This week's top hits from Eater Seattle, Curbed's sibling bar, restaurant, and nightlife blog.
Image: Charles Smith's new winery
BOOZE NEWS -- After five months of tweaking and eight batches of trials, the Fairmont Olympic's collaboration with Seattle Cider Company has arrived. Starting August 1, their Olympic Honey Cider, made with honey extracted from the Fairmont's rooftop apiary, will be available at the hotel's Shucker's and Terrace Lounge.
EATER INSIDE -- Walla Walla wine maestro Charles Smith opened his enormous new urban winery (the largest on the West Coast, second largest in North America) on Saturday in Georgetown. The two-story, 32,000-square-foot space has two tasting rooms which both provide a vast view of the winemaking at work in the back of the building, and one of Boeing field and Mt. Rainier out front.
DEVELOPMENTS -- Nearly three months back, Renee Erickson raised wages in her restaurants The Walrus and the Carpenter, Barnacle, and The Whale Wins for all employees to $15 per hour and eliminated tipping, replacing it with an 18.5 percent service charge on all checks. Now Erickson has raised the service fee to 20 percent because 18.5 percent didn't prove to be enough, and her business partner Jeremy Price says it won't go higher than that.