Saturday evening I joined the World Wide Photo Walk by joining a group walking around the History Museum in Tacoma. We walked from the museum, across the Bridge of Glass and down to the waterfront. Afterward the group of us went out to eat at Abellas at 1946 Pacific Avenue. Abella’s menu can be found here: http://www.allmenus.com/wa/tacoma/45349-abella-pizzeria/info/
The website for the world wide photo walk can be found here http://worldwidephotowalk.com/
And one last photo taken on 5/2/14
The Mandolin Cafe at 3923 South 12th Street near the intersection of South 12th & Proctor provides an occasional respite for us. It doesn’t have an extensive menu, but what it has is delicious. They do have a large selection of teas, quality coffee and wines. What keeps me keeping coming back to the Mandolin is the atmosphere, comfortable, warm, art filled and often eclectic live music.
http://www.themandolincafe.com/
Sadly the Mandolin Cafe closed in July 2012. It wasn’t because of their business, but instead a problem with the lease. I’m hopeful they will reopen in a new location at some point.
The Pacific Grill, located at 1502 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, has a splendid happy hour which extends fro 11:30 – 10 Monday through Thursday, 11:30 – 11 on Friday and 5 – 11 on Saturday. Besides the normal drink specials, most of the food on the bar menu is half price and delightful food it is! An appetizer handily makes a meal.
http://www.pacificgrilltacoma.com/
The restaurant occupies the lower level of the 1890 Waddell Building which was substantially renovated and incorporated into new Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in 2004. The building is listed on the historic register. A photo of the building as it appeared in 1979, prior to renovation, can be found here:
Flipping Out Burgers at 4008 S 12th St., Tacoma, WA 98405 has these amazing burgers! They are large, tasty and rather messy. Dear husband and I stopped and had a regular cheeseburger with fries and a mushroom swiss burger for lunch. Neither of us finished. My only regret is that I forgot about their sweet potato fries! Their food is good, their service is fine and their decor is cheerful, but simple. But really, we went for the burgers, not the decor. Also, they deliver in that darling little smart car!
Fisher Scones has been family owned for 100 years and has occupied the same corner in the Restaurant Building at the Western Washington State Fair (the Puyallup Fair) since 1915. This articles does a bang up job explaining their history!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016095246_scones06.html
I can think of four Tacoma places off hand to have a tasty, healthy lunch on the cheap.
Friday’s new place is #4 the Cafeteria at St. Joes (1717 South J Street, Tacoma). I needed to be there to see a patient and it was around lunchtime. So I went down to the lower level (not the snack bar) and had a lightly breaded fish sandwich. It was huge and delicious and came with a mountain of fries and a soda! All for under $5.00! There was plenty of seating both inside and outside. Parking is also free and not that hard to find. Really, nobody says “let’s go to the hospital and have lunch!”, but they should. 😀
The first full day back at work for a while called for a treat. But not caffeine because it was too late in the day. Espress O Yourself at 1009 Regents Blvd at Alameda Ave in Fircrest, won me over with a strawberry lemonade smoothie that was very delicious! I went in instead of taking advantage of the drive through lane. While waiting for my drink, I munched on a couple of free chocolate covered espresso beans. Espress O Yourself (love that name) is more than a coffee shop. They serve a light breakfast and lunch and have indoor and outdoor seating.
Apparently it is a mini quest to go to all of the coffee shops and stands in Tacoma! There are 26 Big Foot locations, two of which are in Tacoma. This is the Highland Hills location at 5921 6th Avenue South. The iced coffee was good and the service was fast and friendly.
http://www.bigfootjava.com/locations/bigfoot_java_tacoma_highland_hills.php
I wanted to go to the Honey Bake Ham and Cafe at 2913 South 38th Street, Tacoma, WA 98409 before, but they close at 5:30 most days and I get there too late. But today I was there at lunchtime and it was open! We shared the Roast Beef Bravo sandwich, which was very tasty indeed. The tomato basil soup was also good. It seems that much of their business is catering. Maybe we’ll try getting a ham or turkey sometime soon.
http://www.honeybaked.com/
California Pizza Kitchen at 150 Andover Park West, Tukwila, WA 98188 had above average pizza and for as nice as it was I was expecting to pay more. Dear daughter and I shared a pizza and had some to take home. Even with our fancy dancy lemonade drinks we got out for under $20, plus tip. The manager appears to be a character, walking table to table checking on everybody. Altogether it was a positive experience.
This was our first time in a California Pizza Kitchen. There are three in Washington State with the others being in Seattle and Bellevue. The chain was stated in 1985 in Beverly Hills, CA.
Their website is here: http://www.cpk.com/
