Half Pint Homemade Ice Cream Is Gone (and More Updates)

Welcome back to Morning Briefing, a semi-regular round-up of mini news bites to kick off the day.

Patio Season

Hector’s (112 Lake St S, Kirkland) patio has reopened for the season, and alongside it is a new beer garden sponsored by Pike Brewing Company. The tent is currently open Friday to Sunday from 3 p.m. to close, and offers lounge chairs, cornhole boards, and $5 Pike beers, including the brewery’s newly released seasonal, Seafair Summer Ale, which supports Seafair’s dozens of summer events throughout Seattle.

The Nest at The Thompson hotel (110 Stewart Street, downtown) has unveiled a new menu and fresh furniture for its picturesque rooftop patio. The updated food selection includes six skewers, like octopus with kale rapini and chili mayo or shishito peppers with togarashi powder, as well as snacks including an albacore and steelhead poke bowl.

Ice Cream Season

Mobile scoop master Half Pint Homemade Ice Cream, a familiar flavor at farmers markets and a standby on Eater’s list of coolest ice cream shops, has shut down. Owner Cle Franklin announced via Facebook early this month that she wouldn’t open this season, and said she wouldn’t be catering anymore, either.

Meanwhile, about a year after Rebecca and Jordan Barrows took over a local favorite, Ballard’s D’Ambrosio Gelato (5339 Ballard Ave NW), they’ve remodeled the shop, replacing bar stools with bench seats in the windows, redoing the floors, and adding an espresso bar that also offers affogato.

Local Meal Kits

In response to the success of national meal kit services like Blue Apron, a Bellingham-based company called Fresh Plate is hoping to Kickstart a local version, working with Washington farmers and chefs to deliver pre-portioned local ingredients and recipes for cooking them to customers’ doors each week. With rewards like a meal kit for two starting at $25, Fresh Plate has raised nearly half its seemingly modest $5,000 goal; 14 days remain in the campaign.