Darn fine cocktails, one mean pork chop and great service shine at new Puyallup restaurant

It was a quiet Wednesday in September when I finally found a seat in the dining room of Perry’s, a promising restaurant and cocktail bar in downtown Puyallup. After a pleasant exchange with the server who clearly knew her way around both the food and drink menu, and one sip of the Raspberry Beret and my partner’s barrel-aged old fashioned, I wondered what took me so long to get here.

Every cocktail read well on paper, but the raspberry, pink peppercorn and gin medley intrigued me. Was it sweet? I asked the server. Yes and no, she replied. Referring to head bartender Cassandra Newman, she added that every cocktail was carefully developed with housemade ingredients like lavender bitters, pomegranate-hibiscus syrup and juice squeezed fresh daily.

On many a cocktail menu, anything “raspberry” usually leans sweet and almost always involves vodka, intended to satisfy those who don’t dabble in juniper or agave. Normally, I wouldn’t prefer it, but something about the rest of the menu — absinthe, aquavit, pear brandy, Cognac — insinuated a more sophisticated operation.

Newman’s drinks are nuanced, playful and rooted in classic builds, skills she learned at Smoke + Cedar at Allenmore Golf Course, which closed in 2015, and honed over several years of dutifully watching YouTube videos and as the cocktail creator at Pacific Grill. When the latter folded in September 2020, the Tacoma resident joined the Perry’s team, and her input alone provides enough fodder for return visits, regardless of which South Sound corner you call home.

“These are the seats that everyone fights for,” said owner Laura Perry, pointing to the backed leather stools lining a smooth marbled bartop, with a grand view of shelves lined with dozens of whiskeys, lesser-seen tequilas and liqueurs — and, of course, your cocktail in-the-making. The menu changes quarterly, and for fall it includes a makrut lime Cadillac margarita rimmed with Himalayan pink salt, a pomegranate-hibiscus French 75 with a dash of allspice, and a return favorite, a chai-vanilla bean old fashioned with Elijah Craig bourbon.

Perry’s is a full-service restaurant, she said, “But we also want people to know, it’s really a bar!”

You may just as easily pop in for a cocktail or a glass of wine, perhaps while sharing a charcuterie board or potato-gruyère croquettes with pickled radish, as you may relax over a three-course meal with friends.

Delicately breaded calamari with house-pickled red chiles stands out if you can find the gochujang vinaigrette deep in the bottom of the bowl, but thankfully it arrives with tiny tongs. Despite the proliferation of shared plates in recent years, shockingly few places provide sharing utensils; this kind of thoughtful service, however, seems par for the course at Perry’s, and I can’t help but imagine this narrow Puyallup lounge would be much more crowded if the pandemic hadn’t dampened its debut.

Perry and her husband Ron finished their buildout of the space — midcentury-modern with teals and golds executed by a professional designer — in early 2020. Cory LaFranchi, known in the area for his late Street Eats Mobile Eatery, consulted on the kitchen and menu creation, intending to stay for a few months. “The South Sound is exploding right now,” Perry told me just ahead of the March 1 opening. “Things are really happening down here.”

And just like that, a new restaurant absent of takeout turned to waterproofed cardboard; the opening chef took his leave, and the highly capable sous John Sayre took the reins in July. As a brand-new business, the restaurant was not eligible for most of the early financial relief programs. There were definitely moments, said Perry, a lifelong restaurant worker who started at Salty’s and sold a successful catering business, that she thought they would just plod along until the pot ran dry.

Laying off a talented team that at first she thought might be impossible to attract “was the hardest part,” she said in early October. “The energy was drained from this place.”

As dining rooms reopened, enough guests became regulars, thanks to consistently good food and, I must say, Newman’s talent, both on-menu and in what Perry’s calls “liquid faith” — bartender’s choice, when you, the guest, share your taste preference and leave it to the pro to concoct something on the spot.

“Literally,” said Perry, “they have wrapped their arms around us.”

Try the sweet-tea pork chop, with a beautifully seared outer crust, basted with a garlic-rosemary butter post-oven, to join this community of Perry’s people.

Sayre led the kitchen until early October, opting to pursue passions outside the industry. New head chef James Lassiter started this month and will keep this popular dish while infusing seasonal change into forthcoming menus. A military veteran trained at Johnson & Wales with years of hotel and resort experience, he believes in classical French cooking (coq au vin blanc, bouillabaisse) paired with regional ingredients, the occasional street food flair and accessibility, all key components of Perry’s vision.

Sometimes, he said, you “just want a really good steak — ‘Let’s go to Perry’s.’”

The goal is to serve a high-quality burger and fries with housemade pickles that complements said pork chop, a baby gem Caesar, shrimp scampi, ribeye with salted potatoes boasting a crispy skin and buttery interior. The restaurant also caters to plant-based diets, as in the summer cauliflower “steak” spiced with berbere, an Ethiopian blend of chile, garlic, fenugreek and allspice.

“I wanted people to be able to try something out of their comfort zone. I didn’t want it to feel so precious,” said Perry, referring to specials like 20 percent off all whiskeys on Thursdays. One might say the same of an expertly cooked steak or a well-dressed salad.

Do you need a reason to indulge in dinner and a couple of cocktails? On Tuesdays and Wednesdays those libations will be $2 off, and discount or not, I can’t think of a better reason to choose Perry’s in Puyallup.

PERRY’S COCKTAIL BAR

▪ 105 S Meridian, Puyallup, 253-604-7920, perryscocktailbar.com

▪ Tuesday-Thursday 4-9 p.m., Friday-Saturday 4-11 p.m.

▪ Details: eclectic American with excellent cocktails, ideal for date-night or any night; drinks $10-$15, small plates $10-$15, large $15-$29 plus market-price fish and steak

▪ Specials: all-night happy hour on Tuesday-Wednesday, 20% off all whiskeys Thursday

This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.