Capitol Hill food + drink notes: VPC helps High 5 Pie, Victrola on skyrocketing coffee bean prices

Pie Circle, originally uploaded by sea turtle.

Little known fact. Thomas Jefferson brought pie to America. Happy Presidents Day CHS food + drink notes.

• You can look at this a number of ways. Having to overhaul your product after the big launch may not be a great sign. Or it could be a mark of pie making genius. We'll go with the latter because Dani Cone has advertised with us for years and we've put a small fortune into her ventures via $3 buck-a-pop caffeinated beverage donations at her 19th Ave E Fuel Coffee Shop. Here's what High 5 Pie's Cone told us about word we'd heard that Volunteer Park Cafe's Heather Earnhardt had been brought on board as a consultant:

We [are] SO thrilled and honored to be working with Heather Earnhardt as our bakery consultant now!  She is amazing, and basically everything she touches turns delicious.  We of course are keeping my Grandma Molly's dough recipe, but she's making it even better with her wealth of expertise in systems, processes, recipe refining and creation, and more.  Some new changes are already in the works...and the pie is getting better and better!  It's of utmost importance to us to be producing and serving the best pie ever...Grammy would have nothing less! :)

• Speaking of VPC, we kicked the hornets' nest and checked in with an update of the ongoing dispute between the cafe and a group of neighbors opposed to its application for permission from the city to continue operating as a restaurant in the residential neighborhood.
• Speaking of $3 buck-a-pop caffeinated beverages, Victrola's blog looks at the skyrocketing price of green coffee beans. Do you want a latte or a gallon of gas?
• Sports freaks, Seattle U's men's basketball coach Cameron Dollar is doing a weekly radio show for 710 ESPN Monday night's from Jimmy's on Broadway.
• Analog Coffee is still coming together, serving coffee in the mornings.
• Poppy's Jerry Traunfeld is up for an award or something.
• Lark's John Sundstrom won, again, at Seattle's Cochon 555.
• Havana adding trivia night.
• Welcome new advertiser Honeyhole Sandwiches to the CHS family.
• Reminder that advertiser Monsoon celebrates 2/21/11 with its 12th anniversary celebration including free bubbly and $12 specials.
• CHS advertiser Big Mario's is the first local we've seen using Facebook Deals. Check in 10 times at Mario's, get a free slice.
• We also appreciated Pau Hana's aloha spirit when it comes to the proliferation of coupon and deal services: "No need for "groupon/coupon specials, 1/2 price deals, buy one get one free, etc," to get a good deal here at Pau Hana. Da hungry/smart diners are here at Pau Hana!!"
• This recollection of the efforts that led to allowing the sale of meat, seafood and poultry at Seattle's farmers markets is a great read:

In February of 1999, during the annual Washington State Farmers Market Conference at Pike Place Market, a workshop was convened to discuss how to make meat, seafood and poultry sales possible at farmers markets. Attendees at this meeting including USDA inspectors, state food safety regulators, King County health officials, market managers, ranchers, and myself, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Washington State Farmers Market Association. As workshop facilitator, I began the discussion with two instructions: that we were there to figure out how to bring meat, seafood and poultry to farmers markets; and that we would not accept “no” as an answer. The USDA inspectors in attendance refused to speak — they would not answer a single question yes, no or maybe. But everyone else seemed enthusiastic.

The essay calls the change a "Lexington & Concord" event in the Puget Sound local food movement -- a fitting metaphor for the holiday.