On the outskirts of the Lakewood Towne Center is a small slice of mahalo. The fast-food style L&L Barbecue offers fast-food versions of Hawaiian favorites – loco moco, saimin, grilled chicken and kalua pork, among others. Read more »
I stopped in for lunch at the SideBar Bistro, a legal themed restaurant that opened two weeks ago across from the County-City Building on Tacoma Avenue South. I was impressed with the handsome restaurant with an affordable menu. In a neighborhood with a modest offering of casual, quick eating options, the bistro offers a level of dining needed on that block.
But don’t think of SideBar as a steaks and chops clubby sort of place where lawyers with expense accounts swill martinis and drop $50 on a steak. It’s not that at all. Think affordable sandwiches and soups for lunch and economically priced comfort eating at dinner. While it is an attractive restaurant and a martini swilling lawyer may not necessarily be out of place in the adjoining lounge, the lunch menu is decidedly accessible and intended to feed those looking for lunch in the $10-$15 range. Read more »
Today’s SoundLife food section featured gluten-free Tacoma bakery Granny LaLa’s, which supplies many local stores and restaurants with gluten-free baked goods, including Harbor Greens in Gig Harbor, Endicott Coffee Bar in South Hill, McGregor’s Natural and Organic Foods in Tacoma, Ramblin Jacks in Olympia, and Mud Bay Coffee Co. in Olympia.
Read the whole story here.
Here’s something new and cool: Pacific Grill will turn into a noodle bar every Thursday late night starting next week, June 24.
Owner Gordon Naccarato calls it a pop-up restaurant, where from 9 p.m. to midnight every Thursday Pacific Grill’s menu goes late-night street style Japanese dining.
The menu is like nothing around town – and reminds me of dining at Ping, the hot spot in Portland that serves inventive Japanese street food with Southeast Asian and Chinese twists. My last visit at Ping found all kinds of small bite wonders – grilled skewers with short ribs, quail eggs and fish balls, small plate duck egg salads and tea-steeped eggs.
Pacific Grill’s pop-up noodle nights will feature customized noshing in a bowl –ramen soups come in a broad array of flavors. Read more »
A week of beer events starts today with the first ever Tacoma Tap Night at five local pubs, continues with a beer tasting dinner Thursday at Gig Harbor’s Brix 25, and ends with the annual Father’s Day weekend Washington Brewers festival north of Seattle. Click “more” for the details. Read more »
A new operator will reopen the Cliff House restaurant, one of the region’s oldest restaurants that opened in 1925 in Northeast Tacoma. It’s scheduled to reopen Thursday June 17.
The name of the new operator will sound familiar to diners in Gig Harbor– Sue Glenn, who has owned Gig Harbor’s The Green Turtle Restaurant for 17 years. Read more »
If permitting and remodeling stay on track, a new bar and grill called The Office will open in August in the location that formerly housed Merende, the Italian eatery that closed in January 2010 at 813 Pacific Ave.
The Office is the project of business partners Matthew Henderson and Travis Scheff. Read more »
TNT reporter Mike Archbold just posted a blog item on the Lights & Siren blog with details of an early-morning fire that damaged Sumner’s Indulge Cupcakes. The cupcake bakery opened in October 2009 after moving from its downtown Puyallup location. Here’s a story I wrote about Indulge when they moved to their Sumner location. It appears the damage may mean the bakery will be closed for some time for repairs. Stay tuned for more details as we get them.