a good thing. And a bad thing -- depending on who you're talking to. What do you think?

Back then, Karen Gaudette was my next-desk neighbor at the Seattle Times and a fledgling food writer with a learner's lust for her new beat. As her elder stateswoman, I'd regularly answer her queries regarding restaurants, cooking and obscure foodstuffs, and she'd reciprocate by answering my questions about cell phones, photo-sharing software and social media -- among other things that cleanly divided us into two camps: tech-savvy 20-something reporter and food-focused troglodyte. I'd talk about strawberries. She's talk about BlackBerrys, and our conversations regularly went like this:

When Trevor Greenwood opened Cantinetta on a quiet residential corner in Wallingford, things didn't stay quiet for long. The Italian restaurant, opened in January 2009, was a neighborhood hit, a critic's darling and a Seattle sensation, thanks in no small part to its talented kitchen staff, short seasonal menu and spirited bar scene. Softly lit, glowing with good energy, this honeyed haunt allowed a sense of rustic romance certain to please those of us who've had enough industrial-design to last a lifetime. And now Greenwood and company are ready to do it all over again: this time in old Bellevue.

Cantinetta, in Wallingford, will soon have a sexy sibling -- in Bellevue.
[photo: courtesy Kiyoshi Grollman]

I still remember the first time I laid eyes on Murray Stenson, named "Best Bartender in America" Saturday at the 2010 Tales of the Cocktail festivities in New Orleans. I was young then, and carefree, and holding down the bar at il Bistro watching Murr the Blur pour it on: crafting drinks, lighting cigarettes and emptying ashtrays (remember those?), keeping a sharp eye out and an amiable patter up with his trademark effortlessness.

He's since made a name for himself -- and our fair city -- at the Zig Zag Cafe on the Market Hillclimb, and when the judges crowned him king of the cocktail on Saturday, my colleague Tan Vinh reports that judge and cocktail historian David Wondrich had this to say about that: "He should be knighted, but this will have to do."

Old-school cool: Seattle bartender Murray Stenson, "America's Best Bartender."
Seattle Times photo: Erika Schultz

Which leads me to wonder: When you're out sipping a cocktail, who do you hope to find on the other side of the bar? Name names, and tell us where we'll find them. Me? It's been too long since I've been to the Zig Zag to see Murray, but to his name add Robbie McGrath's, my main man at Matt's in the Market.

Corrected version

There are times in my life when luck and a drive-by introduces me to a restaurant that immediately earns a space on my "favorites" list. Like the time I was driving along South Jackson Street and spotted the original Pho Bac, stopping for my first bowl of Vietnamese pho 20-some years ago. Or the time I veered off Highway 99 into the parking lot of the original T&T Chinese seafood restaurant in Shoreline only weeks after it opened -- and instantly became a regular.

Now ask me how many times I've driven past the odd little building in Firdale Village, home to a string of restaurants five minutes from my front door, and never bothered to stop at all. (Hundreds.) Indeed, I'd noticed the latest changeover -- from Pomegranant to Caravan Kebab -- thanks to the big banner on the side of the building. Certainly, the word "kebab" captured my fancy. But until I heard from trusted Eaters that what lies within deserves my attention (and by extension, yours), I'd yet to hit the brakes. Well, halt the camels: they weren't kidding!

This building, part of the Firdale Village shopping complex -- just west of Highway 99 and east of Highway 104 at 9711 Firdale Avenue in Edmonds -- houses a barber shop, a pet stop, and now, Caravan Kebab, home to a world of warm welcome and a glorious globe-spanning menu.

"Omigod, this place is amazing," wrote Faren Bachelis, who wasted no time before rushing home from her first lunch late last month -- a lamb kebab sandwich -- before shooting me an e-mail. The new chef and owner, she said, is a "very nice, unassuming guy" and the cafe's atmosphere "sweet, comfortable and inviting" with "warm tone walls, kinda funky prints and some traditional style art."

It's that time of year again: Summer, when we're called upon to get into the kitchen (or not) and create something our friends and family can enjoy in the great outdoors. Last week, the call came from my kid's day camp. "We're having a potluck lunch! Send your kid to camp with enough to feed his group" (25, including the counselors). So, there I was, at it again, making my now-famous "deli" sandwiches, a custom begun back when he was in kindergarten and I was asked to supply something for a class potluck that speaks to our family's ethnic identity. Scratching my head (gefilte fish? I don't think so), I came up with this:

In my house, there's no sub-stitute for this crowd pleaser. Homemade "hoagies" -- as they call them where I grew up.

In January, I ate one last omakase meal at Chiso Kappo before Taichi Kitamura sold the original Chiso, closed his upstairs operation Kappo and put an end to his stunning one-man-show in Fremont with plans to head to Eastlake. On Sunday, Tamura Sushi Kappo made its public debut serving dinner only at the Ruby condo complex across from the Eastlake Bar & Grill , and on Monday I was seated at the sushi bar taking it all in.

Taichi Kitamura (left, center) presides at 2968 Eastlake Avenue East where the new Tamura is more Chiso than Kappo.

I was one of many customers Taichi greeted warmly by name, and the pretty young blond who strode in to unwittingly join me at the sushi bar was as impressed with that as she was with her new favorite hang-out (she lives upstairs at the Ruby). "When I told my friends how excited I was to have a sushi bar right downstairs," she told me, "They said: `Yeah! Do you know who that guy is?'" She didn't. But she was learning fast.

In the contest that is cake vs. pie, my hands-down winner is . . . cheese. You may beg to differ. And if that's so, and you've got the goods to prove it, there's a local contest on the docket that has your name written all over it (in buttercream frosting, perhaps?). The contest is open to bakers (amateur or professional) and photographers (whose winning creations will get their food-porn moment online at co-sponsor, Edible Seattle).

Yes, I bake cakes (left) and pies (center), but my "cheese tooth" is my weakness.

Bakers must pre-register with an RSVP by August 2 (details here) and photographers may enter their artwork electronically (specifics on that here). A cake vs. pie taste-off is planned for Monday, August 9 at 7 p.m. at CakeSpy (415 E. Pine Street), Jessie Oleson's new "spy" shop and gallery on Capitol Hill. Jessie, that cute-as-a-cupcake writer, illustrator and Head Spy, will be on hand to judge alongside other professional cake-and-pie-lovin' Seattle sweeties.