Two new restaurants: The Office in Tacoma, Gig Harbor's Red Rooster Cafe
SUE KIDD; Staff writer
August brought the arrival of two modestly priced restaurants to downtown Tacoma and the Gig Harbor waterfront. In a time of dwindling dining dollars, restaurants serving food in the $10-and-under range are a welcome addition. Here are two first bites of new restaurants serving affordable eats:
RED ROOSTER CAF
Where: 3313 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor
Contact: 253-514-8175 or
redroostergigharbor.com
Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. daily
There’s a new place in Gig Harbor to sit on a deck and enjoy the waterfront. The Red Rooster Café is a casual seat-yourself restaurant with a breakfast and lunch menu in a very affordable under-$10 price range. The waterfront views from the deck are perfect for late summer al fresco dining.
Owner Jamie English Radcliffe is a newcomer to owning her own restaurant, but grew up in a restaurant family. The 1992 Gig Harbor High School graduate is the daughter of the owners of Mr. Munchies, a restaurant that was in Tacoma’s James Center when Radcliffe was a child (it’s since long gone).
I paid two anonymous breakfast visits to the restaurant that opened Aug. 2 and found a restaurant working hard to get it right.
The menu moves to sandwiches, soups and salads later in the day (I’ll be back to try sandwiches made with “Dave’s Killer Bread”), but a delectable-sounding breakfast menu of waffles, French toast and crepes held my interest. The crepe menu offered four kinds each of savory and sweet crepes. Sweet crepes are something I’m used to seeing, but savory crepes are much harder to find here.
The menu descriptions of the crepes were low on words, or at least I thought they were. I was disappointed to learn the austere descriptions were literal reflections. A mushroom and arugula crepe ($8) was that, and only that. No sauce, cheese, herbs or other ingredients to mesh together or punch up the bland, under-seasoned mushrooms and arugula paired with an eggy, rubbery crepe.
On another visit, a roasted vegetable-and-goat cheese version ($8) was slightly more flavorful from the tepid cheese, but tasted dry. The smoked salmon, spinach and cream cheese ($8) had a slightly better texture from the smear of cream cheese, but it also tasted dry and rubbery. It was almost as if the crepes were merely wraps with minimal vegetables and cheese as ingredients. As a concept, I didn’t understand it. Visit a creperie in Vancouver B.C. – a city brimming with small walk-in crepe restaurants – and diners will find savory, tender crepes stuffed with fresh herbs, gooey melted cheese and flavorful sauces that meld together textures and flavors. Those are the kinds of savory crepes diners crave.
An apple and cinnamon waffle ($8) was crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. The batter turned more savory than salty, but the cinnamon-perfumed apples sweetened it up, along with warm syrup. The crme brulee French toast ($8) was swoon-worthy with a custardy texture and just enough bready bite to give the French toast interest. It was fragrant with vanilla and just a hint of citrus.
Sides were delicious. Fresher-than-fresh fruit accompanies every breakfast entreé: melon and grapes on one visit; melon and strawberries on another. Apple sausage ($2) was tender and savory, a delicious accompaniment to the sweet, custardy French toast. Espresso drinks were perfectly executed.
There are glimmers of greatness at the Red Rooster: the service was friendly, energetic and spot-on perfect. Water glasses never went empty and a server on one visit was appropriately apologetic with a sensible excuse of an overburdened kitchen when breakfast was unusually slow. They have the art of service down.
THE OFFICE
Where: 813 Pacific Ave., Tacoma
Hours: 11 a.m.-midnight Sundays-Thursdays and 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays
Contact: 253-572-3222 or
www.theofficeonpacific.com
Tip for cheapos: $5 off coupon on the website now. Also, bargain happy hour daily from 3 p.m.-6 p.m. and 9 p.m.-11 p.m.
Note: All guests must be 21 or older.
I expected flat panel televisions aplenty at a sports-focused restaurant such as The Office Bar & Grill.
But Lou Reed from the speakers was a nice surprise.
Not that I’m complaining about digging on “Walk on the Wild Side” as I dug into my risotto. Unfortunately, I wasn’t so wild about the risotto.
The restaurant opened Aug. 6 and is the project of business partners Matthew Henderson and Travis Scheff. This is the first restaurant for Scheff, who grew up in a restaurant family in North Dakota; the second for Henderson, who owns a sub shop in West Seattle.
The menu is a mix of kill-your-diet eats heavy on burgers, bacon and cheese, with most burgers and sandwiches falling solidly in the under $10-and-worth-it price category.
The restaurant barely resembles its former life as Il Trattoria Di Merende, save for the exposed-brick walls. High-set tables and chairs span the dining room, with plenty of seating at a cozy-up-to-me bar. You can barely turn your head 45 degrees without eyes hitting a flat panel. A Mariners game was the center attraction at a packed lunchtime visit.
A visit during the first full week of operation showed a scrambling restaurant. Service was annoyingly slow despite a mostly empty restaurant, napkins and silverware didn’t appear until we asked about them, appetizer and entreés irritatingly arrived within moments of one other.
The food suffered more misses than hits. A spinach-and-jalapeno artichoke dip appetizer ($7.99) paired a small portion of dried-out dip with too many greasy, fried pita chips. A flat-flavored mushroom-and-zucchini risotto ($12.99) was more fluffy pilaf than creamy risotto and drenched in oil that held none of the promised balsamic flavor.
The burgers on that visit held a glimmer of the restaurant’s promise. A Southwest chicken burger ($8.99) with smoky roasted poblano peppers, avocado, melted jack and cheddar was flavor-zapped with a tasty cilantro lime spread. The signature Office burger ($9.99) was a delicious juicy hand-formed patty with a swipe of roasted red pepper mayo, smoked cheddar (unfortunately unmelted), sautéed onions, bacon and a dose of snappy, sweet slaw. But sides failed: a balsamic-dressed side salad wilted limp from a hot plate and sweet-potato fries were crunchy and undercooked.
A second visit two weeks later showed vast improvement in service, pacing and food. Fried mac and cheese ($5.99) were puffy, beer- battered balls that broke to macaroni with a gooey, cheesy bite inside. Burger construction is something The Office gets right – mushroom ($9.99) and regular cheese ($7.99) burgers arrived with crunchy, grilled buns that stayed sturdy to the end. The mushroom burger had just the right ratio of sautéed shrooms to gooey Swiss. Both burgers were finished with green leaf lettuce, crispy slices of tomatoes, pickles and onions.
A turkey melt ($8.99) was stacked high with thin layers of grilled turkey breast, melted Swiss, chewy bacon, tomatoes and green leaf lettuce, along with a healthy smear of mayo on crunchy grilled sourdough. Sides this time pleased: balsamic dressed mixed greens with crunchy fresh raddichio and frisee. Skins-on fries were crispy with a creamy interior.
Sue Kidd: 253-597-8270,
sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com
First bite
This report focuses on newly opened restaurants where reporters drop in unannounced to sample the food on TNT’s dime and report on the scene and food. Have a suggestion for a First Bite feature? E-mail tntdiner@thenews
tribune.com.
