Resurrected!

I suppose it seems fitting with Easter at our backs. The secret ingredient that I’m lacking is time. It’s tough enough working two jobs, but two service industry jobs (as many of you know) makes it nye impossible to muster up enough energy and/or time for anything outside of work. I usually joke with my customers (although mostly true) that my social life is my work. I interact with people, I’m out of the house, I’m showered (most of the time) and wearing pants (always).

Most of you know that I was forced back into this industry after not so politely being laid off (twice!) from my last. I fought it, kicking and screaming, but nevertheless here we are again. I forgot what ass-kicking, back-breaking, patience-testing work this can be, but I’ll be damned if I don’t find myself falling in love with it all over again.

I was reading The Weekly Volcano recently while at work, mainly an article about what a hit the restaurant industry is taking as of late. Our economy, going to shit and all, is taking it out on the places we love the most. I’m still young enough (naïve enough?) to believe that something like this hardly affects my day-to-day life, or at least I thought I was.

This is me being affected by it. Day to freaking day.

To make a long story short, people, don’t forget the places you enjoy eating, drinking and shooting the shit at the most. We didn’t forget about you. In fact, chances are we are longing for the days when you used to send your food back 8 times because we didn’t have the correct salt to pepper ratio or that one time you had too many PBR Tall Boys and thought it would be a great idea to take your shirt off and dance around the bar. Yes, you, That Guy- we want you back with all your sloppy drunk, manner lacking, 32 cent tip leaving glory. We promise we won’t judge you as much as we used to.

Update!

The Red Hot is now serving dogs until 11pm!

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Of course, what I’m talking about here is Tacoma’s newest Indian Cuisine, Bombay Bistro. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen such an anticipated restaurant opening in The North End. When I quickly searched Google for their website the first 20 items that came up were ecstatic bloggers, newspaper articles and forum posts about the excitement surrounding this grand opening. I’ll admit I was among these masses to be looking forward to another delicious place to dine, but excitement quickly turned to anguish when the opening kept being delayed.

I’d almost given up hope but then magically the doors flew open. I considered it a good sign that the parking lot was full every time I drove by, but when you consider the size of it, I guess that wasn’t saying much at all.

Knowing it was a Saturday night at 8:30 we were pleased to be seated relatively quickly. If I would have known what was to come I would have reveled in that a little more. We waited for about 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us, and another handful of minutes to get menus. After the first 20 minutes we had been asked if we’d been helped by three different people, yet no one seemed to want to do anything about it.

Finally, FINALLY we ordered our food. At this point it was a little after 9pm and my hunger (and cranky) levels were rising. As we sat and tried to enjoy the pleasant décor of the restaurant we watched as people started to dissipate. A large party came in ordered, ate and left, and soon enough we were the only ones left in the restaurant.

And still without food.

Our waitress breezed by once to offer up an unapologetic “food should be out soon” as I attempted to eat my own arm. We talked about leaving, but decided that we’d be waiting another 20 minutes for food anywhere else we went.

At 10:30pm our food was brought out to us– one plate at a time. By this point the restaurant had been closed for an hour and we had been waiting for our food for two.

Needless to say we ate our meals faster than greased lightning. I honestly couldn’t describe how the meal tasted because I inhaled it. When we received our check there were few apologies for the lack in timeliness. After all of the waiting there were no offers to comp any of our meals, drinks or the like. It wasn’t until the next day while eating the leftovers that I realized how good the food actually was.

I find few things more upsetting than getting crappy service when the food is up to par. So you’ll imagine my disdain when I know where I can get a good meal, but have to wait hours for it to arrive. I doubt that I’ll be making it back to Bombay Bistro anytime soon, or at least until they can get a waitstaff who knows what they’re doing and a cook who understands the concept of time. But as always, I encourage you to make your own decisions. I hear the buffet is great.

All in all: Bad service can ruin even the best restaurants.

The Red Hot is HOT!

You’d be hard pressed to find better non-meaty weenies in town. I was finally able to make an appearance in time for the dogs over at The Red Hot. I wasn’t sure I was all that excited about it because not only do I not eat meat, but I tend to question the love that people have for the general taste of a hot dog or anything made to taste like a hot dog. So now that I’ve had a pleasant experience with hot dog related things I either stand corrected or The Red Hot knows their weenies.

I’ll go with the latter. I ordered the veg dog with all the fixings as to not take away from what the original experience was meant to be, and I paired it with the cider beer on tap. When I received my dog something was a little jarring. It was the relish, and it wasn’t normal. I blinked then thought for a second I might have accidentally taken some acid before I left my house. Quickly an observer noticed my fervor and noted that the relish was supposed to look as though it was radioactive. The brilliance of the green color is beyond my abilities to describe, and dare I say, after taking my first bite it is my belief that the color only made the dog better. It was only after the dog was gone did I think to take photographic evidence of this, so I’ll suggest that you just go check it out for yourself.

2914 6th Ave, Suite B in Tacoma

All in all, standing firm with:

Here, eat this.

My weekend was filled with an abundance of food, beverage, laughter and love. I was hopeful it would be, but I try not to control how my days fold out for me. I’ve truly grown to despise planning ahead, and am now more interested in spontaneity, happenstance and good food.

Carmelita: A vegetarian delight.

Rich sauces, fresh ingredients and a happy yet not quite full tummy. When you compare the portions to the price it almost doesn’t jive. Then you taste it, and none of that really matters anymore.

The food successfully saturates every known taste bud and awakens some that maybe aren’t so well known. Each plate seems to feature a wide range of textures and a fantastic balance of flavors to make even the meatiest meat eater pleasantly surprised. But don’t get too used to the menu as it changes with the seasons. This is A-OK with me knowing that they’ll be featuring the season’s best ingredients with each new meal. Is it fall yet?

Before summer ends try the Spinach, artichoke and ricotta rotolo with green garlic cream, taggiasca olive-tomato salad and basil oil. For $18 I may not have gotten completely full, but I was fully satisfied. Each element was like an exaggeration of itself; the creamy sauce was the creamiest and the spinach was the greenest. I had to remind myself to slow down and actually taste it, not inhale it.

I was actually happy after my meal because it left just enough room for a couple bites of dessert. The Chocolate Muck Muck featured a chocolate brownie with a hot, magma liquid chocolate center. Flanking this was a strawberry sauce that looked like catsup and whipped cream that was as thick as custard.

If not just for the food come for the atmosphere as well. The waitstaff is dressed as if they are going to the prom (tastefully), and the decor is extraordinary. From the warm, dim lighting to the intricate, metal leaf sculptures on the ceiling to the poppy mural in the main dining area, this place cocoons you so you don’t want to leave.

The only bad thing I found was that the service was only medial, but not horrible. The most attentive employee was the water guy who insisted on filling my glass even after I only took a couple drinks.

All in all:

Tacoma Szechuan: As authentic as it gets in Tacoma.
Next to Paldo World on the corner of 96th and S. Tacoma Way

It would be difficult to say anything truly bad about this place. It is by far the best authentic Chinese food the South End has to offer, and if it weren’t for Shanghai Cafe in Bellevue Tacoma Szechuan would be the best.

Authentic, delicious, priced well, and large portions to boot. (I ate for 2 days!) If you don’t believe me try the Hot Pot. I dare you to finish that in one sitting even if you have friends helping you. I have yet to explore everything the menu has to offer, but I will be checking back in from time to time to describe my findings as I will surely be returning back to this place. Plus they have smoothies!

All in all (so far):

The Red Hot: Like Shorty’s only better.
(no clowns!)

They’ve got it going on. The specialty? Hot dogs. Any possible way you can imagine them, they’ve probably got it. And they’re fantastic, I hear. The downer is that they stop serving the dogs at 10pm and I arrived at approximately 10:10. But let’s not overshadow the fact that they also have beer. So even if you miss the dogs you didn’t necessarily miss the fun! There’s still good beer!

Beer that you can enjoy while watching old school metal videos on the projection TV, but only until midnight when they close. This is actually good news because it means I don’t have to completely abandon my usual spot on Saturdays; I’ll just be showing up a little later. This can be good news for you as well because The Red Hot is located on the ever growing 6th Ave. in North Tacoma, which if you know that area at all you know is in stumbling distance to about 5 other drinking spots minimum.

All in all: