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Saturday, October 27th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 09:30:27 am
Ed's Diner is on vacation until Nov. 5. But, please, talk turkey in the post below. Restaurant folks: Could you please tell me what your holiday hours and menus will be for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day? I want to know about holiday lutefisk dinners, too. Hey, breweries: Talk up your seasonal releases. Any pubs got cask beer festivals going on? It's free publicity, folks! Ho, ho, ho! Everyone's invited to visit The You Plate Special and comment among yourselves about anything you've eaten lately. I'll eat with you later. Ed.
Categories: All-Purpose Stuff
• 29 comments
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 08:03:15 am
 Turkey in Iraq, Thanksgiving Day 2003. (AP photo) I'm prepping for vacation and the deadlines that follow. Here's where you come in: What foods, beverages, restaurants, chefs -- and anything else culinary -- would you like to give thanks for this Thanksgiving? Here's the rule: It has to be in or near the South Sound. Here's an example: I'm thankful for Peterson Cheese in Auburn, distributors of world-class imported and domestic cheese. If you've purchased (and enjoyed) a chunk of good Pave d'Affinois or Vermont cheddar in the Puget Sound, chances are Peterson played a part. So tell me about that iconic burger drive-in on Highway 99, that chef who's taking tasty risks, or that vanilla porter at The Harmon. My story -- tentative headline: Ed Murrieta Gives Thanks -- will publish Nov. 16 in the TNT's GO section. Along with some of your comments. So get to commenting. Thanks. -- Ed Murrieta
Categories: Help Wanted
• 33 comments
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 01:38:16 pm
Sushi Revolution opened today on Tacoma Mall Boulevard (near the old Tony Roma's). It claims to be the largest conveyor belt, or kaiten, sushi restaurant in the Northwest. I dropped in for lunch today. While I forgot to carry my measuring tape, I could easily see how Sushi Revolution makes its big claim: the conveyor belt is double tracked, bending back on itself like one of those cattle-chute lines at airport security. Diners have not one, but two moving rows of sushi passing before them to choose from. Get 'em coming and going. Sushi Revolution seats 90 -- on par with Blue Island, a kaiten sushi restaurant that opened recently in Federal Way. Sushi Revolution's plates cost $1 to $3.50, priced at color-coded 50-cent increments. On opening day, some sushi-makers had a hard time distinguishing between $1, $2 and $3 plates -- tamago, or egg, sushi moved past me on the conveyor belt on various colored plates at various price points. ($1 was their true price.) I also spotted lots of fake crab. But it's only opening day. I'll be back. Sushi Revolution: 5525 Tacoma Mall Blvd., Suite D101; 253-475-5559. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
Categories: Restaurant openings
• 7 comments
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 09:11:24 am
A Seattle restaurateur who claims to have 30-plus years experience in the business is offering her consulting services to train restaurants and their servers in doing their jobs -- serving customers. "The number one reason customers don't return to a restaurant is poor service," Dorothy Frisch wrote on her Polished Service letterhead. "Most customers will not complain directly to the management, making damage control difficult. Likely they will not come back and could tell thousands of Internet readers to not go as well." Well, dear Internet readers, do you know why, in Frisch's estimation, bad service abounds? She says:
Management lacks time, inclination, resources and experience to train for service.
Management erroneously believes that by hiring an experienced server they have hired a well-trained server.
I see the need for Frisch's services all over town. Why, recently, a waitress at a Sixth Avenue hot spot rushed up to my lunch table and all but told my companion and myself that we were ready to order. "No," I told her, "we're not. Come back when we've read the menu." By the time she came back to take our order, I'm guessing, she'd been informed that two of her customers were News Tribune employees. (The owner had already stopped by my table for a semi-discrete chat.) The waitress was so nice to us from then on out that I thought she was going to fetch my pipe and slippers. I tipped low that day, because the waitress set the bar low to begin with. I'd rather have my face licked by a dog than my tail smooched by a server.
Categories: Service
• 13 comments
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 10:54:23 am
 Wanna buy a wine bar? Not the business, but the bar. Bacchante Wine & Essentials is being evicted from its North Prospect Street location.
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 10:39:48 am
A belated tip o' the mug goes to Jen Gridley, brewer at Fish Brewing Company in Olympia. Gridley's 2007 Old Woody English-style Old Ale won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver earlier this month. The 2006 edition of Old Woody won Silver at the World Beer Cup in Seattle. Old Woody carries hints of honey, vanilla, roasted nuts and sweet toasted grain. It's got a dry hop finish, with a little bit of oak. Fish releases Old Woody in the spring. It's generally available into early winter at Fish Tale Brew Pub and 99 Bottles beer boutique in Federal Way.  Fish Tale's Jen Gridley and her GABF gold.
Categories: Beverages
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 09:29:00 am
It's fitting, morbidly so, that this study was reported in the journal Obesity. It names culprits of corpulence: restaurants and customers. "Many chefs serve portions of food that are two to four times the size recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans," said a Clemson University food scientist who co-authored the study. "But they're driven in large part by customer expectations." Of course. Who's going to order 3 ounces of strip steak and 2 ounces of pasta, as the USDA recommends for each of these foods? Nearly half of 300 chefs surveyed said they serve 12 ounces of meat. Nearly a third serve 6 ounces of pasta; about 20 percent served 18 ounces or more of pasta. Seventy-six percent of chefs surveyed "felt they were indeed serving regular-sized portions." Fifty-eight percent said it was the customers' responsibility to regulate their consumption. Competition was cited as a driving factor for more, more, more. Interestingly, chefs over age 50 said they were more likely to serve smaller portions. I'll say this about restaurant nutrition: At culinary school, the one week devoted to nutrition was the week that the majority of my classmates played hookey, mentally and physically. My culinary school notebook is stuffed with 1,000 sheets of paper. I counted up my notes from nutrition week: nine pages. I have 25 pages on danish alone.
Categories: Industry stuff
• 16 comments
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 06:33:10 am
 I'm trying to love lutefisk. 'Tis lutefisk season and all that. On Sunday, I ate my first lutefisk of the season, in an-all-you-can-eat lutefisk feed at Normana Hall. My last encounter with lutefisk, two years ago, wasn't pretty. I said some things about the gelatinous lye-cured cod -- "phooey" and "ick," I believe -- that didn't set well with lutefisk-loving Scandinavians who reached all the way back to Leif Ericson's crossing of the Atlantic on a bellyfull of lutefisk in order to show me the disrespect I'd afforded their people's fish dish. So there I sat Sunday, before a paper plate of lutefisk. I watched some Scandinavians drown the gelatinous lye-cured cod in white gravy or melted butter and sprinkle on loads of allspice. Kind of like the Aztecs sprinkling chili powder on the flesh they ate to make it more appetizing; I can sink my teeth into that. Heck, with enough butter and gravy and spice, I could have eaten anything Winfield's cooked. Have I learned to love lutefisk? I'm getting there. The season's not over. There are a few more lutefisk feeds to hit. And there's a lot more lefse to eat, too. Lefse -- that's how I ate my lutefisk. I felt eyes watching me (I don't think it was Odin) when I stuffed globs of lye-cured cod into pieces of the potato flat bread. Yeah, lutefisk tacos, with white gravy salsa and a dash of allspice. I hope nothing happens when I'm spotted with my bottle of Tabasco sauce at the next lutefisk feed. 
Categories: Cool Things
• 7 comments
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 08:32:20 am
An urge for oysters this weekend deposited me at the bars of Pacific and Sea grills in downtown Tacoma. Both restaurants served oysters on the half shells, atop beds of ice, with cocktail and mignonette sauces. Sea Grill oysters had grit and grip. The shucker made a mess of the mantle, leaving shards of broken shell. The shucker also forgot to slip the knife beneath the meat. Those Quilcenes and Chef Creeks clung. At Pacific Grill, Kumamotos and all their bivalve brothers slid effortlessly -- and gritlessly -- from their shells. And that -- as I told my slurping companion -- is why we paid $25 for 12 oysters, instead of staying home and shucking our own. (Paying $12 for six gritty, clingy oysters? Research. Speaking of research, do you know how to shuck oysters? Can you clean a crab? Share your comments. I may net a story.) Oh, one last thing: I loved that spicy white Gru-Vee that Pacific Grill's server recommended when my slurping companion inquired about white wines by the glass. It was my first taste of the Austrian Gruner Veltliner grape. It started kind of dry and sweetened up on my tongue. It was perfect with oysters. But I wish my server had added one more thing to her recommendation: "And that's $11 per glass." Good thing my slurping companion slurped the Gru-Vee down. I'd have done a spit-take when the tab came. Next time I'll remember that asking the price of something isn't gauche; it's just plain common sense. Same goes for telling customers the prices of things.
Categories: Service
• 36 comments
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 02:22:15 pm
An English-style India Pale Ale by a home brewer from Allentown, Pa., won the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am today in Denver. "Next year," said Mark Emiley, a Federal Way home brewer, one of six from Puget Sound whose home brews were brewed by professional brewpubs and sent to GABF for competition. Check back for more details once the GABF puts out a press release. Friday, October 12th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 10:58:55 am
Does the post below taste bitter? Yeah, well ... Here's a sweet thing I've been working on from home: caramel. It's amazing what sugar does when it gets hot. Add butter and cream and a shot of vanilla and -- wow. Besides trying to figure out how to pronounce the word -- do you say "care-uh-mel" or "car-mull"? -- here are a few things I'm doing with the gooey good suff this weekend in advance of my deadline on Tuesday.  Chocolate-dipped caramels, on my deck.  Caramel paste baskets, on my deck. Want to see why you need to be safe when working with molten sugar? Click below.
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 08:16:10 am
The other day I blogged about a miserable service experience at a Tacoma restaurant. So bad, in fact, that the restaurant would have done better for its customers by outsourcing the servers' jobs to India. Now, a reader who claims to be a server -- and, more importantly, claims to have some dish on customers' bad behavior -- has a request:
I'd like to hear them too. It's Friday. This here forum is yours' through the weekend. But before you share your tales of customers gone wrong, I have one more anecdote from that Tacoma restaurant whose service staff needs better training and a lot more attention from the owners.
Categories: Service
• 13 comments
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 03:04:44 pm
 It’s lutefisk season in the Northwest. Here’s your guide to the lye-cured cod:
Oct. 20: Noon-8 p.m. Peninsula Lutheran Church, 6509 38th Avenue NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98335, 40th year of doing Lutefisk dinners. $15 for adults, 5 for youth 6-13, and 5 and under free. Lutefisk, Swedish Meatballs, Parsley carrots, boiled potatoes, lefse, flatbread, wheat bread, relish tray, icecream & butter cookies, and all the coffee/tea you want to wash it all down. Bake sale and White Elephant sale as well as Pickled Herring sold by the youth. Reserved tickets available by mailing your self addressed stamped envelope and first, second and third choice of dining times onthe hour or half hour, your name & address and check to above address, Tickets available at the door as well. No reserved seating tickets sold the day of the dinner but tables are scheduled for walk-in diners. Questions? Oct. 20: 11:40 A.M.-5:20 P.M.: 1st Lutheran church in Poulsbo 18920 4th Ave. NE Poulsbo WA with seating every 20 minutes. F a.m.ily style tables-lutefisk, meatballs, boiled potatoes, coleslaw with apples, lefse, ice cre a.m. & krumkake dessert) Tickets are presold and are on sale now at $20 per person for adults and $5 for children 6 to 12 and under 6 are free). The phone number for the church is 360-779-2622. Oct. 27: 1 P.M.-5 P.M.: Vesterdalen Lodge 2-131, Messiah Lutheran Church, Fourth & "H" Streets NE, Auburn, WA - Across the street from Auburn High School. Cost $15.00 each, Lutefisk and meatballs dinner with annual Bake Sale and Bazaar. Tickets are not sold at the door and no refunds are given at the door the day of the dinner. If you mail your check made out to Vesterdalen Sons of Norway, $15 per ticket, children 12 and under free. For information, call 253-852-0507 Oct. 28: 11 A.M.-4:30 P.M.: The Stanwood Lions Club at the Stanwood High School Lutefisk dinner. Call 360-629-3604 for more info. Oct. 28: 11:30-4:30 P.M.; Oslo Lodge 2-035, Sons of Norway, 1018 18th St., Bremerton, WA 98337 Lutefisk Dinner and Ladies Club Bazaar and Bake Sale. Our menu will be Lutefisk, meatballs, lefse, boiled potatoes, carrots, coleslaw, ice cream., and beverages. Our dinner is all you can eat. No reservations are needed, just come and pay at the door. For additional information please call (360) 373-1503. Cost Adults $20, Kids 6-12, $5. Nov. 3: 11 A.M.-5 P.M.: Poulsbo Lodge 2-044, 18891 Front Street NE, Poulsbo WA Adults are $18.00, children under 10 are $9.00. Lutefisk, meatballs, boiled potatoes, cooked carrots, coleslaw, lefse, and krumkake will be served. Dinner is served buffet style, all you can eat. The Poulsbo Leikarringen dancers will be dancing. Reservations are not required. Tickets are sold at the door. 360-779-5209. Nov. 10: Noon-5 P.M.: Christ the King Lutheran Church, 245 Valley Ave. East, Sumner, WA 98390. Lutefisk Dinner. $16 and children 10 and under $7. Phone 253-863-1142.
Categories: Cool Things
• 1 comment
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 10:35:07 am
Sometimes I joke –- but it's not really a joke –- that my dream restaurant is a fancy sit-down place with cafeteria-style self service. Not that I have anything against waiters or waitresses. I only have issues with servers like the ones I encountered at a Tacoma restaurant recently. I also have problems with restaurant owners who don't properly train their staff and manage to sit within earshot and do nothing while an episode like this transpired: Even though I clearly and correctly pronounced the ethnic entree I wanted, the waitress didn't understand. English appeared to be her primary language, as well as mine. So I understood exactly what was going on when she asked me to point to the entree on the menu. A few minutes later, another waitress brought a bowl of sliced onions, peppers and lemons to the table. "Are these yours," she asked. She looked like the deer caught in the headlights. I looked at her like the critic caught in the headlights. "I don't know," I said. "What are they?" She said: "I don't know. The cook just told me to bring them out to this table. That's all he said." My dinner companion and I pondered the possible condiments as we waited for our entree. Our entree arrived, carried by the first waitress, the one who needed the dish pointed out to her on the menu. "I'd like to know what that stuff's for too," she said. "The cook doesn't tell us very much about stuff." Figuring I should try this stuff with my dinner, I squirted lemon over the lamb and rice and nibbled on slivers of red onions and jalapenos between bites. It wasn't bad. But it also wasn't up to me as the diner to figure out.
Categories: Service
• 14 comments
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 01:58:22 pm
 A line in this morning's business story about a retail development that would raze a Tacoma burger institution caught my eye not because Little Holland's Mikie Burgers are threatened with extinction -- but because the story notes that the shoe-box-sized business "boasts that it's Tacoma's only frozen custard stand." Tacoma's perhaps, but not Pierce County's. Old School Frozen Custard opened recently in Bonney Lake, serving the East Coast-style confection that's made from sugar, cream and egg yolks. Old School claims it's the only frozen custard shop in Puget Sound. Frozen custard is made in machines that look like frozen yogurt or soft-serve ice cream machines, but frozen custard actually has less air incorporated into it during mixing. The result is more luscious than ice cream or yogurt. Little Holland is closed until Thursday, and Bonney Lake is a haul from my house. But I'll eat some frozen custard and report back soon. Monday, October 8th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 09:13:29 am
Dine, an upscale Chicago diner with the broad-shouldered hubris to sell $15 slices of red velvet cake, has figured out how to get good reviews: bait online restaurant raters with free booze and food. Yelpers mostly ate it up. The Wall Streets Journal reports on an event in August "for members of Yelp, a Web site where consumers post reviews and rate restaurants. The nearly 100 members were treated to an open bar, duck roulade appetizers and red velvet cupcakes for dessert. As a bonus, they all received certificates for discounts on subsequent meals. The result: a torrent of favorable reviews on Yelp. Most reviewers mentioned that they attended a Yelp event, though few highlighted that the food and drink was free." The story goes on to note the influence some blogs have over some restaurants, and the symbiotic relationships that have developed: restaurants using bloggers as culinary consultants, and restaurants bashing back at their critics via blogs. Chow.com lets staffers accept freebies -- except when reviewing, said Jane Goldman, the site's editor in chief. It's a recourses thing, she said. But, she said, the practice "subtly influences the recipient." "I accept the comps because I don't have a budget," says a blogger who says she eats free about two-thirds of the time says freebies don't sway her. "Just because a restaurant is hosting me...it doesn't mean I will write a glowing review." Dine's little Yelper gravy train cost the restaurant $1,500, the equivalent of the cost of 100 slices of its red velvet cake. That may sound sweet, but I think it stinks, and I've got receipts to prove it.
Categories: Reviewing
• 18 comments
Saturday, October 6th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 09:50:04 am
Major marijuana-growing by Vietnamese immigrants in Western Washington isn't just a law-enforcement problem. It's culinary problem, too. An Indochinese social worker from Seattle notes what happens when drug dealers open restaurants in order to launder illicit money. Cross 108 Authentic Vietnamese Chinese Cuisine in Kent off the social worker's list. Court documents say the restaurant was the nerve center of a million-dollar operation run by Hong Van Nguyen, who was sentenced last month to 14 years for trafficking marijuana and Ecstasy. If those two ingredients show up in your next bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup, just say "Whoa" to that kind of pho.
Categories: All-Purpose Stuff
• 12 comments
Friday, October 5th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 03:20:14 pm
On the heels of new conveyor-belt sushi restaurant in Federal Way, comes the expected opening of a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant in Tacoma. Sushi Revolution is currently under construction on Tacoma Mall Boulevard, near the old Tony Roma's The restaurant's Web site is also under construction. I can only tell you what the woman on the phone told me today as she test drove the conveyor belt (it works): Expect Sushi Revolution to open Oct. 24.
Categories: Restaurant openings
• 13 comments
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 08:14:23 am
Today, in GO, I write about lunch I love lunch. It's pretty much how I got the job I have today. In a nutshell, circa 1984: A junior college newspaper editor devises a column to explain away the many long, lingering lunches he and his scribe-and-shooter buddies called "research." Not much has changed, except my "Lunch on a Budget" concept now has a bigger budget. (Which seems a good time to say to the lady who ran the college newspaper: Thank you, Dr. Stephens, for giving me the freedom to learn my trade.) I've worked swing shift, graveyard and 9 to 5. A sit-down meal between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. -- with a book or over great conversation -- perked up any job I've had. Do you like lunch? Love it? What about it? Where do you go? What do you indulge in? It may look like I'm out to lunch, but I'm listening ...
Categories: Extra! Extra!
• 7 comments
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 04:51:35 pm
12th Street Diner has new owners, who plan to re-open later this month, according to a sign on the door. Meanwhile in Sumner, The Garden Cafe closes Oct. 14, according to an e-mail in my in-box. The Garden Cafe, currently owned by Sea Grill alum Steve Nogler, was originally opened by Troy Christian, who recently parted ways with Masa/Asado. I promise follow-ups as soon as I recover from deadlines.
Categories: Restaurant closings, Changes and sales
Monday, October 1st, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 05:25:39 pm
 If you ever wished you were in the proximity of an Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, it’ll be traveling through Pierce, Thurston and King counties later this month. At 27 feet long, 11 feet high and weighing 14,000 pounds -- the equivalent of 1 million hot dogs -- The Weinermobile is a tricked-out hot dog on a lightly toasted bun, right down to the mustard- and ketchup-colored seating for six. Oct. 19, 1313 Cooper Point Road, Olympia; noon-2 p.m. Oct. 19, 3130 S. 23rd St. Tacoma; 3-5 p.m. Oct. 20, 201 37th Ave. S.E., Puyallup; 9-11 a.m. Oct. 20, 1406 Lake Tapps Parkway E., Lake Tapps; noon-2 p.m. Oct. 20, 1702 Auburn Way N, Auburn; 3-5 p.m. Oct. 21, 17641 Garden Way N.E., Woodinville; 9-11 a.m. I quote from the press release: “Free Oscar Mayer Wiener Whistles, unique because of their four holes, will be distributed at each site.”
Categories: Cool Things
• 3 comments
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Ed's Diner
Looking for a place to eat? Don't know where to go? Don't know what you're hungry for? Search our restaurant guide. Search by the restaurant's name. Search by keyword (eg: korean fried chicken, wood-fired pizza). Search by proximity. You'll find links to maps, menus and more. Listen to Ed's song "My Lady of Tamales," in MP3.  Send comments, gossip or complaints to: ed.murrieta@thenewstribune.com. Or call: 253-597-8678. Got something to say? Here's the place to comment on and discuss what's on your plate and on your mind. Don't wait for me to post something to respond to. Keep up with the conversation Check out the latest comments on Ed's Diner. Category
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