On the corner of MLK and S 19th, looming beneath the shadow of the new St Joe’s hospital expansion, is a tiny blue clapboard building that is home to some of the best fried chicken and fish in Tacoma. It is one of the three restaurants, along with Ezell’s and Papa Jone’ BBQ, that make up Soul Food corner (or Cardiac Corner as Ravi so poetically refers to it), and shouldn’t be passed up on your Tacoma bucket list.

This City of Destiny in which we live provides a nice little sample size of Sesame Street America. The “salad bowl” mix of cultures and people is something for which I feel fortunate, but while Tacoma is such a colorful place, it is also not without divides. I am occasionally made aware of this when venturing into a place that caters to a small community. This was one of those times. We were warmly greeted upon entering, but also given more than one wondering glances from quizzical staff and regulars. It’s not everyday that white boys with cameras show up at the Fish House I’m guessing.

Swimming with the delicious aroma of fry grease and fish, the tiny Fish House is cluttered with posters, advertisements, pictures, and community events flyers. Stock items line the wall and the ceiling desperately needs a new paint job, but the cluttered “well-loved” confines of this tiny restaurant inspire a confidence that a pristine environment might not. The menu is displayed above the counter in a row of several posters: fried chicken and fish with several sides, also fried. A drink case on the wall next to a small combo CRT TV features an assortment of soda, including what must be the single largest collection of Faygo in Tacoma.

Being the unrivaled investigative reporters we are, we felt it necessary to purchase a wide and ample array of fried deliciousness for research purposes.

The Food

The place is called The Fish House. They serve fish.

BUT, they also have some killer wings, burgers, cheesesteaks and sides. Although the burgers and cheesesteaks are doubtlessly delicious, we wanted to get our fill of fried greasy goodness and opted for the fish and chips (with both standard breading and Southern Cornmeal), fried fish sandwich, wings, okra, and hush puppies.

The food comes in standard disposable paper baskets. Combo meals combined, sides in little paper bags, and sauces in portable dixie containers. The sides were all very solid. Fries standard cut and golden, okra piping hot, and hush puppies delicious. I’d still walk across the street to Papa Jones for my okra though, and Ezell’s is a distant third in the sides department.

The fish is appropriately tender and juicy, the batter as crispy as one could ask for, and the choice of breading is nice – the flaky cornmeal being a nice alternative to the standard batter-fry – but the real winner here was the chicken. Moist as can be, super flavorful, and fried to perfection, the chicken wings were the surprising stand-out dish on this visit. It should be noted that chicken is available in strips, as a sandwich, or wings, but we didn’t feel like gut-busting today in order to provide a more complete picture for you. Sorry.

The Wrap

Our BBQ options are growing in Tacoma, and at our current rate of blogging we might get through all of them by 2019 but we’ve been to enough to at least provide some sort of culinary compass. Go to Papa Jones for brisket, or slow cooked meats. Go to Uncle Thurm’s for their catfish (freaking unbelievable), and go to the Fish House for wings. I still need to try the shrimp though…because my current favorite is from Frisko Freeze and that can’t be right…..

***

On Roads, Magical

South Tacoma Way is a yellow brick road of sorts. Along this long and winding path through the Nalley Valley you’ll encounter giant teapots, dusty flea markets and more used car dealerships than you can shake a broomstick at. There was even a monkey at one point at the B&I. Although it didn’t fly. And it wasn’t a monkey, it was a gorilla. The only significant difference really is that there’s no wizard at the end of this yellow brick road, just Lakewood. Which is worse. So much worse.

[Ah, it's so nice to be able to be the giver of the regional jokes for once, rather than the recipient. Suck it Lakewood.]

One of the locations you’ll find on South Tacoma Way is Marcia’s Silver Spoon. It’s a bit divey, but what on South Tacoma Way isn’t? As Adam and I pulled up outside Marcia’s we were greeted by an empty can of Steel Reserve, a likely welcome for any place within stone’s throw of the Java Jive. I’d never given the exterior much thought before, and after some long glances I felt equally void of thought. Totally nondescript. The signage hadn’t been changed in a couple weeks and it’s hard to tell where Marcia’s ends and the Lucky Silver Cafe begins. What’s the story there anyway? They must be related right? This area wasn’t exactly renowned for its abundance in silver.

Perhaps I would have asked that question had I not been busy consuming an omelette the size of Toto.

Alright, enough Wizard of Oz references. To the food!

A Silver Spoon in Our Mouths

The place was packed near capacity on a Sunday morning, full of both church goers and gritty Tacomans nursing hangovers. The waitstaff was minimal but folksy and genuinely nice. By the end of our trip a large group had formed by the door, waiting with varying degrees of patience for their tables. There are enough tables for roughly 40 people, and trust me there’s no room for expansion. We’re not talking Old Milwaukee cramped, but small enough that we were privy to most peoples’ conversations. Not that I was eavesdropping. I prefer to call it research.

A popular topic of conversation was portion size. I overheard a woman complaining about her scramble being too large, as she didn’t want to bother with leftovers. Apparently she was too guilt ridden to waste any because she ate the plate. She seemed to be the minority, as everyone else seemed delighted with their monstrous plates. I am in the latter camp myself. Amurrrica!

It has also been brought to our attention since that the pancakes here are some of the biggest and best in Tacoma. We however did not get the pancakes. If you’ve been reading this with bated breath waiting for that pancake review, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. We’ll have to come back a later day. Maybe for a pancake showdown someday. (We’d love recommendations!)

Coffee

Actually not bad. Some mass distributor like Boyd’s or Farmer Bros. It’s got nothing on any cafe in town, but has most breakfast joints beat. Good enough to skip your morning cup before coming. It seems that one of the first places restaurants look to save money is with their coffee – a scoop fewer grounds in the basket makes a huge difference in cost, but Marcia’s coffee wasn’t thin at all.

The Food

Meat! Adam couldn’t deny his meaty lust and went with the sausage breakfast. He was clearly swayed by the waiter who, when asked for suggestions, spoke glowingly about the pork sausage ground in house. The sausage patties were the size of hamburger patties and were fairly tasty – though not life changing. Although the sausage was clearly the main attraction, supporting cast included eggs, toast, and the seemingly famous hash browns. Everybody was talking about the hash browns. I love me some crispy browns, but these were a little on the soft side.

After some serious debate, I decided to get the bacon sausage omelet. It was a monster, but it seems that every breakfast spot in Tacoma serves up monstrous omelets. What set this apart from other restaurants was the egg. Where other places whip the living shit out of the eggs, resulting in an extremely thick egg blanket wrapped around minimal ingredients, Marcia’s left the eggs relatively thin, leaving plenty of room for greasy goodness. This was stacked with meat, cheese and vegetables. The bacon was thick cut and perfectly cooked. My plate too came with a mountain of potatoes and toast. I was sure to come to Marcia’s hungry, but I ended up leaving a fair amount of browns on the plate. That guilty eater from earlier would have punched me in the face.

Our Take

Marcia’s Silver Spoon is certainly rocking the “greasy spoon” label by way of cheap coffee, oily potatoes, and plate wrecking pancakes. Marcia’s tops a lot of peoples’ lists for breakfast in T Town, though we’re not so sure. Our breakfasts were good, but not life changing. We’ll be back and keep you updated. Maybe finally try some of those plate wreckers ourselves next time we travel the magical road that is South Tacoma Way.

***

As always, mention us and get…nothing! With lots and lots of potatoes.

As always, head down, stand in line just to let them know you heard of them from us and receive nothing! Except a good burger!

Frisko Freeze

1201 Division Ave  Tacoma, WA 98403-1317
(253) 272-6843

Adam’s and my birthday are the 20th and 21st of November, respectively. This is perfect fodder for all sort of sordid and exciting joint birthdays in the future, but our first foray into this – celebrated a couple weeks ago across much of 6th Ave – was relatively tame all things considered. We convinced nearly 30 friends and relatives to join us on a crawl which started at Masa and ended in disarray, with 8 different restaurants visited in between. Each location had a “required” drink and food purchase. Whoever crossed the most items off their to-do list was crowned the unofficial GCF badass of the night. This write up is a recap of that evening with highlights, lowlights, and hopefully a few words of wisdom from one blogger who’s twenties are officially behind him.

Adam’s got a couple more year of irresponsibility and debauchery ahead of him however.

Masa

Rules: eat a taco, drink a margarita

Just look at all those empty salt-rimmed glasses.

The party kicked off at Masa. We like Masa. Solid food, decent drinks, lots of room, and  fairly inexpensive bar food. The tacos here come in plates of three for about $5. Tacos are soft-shelled and can have a multitude of different fillings consisting of standard meats well-paired with vegetables, seasonings, cheese and sauce. All of the fillings are good, but my personal fav is the smoked pork served with cilantro, spicy avocado sauce, radish, cotija, and onion. The fish was also very good.

The margaritas are standard.

I do hate their chips and salsa though. Hate. I know some people love the greasy thick triangles covered in paprika, and I give them kudos for trying to shake things up, but at least once per trip you run across a chewy chip and the salsa is watery and boring…just the opposite of any good family Mexican. That doesn’t mean I won’t eat them however.

The service was a bit slow, but we did have a gazillion people there. We had a few people waiting upwards of 45 min for food. Lame, although not amazingly so.

Red Hot

Rules: eat a dog, drink a beer

Looks like somebody ordered the Skagit River Helmet Pale.

It’s no secret that we at GCF are hot for the Red Hot, as you can clearly see in our write-up here, but even we were impressed with the way they handled our enormous crew. The hot dog bar was at about two-thirds capacity when we arrived; with our entourage added to the mix it was standing room only.

Hosmer Hound Dog

The line for dogs was long, but the red baskets were flying from the kitchen at a pretty good clip. I put down a Hosmer Hound Dog and a Firestone IPA. The Hosmer Dog was sadly overlooked at our last visit, and I gotta say, peanut butter and bacon make a fine addition to a hot dog. Not something I’m going to order again any time soon, but not a bad experience.

The tap selection tonight was up to regular Red Hot standard with perhaps one exception in the downright undrinkable Skagit River Helmet Pale. For whatever reason this beer lured several of our friends – and Adam – into a frowny-faced beer drinking experience. Firestone makes a damn tasty IPA however.

Crown Bar

Rule: drink a fancy drink

At this point in the evening our paths diverged. I jumped ship and went to Six Olives with my slightly less ambitious wife while Adam and most everybody else went to Crown bar. The drinks at Crown were reported to be as good as always, and the service too met the challenge offered up by our bloated gathering of party goers. Yay Crown.

Six Olives

Rule: drink the girliest drink you can, eat some Six Olive fries

A very literal Jello Shot

Six Olives has a distinctive taint. I’m not sure what it is, but when you’re in Six Olives you just feel dirty. Here, watch this commercial and tell me you don’t feel like you need a shower:

Sleazy huh? The usual soft Jazz was prevalent, although I must say it’s preferable to the Earth Wind and Fire reunion video the place used to show on a constant loop. There are several shadow boxes celebrating some of the worst fashion disasters of the 70′s and 80′s, which might be fine if it were tongue in cheek, but there is no tongue here. Tongue would imply taste, which is sufficiently lacking here. You didn’t know I was capable of that kind of bitchiness did you?

This sleazy lounge decor may have been well received if we were. I could get into the soft jazz and laugh appreciatively about the pink trimmed leather coat behind glass if we were in the right mood, but we were treated like ass at Six Olives. The owner has always been a bit cold, perhaps not overly appreciative of the younger clientele, but we honestly felt as though our business were inconveniencing her. A few people had Groupons, and that kind of started the debacle. We were seated at tables across the restaurant (so as not to violate the Groupon terms of service) where we waited for as long as 45 minutes for our drinks. We were the only people there. The place was empty after we left. There was a waitress, a chef in the kitchen, and the owner making drinks, yet the problem persisted. There were fewer people there than in the commercial you just saw. It doesn’t make sense. Boo Six Olives.

Bitching aside, the drinks were stiff and creative. The Jello-O shot is a bit steep at $7, but it’s stiff as hell, and it’s fun to inject your face with alcoholic goo. The food is pretty good. The fries are cheap, and you can choose as many house-made sauces to accompany them.

I used to come here a lot, and I think it might still be a good spot for small groups, but avoid the big group hassle at any cost. Ugh.

O’Malleys

Rule: drink the cheapest beer available, eat a party snack, play Big Buck Hunter

PBR tall boy and deep fried pickles. Perhaps no better midnight snack.

It’s no stretch to say that the highlight of the evening was O’Malley’s. The place was packed with rabid college kids and douchebags in trucker hats, but it was so much damn fun. The cheapest beer was a tie – Rainier and PBR tall boys were both $2.50. We opted for the blue ribbon winner ourselves.

O’Malleys was hopping. A band was playing Pogues covers, the pool tables were surrounded by off-duty military, and the line at the bar was at least four bleached blondes deep all night.  Two particularly adamant gentlemen were playing Big Buck Hunter non-stop so we unfortunately were relegated to the sadly neglected shuffleboard table. The table had more beer spills than sand so it didn’t make for very good shuffling.

One of the highlights of the evening was the shot-in-the-dark appetizer from O’Malleys. I was feeling cheap after Six Olives and I wanted something a bit off the wall so I went with the deep fried pickles. Damn good! I highly recommend them next time you’re out and feeling like you could use something to soak up the beer in your belly. Clean crunchy dill pickles lightly fried in fluffy batter and served with Ranch. Divey perfection.

D.O.A

Rule: drink a Moonshine shot, eat a unique meat

I had no idea how crazy things got at DOA after dark. The place was exploding with college kids. If you’re single and have low standards, this is the place to be on a Friday night.

I again parted from the O’Malley’s group early, as I had some family who were interested in moving on, and found myself in the way back of DOA at a seemingly secret table next the the kitchen bar. I ordered a shot of apple pie moonshine (flavored un-aged whiskey) and a cuban pork sandwich. I waited for Adam and the gang before drinking my shot, but after a half hour or so it became clear they were never going to make it so I ended up drinking it with my brother-in-law instead. It was ok, pretty sweet and sharply alcoholic. Kind of a letdown after the big build-up to be honest.

The cuban sandwich was amazing. The flavorful pork and light chewy bun was an awesome cap on the evening. Someone else at the table got the elk sliders and couldn’t stop talking about them. DOA is clearly serving some unique fare at all hours

Engine House No.9

I didn’t find out until the next day what ever happened to Adam. Apparently he came to DOA in search of me, but alas I was at the secret table in the back. Apparently turned off by the wait at the bar he and the rest of the stalwart troop made their way to E-9 where they karaoked it up until last call. I’m sure the stories don’t stop there, but my account surely does.

The Wrap

A fun night for sure, complete with highs and lows. No awesome lifelong stories, but maybe that’s a good thing. I’m 30 after all. I’ve got to keep things on the level.

We can only imagine what amazing things await us next year. If you have any ideas let us know. Perhaps a GCF meet up? Hmmmm….

As always, mention us and get…nothing! Especially at Six Olives. Don’t mention us there. Okay?

All the fine restaurants mentioned in this post are located on 6th Avenue in Tacoma. 

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!

The sandwich selection is impressive, but not overwhelming.  11 different sandwiches including a build-your-own option, East Coast style subs, pita wraps and soups make up the menu.  Of course it is a grocery too, so pick up some Jalepeno chips, Funyons, a loaf of bread, or whatever the hell you want.  And in addition to serving totally solid sandwiches, MSM easily has one of the best craft beer selections in town.  Bizarre right?

This most recent jaunt to MSM has definitely reaffirmed my love with the reuben.  It’s so good, dressed up nice just for you.  How could you deny that crispy sauerkraut, the decadent corned beef with 1000 Island dressing just oozing from the warmed dark rye? That’s right.  You can’t. The only competition in T Town comes from The Swiss, and that’s a battle for another day.

The Mike’s Deluxe was another big hit at our table.  Piled high with deli meats and veggies, it’s definitely standard deli fare done right.  The sandwich roll today was on the dry side, but this has proven to be a bit of a gamble here at MSM – sometimes the rolls are fresh and crisp, sometimes not.  Perhaps their trips to their distributor are a touch too far between.

 The Italian Sub again leaned toward this side of typical deli fare, but was definitely a tasty little guy.  I’m a sucker for Pepperoncinis though. Throw a few on a toilet brush and I’d strongly consider eating it. The meats were fresh, and definitely a far cry from any chain sub shop.  The bread here too was a touch on the dry side.  This place needs a bakery to move in next door bad. Does anyone actually go to that little lawnmower repair shop anyway? I see a business opportunity!  I only ask a mere 10% of your yearly profits as a consulting fee.

One evident lack here at MSM is vegetarian fare.  My wife Elizabeth enjoyed her DIY veggie, but felt a bit hemmed in choice-wise. I must admit I empathized with her that her silly meat-free morals yet again got in the way of deliciousness.  Sorry PETA. No hard feelings.

The Verdict:

All things said, the food was good to really good.  The front of the store is a lunchtime feeding frenzy (they may as well install a long trough filled with sandwiches) and it is really important to call your order in ahead of time. Then you can walk over to the right side of the counter, bob and weave the evil stares from those in line, and pick up your order.  If you want to improve your grit and eat in, I suggest the back room, although it is more reminiscent of a bingo hall than a restaurant – the few artful bicycle pictures aren’t fooling anyone. Think of it as a foil for the food, something plain to dress up what’s on your plate in your basket.  Just watch out for that creepy lady in the Disneyland sweater, she’ll get ya.

Mention us and get….nothing!  But please do enjoy your magical regularly priced sandwich.