Peninsular Thinking

Brynn writes:

It was brought to our attention this morning that Poulsbo’s Sogno di Vino restaurant has been making national news lately. Although it largely hasn’t been named beyond being called a “small restaurant in Poulsbo, Wash.”

As the story goes a picture of a receipt from an evening out at the restaurant has made its way to the Internet and as a result national news organizations jumped at the chance to opine about the story (see Fox News, Huffington Post, Reddit, Babble, et. all.)

A local woman, who goes by the name LauraInk on the Reddit site, wrote on her “beer after tea” blog about the dinning experience where she and her husband, along with their three children (ages 2, 3 and 8), received a “well-behaved child” discount. It sounds like this is the first time the restaurant has offered the $4 discount for well-behaved “mini diners”.

Here’s excerpts from Laura’s blog post explaining what happened and her response to all the national attention about the discount:

“We were seated at one of the last available tables around 6pm and were greeted happily with menus and bread. We sat and discussed planets, racecars, zebra jokes and “Freckle Juice” until we ate our pizzas, pasta and aforementioned ragu. The food was lovely, our oldest, who is clearly in a growth spurt, ate her share and mine, and our littles munched happily while periodically stopping to notice the small fireplace in the corner and the window paintings on the wall of grapevines in Italy.

Near the end of our meal, our server visits our table to tell us how impressed the staff was with our kids’ behavior and that many of them didn’t even realize we had little ones eating with us. She then brought us a bowl of ice cream to share. When we received our tab, it had a discount listed for “Well Behaved Kids”. A pleasant surprise after a lovely meal.

We, as parents, lead by example and if we have to spell out what and how we’re doing something, we will. We don’t expect handouts for acting respectful of the folks who bring us our food. But it certainly makes you feel good when someone else notices your kids in a positive light.

It’s interesting to read some of the comments from other people who have heard this story — note the link to the Reddit and Babble sites offer more adult language than wet use here — the responses are mixed on whether a family should get a discount because their kids behave well, or as some argue “the way they should”, when they’re in public.

Regardless of where you stand on the decision to give the discount, the bottom line is a local family of five was the recipient of an unexpected act of kindness from a local business. That’s something that should make you smile.

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Brynn writes:

I follow the Three Sheets Northwest Blog, which features its own content along with other boating bloggers sharing their cruising experiences in the area.

This morning a headline (“Poulsbo’s muddy bottom”) caught my eye. The author compliments the small Norwegian town for its hospitality and good eats, but questions what exactly is up with Liberty Bay and its foul odor.

It’s been years since I last spent a weekend anchored in the bay, but it wasn’t that long ago we tied up at the Port of Poulsbo Marina — not to mention earlier this year I was spending time at the port commissioners’ floating meeting room in the marina. I don’t recall ever noticing the brown water, or a suspicious smell, but maybe things are different away from shore?

This sounds like a job for environmental reporter Chris Dunagan to look into on his Watching Our Waterways blog…

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Brynn writes:

They graced the front page of the Kitsap Sun Saturday and now Poulsbo homeowners Ron Comin and Matthew Woorden are going to be gracing the big screen (well how big depends on the size of your television).

The Poulsbo couple that devote 1,500 hours a year to their Christmas light display at 26730 Big Valley Road are to be featured tomorrow (Wednesday) on The Nate Berkus Show. The show airs on Kong (Channel 6 at my house) at 6 p.m.

The show recently filmed the lighted display that boasts 62,000 lights spanning more than 4 miles when stretched out, and a classic display of handmade holiday spirit. Comin, a self-employed architect, created the design that follows the couple’s natural landscape. He also built the scaled down North Pole village and the mechanisms that move Santa and Mrs. Claus and Head Elf Sam. Woorden, an interior designer, sewed the bodies of the figures.

Their hard work will receive air time on the show which offers advice to viewers on everything from DIY projects around the house to interior design tips to fashion advice and recipes. A design expert, Berkus quickly rose to fame after Oprah Winfrey regularly featured him on her show. He hosted his own show on Oprah Radio and is now the host of The Nate Berkus Show, a syndicated decorating show.

For more information on Comin and Woorden’s light display, or to see the hours its open for visitors visit their website: Christmasinbigvalley.com.

For more information on The Nate Berkus Show, visit the website.

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As Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent planned to ride in Saturday’s Life Cycle Bremerton, a fundraiser in the American Red Cross in Puget Sound, she envisioned herself riding tandem with the Mayor of Port Orchard. That was news to Lary Coppola, who will participate in the event, but hadn’t heard about the bicycle built for two. Asked who would get to sit in front, Coppola said he’d be the gentleman and let ladies go first.

Lent has since visited the plan. Since neither mayor is experienced at riding a two-seater, it’s entirely possible one wrong move could send them both head over teacups, she said. That would be a civic catastrophe. Instead, Lent will ride shotgun on the tandem bike, with another road savvy rider up front.

The Life Cycle, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., offers routes for every ability, including a three mile “Ride with the Mayor” (make that two mayors), 10-mile “Family Ride,” 40-mile “Northern Route,” 60-mile “All Cities Ride” and “100-Mile Century Challenge.”

The routes begin and end at picturesque Rotary Evergreen Park, with rest stops scattered throughout the 101 mile route at Evergreen Park, Blueberry Park and Kitsap Lake Park in Bremerton; Long Lake Park and Port Orchard Marina Park in Port Orchard, and Muriel Williams Pavilion on the Poulsbo waterfront.

Although registration closed at noon Thursday, everybody’s welcome to come cheer the cyclists on. It’s not every day you see a couple of mayors on wheels.

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Brynn writes:

UPDATE: I learned from a North Kitsap School District parent that they got an email this afternoon letting them know a bear was seen at Vinland Elementary and near the property shared by Poulsbo Elementary and Poulsbo Middle School. The bears weren’t near the buildings, more on the fringe of the property, according to district spokeswoman Robyn Chastain. Wildlife officers responded to make sure the bears had moved on before the students and staff were allowed to go outside.

Wildlife officers also responded to the 900 block of Swanson Way in Poulsbo for a bear in a tree Tuesday evening. Sounds like the bear was going after a bird feeder and a dog chased it in the tree.

In case you missed it, last week I wrote about the mass of bear spottings in North Kitsap. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Ted Jackson said during the week of May 16-22 they received more than 50 reports of bears in neighborhoods or running across roadways.

That’s a significant bump up from the same period last year.

Going with the bear sighting theme, Paul Dudley, of Paul Dudley Photography, sent us pictures today of a rather large black bear he spotted last week off Big Valley Road in Poulsbo. He sent us a couple stills and a link to the video he captured and posted to YouTube.

Here’s the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I92dlW9Yc74

And the photos are below. Just as a friendly public service reminder, here’s how to minimize your chances of coming face-to-face with a bear:

• Keep all garbage indoors until day of pickup; if garbage must go out night before, rub ammonia on top and inside of container.
• Don’t feed pets outdoors, keep all food indoors.
• Remove/take down bird feeders until later in the summer.
• Don’t feed other wild animals like raccoons or squirrels.
• Clean barbecue grills after each use.

• 

  

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Brynn writes:

It seems Poulsbo is becoming Kitsap’s fastest growing brewery town. I receive a call today from Mark Hood, who is the general manager and one of five partners of Sound Brewery, the latest beer-focused establishment to open in Poulsbo.

It comes four months after Valhöll, another small brewery, opened along Front Street just outside of downtown Poulsbo. According to the story fellow reporter Tristan Baurick wrote at the time, a third brewery — Slippery Pig Brewing — is set to open along Finn Hill soon.

Once Slippery Pig opens, Poulsbo’s brewery total will double the number of breweries in all of Kitsap County. Kitsap’s breweries outside of Poulsbo are Hood Canal Brewery in Kingston, Silver City Brewery in Silverdale and Der Blokken Brewery in Bremerton. (Not to be overlooked is Hale’s Ales in Silverdale; they don’t brew on site, but they are a part of the local brewing community).

The brewery is located at 650 Bovella Lane, off Viking Avenue at the south end of town. The grand opening is a family-friendly event, Hood said, adding children are invited to attend and will be served root-beer if they want it.

The brewery has been brewing for two months and has 24 batches of beer for people to try in nine different styles, Hood said. Already the brewery is selling its draft beers in  Kitsap, Tacoma and Seattle. It is also scheduled to participate in Seattle Beer week, and has four “Cuisine a la bier” dinners planned including its first one at Tizley’s Europub in Poulsbo next Thursday, April 21.

“Our motto is ‘Tradition Liberated’ because we brew traditional beers, with expensive traditional ingredients and try to liberate the styles with our own interpretations,” Hood said in an email.

Sound Brewery is located in a 3,400 square foot building that is equipped to produce 140 barrels a month. The brewery’s “Monk’s Indiscretion” brew just won third place in the People’s Choice award category at Seattle’s Csskfest.

Now that its open, tasting room hours will be Monday through Wednesday from 2 to 6 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday, 2 to 9 p.m.

Here’s a list of beers and descriptions from Hood: (They also have a Belgian Dubbel, a kristalweizen — heffeweizen that is totally clear, like a pilsner — and a dunkelweizen, but they are not kegged yet.)

Koperen Ketel Belgian Style Pale Ale: Soft Biscuity malt and fruity esters are well balanced with the finest Slovenian Styrian Goldings hops, making for a refreshing, easy drinking copper color ale.

Poundage Porter: Smooth creamy tan head covers a beautiful dark ruby brown beer. Aroma of chocolate, coffee and plums with toasted grains. Totally balanced with bitterness from noble hops and roasted grains. 5.5% ABV

Bevrijder Belgian Style Double IPA: Bevrijder means liberator in Flemish. Crafted from British malt, Belgian yeast and American hops, Bevrijder is dry yet malty with a complex aroma of malt, hops and spicy Belgian yeast. 8% ABV

O’Regan’s Revenge: Made with traditional ingredients, O’Regans Revenge has an outstanding traditional Irish style balance and malty character. Not overly sweet and chewy like most typical Northwest reds. Made from the finest floor malted maris otter and hopped with East Kent Goldings, O’ Regan’s drinks easy and very well balanced, but is extremely complex for a $5.9% ABV Red Ale.

Monk’s Indiscretion: “Monk’s” is balanced like the best Belgian Strong Golden Ales, yet has flavor and aroma hops that are as aromatic… and intense as any Imperial IPA. Double dry hopped, and fermented with our aromatic yeast strain, “Monk’s” has an intensely tropical hoppy nose and yet drinks easy and smooth without the intense bitterness that is normally associated with such a hoppy brew. 10% ABV.

Tripel Entendre: The best Belgian Tripels are made from a simple recipe, the finest ingredients, and the utmost attention to process. At Sound, we use the best Belgian Pilsner malt, Slovenian Styrian Goldings hops and a Trappist Yeast strain to craft a fine Belgian Style Tripel that even the Monks would be proud of. 9.8%ABV.

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Just confirmed that the following band will be performing at Poulsbo’s Viking Fest this year.

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Brynn writes:

If you haven’t seen it yet, Poulsbo has its very own webcam overlooking Liberty Bay.

Actually it doesn’t belong to the city, it’s located on Longship Marine’s building (remember Lois Hillman and her venture into the marine supply world? I wrote about her back in May 2010).

Anyway, according Three Sheets Northwest, a sailing blog I follow, sailor Bruce Blumenstein is the mastermind behind the installation of the camera. He moved himself, and his boat, from Oregon and landed in Poulsbo’s Liberty Bay. After settling in, he decided he’d like to have an eye on his boat and thought of the idea to station a webcam overlooking the Bay so he, along with anyone else, could see what was happening in snapshots of real time.

Read about how the camera came to be over at the Three Sheets’ “On Watch” post.

The Long Ship Marine webcam joins the other livecam we often see referenced on the local weather stations, and of course at kitsapsun.com — Dr. Dale Ireland’s cam that overlooks Silverdale and the Olympic Mountains.

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Colleen Smidt, frequent blog visitor and columnist over at the other guys, sent me a photo that speaks to the slow pace in Poulsbo. It’s not just the stop signs, the city is now inviting you to write a letter, put it in an envelope, stick a stamp on the letter and drop it in the mailbox all in one sitting. Still a check sender? Pay your bills in one sitting.

Colleen wrote:

For years people have gripped at the fact that a drive up street side mail drop was on the wrong side of the street to begin with. Unless you have a passenger with you it is impossible to drive-up and deposit the mail without getting out of your car. But at least you could avoid driving through the entire parking lot to use the other ill placed drive up box. And now to add insult to injury the city has marked parking spaces in front of this poorly placed drive up mail drop and installed a “2 hour parking” sign on top of it. Absolutely brilliant! Way to improve efficiency and traffic flow through one of the busiest places in town! Somebody working for the city has been eating too much lutefisk.

The unusual part in all this, from my perspective, is that there is still a mailbox near a street. I thought those went away with vinyl records and Ralph Nader. The last one I remember seeing was in an episode of The Simpsons, and I lived less than a quarter mile from this very post office for three years.

My guess is there was a bet made somewhere in city offices to see if anyone would notice. Someone lost that bet.

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Brynn Grimley writes:

Back in April I wrote about the restaurant “comings and goings” in Poulsbo. At the time I talked with Jeff Holcomb, who spent five years as the head brewer at Silverdale’s Heads Up Brewery before it closed in February 2008.

He is now working with two partners — Jordan Rodgers and Aaron Callio — to open Valholl Brewing off Front Street just south of its intersection with Bond Road. He called it a “nano-brewery” saying initially they plan to produce only a half-barrel at a time and grow from there based on need. Holcomb wants to bring “very eccentric, extreme beer” to the area. That includes an imperial amber rye, a big Belgium strong ale and a licorice IPA, he said.

When we chatted he said they hoped to have the place open by the end of June. Well, if you’ve looked at the calendar recently you know today is June 30. (Where did June go?!?) I received a Google alert about the brewery that was on the Washington Beer Blog. It has an update from Holcomb.

Sounds like things are still being finalized, and the open date has been pushed to August. To see the full post visit the blog.

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