Today I stopped at the Forza at 10240 Bridgeport Way in Lakewood. There are 21 Forza Coffee Company locations in the Puget Sound area, which is interesting since there were 23 locations in February 2011 when I used the Forza at 1202 South Union as my new place of the day. Wonder what happened to the other two locations.
Anyway, this is an especially nice place to have coffee. It has a freestanding fireplace and plenty of comfy chairs.
Dear daughter and I have a rule while traveling. No chain restaurants except Starbucks. We tried to do no chain restaurants at all, but found that we missed a good cup of coffee (me) or an iced tea lemonade (her) too much. Today we were traveling, which is sad, but we were running errands and needed a brake. We stopped at the Starbucks at 1723 South 72nd Street, Tacoma.
The Spar at 2121 North 30th Street
Tacoma, WA 98403 is another Tacoma institution. Yelp says that The Spar is the oldest tavern in Tacoma. That thing that I learned tonight is that I can now bring my teen here for lunch or dinner up until 8 pm. Good to know.
According to Wikipedia, McDonald’s is “the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries”. Today I stopped to snap a photo of the McDonald’s at 2203 North Pearl in Tacoma. We didn’t actually go inside, but admired the almost art like display created by the Big Toy.
Dear daughter and I needed to stop for a quick nosh and we ended up sharing yellow curry with tofu at the Oriental Noodle & Grill at 1620 South Mildred in Tacoma. It is located in a strip center surrounded by other strip centers and freestanding retail buildings. The mural on the outside is a nice touch and the inside is also more than I would have expected. The meal was tasty and the service was excellent.
I don’t especially enjoy the South Hill area of Puyallup, but there I was looking for a place to grab dinner before an appointment. That area of town has block after block of chain restaurants and we were leaning towards Ivars when I spotted My Greek and Italian Restaurant at 13333 Meridian Avenue East in a small strip center. I had the steak salad with blue cheese crumbled on top and it was very good. Dear daughter had a shrimp dish which she enjoyed. Service was fast and friendly. I’d really like to go back and try the flaming cheese and hear the live music. I loved that in the sea of chain restaurant My Greek and Italian Restaurant is family owned.
http://www.mygreekanditalianrestaurant.com/index.html
Update: I went by today (7/31/2012) and the space was empty. Their website says that they are moving to Sunrise Village as of September 2012.
After work, I meant some wonderful friends at the Tempest Lounge at 913 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Tacoma. The food was delicious, the service was spot on, the atmosphere was retro and the company was grand 😀
http://www.tempestlounge.com/
On 9/11/12 The owner of the Tempest announced that she is closing the bar.
Katie Downs at 3211 Ruston Way has the best pizza in the Puget Sound. The Weekly Volcano’s 2011 Tournament of Pizza Champion had 64 competitors and Katie Downs came out on top
Now I hadn’t actually gone to Katie Downs for pizza, but while I was there my dear daughter called wanting me to stop for thai food. I talked her into wanting pizza instead and brought home a double cheese, pesto and fresh tomato pie. It was delicious!
I had a little time to stop for dinner and didn’t want fast food, but didn’t have the time or funds for extra nice. And I’d been meaning to stop at Happy Dragon Chinese at 5104 Sixth Avenue, Tacoma. It was an early dinner for me and I was their only customer, though a couple of folks came in for take out. I ordered the curry chicken and it was good and plenty for two meals. The meal was served with white rice at no additional cost, which isn’t always the case now a days.
We hadn’t lived in Tacoma all too long before we discovered Mrs. Frisby’s Bakery at 710 South 38th Street in the Lincoln District. We would go there every so often. I was fond of their moist, delicious brand muffins and my husband like their bear claws. When our daughter was little we would take her to watch the ladies decorating cakes. The bakery had been around since 1930 and closed in 2000. The space was vacant for a long time, but is now occupied by Thinh Xuan Ho, M.D.
The Tacoma Public Library has a photo of the bakery from 1956 here:
