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Sue Kidd is the Lifestyle Editor at The News Tribune and the ringleader for the Food and Home&Garden sections. She has worked as a food journalist at Northwest newspapers since 1993, most recently as a food writer, editor and restaurant reviewer in King County before joining The News Tribune in 2004. Her food obsessions at the moment are honey, cheese and oysters.
Craig Sailor is the Arts&Entertainment editor at The News Tribune. He grew up on a garlic farm near Gilroy, Calif. and now farms oysters in his spare time at Willapa Bay. He’s traveled the world from Kyoto/Kuala Lumpur/Hong Kong to Zanzibar in search of great food.
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The Bates Technical College’s Culinary Arts program will open its first ever student-run fine dining service June 16 at the downtown campus.
Roger Knapp, a culinary arts instructor at Bates, said the fine dining service will be one more level of training students need. He’s tweaking the menu, but entrees will include things like grilled sea scallops, stuffed lamb chops and wild salmon. Knapp described the menu as classic cuisine with a modern twist. A sample menu is included below.
“We’re making it like a real restaurant,” he said. “Students will be out front, taking orders.”
The El Gaucho burger, priced $8 on the happy hour menu. Photo by Peter Haley/The News Tribune.
It’s happy hour week at the TNT Diner blog. Why? Because we can all use a dose of happy. I’ll have reports of five happy hours around town this week. Today, read about El Gaucho. Tomorrow, you'll hear about Merende. Friday, you can read about Pacific Grill, Stanley & Seafort’s and Duke’s.
Now for today’s offering….
El Gaucho
El Gaucho’s happy hour usually makes me happy as a clam. Or at least that was the case before I sampled El Gaucho's clams. I’ve given them my designation as “Tacoma’s grittiest.” But the sand-laden clams at El Gaucho were just one of a few problems with their happy hour eats. Mostly happy hour there is a guaranteed good deal, and well executed - and the snazzy appeal of the deeply sunken dining room, a handsome room, tuxedoed servers and live piano music makes it a must-stop for any late night wooing you might need to do. Happy hour bar eats are half off during designated hours. A taste of what I sampled during two happy hour visits:
