The Cliff House is back.

Or, at least it will be soon.

After closing in December, the Cliff House expects to reopen after the first week of February, depending on whether the liquor license, and other permits, are approved as quickly as the restaurant would like.

Fans of the restaurant, which is one of the South Sound’s oldest restaurants dating back to 1925, may be happy to hear that longtime owner Guido Brendicke will be back at the helm. Former chef and general manger David Masuda also is returning.

So what happened? I’m still piecing it together, but here’s what I know. Read more »

Home cooks know it can be challenging pairing beverages with food for a dinner party, but restaurants always make it look so easy. But is it? I asked the staff at Pacific Grill to give TNT Diner readers a behind-the-scenes look about something unusual happening Jan. 26 at Pacific Grill – the first ever beer pairing dinner featuring Belgian Abbey beers. I asked Pacific Grill’s tasters to tell TNT Diner readers how they came up with the menu, and give readers tasting notes about each of the beers. Read more »

Welcome to a week in beer. This week, I’ll have Q&A interviews and articles about some beer events happening this week and next. I’ll also write about a few stores with impressive beer selections you may not know about. In unrelated beer news, I’ll have an update for readers on what’s happening with The Cliff House.

Today’s offering: cake and beer.
It sounds so wrong at first – eating cake with your beer. But for Tiffany Adamowski of 99 Bottles beer store in Federal Way, pairing cake with beer tastes just right. Or at least it makes culinary sense to a beer connoisseur like Adamowski. It takes an educated palate to appreciate pastries with beer.
Adamowski, who owns 99 Bottles with husband Craig, loves cake and beer together so much, she makes pairing the two together an annual event to celebrate the anniversary of 99 Bottles. This year, she’ll host the beer-cake pairing at the 99 Bottles Beerthday Bash, from 4 p.m.-8 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Federal Way store. Read more »

We’ve been mired in heavy duty editing projects this week and I’ve had barely any time to get out and do any sort of restaurant reporting, but there is one thing that hit my radar: the stuffed bacon cheeseburgers at Cheers South Hill Grill.

I haven’t been this happy about bacon on a burger since I bit into the bacon explosion burger at Woody’s on the Water last September.
That burger, which Woody’s has renamed the “bacon extravaganza,” is a riff on the famous BBQ Addicts Bacon Explosion recipe – bacon, stuffed inside sausage, wrapped inside more bacon, then rolled up, smoked, sliced and served on a bun. Did your arteries clog reading that?
Like Woody’s, Cheers puts a fun spin on its burgers. Forget cheese and meat on top of a burger patty – that’s so 20th century. At Cheers, the toppings are cooked right inside the burger. They call them “South Hill Stuffers.” Read more »

I happened through Fircrest today, and stopped in at The Little Holland. I’d been meaning to give it a try.

I remember the first Little Holland, long before it became known as “The Little Holland,” back in the ‘60s when there was an actual windmill on the roof.

Those were the days when going out for a burger was something of a cultural event. We’d go up to Sixth Avenue where the disc jockey spun his platters in the booth above King’s. We’d go to the Dairy Queen, or Jubilee, or Frisko Freeze. We’d be listening to KJR, KOL and …

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I’ve been on the News Tribune’s reader representative desk this week and haven’t been able to get any reporting done on this, but I’ve heard rumblings that the Cliff House Restaurant has closed.

Callers have told me the restaurant hasn’t opened since perhaps New Year’s Eve. One reader reported via email that the Christmas decorations are still up, and the restaurant appears deserted. A message on the restaurant’s voice mail says the number has been temporarily disconnected. Let’s hope the closure is temporary. After last week’s demise of Il Fiasco, and Seven-oh-One before that, restaurant closures are happening too …

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For Little Holland fans, the wait is over. The iconic burger restaurant reopened Monday.  The new location, with a sign out front that reads Mikie Burgers, is across the street from where the Little Holland drive-in burger stand operated on Center Street until last summer when it closed and was torn down.

The simmering question for Little Holland fans: Is the food the same? Read more »

It’s not very often I walk out of a restaurant before there’s even food on my table. But that’s what I did one evening in August ’08 at Bite, the restaurant in the then newly rechristened Hotel Murano. I left after 15 minutes of watching the staff amble about with confusion and a general malaise.

So when the hotel recently was voted number 6 on the Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers Choice list for top American hotels my first reaction was, “Did they visit the restaurant?” I had to go again.

What a difference a year makes.

This time the highly professional staff was on-the-spot and corrected problems before I even knew they existed.

And the food? Some amazing hits and only a couple of misses.
Read more »