A search for parking turned me on to a really cheap $3 lunch today. I was intending to eat at Vien Dong, home to tasty, inexpensive Vietnamese soup. I turned right off 38th, looking for parking and found a surprise – a second Cafe La Vie tucked into a refurbished house in a residential street. It’s an outpost of the other Cafe La Vie on 38th.

The second Cafe La Vie has been open for about seven months and, like its sister restaurant around the corner, the menu is micro focused on Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches and Vietnamese coffee. The second location, however, is far more clean and spacious than its original counterpart.

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Our sister paper The Olympian reported today about The Mark restaurant in Olympia receiving organic certification last month by the state Department of Agriculture. Read the story here. The Mark, a restaurant serving Spanish, Italian and Basque style rustic cuisine with a Northwest sensibility, is the only restaurant in the state currently certified by the program (another restaurant, Seattle’s Sterling Cafe, participated, but dropped out).

I spoke with restaurant owner Lisa Owen recently about the certification process. She said about 70 percent of what’s on her menu is organic, and she alerts diners of organic menu choices with

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The cocktail lounge 1022 South opened last night and our music and nightlife columnist Ernest Jasmin stopped by to check out the cocktail menu. Here’s what he had to say about the new lounge, which opened in the spot formerly occupied by the Monsoon Room.

Twelve cheeseburgers in two weeks. It’s not anything I’d recommend to anyone who has any concern for their arteries, or who wants to live to be, say, 40.

But in a burger quest, it must be done.

The impending invasion of Sonic and Burgerville launched my burger mission. The Sonic Drive-In chain is scheduled to open its first South Sound location in late April on Puyallup’s South Hill. Burgerville, announced plans to come to the Tacoma market this year.

My assignment: test the pulse of our smaller, independently operated burger joints. I hit pavement and visited eight burger joints. I also detoured to three high-end restaurants with decadent interpretations of the classic American burger. Finally, I pointed the car eastward to mull a restaurant with a commanding view and 50 burgers on the menu.

Did I miss your favorite? Want me to write about it? Comment here or e-mail to tntdiner@thenewstribune.com.

I might need some time to purge my arteries, but I’ll be back on the burger trail soon enough.

Pictured here: The El Gaucho burger. Photo by Peter Haley/The News Tribune

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Sea Grill serves up its last meal this weekend. Read about it here.

This is disappointing news for the Tacoma dining community. Sea Grill was one of the anchor restaurants in the revitalized Pacific Avenue “restaurant row.”

I just finished writing a burger report for this Friday’s GO section and TNT Diner, and I devoted ink to Sea Grill’s prosciutto and Gorgonzola burger, and I had plans to write about their Happy Hour menu in April.

I rewrote the burger entry to read as an homage to what is (soon to be was) one of the best burgers in town. But you do still have until this weekend to enjoy the Sea Grill burger, so long as the restaurant keeps the regular menu until they close. I also give high marks for the bar’s Happy Hour specials. It really is (was) one of the best deals in town.

What I had written about the burger (pre-homage):

Sea Grill Burger: The half pound, juicy burger was sandwiched between two of my most favorite things — a big portion of Gorgonzola cheese and two salty slices of prosciutto. The patty came just as requested – medium. I let the burger sit for a moment while I enjoyed a few of the crispy golden fries, and the Gorgonzola cheese melted into a delicious, pungent cheese bath over the fat, juicy patty. Each bite was a salty-smokey treat. I can’t say enough about what a great value this burger is during the happy hour discount. ($7 during Happy Hour. Priced $9 on the regular menu).

Sea Grill: 1498 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253-272-5656, www.the-seagrill.com.

Click “read more” to see the press release from the owners of Sea Grill about the closure.

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Jeff Mayor ad I visited with Nita Bariekman for a while last week. She was great! You would never guess her age after visiting with her. She still get’s to her shop at 7:30 a.m. every weekday to make soups ad pies for the lunch crowd. I tried the lemon meringue pie and it was fantastic.

You can read Jeff’s story here and I have added the video to this post.

Enjoy,

Joe

…

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Mongolian Grill chef John Kim will stir fry your choice of vegetables and tofu at the River Road restaurant in Puyallup. Photo by Janet Jensen/The News Tribune.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Drop-In Dining is a restaurant dining report where reporters drop in unannounced and sample the food, on TNT’s dime, then report what the scene and the food were like. Have a suggestion for a Drop-In Dining feature? E-mail us at tntdiner@thenewstribune.com.

By Debbie Cafazzo
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com

As a vegetarian, I know I can always make special requests when dining out. But I love it when I don’t have to.

There’s nothing that excites me more than when I open a menu and see a section tailored to vegetarians. And it’s an even bigger thrill when the vegetarian selections are creative and offer something more for the diner, instead of a meat-oriented dish with something subtracted.

Here, I write about three of my long-time favorite veg-friendly restaurants, and a couple of new discoveries.

Note to readers: Share your opinion here if you know of a great South Sound restaurant that caters to vegetarians or vegans. Jut comment here and share your experiences with other TNT Diner readers.

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A few weeks ago, A&E editor Craig Sailor assigned me a burger story for the GO section that will publish later this month. His directive: eat at 10 burger joints. Report back who has the juiciest burgers and tastiest fries.

So I trekked to Wally’s in Buckley, Friesenburgers by the Tacoma Dome, Mary’s Burger Bistro on Pacific and a few others. I don’t know if I’ll get to 10 by early next week, but I’m hoping to get to at least seven (clogged arteries and all).

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