Cover art by Ellen Forney. (For a gallery of all the covers Forney's done for The Stranger since 1993, click here.)

Bethany Jean Clement Investigates: Why Do Seattle's Hottest Chefs Want to Be the Boss of You?
"Are you ready to submit? Three of Seattle's top chefs—at the Corson Building, Spinasse, and Poppy—want to dominate you. They want you to give up control, to surrender to their will, in order (they hope) to please you in exponentially greater ways. They get vicarious pleasure (they hope) through what they impose on you: dictating what you're going to put in your mouth, who you're going to do it with, and/or how much you're going to pay for the privilege. In return for your submission (of your will, of the contents of your wallet), they promise things your average vanilla restaurant won't do."

Erica C. Barnett on How Dissent Among Viaduct Factions Only Helps Chopp
"The Great Wall of Chopp can still be beaten, but only if the people who oppose it—that would be just about everyone—can get together behind an option instead of bickering among themselves."

Charles Mudede Is Not Backing Down: Mad Rad Are the Future of Seattle Hiphop
"Mad Rad represent a new third wave of local hiphop. Whereas Seattle's first wave was based in the CD, the second on Beacon Hill, the next wave's epicenter looks to be Capitol Hill. More than that, as the first wave emerged in the Clinton years, the second in the Bush, Mad Rad's looks like it will emerge in the age of Obama."

Lindy West Ventures to Redmond to See Cheap Trick: Live at Budokan
"Did you know that Cheap Trick are my favorite band? ME FUCKING NEITHER. I learned a lot about myself at Redmond Town Center, it seems."

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: A house shaped like Mt. Rainier; the uncertain future of the Twilight Exit; local pony fetishists angry at one another; extremely cheap books that make for great gifts (or kindling); boyfriends who cheat on you; what Eric Grandy longed to hear when he was stuck in the snow with a dead mp3 player the other day; the best news Larry Mizell's heard all week; the high schoolers in gynecological-themed Issaquah band Masters and Johnson; Dear Science's answer to the question "Why does my mind suddenly, and often, flash back to random memories?"; a review of Meryl Streep's face; Theater Review Revue; and lots more.