Ezell’s opened at Pacific Avenue and 72nd Street in 2005. The franchise closed in March. Ezell’s founders, Ezell and Fay Stephens and Lewis Rudd, reopened the restaurant on May 10, with new staff. I stopped in for a First Bite last week.

Cleanliness and service had been concerns each time I’d visited the old franchise (along with the short-lived Ezell’s franchise on Sixth Avenue, where Herban Café now operates). A new paint job inside and out are Ezell’s biggest noticeable cosmetic improvements to the 50-seat restaurant.

It’s impossible to compare the quality of the food between an existing restaurant and a defunct restaurant, but let me say: I enjoyed most of what I ordered and ate at the “new” Ezell’s, especially desserts.

Ezell’s double-dips its birds – first in breading, then in batter, then in breading again. This helps give the skin crunch and helps seal in natural juices as the bird parts fry in trans-fat-free vegetable oil. This worked perfectly for the juicy, intensely golden thighs and drumsticks I sampled, but the breasts, while meaty, verged on dry.

Spicy chicken had a whole lot more flavor than the bordering-on-bland regular chicken, thanks to an overnight marinade in Creole seasoning and a little cayenne that gives the batter bite.

Sides and desserts are made in house. Potato salad and coleslaw will appeal to mayo lovers. Desserts should appeal to anyone who can eat sugar. Sweet potato pie and bread pudding were moist and heartily spiced. Layers of pie crust beefed up peach cobbler. Yeasty rolls were soft and golden.

Two-piece meals start at $5.50. Four-piece meals are $9.50. Twenty-four pieces, with rolls and sides, are $45.05.

Ezell’s Famous Chicken: 7201 Pacific Ave. S., Tacoma; 253-472-4300; ezellschicken.com. Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays. Prices:

$.

MEXICAN MARKET, MUCHO MEALS

Posted on Ed’s Diner at 5:02 a.m. Wednesday

Not many vegetarian meals are served at La Huerta International Market. Those who eschew meat may wish to avoid one of two entrances into the restaurant – the one that takes customers past La Huerta’s meat counter, where peeled beef knuckles and top round rest cheek by jowl with pork fat and pig’s blood sausage.

Juan and Rossy Murguia opened La Huerta three months ago, duplicating their thriving market in Kent: grocery products from Latin America, Asia and the United States, fresh tortillas and baked goods, a meat counter, and a restaurant that serves authentic Mexican food in a nice setting, at affordable prices.

The menu that hangs above La Huerta’s steam table touts tacos ($1.25 each, with choice of meat), burritos ($6.99), tamales ($2.25 each) and two treats featuring thick, hand-made corn tortillas – Jalisco-style gorditas (meat, lettuce and tomatoes sandwiched between two tortillas, $2.99) and Salvadoran pupusas (tortillas stuffed with meat, $2.99).

Grab one of the paper menus – or just gaze at the steam table – for more. Guisados are a great deal – sort of a Mexican plate lunch, featuring a choice of stewed meats (pork with peppers, chicken with corn and eggplant, spicy beef and goat), plus rice and beans. One-item guisados are $4.99, two-item guisados are $5.99. For breakfast, I enjoyed a plate of chilaquiles, a corn tortilla casserole with chicken, tangy tomatillo sauce and a hunk of fresh, fluffy cheese. For lunch, a serving of chicharrones (slices of stewed pork, crowned with fat) took me back to the border.

I was less pleased with the tamal I ordered: It was re-heated in the microwave and arrived rubbery and crusty. The beef in my tacos was both gristly and overcooked. But the chorizo sausage in my gordita had spicy, vinegary bite.

For vegetarians, there are cheese enchiladas and chile rellenos. Soups, from chicken-vegetable to tripe-filled menudo, round out the menu.

La Huerta International Market: 5605 Pacific Ave. S., Tacoma; 253-474-1645. Hours: 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays. Prices: $.

Ed Murrieta: 253-597-8678

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