East and West Cafe at the Tacoma Mall, which has been closed for remodeling, has set a date to re-open: Friday Sept. 5. The news comes from new manager Toi Britton, a former TNT staffer and a friend of East and West owner Vien Floyd.
Location:
East and West Cafe, 5319 Tacoma Mall Blvd., 253-475-7755

Here is the Drop-In Dining report from today's GO section. Drop-In Dining is a continuing series where a TNT staffer drops in unannounced and eats on the TNT's dime, then writes up a report about the experience. Have a restaurant you would like us to check out? Email tntdiner@thenewstribune.com.

Bistro Satsuma
5315 Point Fosdick Drive N.W., Gig Harbor; 253-858-5151
Hours: Lunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; dinner, 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; closed Sundays and Mondays
Online: www.chefsatsuma.com (mostly in Japanese)
Price range: $-$$

By Craig Sailor
craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com

The scene: Nicely appointed Japanese restaurant with tables and a sushi bar. Photos of the owner with Ichiro and other Seattle celebrities adorn the entry. Traditional Japanese music plays in the background.

Type of food: Gig Harbor’s Satsuma Bistro has some of the most impressive Japanese food I’ve had in Pierce County. And that’s coming from a guy who has eaten his way up the length of Japan.

Menu highlights: Bento box ($18, $27.50), nabeyaki udon ($10.25), sushi deluxe sampler ($18.50, 22.50), Washington roll ($6.75), chicken teriyaki ($9.75, $17.75).

People in the kitchen: Chef-owner Tak Suetsugu hails from the Satsuma region of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu (home of those delightful oranges). In addition to his restaurant, Suetsugu offers cooking classes and catering. He was the chef and owner of Nikko restaurant in Seattle’s Westin Hotel. Suetsugu makes his own sauces from scratch and doesn’t use MSG.

Dishes sampled: We sampled two appetizers. Deep-fried eggplant’s skin ($7.95) was a little too tough to eat, but the flesh in a sweet sauce melted in my mouth. It’s prepared with ginger, green onion and daikon. A cold soup ($6.50) made with somen (thin wheat noodles), egg custard, fish cake, onions and shiitake mushrooms in a sweet broth was a summer treat.

The Bento Box isn’t cheap, but it has to be the most stunning I’ve had this side of the Pacific Ocean. The separate compartments of the lacquered box came with salad, chicken katsu, fish cake, tofu shinoda in a thick sauce, tempura, sashimi, spicy tuna roll and grated daikon. Little touches like a wasabi “leaf,” carved fruit garnishes and a squid/shiso (herb)/oshinko (pickle) roll put it over the top. It’ll feed one really hungry diner or two mildly peckish eaters.

The nigiri sushi sampler is chef’s choice, but ours came with squid, hamachi, surf clam, ahi tuna, seared tuna, salmon, flying fish roe, eel, scallop and a spicy tuna roll. Each piece was fresh and carefully prepared. The nabeyaki udon’s (thick wheat noodles) chewy texture might put off some diners, but the steaming bowl arrived with tempura shrimp, fish cake and mushrooms in a mild broth.

Chicken teriyaki came with sides of soba (buckwheat) noodles and grated daikon. The teriyaki sauce was made as it is in Japan: a light consistency, not the soy sauce-flavored goop used in many teriyaki restaurants. Salmon shioyaki was broiled and lightly salted. It also was simply prepared with the soba and daikon.

We sampled the Washington roll which is made with smoked salmon, apples, cucumber, flying fish roe and imitation crab. It was different and delicious. Entrees are served with miso soup, rice and salad.

Service: Attentive and personal. But keep in mind, chef Suetsugu makes his food without shortcuts so this isn’t the place to go for a quick lunch. But it’s well worth the wait.

Most unexpected moment: The ika (squid) sushi came with a shiso leaf tucked between the rice and squid. This traditional way to make ika nigiri sushi is hard to find in U.S. restaurants. Shiso leaves are expensive, and most Japanese restaurants don’t use the strongly flavored herb.

Wild card: The bargain here is lunch, served only on weekdays. Prices go up for dinner. But, if money is no object, chef Suetsugu will prepare a 12-course Kaiseki (formal) dinner for $200 per person.

Pictured here: Chef Tak Suetsugu owns Bistro Satsuma, with his wife, Minae, in Gig Harbor where he perpares sushi and other Japanese cuisine. (Janet Jensen/The News Tribune)

The TNT Biz Buzz reported today that the Sonic chain is coming to Pierce County. It's slated for the intersection of 136th and Meridian in South Hill.

Read the story here.

It's the first Puget Sound location. Beyond seeing the commercials, I know nothing about the food at Sonic. Thoughts?

I'm back from a week of vacation at the coast, full of great seafood and an email inbox full of messages. At the top of the TNT Diner e-mail inbox is this request from a reader for a dim sum recommendation:

We love good dim sum and have only been able to find it in Seattle. Are there any restaurants in the Tacoma area serving authentic dim sum?
Thanks...
Gary

My favorite place for dim sum is closer than Seattle, but still quite a drive. Imperial Garden at the Great Wall Shopping Mall in Kent (near IKEA) serves dim sum until 5 p.m. I remember taking my son there for a restaurant review when he was a toddler and he marveled at the goldfish shaped dumplings. I marveled at everything else. It's one of those restaurants that treats kids supremely. Moms, make a note of it.

So retreating from King County and back to Pierce County. Where here can you eat great dim sum? Comment and let us know. Readers on this thread from 18 months ago claim there is a dearth of dim sum here. An undiscovered gem out there, anyone? Please share.

Imperial Garden: 18230 East Valley Highway, Suite 116, Great Wall Shopping, Kent; 425-656-0999

Foodie tip: 99 Ranch Market grocery store is the Great Wall Mall's version of PalDo World. After filling up on dimsum at Imperial Garden, you can meander over to 99 Ranch and shop for all kinds of great grocery supplies.

Back in May, the ownership of downtown Tacoma's sweet spot, Corina Bakery, changed hands.

Yes, it is still the Land of Cake. It is also becoming much more.

Seeing as how I'm fortunate enough to live a couple blocks away, I've popped in a few (OK, several) times to see the changes under new owners Mike and Molly Ott and baker Julie Rex.

I talked to Molly today, who ran down a list of new offerings at the bakery: a savory cheesecake with a walnut crust, olive tapenade and herbed cheese, to be spread on crackers or crostini; flaky butter croissants; rosemary sourdough loaves and French-style baguettes; and a savory bread pudding. Corina also can do special order gluten-free versions of most of its baked goods.

I can vouch for the huge muffins – my grandma would say Texas-size – with a puckery lemon glaze.

Julie says they're also working on a theme month for October showcasing the apples of the season, with a plan to feature similar seasonal ingredients a few times a year.

"We want to continue to expand the menu so it becomes more of a bistro," Molly adds. They're also hoping to acquire a beer and wine license. That way people who stop in for dessert could also have a bit of cheese and a glass of port for a change, Molly says.

But never fear, Julie says, the customer-favorite tall red velvet cake will stay. And her favorite?

"Asking if I have a favorite is like asking a parent if they favor one child over the other." she says with a laugh. "That's my diplomatic answer."

Fair enough. I, for one, am excited to see more locally made bread in Tacoma. Which brings me to a documentary freshly out on DVD that might be of interest to you all. It's about Edward Espe Brown, the Zen teacher and baker known for his groundbreaking "Tassajara Bread Book," which is nearly 40 years old.

I can't capture the charm of watching Ed hold forth on the enlightening pleasures of making a few loaves with your own hands. You'll have to rent it yourself.

Here's the trailer for a taste.

When Stadium Bistro waved good-bye in April, comments were a mixed bag. My favorite memory of the place didn't even involve real food. Virtual food, yes. The guys kicked my butt in a round of Cooking Mama for the Wii.

Unfortunately there are no wine tasting, coffee brewing or sauce simmering games for the Wii. Yet. (There should be!) When they make those games, perhaps I'll challenge some of the folks at the new businesses going into the old Bistro space.

I stopped by Monday afternoon to see what was going on in the place and chanced upon Stephen McConkey, one half of the team that started Sound Bites Sauce & Spread Co. a few months ago. Maybe you've sampled their wares at one of the 14 farmers markets they participate in. In Pierce County they do Sixth Ave., Gig Harbor, Puyallup and the Tacoma Farmers Market. And they're subletting kitchen space in the old Bistro spot. Sound Bites will prepare their sauces and spreads there and sell them in the wine bar. Stephen also confirmed that the building will retain its events room and that the small space next door will be a coffee shop.

Here's the description Sound Bites uses at its site, a bare bones page at the moment:

Sound Bites makes hand-crafted sauces and spreads from around the world, prepared with ingredients sourced from right here in the Pacific Northwest.
 
Visit us at a Puget Sound farmers market for delicious dips and sauces including hummus, pesto and chimichurri.
 
All of our products are made with varietal grapeseed oils from the Yakima Valley. Try our buttery Chardonnay Pesto, refreshing Garbanzo Hummus with Riesling Oil, and Chimichurri made with the rich flavor of Cabernet Sauvignon Oil.

 
I called Rich Hines, the other half of Sound Bites (and the president of the board for the Tacoma Farmers Market) to get his take on the neighborhood and the sauce-making biz.

"We don't know the opening timeline, but just last week they put in a door and window for the coffee shop," he said. He added that the building could be buzzing again in as little as two months.

He said he and Stephen are impressed with the hip "all-hours" activity of the neighborhood and are "excited about being part of that little food and beverage community that's forming in that building."

They're in talks with other wine bars and a Kent martini bar as well as local wholesalers, Rich said, adding that one goal is to put their sauces and spreads into local grocery stores.

"We've been getting calls from restaurants that feature hummus on their menus," he said. "They want to offer a locally made hummus, and we believe we're the only craft hummus makers in the Seattle-Tacoma area. Plus virtually every item in the container except the lemon juice is from the Northwest."

Company catch phrase: "Fiercely Local."

UPDATE: East and West Cafe at the Tacoma Mall, which has been closed for remodeling, has set a date to re-open: Friday Sept. 5. The news comes from new manager Toi Britton, a former TNT staffer and a friend of East and West owner Vien Floyd.

Fans of the East and West Cafe on Tacoma Mall Boulevard have been wondering why the Asian eatery has been closed this summer.

The answer: a back-to-the future change in management, and a remodel.

East and West founder Vien Floyd, 72, says she tried to retire, and turned the restaurant’s operation over to her son last year. But he decided the business wasn’t for him, and Floyd missed it.

So Floyd is coming back, with a new and improved kitchen and restaurant. She hopes to reopen some time in September.

A sign on the restaurant’s front door promises a return to “the same Vietnamese cooks and service you have come to expect over the past 15 years.”

Meanwhile, fans of the Proctor District East and West can enjoy Floyd-influenced cuisine. But the restaurant is now operated by a niece and her husband.

Restaurants located here:
Tacoma Mall location: 5319 Tacoma Mall Blvd
Tacoma web site here.
Proctor location: 2514 North Proctor St., 253-756-5092

Here is today's Drop-In Dining report from today's GO section. Drop-In Dining is a continuing series where a TNT staffer drops in unannounced and eats on the TNT's dime, then writes up a report about the experience. Have a restaurant you would like us to check out? Email tntdiner@thenewstribune.com.

Flying Tomato Italian Grill
10224 198th St. E., Graham; 253-875-0770.
Hours: Open 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 am.-10 p.m. Fridays, noon-10 p.m. Saturdays and noon-9 p.m. Sundays.

By Bill Hutchens
bill.hutchens@thenewstribune.com

The Scene: Cozy hearth-cafe dining meets trendy pasta kitchen. The one-room dining area is dimly lit but warm, quiet and inviting.

Type of food: Tuscany reinvented. Dishes range from build-your-own wood fired “pisas” ($11.99-$20.99) to fancy schmancy seafood and steak (with pasta, of course). All of the basic – and many not-so-basic – pasta dishes ($11.99-$19.99) are here, too, so you can order your spaghetti and meatballs or tricolor tortellini or go for the Marco Polo, fettuccine alfredo with white shrimp and scallops.

Menu highlights: The Flat-Iron Steak ($24.99) is served with sun-dried tomato steak butter, rigatoni and mizithra cheese (add caramelized onions and mushrooms or marsala wine for $3). And the Wood-fired Honey Smoked Salmon Fettuccine ($18.99) comes with huge chunks of tender honeyed salmon. The Dessert Trilogy ($9.99) is a sampling of cannolis, tiramisu and a dessert-of-the-month (currently a lemon sorbet) – or sub in some spumoni.

People in the kitchen: Owner and chef Gary Walker was a part-owner of popular University Place eatery Mama Stortini’s. He moved with that restaurant to Puyallup before he sold his shares to another partner, took some time off and then started up the Tomato. Born in Italy, he learned his culinary ethics from his mother, who could “make something out of nothing,” he said. The Tomato is closer to home, smaller and easier to manage, he said, and almost everything is made from scratch. “It’s comfort food,” he added, “with great tasting flavors and great family value.”

Dishes sampled: Our Flat-Iron Steak was tender and juicy at medium rare. And, as mentioned, the large bites of honey-smoked salmon overwhelmed the fettuccine – in a good way. The Flying Famous Cheese Bread ($7.99) and the toasted sun-dried tomato ravioli filled with smoked gouda ($7.99) were favorites from the appetizer menu. And our big fat calzone ($9.99) was “the biggest fattest calzone ever,” according to one young member of our group.

Service: Fast (really fast) and friendly. Our server took care of several full tables at once but was absolutely on-the-spot with beverages, appetizers, main dishes and stuff we didn’t think to ask for (such as extra napkins and extra butter for the bread).

Most unexpected moment: When the “dishes” came out, they were more like platters, piled high with pasta, even when pasta was the secondary component of a meal.

Wild card: After your meal, spin the big wheel at the front desk to win a free menu item for your next visit. For a while, Gary said, his dark humor got the best of him, and the wheel had a “You Lose” segment. Hitting that spot earned spinners a $5 gift certificate to Olive Garden.

Pictured here is Owner, Chef, General Manager Gary Walker with one of his signature dishes, lasagna. (Darren Breen / The News Tribune)

I had a woman call the newsroom Monday with a question. Where in Tacoma can she find prepared ready-to-eat dinners she can pick up, bring home and serve to her family of semi-non picky eaters?

It's a question I get from readers occasionally. I asked her if she had tried meals ready places where you can cook batches of meals, take them home and freeze them. She said she didn't have time for that and wasn't that kind of meal planner. She said she really just needs a reliable place where she can pick up prepared dinners on a whim. Oh, and the food must be good, too. Otherwise, she said she would just hit a drive-thru or order a pizza.

Can we help, she asked? I told her I would post here and ask TNT Diner readers where they go for good, fast prepared dinners. My advice was to put her favorite Thai restaurant on speed dial for those difficult nights (that's what I do). She seemed to want more ready-to-eat complete American style dinners, though. Thai takeout is not what she's looking for.

So readers, where do you get a quick dinner that will feed a family?

Gari watch is officially over. Mina, manager of Gari of Sushi, just e-mailed me to tell me that they will open Friday, as planned. Her e-mail: "We are for sure opening this Friday as we have passed all inspections. We are very excited!"

If you go, post a comment here and let TNT Diner readers know what you thought.

Gari of Sushi: 1209 S 38th St., Tacoma; 253-475-3456

Readers have been calling and e-mailing for a few weeks about the reopening of Gari of Sushi, which closed late last year after an electrical fire damaged the kitchen and lounge of the Lincoln neighborhood restaurant.
TNT Diner reader David Berg e-mailed last week, “Gari of Sushi is by far our favorite sushi place in the area, so we were disappointed when they hadn’t reopened by my wife’s birthday.”
Like many of its fans, the owners of Gari thought the restaurant would open in July. But as happens in the restaurant business, things don’t always go as planned. Construction delays, booths arrived late, some of the tables weren't what they wanted (they plan to get others), the chairs aren't quite working and will be replaced, etc. etc.
The good news: If they pass all inspections, Gari’s owners expect to reopen Friday.
Manager Mina Maxwell will update TNT Diner readers, so check back for updates as Friday gets closer.
I stopped by yesterday for a tour with Mina. What’s different? The layout. They moved the entrance to the parking lot side of the building. The restaurant is now separated into three dining areas. The lounge is gone. In its place, room for more diners. Mina said the restaurant will still serve alcohol, just without a lounge. A larger sushi bar flanks the kitchen. The decor is quite different. Custom stained glass from Big M Stained glass, located near the Tacoma Dome, separates the two main dining room. Spacious booths fill one dining area.
Some things at Gari remain, Mina said everyone is coming back, including chef-owner Kazuya “Kazu” Kamada, who was at the restaurant yesterday working on opening details. The menu will remain, but a few new rolls will be added to the menu. Said Mina as she and owner Mi Ja Lim tended final details yesterday, “We are so anxious to open. We know everyone is waiting.” Absolutely, we are.

Gari of Sushi: 1209 S 38th St., Tacoma; 253-475-3456

Here, a glimpse of the main dining room.

Want to see pictures of the interior? Click Read More.

=> Read more!

The Tacoma Farmers Market sent out a release a few minutes ago about a dinner at Terry's Berries in September.

Details from market manager Laura Edwards here:

Harvest Feast Tacoma ... September 13th ... get your tickets!

Join us for an evening on the farm in support of the Tacoma Farmers Market, our local farms, and the community our markets serve. That's right--the 6th Ave Farmers Market and Broadway Market bring you our first annual "Harvest Feast Tacoma."

This elegantly casual dining affair will be an event to remember! Fine cuisine that is locally grown and "chefed" will be served white-linen style in the open air of Terry's Berries Farm on September 13, from 5 - 9 pm. The $75 price includes locally grown and crafted beer wine, as well as local and handcrafted cheeses among other delightful appetizers, farm tours on this real working farm, market street musicians and entertainers will be performing throughout the evening, and last but not least--a multicourse buffet prepared by Tacoma's top chefs using all locally grown ingredients.

I cannot ruin the delightful surprise by revealing all the dishes, but I can tell you that Charlie from Primo Grill will be on site all day preparing a pit-roasted locally-grown pig from Cheryl the Pig Lady's farm. I can also tell you that we'll close the meal with Old Milwaukee's famous Tres Leches cake, among other sweets. All other accompaniments will remain a secret to be discovered by the first 100 locavores who purchase tickets for Harvest Feast Tacoma.

Tickets are available at both markets (information booth), by calling Laura at 253-272-7077, or at Brown Paper Tickets

When: Saturday, September 13, 2008, 5:00 - 9:00 PM
Where: Terry's Berries Farm, 4520 River Road, Tacoma
Cost: $75 Per Person
Contact: Laura Edwards, Manager, Tacoma Farmers Market; 253-272-7077 or laura@tacomafarmersmarket.com

TNT Adventure Editor Jeff Mayor had an encounter with paprikash at the Proctor Farmers Market last weekend. He found the Hungarian dish – chicken with a sour cream sauce that typically is served with some kind of pasta or dumpling or another starch– at the booth of Best of Budapest, run by Kristi Dohring. You might recognize Kristi from the Proctor Market on Saturdays and Tacoma Broadway Market on Thursdays. I just got off the phone with Kristi and she said she hopes to open a restaurant this winter in the South Sound area. She is working out details now.

Writes Jeff about Kristi and her booth:

Whenever I go to a farmer’s market, I expect to see the unexpected. But at Saturday’s Proctor farmer’s market I came across something so familiar that it was unexpected.

Among the strange flowers and organic veggies was Kristi Dohring and her Best of Budapest stand. What stopped me was the chicken paprikash that topped her menu. It’s my favorite dish from my Hungarian heritage and the only I have mastered in the kitchen.

For me, paprikash is all about the sauce. Hers was thick, the way I like it. But it was more red and spicy. Dohring said she uses tomatoes, peppers and a spicy paprika in her version.

After we compared notes, Dohring talked about her Olympia catering business and her dreams of opening a Hungarian restaurant in the South Sound.

Given my on encounter, I think she’s off to a good start. Who knew I’d find a taste of home here in the Northwest?

You learn more about Dohring at thebestofbudapest.com.

Jeffrey P. Mayor, The News Tribune

Our weekly Business Q&A again turned its focus to restaurants today as reporter Brian Everstine sat down with Kelly Wolff to talk about the opening of Jimmy John's near the mall.

Wolff, a UPS grad, and her sister had run franchises before, "including a tea shop and a Starbucks in their hometown of Minneapolis." Among the highlights from Wolff's comments:

- I think franchises are a good thing because they are consistent. People know what to get, people know what to expect. It forces everybody to put their best foot forward.

- We’ve had customers say they’d drive from Olympia to Seattle just to go to Jimmy John’s and now they’re like, “We only have to drive to Tacoma.”

- It makes me feel really good and the staff loves, loves, loves working here, and that’s exciting.

Read the full meal deal here.

Last Friday, we started a new restaurant series in our GO entertainment section called Drop-In Dining. Click here to read my report last week about Honey Pig on South Tacoma Way.

Drop-In Dining reports will be written by TNT staffers. We drop in unannounced, pay for our own meal and write up our experience based on a single visit. The restaurants we're trying are all new or new to us, and will range from burger shacks to linen and fine china restaurants. Have a suggestion for a restaurant we should try? E-mail us at tntdiner@thenewstribune.com.

Craig Hill, our Adventure writer, wrote a report about Scale Burger, a hole-in-the-wall sort of place in Elbe in today's GO section. Here it is:

Scaleburgers
54109 Highway 7, Elbe; 360-569-2247
Hours: Open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Price Range: $

By Craig Hill
craig.hill@thenewstribune.com

The scene: Scaleburgers pays homage to its weigh station roots with a large stump and an old iron block placed around the burger stand. Large semi-truck tires are used as planters. All seating is outdoors at green picnic tables shaded by green umbrellas. Food is served on orange-and-red trays, and customers’ orders are identified by playing cards instead of numbers. The parking area includes a kiosk with maps and information about exploring nearby Mount Rainier National Park.

Type of food: As the name implies, Scaleburgers primarily serves hamburgers. It also serves chicken sandwiches, vegetarian sandwiches, onion rings, chili, fries and chili fries. There’s no kids menu, but Scaleburgers offers kid favorites like hot dogs, corn dogs and chicken nuggets.

“I think what people like about us is that we always make sure we have fresh ingredients,” Scaleburgers owner Cora Adams said. Adams buys her hamburger from a commercial butcher in Olympia.

Menu highlights: The most popular items on the menu are the chocolate hand-dipped shakes ($3.75) and malts ($4.15), as well as the Overload ($6.15) and Hot Brakes ($5.75) burgers. The old-fashioned shakes come in 20-ounce paper cups. The Overload is a 1/4-pound patty with two slices of American cheese, two pieces of bacon, lettuce, pickle, onion, tomato and a mayonnaise-ketchup sauce. The 1/4-pound Hot Brakes has two slices of Swiss cheese, jalapeño peppers and the sauce.

“The Hot Brakes is getting more and more popular,” Cora Adams said.

People in the kitchen: Husband and wife Gayle and Cora Adams bought Ashford’s logging truck weigh station in 1969 and moved it to Elbe. With the proliferation of electric scales, the scale shack soon became unnecessary so the Adamses turned the tiny building into a burger stand in 1985. “I turned to what I knew when I was a kid,” Cora Adams said. “Making milkshakes.”

Cora still cooks some days, but also has four to six employees per day in the kitchen.

Dishes sampled: Our party of four started with the classic: an Overload burger with a chocolate malt. The malt came first, giving us something to keep us busy – and the kids quiet – while we waited for the burger and the rest of our order.

We skipped the special sauce, but with the bun barely able to contain the rest of ingredients, the Overload still lived up to its name.

The Overload was the biggest hit at our table, but the dark brown onion rings ($3.85) and malt were close behind. And the kids got creative ordering a marshmallow shake ($3.75).

The fried chicken fillet with cheese sandwich ($6.90) was adorned more simply than the Overload with just mayo and lettuce.

Unlike sodium-packed fast-food fries, the chunky French fries ($2.45) were lightly salted.

We had fun using these hefty fries in place of spoons to tackle the chili ($3.05), which saved us from having to order the $5.25 chili fries.

We were all stuffed when we were done – glad we didn’t pay the extra $2 for an extra patty on the burger – but not too full to pass on Scaleburgers’ softball-size chocolate ice cream cone ($3.15).

Service: This is not a McDonald’s experience. Count on waiting 10 to 15 minutes – longer if it’s busy – while your burger cooks. Let’s face it, Elbe is a long drive for a burger and a shake. However, Scaleburgers will deliver if you pay the FedEx bill. Adams says she has mailed burgers as far away as Florida.

Most unexpected moment: At one point during lunch, a strong gust of wind blew a half-full cup of pop across the table.

Wild card: Handwritten signs in the window explain that all animals must be left in the car and smoking is prohibited within 25 feet of the shack.

Particulars: Scaleburgers accepts only cash. The nearest public restroom is a mile down the road at Rocky Point Campground, but guests often use the garden hose on the side of the building to wash their hands and their kids’ faces. The burger shack is wheelchair accessible, but the seating area is in a gravel lot, which could make wheelchair navigation tricky.

Craig Hill: 253-597-8497

Picured here is Keisha Olson of Everett contemplating her lunch at Scaleburgers in Elbe. The place used to be a log scaling station. (Peter Haley / The News Tribune)

If you're going to open a restaurant that specializes in gospel music, who do you call to book? Crystal Aikin, of course.

So it's a good thing that Steven Ling, who plans on opening Stephanie's Gospel and Jazz in downtown Tacoma sometime in mid to late September, is close friends with Aikin. She was one of the first people he called once he got the keys to the restaurant space. He also called musician Michael Powers. "(Michael) said let me know when you open up, I’ll be there," said Steven when I talked to him on the phone a few minutes ago.

The location for Stephanie's is a familiar one for restaurants. It's the old La Costa restaurant at 928 Pacific Avenue. Another restaurant had a short life there. Gringo de loco closed in May after being open for about a week.

Steven stumbled on the location while downtown with business partners. "I was down here for a meeting with a few business associates. I was parked right outside the restaurant. I said, 'Let’s go eat.' I saw the 'for lease' sign and I thought it made sense. I called the guy (leasing it) right then and I met him down there that Sunday. I walked through the place. He was just talking, but I tuned him out. I was looking and seeing what it could be. I said, I want it," Steven said.

Ling has a background in restaurants. He worked the kitchen at Djembe Soul, a restaurant formerly on Commerce Street (near Galanga Thai). He also says he was an investor in Djembe, but it was one of those ventures that was not meant to be. Lessons learned, of course.

So how about the food at Stephanie's? It'll be eclectic, Steven said. He'll draw on his foundation of Southern food (his aunt and uncle owned a southern restaurant in Long Island and he grew up eating and cooking there). He'll also have Italian food on the menu. The restaurant will be full service with a bar.

Watch here for an update as Steven gets closer to opening.

There are some new faces behind the bar at what used to be Ida's Pub on St. Helens Avenue in Tacoma.

Brock Leach and Jonathan Rouse bought the space in mid-May and have been running their new bar, the Mix, for about a month and a half.

The two are teachers – Brock teaches math at community college, and Jonathan teaches French at Puyallup High School – and it's their first foray into bar ownership.

Though the two were regulars at Ida's.

"The whole idea behind the name was because we've been coming here for years and it's always been a mix of people from all walks of life: white collar/blue collar, young/old, gay/straight – and the fact we make mixed drinks," says Brock.

It's that same sort of diverse crowd that's still coming through the doors for weekend karaoke and a place to chill.
Jonathan says the pair would like to open up the space with new lighting and paint, but since they're leasing, they won't be making any structural changes.

Fair enough. The 1904 building that Mix shares with Puget Sound Pizza and the Webster Apartments, along with a handful of other small businesses, is regal indeed, which I can attest to. I lived above Ida's when I first moved to T-town, the clang of my old radiators adding a top note to the music downstairs.

The grand opening isn't till September, most likely, but you can try a Mix signature cocktail (vodka, cranberry, pineapple, OJ, grenadine and black raspberry liqueur) anytime.

The Mix
635 St. Helens Ave.
Tacoma

Like bacon, soup is not exactly food fodder for August, (although it's not really summery or hot or anything), but I bring it up anyway because it's what I plan to write about for the food section in September-ish, probably sometime after the bacon dessert story.

I stopped in at Infinite Soups last Thursday to talk soup with co-owner Wendy Clapp (full disclosure: Clapp and Infinite cohorts Laura Adams and Todd DeShazo used to run Cafe Trib here). I ordered a cup of avocado corn chowder and we chatted about the making of soup. Good, delicious soup. She'll be a great source for the story.

I'd like to branch out into soups of varying cultures and construction. Like the samlah kako soup at Mitapeap Khmer, a Cambodian restaurant off of 72nd and Portland. I lunched with Arts & Entertainment editor Craig Sailor there a few weeks ago and we started a conversation with chef and co-owner Tharath Eang about his samlah kako. He says the flavor punch in the green curry soup is roasted rice powder. Agreed. I like the chunks of pumpkin and eggplant that make this deeply flavored soup a seriously hearty fall dish. Yet still, I crave it in August. Such a good soup. In the category of stew, Eang used to have a great beef stew on the menu. It was deliciously hearty and punched with star anise, the kind of stew that commands an accompanying baguette. He says he'll bring the stew back on the menu soon, but will make it if a customer requests. Believe me, I will be requesting. So should you.

So forget that it's August. Help me get started on the soup story. Who else should I talk to? Which restaurants here have great soups? Tell me, I might be able to score you a recipe.

UPDATE 8/13: Mina, manager of Gari of Sushi, sent us this e-mail last night (and she also commented here):

Thank you for stopping by and checking in on us. We are in final preparations for re-opening. We are hoping that by the end of this week, all building inspections will be completed and passed. And we have scheduled for the Health Department to come on the 19th of this month. So if everything goes good with no problems, we should be opening on Aug 22 (friday).

****
I have stopped by. I have left a note. I have left messages. I have peered inside the window, knocking on the door for, oh, about 10 minutes it seemed. No sign of life.

Gari of Sushi, where are you?

According to the liquor board web site, their liquor application was approved July 29. Surely, that's a sign of progress?

TNT Diner blog reader Duggm commented on a blog post here that mid August is the opening date. Is that right?

I'd like to know. Anyone else have solid knowledge about when Gari of Sushi is opening? Please post.

More background on Gari of Sushi here.

So, I'm into this whole bacon thing with Sue because, well, bacon is a staple of my diet.

I was having a suprisingly non-bacon lunch with my buddy EJ, and he mentioned he'd tried some bacon beer during a recent whale-watching excursion up north. Got me curious. (EJ suggested that bacon beer is what happens when you run normal beer through a "bacon filter." While I'm skeptical, I'm not ruling it out.)

A quick Googleskim seems to indicate bacon beer is more of an Oktoberfestian beverage. Suggestions include washing down a slice of bacon apple pie with some bacony fermented beverage(s).

Fakin' bacon? This item is for you vegheads.

As for EJ's bacon beer experience, he informs it took place at the San Juan Brewing Company in Friday Harbor. Looks like the company bar is known as the Front Street Alehouse.

A quick check of the menu didn't turn up any beverages. But excuse me while I go all Elvis Presley on you and suggest that the restaurant add some bacony goodness to its Peanut Butter and M&M Sandwich on French Bread. Defib, STAT!

Are there any bacon beers closer to home?

Reporter Bill Hutchens and I have been on a recon mission for bacon. Sweet, sweet bacon.

It started with a conversation in our pod a few months ago about bacon and its universal appeal. Salty, smoky, chewy, what's not to love (besides the whole artery clogging thing, of course)? Our premise: we love bacon so much, it could be dessert, right? Right? Or at least that's our operating premise for a story for the Wednesday food section. I have to say I've been talking up the story and I've been pretty surprised to meet so many people who have scoffed at our lust for bacon dessert. To us? It makes perfect sense. What's there not to love? Bacon? Dessert? Come on.

We thought maybe we ought to consult some pros, make sure we weren't far off base. We enlisted restaurant owners William and Shannon Mueller of Babblin' Babs Bistro in Proctor, to talk recipes. William concocted bacon zen right off the top of his head. Take a look:

Elvis cookie: Peanut butter cookie with chunks of dried banana chips and pepper praline bacon bits.

Pepper praline bacon bits: Cooked, chopped bacon tossed in sugar, cayenne, worcestershire sauce and butter. Good sprinkled on, well, anything really.

Maple praline ice cream: Eggs, custard, vanilla and maple syrup with some of the pepper praline bacon bits.

Chocolate covered bacon: Dipped in melted chocolate and coated with coconut and nuts. A fun twist on an Almond Joy.

There were others, but we'll save them for the article.

A question: Which local restaurant desserts should have an added twist of bacon? Or, even better, is anyone serving bacon desserts here?

Here, a few pictures of the bacon-y creations courtesy of William at Babblin Babs. Watch for the bacon dessert story in September.

BEFORE (choco covered bacon):

AFTER:

Leave it to a breed called the Golden 300 to lay the perfect egg.

A fat, orange, glossy duck egg.

Can't quite picture it? Allow me:

I've been on the hunt for these luscious specimens for a while. I see them often at the farmers markets in Seattle, but haven't found any in Tacoma. Sue tells me to check out Pal-Do World in Lakewood.

Meantime, I had to check in with one of my favorite little farms on Vashon Island, Sea Breeze. Their property sits next to a home belonging to a co-worker's sister, so I've admired their pigs from afar.

I chatted today with Charlie Rogers, who manages Sea Breeze's farmers market and kitchen operations. Turns out the farm opened a retail shop in downtown Vashon about two weeks ago. You can check them out at 17635 100th Ave. S.W. (it's one block west of the main highway).

They're offering ready-to-eat meals, with a rotating seasonal menu. On Wednesday, that meant rosemary lamb chops and pork-fried potatoes with aioli, among other bites.

Meanwhile, Sea Breeze also sells its rustic pork paté, lamb shanks, kielbasa, fresh ricotta and more products of what the farm calls its "beyond organic" approach. That means no pesticides, no antibiotics, no nothin'.

But back to those golden eggs. Rogers has no qualms about gilding the lily.

"I like to make brownies with them," he says. "They're like the pre-eminent eggs for baking. … Really rich."

He says they have more of a toothsome bite than chicken eggs when fried, but "beat up beautifully for omelets or scrambled eggs."

Give me that and a pinch of sea salt, and I'll be set.

Anyone else been smitten by duck eggs? Seen them on local menus? Share your finds.

The New York Times has a fascinating article today about the human sense of smell. A researcher quoted in the piece offers this little at-home experiment.

Get yourself a bag of gourmet jelly beans (I splurge on the sugar pellets in bulk at Metropolitan Market) and taste each flavor. Then hold your nose and give the beans another pass. What happens? No nose means no taste except a bit of sweetness, right? It's no coincidence that wine experts wax on about a bottle's smell. It's intimately intwined with taste. (Although I've never been able to pick up on the tobacco or leather undertones that some wine critics cite. Maybe my sinuses need a good shot of wasabi.)

More from the article:

Olfaction is an ancient sense, the key by which our earliest forebears learned to approach or slink off. Yet the right aroma can evoke such vivid, whole body sensations that we feel life’s permanent newness, the grounding of now.

Anyone care for a madeleine?

That last line is the one that resonated for me. I get a whiff of basil, and I float back to the first summer I spent living away from home as a young adult. I was interning at a newspaper in Springfield, Ill., and had been gifted a little pot of basil for my apartment balcony. It was the first time I'd been fully in charge of feeding and caring for myself, and my first homemade tomato sauce with shards of hand-torn basil was transporting.

I'm sure I have a thousand more sense memories if I sat down to parse it. But I want to hear from you guys. What smell sends you back?

Hi.

Breakfast seems like a promising platform on which to introduce myself. My name is Kelly, and I'm a copy editor at The News Tribune. I also write for our blog GritCity. But I'll be pitching in here on the Diner, too.

Maybe it's my voyeur side, but I'm one of those people who watches what comes out of the kitchen and what table it's headed to.

I post food pictures on MySpace.

I want to know what you're eating, and how it was.

This site gets my obsession. Photographer Jon Huck takes portraits of people and what they ate for breakfast.

The images have an intimate quietness I dig, capturing that moment of stillness in the morning when there's a breeze through the window and fresh strawberry jam, that sweet balm.

It's almost enough to make me an optimist.

Anyone been out in the berry fields yet this year? I fear I missed strawberry season, but with this chilly, wet, late summer, maybe there's a flat of stragglers left over that'd translate to some jam or a simple no-cook pie. I remember one summer back home in Illinois where we macerated tiny homegrown berries with a little sugar, then piled them in a baked pie crust and let the whole thing ooze and chill till it reached ambrosial sweetness.

How 'bout it, any U-pick reports out there?

Thanks to a reader tip, my story about pie is well underway.

This morning, I was amid pie. As in a dozen bowls of pie fillings (peach, raspberry, pumpkin, apple), and a good dozen or so par-baked pie crusts. Assembling them was self-proclaimed Pie Goddess Suzie Sidhu at Cafe Panini in Enumclaw. East Pierce county types might remember her from the Sweet Shoppe in Buckley (and she still lives in Buckley). Earlier this year she took honors at a Food Network food challenge. Her winning pie? Well, you'll have to read next Wednesday's food section to find that out.

Suzie told me interesting things about how to construct an award-winning pie, and now I'm in the mood to eat it. Which South Sound restaurants or bakeries have great pie? Especially fruit pie. I could really go for a slice of blackberry ... right.... now.

Forgive me for blog cross pollinating here, but in my other job as a garden blogger here at the TNT, I have become smitten with lavender. Smelling it, growing it, eating it. I've shared that last nugget lately, and people look at me like I'm nuts. Why would you want to eat something that tastes like granny's bath salts, right?

I thought that too before I actually ate lavender: I was visiting Chef Jerry Traunfeld in the kitchen at the Herbfarm years ago for a chef profile I wrote while at another newspaper. He was making a foam soup (yes, soup). I'm pretty sure it was cantaloupe. It had lavender in it. I thought he was nuts. Then I tasted it. Whoa. Of course in his hands, any ingredient magically worked. In my hands? Not so much. Cooking with lavender at home takes experience. I'm pretty terrible at it.

Instead of cooking (badly) with it, I'd like to just eat it at someone's restaurant. So in the South Sound, who has lavender on the menu? Where can it be found? It seems I rarely see it on menus. What's the reason for that? Too weird an ingredient?

Pat Nagle, who brought Tacoma the Harmon 10 years ago and recently opened The HUB, is the focus of today's Q&A from Business. Here are some of the highlights:

- "Business is actually right on target"

- "... I believe in Tacoma. I believe in being part of the community."

- "I’m a Cougar and I’m a Tacoman, and I’ve got this underdog attitude."

See the full interview here.

I have been in search of banh mi, those tasty Vietnamese salad sandwiches, since coming to Tacoma to be The News Tribune's food editor (2004, if you're taking notes).

I was introduced to them in Seattle by my friend, food writer Matthew Amster-Burton. Just head to the intersection of 12th and Jackson in the International District to find the banh mi collective. On one corner is Seattle Deli. Just steps from there is Saigon Deli. There used to be another shop, Banh Mi 88, but it looks as if it has closed. Of course, there are other shops nearby that sell them, but I like 12th and Jackson, that neighborhood, best.

My operating premise: Grab two sandwiches (both for the low price of under $5, of course) and hoof over to Safeco for a Mariner's game. Forget ballpark dogs, I'll take mine banh mi, thanks (plus maybe barbecued pork from Kau Kau).

I know banh mi hit a frenzy five or so years ago in Seattle, and now the sandwiches are just another cheap bite in the culinary landscape there, but I don't think I have found enough places that make them in Tacoma. With my lunch budget shrinking thanks to (insert generic rising gas price reference here), I'm restarting my prowl for cheap, good sandwiches. So far, I've only found banh mi at Vicala Market (next door to LeLe on MLK) and at the East Asia Supermarket on 38th

So banh mi collective in Tacoma, where is it?

Connie’s Brickhouse closed one June afternoon as a bar. It reopened a few weeks later, July 11, as a family diner.

Connie Johnson has owned the Brickhouse at 1213 S. 56th St. for 21 years, most of that time living life as a bar that dabbled very little in food. Now, it's sans the booze, serving things like burgers and $3 kids meals.

“We’re making ourselves over as a family place. We want families with kids in here,” said Erika Kerns, manager. Kerns came to know the bar as a patron six years ago, but wound up friends and then business partners with Johnson. Kerns has a background in restaurants, managing at Tony Romas restaurants, and for other national chains.

It’s a partnership in the kitchen. Johnson makes the specials, Kerns makes the desserts. Kerns, a self-taught cook, said they both like to put a comfort spin on the food. Prices, she said, will be kept recession friendly. Nothing over $9 on the menu, and kids meals are in the $2 to $3 range.

On the menu now: Burgers, fries, fried chicken and daily specials like chicken enchiladas.

On the menu soon: Paninis and wraps.

Restaurant details:
1213 South 56th Street
253-475-2215
Hours right now are 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Posted by Sue Kidd, Food Editor