Dawn Smith, Wine Director and General Manager at Cafe Juanita, has been named a finalist for Sunset magazine’s 2011 Western Wine Awards!

The winner will be announced at the Western Wine Awards Dinner and Gala during Sunset Savor the Central Coast on Friday, September 30th, 2011 at Pismo Beach Pier in California.

With over 13 years of experience, including professional chef training and multiple Sommelier certifications, Dawn was named “Sommelier of the Year” by Seattle magazine in 2009 and was voted “Best Sommelier” in the magazine’s 2008 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Dawn brings her passion and commitment to excellence to enhance the much-lauded menu at Kirkland’s Cafe Juanita, completing a strong female team in the kitchen that includes Chef/owner Holly Smith and Chef de Cuisine Lauren Thompson. Dawn’s exquisite sense of food and wine pairing and extensive knowledge of wine serves to enhance the already stellar menu at this award-winning restaurant.

In Seattlest’s latest food news roundup, the 2011 James Beard Foundation awards dinner was the star. Along with announcing news of the award ceremony’s selected hosts—Traci Des Jardins, Ming Tsai, and Tom Collichio—the local news blog revealed that Seattle chef Rachel Yang (of Joule, Revel) will be among the chefs cooking at the event.

Yang, who is in the running for the Best Chef Northwest award, is known for her spectacular Korean fare (and an appearance on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America in 2010). With the award ceremony dinner themed “The Ultimate Melting Pot” and described as “a tribute to the nation’s wonderfully diverse food culture, a mosaic of influences from many lands,” Yang’s food will certainly shine a light on Seattle’s culinary talent.

The awards ceremony will be held May 9 in New York City.

In other Rachel Yang news, she will be competing against Seth Caswell (Emmer & Rye), the 2010 champion, at Seattle Weekly’s Voracious Tasting Awards on April 27 at The Paramount.

To read the Seattlest post in it’s entirety, click here.

Seattle Weekly readers have spoken, and they love W Seattle.

Readers of the local alt-weekly voted the bar at the W Seattle the Best Hotel Bar in Seattle in the 2010 Readers Choice Awards.

“Sleek is the word. And an intriguing out-of-towner with an expense account is likely to be seated nearby,” says the paper.

To view the results of Seattle Weekly’s 2010 Readers Choice Awards, click here.

In the second annual Best of 425, readers have voted Cafe Juanita’s James Beard Award-winning chef Holy Smith Best Chef of 2010.

The Best Of 425 lists top honors in a variety of categories as voted by readers, and says about Smith:

“After her tough elimination on Food Network’s ‘The Next Iron Chef,’ Holly Smith went back to Kitchen Stadium to challenge Cat Cora in ‘Iron Chef America’s’ cooked her way to victory. Her artful skill at the helm of Café Juanita in Kirkland makes Smith a local favorite.”

To read the article in its entirety, click here.