Tag Archives: 6th Ave

Sonia’s Tacos

11 Aug GCF_6thTT-5

Adam, returning from a long trip overseas seeks out some traditional American fare: street tacos.

It’s been one lazy-assed summer. At least for me. Adam’s been galavanting around the European countryside eating fabulous food and drinking amazing beer, while I’ve been doing the same…only in my backyard, not Austria. I could have been writing posts about my finely honed BBQ sauce or my kickass loganberry jam, but who’d read that crap? The pictures would surely leave something to be desired. Truth is, I love nothing more than sitting around in the sumer time and doing absolutely nothing. Just ask my neighbors, the kudzu of blackberry and morning glory ominously framing my property has already claimed a few small children. We’re a bit out of practice here at Gritty City food, and what better to knock off the rust than a soft landing at a safe little taco truck on 6th Ave? I mean, it’s in the midst of everything else, conspicuously adjoined to a payday loan carcass like some sort of Frankenrestaurant just waiting for an eager food blogger to expend several hundred words on the glory that is street tacos on 6th Ave.

If you’re into that sort of thing, read on…

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Dirty Oscar’s Annex – Spring Menu

6 May GCF_DOASM-4

A preview of the new spring menu at DOA. 

Dirty Oscar’s Annex has had a lot of air time here at GCF in part because they’re so nice about inviting us to classy events such as this one (pinkie out), but it’s mostly due to their constantly evolving menu of fresh and unique dishes. The competition on 6th is intense with other fine eats like Crown bar and Asado (the finest menu on 6th will probably always belong to Marrow however), but Chef Aaron is doing his best to push his to new heights, and is firmly ahead of the bulk of those competitors.

A couple weeks ago we were invited, along with a number of other local media personalities, to a preview of the spring menu. The abbreviated menu showcased a number of bright and tangy vinegar-based dishes that are a very welcome springtime departure from the heavy and appropriately greasy bulk of the winter menu. It’s as if we’ve emerged from hibernation to find ourselves some spring fruits and flowers…served alongside a crisp IPA.

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WA Beer Week: Two Beers Evolutionary IPA

23 Feb

Our first of seven posts in celebration of Tacoma Drinks Washington Beer Week, hosted by The Red Hot and the Parkway Tavern.

Tacoma Drinks Washington Beers Week

While the rest of America celebrates National Margarita Day over salted rims and brightly colored straws, we raise a frothy mug of Washington beer in celebration of the fantastic breweries that call the Evergreen State home. The Red Hot and The Parkway Tavern are hosting a fantastic event this week designed to showcase the incredible offerings from our neighboring beer producers.

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Tacoma Food Co-op

30 Jan

In a slight tangent from usual GCF content, Derrick and Adam find themselves browsing the shelves at 6th Ave’s newest co-op grocery store.

El Guadalajara feeling a little bit of sign envy

It’s funny, we spend countless hours enjoying, discussing, and arguing about food served to us in restaraunts, but we’ve never once discussed the grocery store food we all rely on for actual sustenance. We’ve never gotten in fisticuffs over where the best beer selection is, where your average box of cereal can be found cheapest, or the benefits of organic foods vs. everything else. It honestly never even crossed our minds. This is what happens when you’re mired in first world problems – like this: my Bugatti Veyron Super Sport reeks of Clive Christian Imperial Majesty Perfume! This is one of those problems.

To help rid ourselves of this problem, we are having our first ever grocery post. It’s a short nod to an establishment literally keeping us alive. Hooray for living! In this instance we are celebrating life at the Tacoma Food Co-op, a precocious young and burgeoning member-owned store on the corner of 6th and Junett.

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T Town Taster: Wingman ACE IPA

19 Jan

Usually Derrick does the writing around here, but sometimes I get a wild hair and decide to put a few words together. After a recent GCF outing, we decided to head over to our beloved Red Hot and as I gazed at the chalkboard of liquid delights, I was excited to see the Wingman ACE IPA on tap. I’ve had many of their beers- starting back in the September Tacoma Craft Beer Festival, a few around town and also up at the Hale’s Winter Beer Festival (Not Tacoma? Oh no!) – my impression has always been good but sometimes the flavors weren’t quite right. I’m an IPA guy, but one of my biggest complaints to some pints is the syrupy after taste that coats the mouth (i.e. 7seas Balls Deep). Not here with the Wingman.  The ACE IPA seemed hold on to the light characteristic that I’ve had before but this time an explosion of hoppy flavors danced across my tongue. I am excited to have another great Tacoma start up making a name for themselves. Keep your eyes out for the Wingman beers across Tacoma. We’d love to sit down with the guys over at Wingman, so reply to a tweet sometime! (Hint Hint)

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T Town Taster: Medi’s – Then and Now

7 Jan

A recap of my return trip to Medi’s, no longer in its infancy

It’s been too long since I put up a Taster. I like these short little posts. I get to feel a sense of accomplishment with minimal work, very appealing to a lazy person with high aspirations such as myself. I am lazy, but I want it all…like mail order lottery tickets.

Medi’s is perfect for someone like me. You can go and spend two and a half bucks and come away with a giant slice of pizza. Small effort = great reward. Don’t believe me? Look at this piece of pizza:

Either that is approximately one fourth of a large pepperoni pizza, or that is a very small fork

(the fork was pretty normal…very fork-ish)

…

Then and Now

I wrote a quick impression of Medi’s after a visit within a couple weeks of its soft opening. In that first visit I was overall happy with the pizza and atmosphere, a bit nonplussed with beer prices, and just ecstatic that a pizza joint had finally graced 6th Ave with its presence. I Nostradamusized that Medi’s would be a hit with families and college kids, ensuring its 6th Ave success. How’d I do? Let’s make some then and now comparisons shall we:

Food

  • THEN: The pizza was thin and flavorful; the low prices appealed to my inner scrooge and I was happy because I was full of cheese
  • NOW: The crust is less thin and crispy (maybe it was a fluke that first time?), totally standard medium-thickness bread crust. Sad. The pizza is still huge, covered in goods and cheap – although $.50 more than it was those first couple weeks.Very solid. Cheesy, greasy, meaty, and bready. The menu has expanded on specialty pizzas, and apparently they make a mean cheese steak.  Salads, calzones, and breadsticks are all super cheap too and solid. Perhaps a slight decline because the crust and price. Kudos.

Drink

  • THEN: I don’t drink domestic except when I have to or when it’s funny, so I can’t attest to those taps, but I believe all beers were $5 and there was no happy hour.
  • NOW: Still no happy hour, micros are $5, but there is a rotating $3 tap which today turned out to be the Deschutes White IPA. Score! Hopefully my first write up had something to do with that. Maybe a small victory for some, but this is a huge plus in Derrick’s book of awesome eats.

Atmosphere

  • THEN: the space was big, but the chairs were arranged strangely and the seating was limited. The stage was covered in DJ gear and was unused. I was giddy by the sight of the old school sit down arcade and Donkey Kong machine. The waiter was super cool, probably a transfer from O’Malley’s.
  • NOW: They’ve met demand by rearranging, adding extra tables and moving the DJ gear away until it’s needed on 6th Ave Booty Night, otherwise known as Friday. The waiters have a much better knowledge of the menu and are mostly still awesome, although I think they’re pretty convinced I’m an asshole. Maybe it’s my scrutinizing of the place, menu, and harassment about the lack of a happy hour. The things I do for my adoring fans…

The Wrap

Medi’s has mostly outgrown its awkward phase. No more uninvited voice cracks and zits, Medi’s has finally realized that Axe deodorant smells like ass. Medi’s is asking mom for the keys to the mini van now. Maybe one day, when its all grown up, it will re-embrace thin crust. Dare to dream.

The prices are a teensy bit higher, but we were warned of that. Over all, the place is solid, cheap, and I’m still blown away that it took this goddamn long to even get a pizza place on 6th. Plus, $3 micros? I’m sold. Oh, and my earlier prediction about this being a hit for families and college students? Dead on. Although that didn’t take a savant to predict. Just a lazy person with high aspirations such as myself.

 
Medi’s Pizza and Pasta
2710 6th Ave 
Tacoma, WA 98406

Medi's Pizza, Pasta, & Pints on Urbanspoon

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Birthday Bash

6 Dec GCF_BDAY-13

A Recap of our joint birthday extravaganza on 6th Ave

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.

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The Red Hot

14 Nov

We hit up the Red Hot, one of the top beer spots in the Northwest, and that’s not even taking into account their amazing wieners.

I remember when the Red Hot first pulled up the U-Haul and became everybody’s favorite neighbor on 6th Ave. It seemed a bit comical at the time – we were excited about the prospect of a hot dog bar, but had some serious concerns about the viability of such a place. Hot Dogs are a cheap consumable that all too often taste like crap. An entire business built around such a product struck me as risky at best. That must have been around five years now. At the time there was an ever-empty and appropriately sketchy teriyaki joint across the street, and O’Reilly Auto Parts still bore the name Schucks. The Red Hot, a watering hole relying heavily on processed meat tubes not only outlived both those incarnations, but flourished. If you walk into the Red Hot today you’ll doubtlessly find tables full of smiling patrons, good music on the stereo or funky movie on the big screen, and hot dogs all around. The secret here isn’t the quality of the dog – although these all-beef dogs are a far cry from the Oscar Meyer Soylent Beige things you find vacuum sealed in the deli isle – it’s the creative ways in which they are served.

And the place has a rotating selection of damn fine beer.

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T Town Taster – Metronome Coffee

22 Oct GCF_metronomeTTT-1

We put a bird on it at Metronome coffee, the hippest cafe in town.

Metronome Coffee is a coffee nerd’s wet dream. If you also happen to enjoy wearing skinny jeans and reading Huffington Post on a Macbook Air while drinking said coffee, then this place has transcended nocturnal emissions to total Nirvana. The decor is hip Portlandia-influenced, the menu includes beer and wine, and the food is tasty. The coffee list is impressive and you can order your cup of joe brewed in a variety of methods: Chemex, Syphon, Trifecta, pour over, cold brewed, or French pressed (read about these different methods here). The apothecary-esque approach to coffee making should make for an interesting visit later, but today we just swung through for a quick espresso and a basil pastry.

The drink list is typical coffee house; I got a macchiato and Adam had a cappuccino, I know…we played it safe today. The espressos here are widely known to be some of the best in town, but our drinks were a bit on the acidic side – I’ve never been a barista, did she pull the shot late? Metronome does allow you to choose your shot, but we didn’t even realize this until after.

I am mired in a chest cold so I also ordered a “My Throat Hurts” tea to go. The tea is provided by Mad Hat Tea Company, and in this case hand made by a local herbalist. My tea had ginger, licorice root, and cayenne. Crazy. The tea was tasty, but the cayenne on a sore throat was a bit like salt in a wound. I think the name refers to the experience, not the symptom.

The one real pleasant surprise was the basil pastry. It was fresh, light, flakey, and filled with cheesy basil goodness. Perfect study fuel.

Metronome Coffee, where your cup of Joe is more of a Josef.

3518 6th Ave #101
Tacoma, WA 98406
(253) 301-2375
Metronome Coffee on Urbanspoon

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Dirty Oscars Annex: Breakfast

18 Oct

We finally wake up early enough to hit a breakfast spot. We don’t want to start off such an endeavor at any old pancake house, so we opt for Dirty Oscars Annex – purveyor of unique breakfasts and a damn fine bloody mary.

Breakfast is changing Tacoma! There is a foodie-focused change happening in Tacoma’s breakfast scene, as many Gritty City restaurants have begun vamping on the most important meal of the day. No exception to this is Dirty Oscar’s Annex which offers up some crazy dishes like elk hash and Cap’n Crunch french toast.

I drove by Dirty Oscar’s Annex countless times before ever entertaining the idea of actually going there. The sign out front barely covers the ghosted “SAX” sign from the building’s previous incarnation, there are only a few dark windows facing the street – giving one the impression something seedy or exclusive is taking place inside, and the beer signs in said windows are more akin to a sports bar than hip cocktails and eats. None of these things scream “come in, we’re friendly, spacious, and have one of the best breakfast menus in town…not to mention some badass bloody marys.” Maybe that should be their sign. Perhaps it’s a bit long.

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