TNT Diner » Crown Bar Tacoma

Local buzz: Tacoma honey on the menu at Crown Bar

Sue Kidd — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:00:01 +0000

Charlie McManus and Jacqueline Plattner, owners of Primo Grill and Crown Bar on Sixth Avenue (opened in 1999 and 2007, respectively), have carefully sourced Tacoma-grown ingredients for years. On select weekend nights, they’re known for roasting whole pigs raised by Tacoma farmer Cheryl Ouellette (known as Cheryl The Pig Lady to, well, everyone in the universe).

Last week, they went hyperlocal on the sourcing – they started serving cocktails at Crown Bar made with honey that came from the bees they raised in their backyard, a project they started two years ago with two hives.

Wrote Plattner in …

Pucker up: House pickled veggies at Tacoma restaurants pack flavorful punch

Sue Kidd — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:31:51 +0000

Pacific Grill owner/chef Gordon Naccarato recalls discovering soy-brined jalapeños while working as a chef in Los Angeles.

“I first found those jalapeños in Koreatown in Los Angeles in a run-down strip mall place that called them ‘kimchi pickles,’ and they would sell you a canning jar full of them with additional cucumbers in the jalapeño mix for only $6,” Naccarato wrote in an e-mail when I asked him about house-pickled vegetables at his downtown Tacoma restaurant.

The jalapeños were salty, sweet and satisfying, and something Naccarato enjoyed eating over a bowl of rice. “They were so amazingly good just …

Bar Burger Noshdown: South Sound bars, taverns and breweries offer some of the most delicious burgers in the region. Here are five more to try.

Sue Kidd — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:55:25 +0000

Kobe beef and Washington grown beef are the themes for today’s featured five burgers in my “20 burgers you should eat before you die’” series.

Bar noshing doesn’t get any better than a big, cheesy gut bomb of a burger. It’s the anytime accompaniment to a cold pint at your favorite watering hole. My six month odyssey of sampling bar burgers at South Sound bars, taverns and pubs continues today with five more burgers you have to try before you die.

Here are the bars featured for this burger series:
Tuesday: Powerhouse Brewery, Cliff House, Matador, Blazing …

Happy Hours: The siblings of Sixth Avenue

Sue Kidd — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:18:42 +0000

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 sibling connections: The first pair is Asado and Masa, …

Bacon, cheese and gravy: Gussied up fries on menus around Tacoma

Sue Kidd — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:33:40 +0000

Thin or thick, I don’t have a preference. But do make mine crunchy on the outside, creamy-unctuous on the inside. I’m picky about my fries that way.

I used to think I was a fry purist: crisp potatoes with a sprinkle of salt, please.

And then I had the garlic herb fries at Pacific Grill. Insta-fancy-fry convert. And then I had fries and gravy at Bite at Hotel Murano. And then came along the bacon cheesy fries at Crown Bar. And have you ever had the yuca fries at Asado? Amazingly good.

At Bite and Crown …