Starbucks’ original logo, left, and the G-rated version.

Starbucks is turning 35 – and apparently, the folks at Seattle corporate coffee headquarters feel the company can let it all hang out, just like back in the good old hippie era when Starbucks sold its first cups.

Back in 1971, the two-tailed mermaid in Starbucks’ logo (pictured above left) featured bare breasts and open fins. The logo came from a 16th-century Norse woodcut.

The more modern, less provative logo is from 1992 – after Starbucks became a publicly traded company. The

…

Read more »

Something is brewing at downtown Tacoma’s last bastion of porno movies and cheap sex toys: A "little microbrewery," and a movie theater, according to one of the principal developers who today purchased the Mecca Theater building, and the Tacoma brewpub operator involved in the project.

"We’re looking at it seriously," Ron Gintz of Tacoma’s Gintz Group told me today. "Talk to Pat Nagle at The Harmon about it."

I put a call out to Nagle, owner of The Harmon Brewery and Restaurant, for details. He’s in meetings all day, and I was in a meeting when

…

Read more »

From the Bayou, Parkland’s Cajun restaurant, is for sale. Kevin Roy, who opened the restaurant in 1998, wants to move back to Louisiana to be closer to his parents. He said he’s lived outside of Louisiana longer than he’s lived in his home state.

"I just feel like my family’s becoming more important to me, and I feel like I just want to get to know them," Roy told me today.

He’s not sure what he’ll do once gets back to Opelousas.

"I don’t know what I’ll do," said Roy, 39. "But I’m open

…

Read more »

I called Max Messmer to ask him to fax me the food menu for his new nightclub, The Factory, which opened a couple of weeks ago in Brickyard Bar & Grill’s old building at 56th and Washington in South Tacoma. (Brickyard has re-opened in Lakewood; look for a review in Friday’s GO section.)

While I had Messmer on the telephone, I also asked him about word on the street: Is Paul Allen‘s sister, Jody Patton, an investor or partner in your club?

“Absolutely not true,” Messmer said. “I’ve also heard it’s Bill Gates‘ sister.”

…

Read more »

The restaurant under construction at Sixth Avenue and Pine Street in Tacoma has a name: Masa.

That’s fitting. In Spanish, "masa" means dough –- the raw ingredient that is cooked into tortillas. Tortillas will be made fresh on site at Masa, an upscale Mexican restaurant from the folks who brought South American flair to Sixth Ave. earlier this year with Asado.

The tortilla-maker will be part of Masa’s café, a lunch spot that will also sell hot and cold deli items, including prepared sauces and house-smoked meats by the pound, co-owner Troy Christian told me.

…

Read more »

Get ready for ouzo martinis: The Blue Olive opened along the rejuvenated Thea Foss Waterway in 2004. New management took over last week. TNT photo by Peter Haley

Blue Olive, Tacoma’s ultra-swish "ultra-lounge" martini bar, is under new management and is working on a new menu with an emphasis on Greek cuisine.

Greek food isn’t the only change in store. Ali Mehdizadehkashi of Kashi Management, which has operated taverns and dance clubs, including Area

…

Read more »

Fade in, Doyle’s Public House, Tacoma:

WOMAN CUSTOMER: I’d like something local.

BARTENDER: You’re in the wrong place, honey.

Cut to: A brewery-restaurant somewhere in Pierce County:

RESTAURANT CRITIC: How’s your Saison?

BARTENTER: Not very good.

Cut to: A Break

As in gimme a break already.

I like Doyle’s. It’s a fine pub with a strong selection of European beer – and only European beer.

Look, I dig authenticity as much as the next guy. I don’t want Doyle’s to install a PBR tap. However, was I hung

…

Read more »

Karl Ried spins dough at Farrelli’s Wood Fire Pizza on Sixth Avenue,

the South Sound chain’s newest restaurant.

TNT photo by Dustin Snipes

Farrelli’s Wood Fire Pizza, the DuPont-based, four-store family chain, has been named independent pizzeria of the year by Pizza Today, a trade magazine.

Here’s an excerpt:

"The company expects to tally tales of nearly $11 million this year, making it among the most prolific of the nation’s independent pizza operations. Low food and labor costs, effective operational training and a focus on quality are hallmarks

…

Read more »