Maxwell’s Restaurant + Lounge is not closed, but it is having phone difficulty. The phone rings to a disconnected message. I just got off the phone with Chef/manager Matt Colony, who said the restaurant is open and fine, it’s just a phone fluke. “When people move out of this building, sometimes they accidentally disconnect our phone,” said Colony. In the days before Valentine’s Day, that can be a real mess for diners who may think the restaurant is closed. He wants diners to know they are open. In fact, they’re usually closed on Sunday, but since it’s Valentine’s Day, …

Read more »

A fire has caused extensive damange to Le Bistro, which reporter Rosemary Ponnekanti wrote about in a SoundLife story about Australian meat pies a few weeks ago. TNT Lights & Sirens reporter Stacey Mulick has the story here. Reporter Kris Sherman this morning also is looking into what happened to cause the fire.

A News Tribune field trip to Metropolitan Market in Proctor this week yielded an overload of carb finds. Our purchases included a Desserted Island pie, made by the Seattle Pie Company, which is opening the Old Town Pie Shop in March. We also popped by Met Market’s new gelato counter for a pint of pistachio flavored gelato. And our final purchase was a half dozen paczki – a thick, chewy, filled doughnut that is a Fat Tuesday tradition (emphasis on the Fat), and available in the store only for a short time.

Click “more” to read about our finds. Read more »

I tweeted. They tweeted. Now it’s your turn to tell the Burgerville Nomad where you’d like to see it visit Tacoma.

The Burgerville folks told me in October that the Vancouver-based burger chain had no plans to open a store in South Sound, despite what Burgerville’s CEO previously told former TNT Business Columnist Dan Voelpel last February. However, a corporate spokeswoman said in October that Burgerville was considering bringing its mobile burger truck to Tacoma for a visit. So we’ve been waiting, but there’s been no word on that. It’s been three months. I e-mailed. No response. So to Twitter I turned…. Read more »

Bad news: Marliese Hall recently closed Alt Heidelberg, the German restaurant she opened  in the Fern Hill neighborhood in the fall of 2008.

Good news: Her cooking will continue.

Hall and Sharon Swartz, owner of T-4-2 etc. in Puyallup, will team up to offer a German themed dinner at T-4-2 on Feb. 19. T-4-2  is a downtown Puyallup tea room and British grocery (or, as Swartz cheekily calls it “the British aisle.”) Read more »

Forget drink discounts, happy hour is about the food. Or, rather, it’s about the food if you’re a deal seeker who also happens to enjoy well-crafted cuisine.

For this installment of happy hour food deals, we headed to Tacoma’s Sixth Avenue, an eating district rich with restaurants and bars that offer deep discounts during happy hour dining.

We couldn’t write about every restaurant in that neighborhood, so we focused on just a few blocks along Sixth – from Pine to Oakes.
Within those few blocks you’ll find four restaurants with sisterly connections: The first pair is Asado and Masa, located across the street from one another and both operated by X Group Restaurants. The second is Primo Grill and Crown Bar, located within about a block of one another and owned and operated by Charlie McManus with wife Jacqueline Plattner. Read more »

I was driving along Meridian to the new Forza wine bar in Puyallup (a story will be coming soon on that) when I saw a sandwich board with “spices” written on it. That’s all I needed as an invitation. The store is Ubiquitous Journey, which I had thought for more than a year was a New Age book store. Nope, they have a half dozen rows of spices, herbs and teas. They call themselves Puyallup’s Spice Merchant. Read more »

On Super Bowl Sunday, I know where I’d go to catch the game … if I were leaving my couch. I may have little sports acumen (TNT Sports Editor Darrin Beene can confirm this), but I do know how to spot a bar that offers good television viewing. And I know my way around bar food.

Click more to see a few of my picks for bars with screens that make for good viewing, and food that makes for good game-time noshing.

YOUR TURN: Where will you go, if at all, to watch the game? Is it a bar? Do you prefer to stay home? Do any bars around town have great Super Bowl parties or events that are good for game viewing? And good deals to be found? Comment here.

Read more »