The 3/50 project....

3 - Think about which 3 independently owned stores you'd miss most if they were gone. Stop in and say hello. Pick up a little something that will make someone smile. Your contribution is what keeps those businesses around.

50 - If just half the employed U.S. population spent $50 each month in independently owned stores, their purchases would generate $42,629,700,000 in revenue.* Imagine the positive impact if 3/4 of employed Americans did that.

68 - For every $100 spent in independently owned stores, $68 of it returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home.

1 - The number of people it takes to start the trent...you.

Pick 3. Spend 50. Save your local economy

For more information, visit www.the350project.net.

*Employment statistics U.S. Dept of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics 2/6/2009.

If you missed the screening of the documentary Food Inc at Town Hall last month....here's a redeux.

April 30, Thursday, 7pm Landmark Guild 45th Theatre. RSVP to Slow Food Seattle, the hosts.

For anyone in the food business, or interested in what you put into your body, this is a "must see." Great background on Alice Waters, insightful itnerviews with top toques. Overall goodness.

Venues are one of most intriguing aspect of the restaurant business. While some operators select a wide, sweeping setting for their grand dining room, others pick Victorian houses or bungalow to set the stage for their serving.

And then there is Joshua Henderson's Skillet Street Food....no facility, well stationary that is. Joshua and his merry men (and women) literally roam the streets of Seattle - a new location every day of the week. To find out what location lunch will be served at visit www.skilletstreetfood.com. Occasionally, you spot the Airstream at special events - Rat City Rollers, Firefighter Challenge. When you do I advise passing up the others and make a bee line straight for the order up window of Skillet Street Food.

Yesterday I met a neighbor who works for a certain large coffee company in SODO to enjoy Joshua's hospitality behind Richard Kinssies' former Wine Outlet location (he's moved to more posh digs a block or two north). Really, behind in the gravel lot. Follow your nose...I did.

Then, like a beacon in the night, there it is. The shiny aluminum Airstream with a line down the block (more on that later) and the incredible scents wafting from this movable food island.

Lunch is simple - great burgers and fries...the real McDreamy in my book, starting with grass fed beem topped with cambazola, arugula, signature bacon jam (available at $10/jar for take home...do it!) all between a brioche bun. And the Cheesesteak - again grass fed beef, with fontina, sweet peppers, onions on a soft roll - is another best bet. We opted to upgrade the handcut french fries (can you DO that? and yes! they are better than In-and-Out's) ordering the Canadian national food - poutine - french fries served up with gravy and cheddar cheese then Skillet kicks it up with additional jack cheese. Wash is all down with a cucumber and mint fresca (gotta get that recipe) and I was ruined for dinner. Happily.

And we thought that last weekend's Taste Washington extravaganza would be just about swirling, spitting and sampling. Not so....is was about discovering dirt - the kind that Patricia Gelles (Klipsun Vineyard) is steward of. Luminaries Mike Januik, John Bigelow and Chris Upchurch shared their stories about acquiring Klipsun fruit and told how they treat it to cox out the best flavors.

The weekend was also about discovering how a winery exists without a winery and how winemakers, such as Chris Sparkman (Sparkman Cellars), have the energy to have a "day" job and then make wine in their "spare" time. The answer: PASSION. These Garagistes - Chris plus Chris Gorman (Gorman Winery), David Larsen (Soos Creek Winery), Danny Gordon (Tamarak Cellars), Rick Middleton (Cadaretta) and Gordy Venneri (Walla Walla Vintners) discussed their sourcing and using custom crush facilities while using home garage, small warehouse space and even a firehouse.

More about this in an upcoming issue of NorthWest Stir www.nwstir.com.