Restaurants

OMFG delicious

The Rock has long been a nighttime take-it-or-leave-it for me. Crowds, pricing and mediocrity have generally kept me away, save for the weekday lunch buffet (a Tacoma classic). After granting The Rock another chance, I can tell you the food, drinks and service were all off the charts. Bravo, Rock, bravo.

Everybody knows that Pagliacci has the best pizza in the world. Well, I am here to announce that this is no longer the case. In the words of the not-so-great George Thorogood, move over little Pagliacci, a big, old Rock is movin in!

My comprehension of the experience is already cloudy, after having just finished my leftovers 15 minutes ago. The crust is hand-tossed, thin and crispy – it’s the closest crust to Pagliacci I’ve ever seen. What was so great about it? There was this prosciutto, meatball, almond and mushroom pizza that seriously ‘knocked my socks off’ <== I have never used that phrase before. You can't imagine how good it was. They have an impressive selection of pizza toppings, providing endless possibilities to appease even the pickiest of eaters (I brought one of them with me and she loved her mushroom n' olive pizza). Last night we walked right in and sat down at a booth in the bar. This new room they've created is cozy and comfortable compared to the old setup. To top it off, our server was one of the best I've had anytime, anywhere. I went in with little enthusiasm for a place I'd been many times and left with a new favorite.

Murray Morgan should be proud

I’ve now been to The Red Hot on 6th Ave a few times and it has been a treat each time. In order of appearance, I devoured a Murray Morgan Bridge Brat, a Destiny City Slaw Dog, and then another Murray Morgan Bridge Brat. Aside from having the best name of any brat I’ve encountered, it is the perfect snack when you’re on the go. I add cream cheese to my brat to complement the existing sauerkraut and mustard. The slaw dog was perfect as is. For 3 or 4 dollars you can’t beat it. They have a dozen or so different choices to suit a variety of tastes.

After many years, someone has finally done it. I’d always wondered why nobody had launched a Starbuck’s/McDonald’s calibre dog chain in the US, and I used to dream about opening a double drive-thru dog stand in Tacoma. I wanted to call mine Schwank’s and it was going to be awesome. The Red Hot has taken everything I had envisioned, moved it to a swank sit-down bar atmosphere, and added a bunch of beer. Brilliant.

THE RED HOT
2914 6th Ave
Tacoma, WA
(253) 779-0229

Nick -n- Willy’s Pizza

NICK -N- WILLY’S PIZZA
2602 North Proctor
Tacoma, WA
(253) 444-3060

The anticipation was killing me. The time was finally here to make my inaugural voyage to Nick -N- Willy’s Pizza. In all ways, I was ready.Too bad Nick -N- Willy’s was not. I won’t get into the details at this time, as this was merely their 3rd day in bidness. Everything that could go wrong went wrong tonight.

I will return in the not-so-distant future for a mulligan visit. The gloves will be off, and I will check my politically correct at the door. I’m expecting perfect next time. Anything less would be uncivilized.

Now open at the corner of 26th & Proctor, Nick-n-Willy’s offers take & bake AND cooked pizzas, salads, and dessert items. Notable pizza ingredients: Pesto w/ pine nuts sauce, feta, seasoned beef, fresh spinach, mandarin oranges, fresh chopped cilantro, smoked bacon andmany others. Family size signature pizzas go for $16.99 and personal pizzas are $5.99. Please give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Hot Dog, anyone?

Last weekend, I treated myself to a new spot I’ve been eyeing in the Tacoma blog scene. Friday night I had a Murray Morgan Bridge Brat with cream cheese from the Red Hot. It was really good, but I would order at least 2 at a time in the future. I would also know how to conduct myself a little better in the environment they’ve created. We walked in and weren’t sure what to do with ourselves. There was no menu on the wall, no “order here” or “order at the bar” signs anywhere (perhaps they are still being made?) so we sat down at a table. Of course, we came to find out that there is no table service, and that we were supposed to get our own menus and order at the counter. This should be streamlined ASAP, if it hasn’t been already.

Tacoma has needed another non-downtown hot dog joint forever, and I even thought about opening a drive-thru wiener stand (I planned on calling it Shwank’s) a couple years back. If you are going to open a restaurant, it doesn’t get much easier than hot dogs as far as storage, life span, cost, keeping them warm, etc. I sincerely hope this place can make its mark and stick around. My first impression was that of a bar and not of a restaurant… hopefully they will make it go on the drinks because it didn’t seem like the kind of place that would enjoy rapid hot dog take-away.

Ben Matlock and I are more than willing to park, walk in, and wait for a hot dog or two to take home. Unfortunately, neither Ben nor myself go out drinking very often..Hopefully for The Red Hot’s sake, there are a lot of people in Tacoma who will do both quite often.

I’m no food critic

Many restaurants around Tacoma have it made. Most consumers are not food critics. We like what we like and that’s that. Put out a decent product that is moderately consistent, and you should be able to do just fine. That is true, unless the service is so bad, you can’t even remember what the food tasted like.

For years I have refused to critique any specific businesses in town. I know that everyone has a bad day on occasion (let alone a bad 15 minutes) and that things won’t be perfect all the time. I also recognize that different people have drastically different opinions about the same things. Why should my opinion of a Frisko Freeze cheeseburger matter to anyone else? For the record, I find them delicious (no onions).

At any rate, I received an email last week from a very disappointed Tacoma consumer:

Hello,
I don’t usually complain about restaurants, but, It’s Greek To Me, located on 6th Ave in Tacoma gives lousy customer service. I went through their drive thru, which seems to be manned by an incompetent who does nothing to help speed things along. Then after I wait for 10 minutes for a Greek salad and some fries, the salad has about 2 tablespoons of lettuce in the salad, what is up with that???? I paid $7.80 for a salad, that took 2 bites to eat, some fries, and a small drink and I am still hungry. I will not be going back to It’s Greek to Me, and I will not recommend this place to anyone I know.
Thank you.

For all I know, she hit this place at a bad time. Maybe they were robbed 10 minutes prior? Perhaps the manager was out with 4 sick kids at home? Whatever the cause, this experience emphasized to me the importance of customer service, even as it pertains to small, everyday commerce.

If she had felt better about the customer service, she probably could have driven back around and said, “Hey, this salad is weak-ass!” and they would have likely laughed, apologized and added some damn lettuce. But the customer service was already deemed poor, so she hangs her head and goes home, never to return.

In summary, attitude is everything. Restaurant owners know that every dish can’t turn out perfect. Sometimes things go wrong, food gets messed up, delays occur, etc. Just make sure that if you sell someone a bad experience, you back it up with noticable effort and concern. We, the general public of Tacoma, can accept your shortcomings, as long as you don’t force it on us with smug, assuming attitude. If you make us wait in an unreasonably long line, don’t pretend it didn’t happen. Give us an apology and a free pop. You’ll be amazed how short our memories become.

For the record, I love It’s Greek To Me. Best gyros in Tacoma..