Bacon pancakes at Original Pancake House.

TNT Diner reader Heather e-mailed me asking me about the new Original Pancake House on Meridian in Puyallup. I dutifully went to research pancakes and found a great discovery - bacon pancakes. It’s an efficient and tasty way to eat breakfast - bacon and flapjacks all in one vessel. What’s not to like?
The Original Pancake House, a Portland-based chain, also has about 15 other kinds of pancakes besides bacon: Banana, coconut, potato, blueberry, buckwheat, sourdough, corn, wheat germ, granola, Georgia pecan, Hawaiian pineapple, blueberry, chocolate chip and the classic pigs in a blanket. And there's a lot more breakfast on the menu - in fact, that's all they serve.

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Puyallup High School grads from left, Wade Reynolds, Jordan Caine, Tim Satre, and Scott Reynolds, right, opened Bagel Boyz Bakery July 19 in Puyallup. Photo by Dean J. Koepfler/The News Tribune.

Tonya Reynolds remembers when the idea for Bagel Boyz Bistro was just small talk around her kitchen table.
Her sons – fraternal twins Wade and Scott Reynolds – were kvetching that there weren’t any bagel bakeries in Puyallup. They grabbed a notebook and started jotting down ideas – those ideas formulated the yeasty origins of Bagel Boyz Bistro, which they opened with Puyallup High School classmates Jordan Caine and Tim Satre on July 19 in downtown Puyallup.

The four partners – all 19 years old – are 2008 graduates of Puyallup High School. They run the business with help from friends and family like Tonya Reynolds. The four partners are self-funded – they paid cash to start up the business. Wade is the foodie. He worked as a line cook at The Rose restaurant in Puyallup. Jordan and Wade both were students in the culinary arts program at Puyallup High. Scott and Tim lean toward the business side of Bagel Boyz.

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By Sue Kidd and Craig Sailor

Freighthouse Square is a microcosm of what’s good about the culinary landscape in Tacoma: It’s big on variety. Lots of it.
Gyros, fish and chips, bubble tea, lumpia, fried chicken, bulgogi, curry chicken, burritos, Chicago-style hot dogs and scratch-baked cookies all can be found under one roof.
Save for one chain restaurant – Subway – Freighthouse Square is an incubator for small, family-owned and operated restaurants.
Freighthouse Square restaurants are a sincere reflection of Tacoma – a little big gritty and worn around the edges, but with hard-working people at the core. And there is quality noshing to be found there at fair prices.
As much as there are success stories, there are failures, too. Restaurants come and go: Sushi, Italian, Belgian and German eateries have all cycled through in recent months. The only positive of that failure is there always seems to be something new.
Restaurants thrive there, too. Wendy’s Vietnamese, Mediterranean Palace and Paya Fish and Chips have called Freighthouse home for about 20 years each.

Here, a look at 10 (and a few more) restaurants, all under one giant roof at Freighthouse Square.

Editor's note: This is the third installment of Ten-in-One, where we eat at 10 restaurants grouped in a compact area. Read our South Tacoma Way Ten-in-One report, published last October, and our McKinley Ten-in-One report, published in February.

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The strawberry cupcake served at Le Cupcake in Graham showcased the seasonality of the cupcakes.

A blueberry cupcake with a hidden center of caramelized blueberries and homemade caramel. A coconut-marshmallow-chocolate cupcake that’s a kitschy spin on a Hostess SnoBall. A peanut butter-fudge cupcake that made me a little weak, it was so rich and chewy. A strawberry cupcake with a base of buttery pound cake. There's a revolving daily cupcake menu at the new bakery-cafe Le Cupcake, which opened five weeks ago in Graham. You never know what will be in the display case. I like the element of cupcake surprise.

Owner Faith Guptill’s grandmother won awards for her cakes and desserts at the Puyallup Fair decades ago. Today, some of those recipes appear in the dessert case at Le Cupcake.

Guptill’s family has lived in Pierce County since her grandmother migrated to Tacoma from Sweden.

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Frozen custard from Old School Custard, with add-ins of sprinkles and Butterfinger pieces

I started the week with pie, so it seems natural to end the week with ice cream. Actually, custard, not ice cream, if you’re keeping tabs. They’re both frozen desserts, but frozen custard is so, so, so much better, I hesitate to even call it ice cream.

TNT Diner reader VibeGuy posted about Old School Custard in Bonney Lake on the pie thread Monday, immediately making me crave a taste. It’s an independently owned and operated store right next to Jersey Mike's, which I rated high for meaty subs in this article here.

I can see why VibeGuy is an enthusiastic fan of Old School. Frozen custard is the frosty princess of the ice cream universe

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By Craig Sailor
The News Tribune

One can be forgiven for strip mall overload. There’s only so many nail salons, tanning joints and Teriyaki #1’s a person can take before the eyes glaze over. And yet to dismiss the ubiquitous Asian restaurant simply because of its location would be a disservice to some potentially good eating.

Chili Thai is a three-restaurant chain (University Place, Puyallup and Lacey) that doesn’t stray far from the tried and true Thai-American strip mall formula. But it’s in the preparation and presentation of the food that gives these restaurants a little edge over their competitors. Quality ingredients – well prepared and presented on elaborate dishes, often with fresh orchids – are the hallmark of this eatery.

The setting: The University Place Chili Thai location tries for a somewhat upscale ambience with dark walls and booths but stumbles with mismatched furniture. A loud (visually and audibly) refrigerator emblazoned with Coke logos in the middle of the dining room gives the eatery a frat house feel.

Appetizers: We started with the reliable standby of chicken satay ($7.95/top photo) and were rewarded with four generously sized chicken skewers. Accompanied by peanut sauce, a pickled carrot-cucumber-onion salad, toast points and a mound of shredded carrots, the coconut milk marinated chicken had satisfyingly dark grill marks on it. Neither the sauce or seasoning took away from the savory pleasure of the chicken.

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The Rainbow roll at Sushi Island

Two dollar sushi rolls automatically make me suspicious. It makes me think of gas station sushi. Sushi is not like a cheap burrito. It takes skill to make.

I paid a visit to Sushi Island, a new South Hill sushi restaurant that opened last week, not knowing that menu prices were as cheap as the dollar store. But there it was: prices for maki rolls in the $1-$3 range. The rolls were four pieces, not the typical six to eight. Even with fewer pieces, it still was bargain sushi.

A deal is not necessarily something I want from sushi- specifically maki rolls.

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Pictured here is the entree Strip Loin of Beef, served at the fine dining service at Bates Technical College. Photo by Peter Haley/The News Tribune

Grilled sea scallops with a watercress lemon butter sauce, a chevre-stuffed artichoke with sorrel butter, and wild salmon noisettes with a ginger peach glaze. It all sounds super fussy — and that, it is.

But that’s just fine with Bates Technical College culinary instructor Roger Knapp, who, with a team of second-year Bates culinary students, introduced the college’s first fine dining service June 16 in a small dining room that flanks the Bates cafeteria. It’s billed simply “The Dining Room” on the menu, which is full of lofty ingredients and dishes with flair.

Knapp has his eyes on culinary credibility: accreditation of the school’s culinary arts program by the American Culinary Federation. The foodie stamp of approval from the ACF would boost Bates’ desirability as a culinary training institution. A fine dining service, Knapp says, is one piece of achieving accreditation.

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Coconut prawns at Woody's on the Water

I took another detour into happy land last week with a visit to a waterfront restaurant that a few TNT Diner readers recommended – Woody’s on the Water. (For my recent Happy Hour blog posts, see this story here, here and here.)

Happy hour is 3 p.m-6 p.m. daily at Woody’s, with bar eats half off during that time. TNT Diner reader gmaglenda raved about the coconut prawns ($5 during happy hour) at Woody’s, and I can see why – the flavors were a complicated meld of spicy, sour and sweet.

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The margherita pizza and ham and brie sandwich at Minoela. Craig Sailor/The News Tribune

For popcorn fiends who also like to nosh, it might be a duel between The Grand Cinema's popcorn – I know people who say they go to the Grand just for popcorn – and Minoela, the new bistro wine bar that Danielle Kartes opened last week next door to the nonprofit arthouse cinema off of Sixth and Fawcett. (For background on Kartes, read this story I wrote in May).

I don’t know if the popcorn really is better at the Grand, or if it tastes better because the environment provides far more interest than a generic chain movie theater. Regardless, the Grand’s popcorn makes for great snacking. But filling, it’s not.
Enter Minoela: it seems on first perusal the perfect place to grab a substantial something before a movie at the Grand. And, based on a first taste this week, nosh lovers will like Minoela.

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