Posts categorized “Restaurants”

This was all about a month ago, but durn-it-all I’ve been kinda busy what with Skyward Sword and all, so I never got around to posting about it. But this was a fun day.

Some time before Chrissymiss, we were babysitting our friend who in 2011 was one of those little girls who comes out of that lady’s giant dress during Act II of Tacoma City Ballet’s Nutcracker. Part of our babysitting gig was delivering her to Nutcracker practice. So we decided to make an evening of it by going to some local Downtown Tacoma businesses.

Stop 1: Füdie’s Open House

Although Füdie had been open for about a month already, this evening just happened to be their official open house. Füdie has a really nice selection of not-commonly-seen wines and beers. The graphic designer in me also really adores their logo. They were doing some beer and wine tasting and it was all festive and nice. I’d link to their website but they don’t have one. I know, right? Here’s their Facebook page, though.

Just last night Carrie & I stopped by Füdie again because they were doing a wine tasting of all South American wines. It was good! We got a nice inexpensive bottle of red.

Anyhoo, after we were done at Füdie we walked through a hole in their wall. Yes, that’s right: Füdie is right next door to and connected to Stink Cheese & Meat:

Stop 2: Stink Cheese & Meat

Füdie & Stink are two complimentary and associated businesses, which is why you can walk from one right into the other. Stink is one of those little tiny places that specializes yummy unusual cheeses and salumi. They have a weekly Macaroni & Cheese and a weekly Grilled Cheese Sandwich, as well as other, more-stable menu items.

The three of us had their Antipasti platter for dinner, which has all sorts of yummy pickled things and paper-thin meats and fragrant cheeses. Very good! Unlike Füdie, Stink DOES have a website.

From Stink we walked down to:

Stop 3: The Pantages Theater

Where we dropped off our little ballerina. Carrie helped her change into her costume while I awkwardly waited in the hallway and tried not to seem too much like some creepy guy trying to catch a glimpse of ballerinas in their dressing rooms.

The Pantages is also a notable Tacoma Landmark because that’s where Carrie & I got married.

Anyhoo, then we walked down the hill a couple of blocks to:

Stop 4: Dorky’s Bar Arcade

Dorky’s is one of the best places in Tacoma. A massive, seemingly ever-expanding cavern of classic arcade games and pinball machines. Plus foods and drinks.

Much to my delight I discovered that Dorky’s acquired a standup of Raiden Fighters:

Lemme explain: back many, many years ago when the post-Fools Play ritual included going to an Olympia Red Robin, there was a Raiden Fighters in the little arcade room in said Red Robin. Geoff & I used to drop many a quarter into that machine in 2-player simultaneous action! It’s a pretty crazy SHMUP, with crap flying all over the screen to the point that it often gets nigh-impossible to tell what the eff is going on. Fun! Dorky’s copy had a bit of a wonky joystick, though, and the screen was a li’l washed out. Still, nice to see.

Carrie & I also played quite a bit of the Evel Knievel pinball machine while we were there. 2-Player competitive action! Carrie is quite good at that machine.

Dorky’s is also where they filmed this T-Mobile commercial:

They also don’t have a website! Whatsupwitdat? They only gots da Facebookin’ page, yo.

Stop 5: The Pantages Theater

After Dorky’s we swung back by the Pantages and picked up our li’l ballerina and then headed back to our car to drive up 6th Avenue to:

Stop 6: Metronome Coffee

You might remember Metronome Coffee from an earlier post on this blog wherein it served as the venue for Julia Massey, the Jesus Rehab, and Neighbor Gary. This time it served as a meeting place where we handed off our li’l ballerina to her mother, and were purchased some hot cocoa for our troubles.

Metronome Coffee does have a website!

By the way, the graphic designer in me absolutely adores Metronome’s logo, too.

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Last Friday Carrie & I went out to dinner at the brand-new restaurant that opened up on 6th Avenue here in Tacoma: Marrow.

It’s a genre of food that hasn’t really existed in Tacoma before: haute cuisine. But, you know, really good. And not expensive; the priciest thing on the menu is $23 duck (we didn’t have that).

Here’s the premise: the menu has two halves, “Arrow” (which has only vegetarian dishes) and “Marrow” (which has meat-based dishes specializing in “under-appreciated” meats). You’re free to mix-and-match between them, of course. But Carrie & I ended up ordering exclusively from the Marrow side just ’cause it looked so durned good to us.

Here’s what all we had:

DAUPHINE POTATO DOUGHNUTS, BACON BEER DIP

Mashed potatoes that had been piped(!) into a ring, then deep-fried, served piping hot with a creamy sauce. So frikkin’ good.

SOUP OF THE DAY: BROCCOLI

Shockingly light and flavorful, with a good amount of spicy heat, but too heavy on salt for me.

ESCARGOT, BACON, BASIL BUTTER, POTATO BREAD

Pre-shelled snails languishing in a bowl of basil/garlic butter with enormous and thick chunks of bacon in it. Wow. Tender and delicious. The bread helps to sop up the juice.

BONE MARROW, OXTAIL, POTATO BREAD

I’d never had a bone marrow dish before. It’s basically meat butter; you spread it on the bread and eat it. I’m not usually a fan of meat fat, but this was much creamier than that squeaky & wobbly texture that tends to upset me. It was also nicely seasoned. The oxtail, though, was probably my favorite thing of the evening. It had been braised in something delicious and was ungodly juicy and tender.

We also had some cocktails, all of which are named after women. I don’t remember what mine were named, but one of them had ginger vodka and lime and coconut and something else tropical I can’t remember. The other one had rye bourbon and candied ginger on a skewer and some other things that were a little overpowered by the very good bourbon. Carrie had one that had tequila and blood orange juice, and I don’t remember her second one. But they were all very good.

So, in conclusion: Is good.

It’s interesting to have a place like this in Tacoma. It’s not that Tacoma has crappy food. In fact it has some of the best restaurants, but they all specialize in standard genre fare; we have the best hot dog restaurant, the best Indian restaurant, the best sandwiches and deli sammitches, the best tavern. And though we do have some fancier restaurants, none of them really do the unusual foods that are Marrow’s bread-and-butter.

Photo ripped from Marrow's Facebook page, used without permission (shhhh—don't tell)

A couple of days ago it was KowaiHitsuji’s birfday, so Carrie & I headed up to Seattle to celebrate it with her. We met her at Dilettante Mocha Café on Broadway and there we had the best milkshake in the history of the world EVAR.

The Port Milkshake.

From what I can tell it’s exactly what it sounds like: a milkshake with port wine in it.

HOLY CRAP.

It is amazing. You seriously have no idea. We also had bread pudding, but let’s get back to the port milkshake because HOLY CRAP it is good. HOLY CRAP. Now I’m ruined for all other milkshakes for all time. Well, not really. But still, it IS THAT GOOD. Do all of my UNNECESSARY CAPS convince you yet? Just go over there and drink one of those milkshakes full of sweet alcohol goodness and decide for yourself.

Now I want to have port milkshakes ALL OF THE TIME.

Yesterday (Monday) Carrie & I went with Marvel’s X-Men’s female clone of Wolverine, X-23, to the new location of Taqueria El Guadalajara on 6th Ave, in the same building as the Neighborhood Market.

I’d never been to the old location on Tacoma Ave, but it was somewhat of a local institution. But now it’s much closer to me! Anyway, I really liked it. I had Asada enchiladas, and I really liked the flavor profiles; it was different than what you’d get at an El Toro. Also, the margaritas are frikkin’ awesome. They’re strong and they’re not at all sickly sweet like you might get elsewhere. It’s nice to have a good mid-level style of Mexican restaurant in the 6th Ave neighborhood, rather than just low (Taco Bell) and high (Masa).

Once again November has proven to be the busiest/stressiest month of the year, so no real surprises there (and hence only three posts on this website during the entire month). Carrie & I spend most of our energies getting ready for our craft shows. She additionally has a bead festival to put on. But let me now try to recall some goings-on:

One of the most fun things was the re-incorporation of Nathan the Orange Fool into Fools Play Improv after a six-year hiatus. He moved back to Olympia recently and so has re-joined our illustrious cast alongside official newcomer Jamie the Ginger Fool. And with Esa the Periwinkle Fool more-regularly attending as well, that means that Mike & I are going to be faced with two-person shows far less frequently. Good news all around. In fact I took advantage of this by taking off the weekend of my craft show.

Carrie stayed on-site in Bellevue during the weekend of the Bead Festival, leaving me home alone. Well, during the week leading up to the Festival she went shopping for various sundries, and came back with New Super Mario Bros. Wii for me as a surprise early Christmas present because she loves me, or at least that’s the reason she gave. Also so I would have something to occupy my breaks between making crafts for my craft show.

The Tuesday after the Bead Festival was Carrie’s birfday. I had already given her a main present (a new outfit that she wore to the Bead Festival), so on her actual birfday I just gave her a li’l something extra, the holiday album by Tori Amos, Midwinter Graces. We went over to her folks’ place, where we were joined by L&C, which was ve’y fun. We played a lot of bowling on the Wii. Carrie’s mum made “linguine with clam sauce,” which is just like a meal that my mum used to make called “clam sauce spaghetti.” As you can tell, the only real difference between the two meals is the width of the pasta used.

Then two days later we were right back over there for Thanksgiving. With a lot more bowling on the Wii. But less linguine. But more turkey.

But the day before Thanksgiving we went out to the new(ish) place on 6th Ave called “Sax.” It had a very strange atmosphere that I couldn’t put my finger on. Thankfully somebody else did: Sax feels like somebody remodeled their basement into a bar. There are no decorations on the walls, there is a green carpet, and the wood paneling isn’t quite of the highest quality. It is almost as if they set out to make a neighborhood dive bar but then changed their minds halfway through and tried to make it into a classy bar, and so it exists in this weird limbo in between them. But we did share the Slider Trio appetizer, and it was very delicious. They really season the meats well.

The day after Thanksgiving, Carrie had a craft show called Gritty City at a hole-in-the-wall gallery on the very southern edge of downtown T-Town. It was difficult to tell from the outside that the building was anything other than either (a) abandoned or (b) just some old-timey storage/warehouse building. But inside was actually a really awesome space. I would love to get into this show next year because it seems like it would really jibe with my aesthetic.

The next day was the craft show out in Purdy that we do together. I had a couple of new product lines this year: Kawaii necklaces and soldered pendants (which as you can see I am putting up on Thirsty Robots). I didn’t do quite as well as last year, though, and the booth fee was much to high to justify doing it again. So next year I’m going to be looking into doing other, more artsy shows that cater to a younger crowd that would “get” my stuff a little bit better than the upper-middle-aged women who are the primary demographic of the Purdy show.

So now I’m done with craft shows for the year, but Carrie has one more this coming weekend, so she’s still crazybusy. And I’m spending this entire week dealing with the fallout from the show; packing back up my inventory, putting all the new stuff up on Thirsty Robots, etc. Plus I got two special orders that I have to make this week.

And that spins us right on out of November and into December. I’m certain I forgot some stuff that I would have wanted to mention, but such is the nature of the November beast. Ah, well. I leave with with some Baman Piderman:

Tomorrow, time permitting, I shall post my “Of the Month” selections for December ’09.

Thursday evening I headed up to Seattle to watch some Three Ninjas perform. He was at a pizza place called Piecora’s on Capitol Hill. He was performing as one of the headliners of “The Pickle,” which is some sort of fancy open mic night that happens every month. It took place in the back room of the back room of Piecora’s (seriously, you have to just keep going back).

They had some major, major technical difficulties and ended up starting almost an entire hour late. ‘Twas kinda crazy. The show opened (when it finally opened) with one of Jason & Geoff’s co-workers or something. He did a short set of singer/songwriter/solo guitar stuff.

Then there was a dance crew, who called themselves the Young Avengers. They were a group of kids/teens who had self-organized so they’d have something to do other than get into trouble, which is very admirable. They weren’t exactly the most polished and tightly choreographed of dance crews, but they had great enthusiasm. They called their dance style “Jerkin.’” I hadn’t heard of it before but apparently it’s a west coast thing. This was one of the first Jerk performances in Washington State, so that was kinda cool. Here’s a video of the kids practicing:

Then it was time for Three Ninjas and his friend Miss Geoff to perform. I recorded the show with Mathias’s camera. Weirdly, the show only took place like five blocks from Sandy & Mathias’s apartment, but neither of them came. Anyway, as you can see, the Young Avengers also became a part of the show!

I had to leave right after I stopped recording so I could go pick up Lawrence from work and drive us back home. I’d wanted to see more of the show, but they just started so danged late that I was 15 minutes late picking up Lawrence as it was.

When I got near to Lawrence’s house I got a phone call from my own wife saying that I should just stay there when I dropped him off ’cause she and some other Bead Babes were gonna meet us there and have wine and order pizzas. So that’s what happened, and it was great fun.

GREAT. FUN.

I’ve been on vacation for the past week! But I’m back now. It was a really busy vacation. Let’s see:

• FRIDAY
Carrie went shopping with a birthday girl, and we met up with another birthday girl (and a bunch of other Bead Babes & Boys) at Chalet Bowl. I did very poorly! The Chalet Bowl people were acting strangely, like they didn’t really want anybody to actually be in there, just to bowl and get out! I guess they had some big event later on? Randomly ran into @danaismyname there, but she (and her family) were also rushed out of there by the staff.

So instead of hanging out and spending our money there, after bowling we went over to the North End Tavern and spent money there by having beer and playing darts. I did very well!

• SATURDAY
We went to Northwest Trek! With two Mels, a Jen, and a Lila. I took photos with my phone, which I instantly tweeted!

The best part of the whole trip was the last hour when Lila decided she was both an explorer and our Teacher, and that we were her “group.” She would tell us what the signs said, and give us specific instructions. My favorite were, “Okay, now everybody has to stand on the other side of this tree. Okay, now hold hands in a circle. Now walk backwards this way…”

She got really into her teacher/explorer character, but started getting tired towards the end of it and got a little too much into character. At one point when Jen called her Lila she shouted, “I’m not Lila!”

Carrie turned to one of the Mels and said in a low, creepy voice, “Lila isn’t here anymore.”

• FOOLS PLAY
That evening I went down and performed our new Fools Play Easter format: Fools Play Egg Hunt. I ate 19 marshmallow peeps during the annual Peep Show. This year it was a Kung-Fu Peep Show:

A Young Man and his Mother work hard in their small farm in ancient rural China. They work hard but they get to reap all the rewards. One day the Mother sends the Young Man into town to “buy a bucket,” but while he is away the farm is attacked by a group of six Bandits lead by the Bandit Leader, who kill the Mother and take the food, burning the farm. When the Young Man comes upon this scene he vows revenge against those vandals.

Meanwhile in a tavern in town, a Drunkard drunkenly decapitates the bartender. Just then the Young Man enters, scaring the Drunkard’s Coward friend into hiding under the table. The Young Man asks for help in defeating the Bandits. The Drunkard is so disgusted by the Cowards cowardice that he kicks the Coward out from under the table. The Coward goes flying across the bar and right up to the Young Man, who mistakes the Coward’s being thrown across the room with real Kung-Fu prowess and begs the Coward to train him. The Coward is too cowardly to refuse.

And so the Coward, in the span of two hours, “trains” the Young Man to be a Kung-Fu master, even though Coward knows absolutely no Kung-Fu. Emboldened by his training, the Young Man goes off and finds the Bandits and challenges them. They promptly and humiliatingly kick the Young Man’s sorry ass, and don’t even have the courtesy to kill him.

The Young Man goes sulking back to the bar to confront the Coward, who hides again under his table. After a wacky conversation, some wacky action, and some vomit, the Drunkard “trains” the Young Man by getting him piss-drunk. The Drunkard then promptly dies of psoriasis of the liver. The Young Man is despondent until the Drunkard’s ghost shows up to encourage him. The Drunkard’s ghost then promptly dies of ghost psoriasis. The ghost of the ghost appears and tells the Young Man he should just get going because this is likely going to go on for some time.

The Young Man rushes back to the Bandits, challenges them, gets pissed drunk and promptly beheads one of them. He then vomits on another one, who dies from being “allergic to vomit.” The remaining three Bandits pounce on him simultaneously, but the Young Man manages to leap high up into the air and dispatch the three of them all at once. Now all that are left are the Young Man and the Bandit Leader, who have a classic showdown wherein they face off and then run past each other. A couple of seconds later the Bandit Leader falls down dead. The Young Man walks off, saying something presumably inspirational (my mouth was so full of peeps at this point that I was incomprehensible).

Also during this episode of Fools Play, and very excitingly for me, a new addition to the cast was revealed:

That’s right! It’s ANGRY BEEF! We summoned him to fight off the Improv Spawn. But is this solution worse than the problem? We’ll find out in the weeks ahead!

I’m so very proud of this plush ANGRY BEEF, which I designed sewed all by myself. The bone actually runs all the way through a hole down the middle of the body, and if you pulled you could yank it right out! It might be nigh-impossible to put it back in if you did it, though. I would love to mass-produce and sell these, but this one took for-freakin’-ever to make, so unless I come up with a better system I’m not going to be able to make very many, and they’d have to be really expensive to make them worth it. We’ll see.

• SUNDAY
Sunday was Easter, in case you forgot. In the early afternoon we took Suki over to Carrie’s folks’ house, where we hung out and played cards for a while. Then we headed over to my folks’ house for din-dins. After that we drove up to the Skylark Café in West Seattle to see Julia Massey and the Five-Finger Discount (including @rabbiddogg) play a set. It was fun! We really like that venue a lot.

• MONDAY
We cleaned the house hard-core in the morning, and then in the afternoon we drove all the way up to the Semiahmoo Resort just a stone’s throw away from Canada (you can see Canada out the windows). I like taking long drives with Carrie ’cause she always packs really good snacks. But the weather was weird during the drive, including a bout of hail and a section of the freeway that had snow all up ons it.

We hung out in the bar up at Semiahmoo once we got there and I had frou-frou girly drinks. One of the reasons we went to Semiahmoo is because they had a “Ginger Snap Martini” that Carrie knew I would love. It basically has Goldschläger, Jägermeister, and Bailey’s Irish Cream all mixed together, and there might be some ginger vodka in it, too. Not entirely sure. It was good, though.

We took a dip in the hot tub and then headed back to the bar for din-dins, and I had another frou-frou girly drink that had a sugared rim. I’m such a girl.

• Tuesday
Tuesday we had Crab Benedict for breakfast in bed, then headed back down south, stopping in my old stomping grounds of Old Fairhaven on the way. It’s changed quite a bit; it’s a lot nicer and has a lot more stuff in it than when I went to Western ten years ago. I liked it. For lunch we ate home-made chicken salad in the car before completing the return trip.

• Wednesday
In my brain this is the only day of my vacation that I didn’t actually do anything except sit around and relax. This is of course ridiculous because I went to work in the morning, meaning my vacation ended. However, I got off at 1:00 in the afternoon, so it was almost like having an entire day to relax, so it still counts in my brain.

And as of… NOW I’m back and all done with vacation. I have much of work to get done.