Won't someone please think of the pasta?

How excited am I? Some of you are probably familiar with Salumi, the Armandino Batali place in Pioneer Square. It's a great little Italian deli that serves simple, unpretentious food in a communal setting. It's a gem. The only downside of Salumi is that it's only open from Tues-Fri from 11-3 or so, so for those of us working on the eastside it's hard to find time to get over there.

So it turns out that Mario Batali, who is probably known to more of you and who is Armandino's son, is going to be in town on May 16 doing a little cooking/promoting his new cookbook. And thanks to the kindness and flexibility of Gina Batali (sister of Mario, daughter of Armandino) in helping me schedule stuff, I've got tickets to go. Mario's gonna cook for us and tell us about his new book and give us a copy to boot; in a place as tiny as Salumi, this is a really, really cool opportunity. I'm seriously excited.