This past week I attended a super fun event at Ivar’s Salmon House on Seattle’s Lake Union…. Cocktails and Crafts! It was a last minute fun thing consisting of making our own totem poles or Ivar’s Bobble Heads into crazy crafty works of … art?? At least I like to think so!
    
The table was laden with trinkets, glue guns and feathers. We were also encouraged to bring our own adornments. I eagerly dipped into my craft drawers pulling out pearls, found starfish, singing scallop shells and other goofy garnishments. As we created, we sipped wine and nibbled on Oysters on the Half Shell with Pink Peppercorn Mignonette and heard about the restaurants American Indian art collection and shared Ivar stories.
As the evening moved on and our glue guns were blaring we dined on lightly smoke-kissed, first of the season Spring Chinook Salmon and Asparagus served with Old School Maltaise Sauce. Yum! Maltaise sauce is an orange enhanced variation on hollandaise and is fantastic with asparagus … and salmon – rarely seen these days, I was thrilled to see it again in this perfect pairing!

And it’s not just cool cocktail party’s this Seattle Classics doing – they are also hosting “Salmon in the Classroom” — cultural storytelling of salmon in the NW for Washington kindergartners.  Wow — that would be a cool school day.

So if Ivar’s Salmon House has been off your radar – come give them a visit – it’s a Seattle Institution that serves salmon up …wild and proud.