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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2016)
Readers’ Choice Awards BEST CATERING & BEST HAPPY HOUR BEST LOCAL FESTIVAL BEST RADIO STATION Baked Alaska Astoria-Warrenton Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival Coast Community Radio Astoria, Oregon Astoria, Oregon KMUN 91.9 FM, KCPB 90.9, KTCB 98.5 FM Runner-up: KRKZ Hits 94.3 FM Chinook/Astoria Honorable Mention: KLMY Clammy 99.7 FM Long Beach Runner-up: Festival of Dark Arts, Astoria Honorable Mention: Astoria Regatta Photo by Dwight Caswell Voters picked Astoria restaurant Baked Alaska as offering the Best Happy Hour and Best Catering in this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards. For the second year in a row, Baked Alaska has tri- umphantly won the Readers’ Choice Award for Best Ca- tering. Three or four times a week, a Baked Alaska cater- ing van delivers happy cu- linary experiences to baby showers, graduation parties, weddings, anniversaries, me- morial services, Astoria-War- renton Chamber of Com- merce After Hours events and Liberty Theater events. The Astoria restaurant is guided E\D³FXVWRPHU¿UVW´FDWHULQJ philosophy inspired by the WHUUL¿F VHUYLFH RZQHUV &KULV and Jennifer Holen received Entering its 34th year in 2016, the three-day Asto- ria-Warrenton Crab, Seafood and Wine Festival allows you to indulge your love of sea- food and try many varietals from Northwest wineries at the same time. Put on by the Astoria-War- renton Chamber of Commerce, the festival includes live music on two stages and about 200 vendor booths with more than 60 regional wineries and 100 arts and crafts sellers. While you sip wine and peruse vendors’ wares, enjoy WKH DXWKHQWLF ÀDYRUV RI WKH Oregon Coast with seafood festival favorites like the As- toria Rotary Club’s Dungeness crab dinners and the Astoria Clown’s famous Clown Bread (freshly baked French bread smothered in the clown’s su- per secret sauce, then topped with your choice of either crab or shrimp, and broiled to per- fection). This year’s festival is set for April 22, 23 and 24. A $3-per-person round- trip shuttle ride will take you to and from the event at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds (limited car parking is avail- able and costs $15 per vehi- cle). More than 150 volunteers help run everything from bus unloading and trash duty to the admissions table and wine check, where you can drop off bottles of wine you purchase to pick up before you leave, in- stead of lugging them around all day. A range of local orga- nizations volunteer to help run the event and fundraise at the same time; most of the dollars spent during the festival get funneled directly back into the local community. About 14,000 to 16,000 people attend the Crab & Wine Fest each year, so it’s no sur- SULVH WR ¿QG WKH IHVWLYDO RQFH again earning the Readers’ Choice Award for Best Local Festival (it owned the title for three years from 2010 to 2013). from a caterer during their own wedding. The Baked Alaska team KDVDOVRIRUWKH¿UVWWLPHWDN- en home the award for Best Happy Hour. Baked Alaska’s happy hour runs from 3 to 6 p.m. seven days a week with $3 draft beers and well drinks. Glasses of wine and small plates on the regular menu are $2 off, and there are also discounts on other cocktails. Items on the happy hour food menu range from $3 to $8 and LQFOXGH D KXPPDV ÀDWEUHDG plate, cheesey bread, new school Chex mix, a plate of pickled items, and a rotating pizza of the day. Look for spe- cials and enjoy the menu yourself in the restau- ERING rant’s lounge, locat- T A C T BES ed on the east side Cove e h T : h r-up c e a n e of the building at n B u R ng ant, Lo ntion: r No. 1 12th St. u a t s e Re able M rrenton r o n o H , Wa Baked Alaska offers n Cafe Uptow HOUR Y custom catering P P A pper BEST H u services; find the S s l’ Pau -up: T. oria restaurant’s catering r e n n st Ru inquiry form online at Club, A tion: Silver en www.bakedak.com or ria able M Honor n Grille, Asto call 503-325-7414 for more Photo by Don Anderson o Salm information. Volunteer Bev Bartlett of Astoria sells T-shirts and wine glasses at the festival. Photo by Nancy McCarthy Joanne Rideout, general manager of Coast Community Radio, gets ready to do a broadcast at the Coast Community Radio studio in Astoria. By NANCY McCARTHY “The joke is, if you take any 20 people in Clatsop Coun- The voices heard on most of ty and put them in a room, 10 Coast Community Radio’s pro- would have been programmers grams are those of neighbors, IRU.081´5LGHRXWVDLG friends and co-workers. “You’re The station offers a radio likely to know them, whether class for those interested in they’re your neighbor or you learning more about the station VHHWKHPLQWKHJURFHU\VWRUH´ and about programming. said station manager Joanne For everyone, it is a labor of Rideout. “We call it ‘personal ORYH 7KH VWDWLRQ KDV RQO\ ¿YH radio.’ We have a great connec- full-time and three part-time WLRQWRWKHFRPPXQLW\´ employees. More than 100 vol- Whether it’s a conversation unteers help out, from alpha- between a local farmer and a EHWL]LQJWKHPXVLFOLVWWR¿[LQJ gardener about nutrition, or computers or working on the programs featuring blues, chil- transmitting tower. dren’s stories or Rideout’s popu- The community has demon- ODU³6KLS5HSRUW´WKHUH¶VVRPH- strated its appreciation by con- thing for all ages on KMUN. tributing money to KMUN Add to that several National since the station’s inception Public Radio programs, and the in 1983. Many listeners tell station offers a well-rounded Rideout their radios are tuned selection of news, commentary, only to Coast Community music and whimsy. Radio; many don’t have tele- But no matter the program visions. For them, she said, — from morning classical mu- the programs represent the sic to evening jazz, the objective ³VRXQGWUDFNVRIRXUOLYHV´ remains the same, Rideout said: For the station’s employ- ³WRGRJRRGUDGLR´ ees and volunteers, the sta- Since the programmers are WLRQ UHÀHFWV WKHLU FRPPXQLW\ volunteers who have lives out- “We sure appreciate people’s side the station, the program- VXSSRUW´ VDLG 5LGHRXW ³:H ming is always evolving. This ZRXOGQ¶WH[LVWZLWKRXWLW´ year, local author Matt Love and Astoria area farmer Teresa Tune in to Coast Community Radio on the Retzlaff offer new programs. radio, or listen online at coastradio.org January 28, 2016 | coastweekend.com | 23
