Welcome to the first ever Gritty City Food blog banter! Yay you! For our first foray into this dialogue-styled post, we chose Stink – a deli/meat and cheese shop on 628 St Helens Ave. It seemed only fitting. Tacoma is so well known for it’s aroma, and Stink is the perfect example of how that aroma is shifting toward a more delightful odor. We’ve traded burnt socks and rotten eggs for aged cheese and cured meats. I think we got the better end of that bargain. This post features both Adam and I in our most robust and finest – instant messaging over Facebook, typing between mouthfuls of inspiring drink. Enjoy!
Reuben stacked and ready for business
It is a goal of this blog to document the unique and unknown in Tacoma. It is however inevitable that we will showcase the diners, dives, delis, and taco trucks that make this gritty city great. MSM Grocery & Deli on 6th and South Trafton is certainly one of those places.
MSM Deli (or Magical Sandwich Makers to those not so keen on brevity, or Magical Sandwich Makers Grocery II & Deli to any Ents in our reading audience) is as unassuming as they come: a rectangular white box of a building stacked with refrigerator banks and minimart-esque wire racks filled with assorted snacks and grocery items; however, a jampacked parking lot and steady stream of hungry sandwich enthusiasts betray the sleepy exterior. A well known Tacoma fact is this place makes a mean sandwich. So mean, you’ll likely find yourself standing in line for some time while some creepy lady with a Disneyland sweater makes gooey eyes at you. MSM is so accessible, and so reasonably priced (sandwiches start under $5), it isn’t uncommon to see a suit diving mouth-first into a club sandwich seated next to a crack head (partially based on assumption….ok, largely based on assumption). This last bit of info surely won’t scare the typical Gritty Tacoman, but this does help to repel the Bluetooths and Beamers. Douchebag repellant.
To the jump!
