Pierce County

Making Christmas tamales together is a tradition spanning generations for some families. Except this year gathering to make those tamales becomes so much more complicated with pandemic concerns. That’s likely why Palmira Mendoza Martinez has seen an uptick in tamales orders this year at Los Tamales Mexican Restaurant, my favorite restaurant in Tacoma for tamales […]

Jason Alexander stood at the bar last week at newly opened Gilman House. He hovered over a giant plastic bucket surrounded by smaller buckets half filled with house-made elixirs for which Gilman House and its sister bar Devil’s Reef are known. Alexander’s brand of cocktail mixing is some kind of crazy alchemy.  He’s known for […]

Shortly before 11 a.m. on a Sunday in November, the line started to assemble on Sixth Avenue.  A woman who clearly had become a regular at The Cat & Rabbitt Cakeshop, which opened Nov. 15 on Sixth, explained to newbie pastry seekers that they were lining up in the wrong direction.  The line bent south, […]

The difference between good hot cocoa bombs and excellent ones, Lisa Holmgren found, was about a half-inch.  In the two-inch hot cocoa bomb mold, the Steilacoom bakery owner found she could fit some marshmallows into her chocolate orbs. More marshmallows means a better hot cocoa experience.  She wanted to go bigger. She upsized to a […]

It’s always a good time to shop locally. Lucky us, we’ve got plenty of local food businesses producing fancy hand-decorated cookies, smoked landjaeger, boutique oyster packs, handmade ginger beer, hand-dipped truffles and pints of ice cream aplenty. Did I mention the hot cocoa bombs? There’s so much to buy from local food businesses, I don’t […]

Verone’s Italian Sausage could be one of the oldest food companies based in Tacoma that you’ve maybe never heard of.  But that’s about to change with the opening of their new retail location. The five-generation Tacoma sausage company is opening its first shop – after a 30-year retail hiatus – in Fircrest.  It’ll be called […]

Once again, Christmas dinner won’t look like it has in the past for any of us. Who could ever have predicted the most important ingredient during the 2020 holiday dining season would be Webex and Microsoft Teams?  Big sigh.  With pandemic guidelines suggesting we all skip big gatherings, diners likely will cook smaller meals.  Or […]

When the state order came in November requiring restaurant dining rooms to close, some restaurants started hatching plans to turn what most definitely is a negative situation into something transformative. What better time to rip up the floor plan, build a new bar and add a stage and live music space? Diners aren’t spending any […]

Traditionally around here, just after Thanksgiving, we all start thinking about al fresco dining season. Ugh. Not really. Out of necessity, and by state order, only outdoor dining is allowed right now. It’s super not fun being outdoors with the sideways rain and all, but sometimes your will to dine at a restaurant muscles out […]