Vegetarians who have already eaten their way around Seattle may yawn at the prospect of yet another guide to the city’s herbivore-friendly restaurants, but George Stevenson’s Veg Out Vegetarian Guide to Seattle and Portland could prove damn near indispensable for anyone new to the area. Stevenson, the banquet chef at Willows Lodge (next door to the Herbfarm), writes like a foodie, not a PR man, and though parts of Veg Out are behind the times—Ballard’s Miyi is listed despite being out of business—the guide very modernly acknowledges the bounty of options for meatless eaters in Seattle. It used to be that a non-omnivore had only one dish to choose at a given restaurant, but times have changed, and Stevenson nails his dish-by-dish recommendations. He points out that Bizzarro in Wallingford serves an unusually good mushroom pasta dish (the Forest Floor Frenzy: wild ‘shrooms, garlic, and walnuts in sherry cream sauce over rigatoni), and that even the Caribbean meat party that is Fremont’s Paseo offers a beacon of flesh-free goodness in the form of Tofu Con Gusto (tofu slices covered in spicy tomato sauce and served over brown rice). For every vegetarian-oriented restaurant in this city, there are two that serve meat hounds and abstainers equally well. Accordingly, Stevenson includes sport-jacket standards like Rover’s, as well as Cyber-Dogs, the little Internet cafe on Pine where you can get your veggie dog with pretty much any topping imaginable. For more on the guide, visit www.gibbs-smith.com.

The sounds of Starbucks

So you’re a music fan who’s iPod-challenged and addicted to Frappucinos? If you regularly visit any of the 15 Seattle-area Starbucks boasting a new Hear Music–brand “media bar,” and if you have an extra $8.99 in your pocket, chances are you’ll be one of the early adopters who downloads a seven-song mix CD as you wait for the barista to put the finishing touches on the whipped cream and caramel sauce. This week, in Seattle and Austin (don’t you love living in a test market–friendly ZIP code?), the coffee behemoth is introducing digital music catalog kiosks that enable customers to browse a selection of over 150,000 songs and burn personalized CD compilations (or entire albums), all while slipping on their coffee cozies. Hear Music, a retail music company that Starbucks acquired in 1999, makes the songs available—and the new kiosks possible—via its contracts with all four major record labels and about 40 independent labels. The kiosks operate much like standard online music catalogs; users can listen to partial clips of songs before making their selections, and content about the artists is offered as well. The biggest problem, as far as we can tell, is that Starbucks isn’t offering pure digital downloads—at least not yet. Don’t they know that we’re heading for a world where CDs are as obsolete as eight-tracks? Still, next time you’re in the mood for the new Norah Jones and in need of a jolt, try them out. Locations offering the new service include West Seattle (Admiral Way), Green Lake, Pacific Place, and Madison Park.

Food and/or beverage news? E-mail Hot Dish at food@seattleweekly.com.