Gig Harbor’s JW restaurant hits mark as finer-dining option
Be alert. Don’t blink. Glance askew, and you’ll miss it.
Look to the right, as Harborview Drive bends, for the tan-and-blue low-slung building holding one of Gig Harbor’s best treasures, a restaurant named after its owner’s initials, JW.
The finer-dining restaurant is tucked into an itty bitty building that looks better suited for its former life as a coffee stand.
As owner Jason Winniford describes, “We’ve really maximized our space.”
Indeed they have, with an atmosphere that telegraphs funky lodge, cozy cabin and Sunday supper dinner house, with a main dining room that’s a bit of a tilted, twisted triangle.
Most tables don’t afford privacy, unless you’re seated in one of the back nooks of that oddly shaped dining room, but JW’s approachable cuisine, breezy service and folksy decor relays a restaurant of comfort, not stuffiness. I recommend this restaurant for a celebratory meal, or any-occasion dining. It’s among the best Harbor finds.
Winniford opened the 40-seat restaurant in 2011 with his father, Joe; stepmother, Karen; and brothers Jarett and Claude. Winniford was general manager from 2006-10 of Gig Harbor’s Brix 25. Fans of both restaurants will recognize similarities, including the gratis sip of wine before each meal. (Dining is 21 and older only.)
Winniford exited the restaurant in 2012 to follow a relationship to Hawaii, where he wound up with a dream job of running the luxury resort Lava Lava Beach Club. He entrusted his family with the restaurant, but also collaborated from Hawaii. Sister-in-law Jamie Lindsey took over as general manager, a role she executes with style.
Winniford returned to Gig Harbor in early June and went right to work on JW’s next chapter: a food truck that will operate later this summer adjacent to Skansie Brothers Park. JW at the Boatyard will serve fish and chips, seafood melts and chowder out of a refurbished trolley.
Other than the new food truck, JW’s course remains on the steady.
There’s been a single kitchen change in the restaurant’s history. Chef Eddie Williams took over at the restaurant’s six-month mark after opening chef Justin Goodfellow departed. Williams is a second-generation cook with a son who is picking up the third-generation legacy working alongside his dad at JW. Williams’ father was a career military chef who ran seven mess halls while stationed at what is now Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
He used interesting methods to teach Williams how to cook.
“I remember, it was my turn to cook dinner. I came from a large family, I was making spaghetti and I asked which spices to use. He gave me the whole spice rack. I had to smell it, and I had to tell him whether it would work or not, and whether it would taste right in the dish, so I learned by smell,” Williams said.
Williams’ food is homespun American comfort food. Find Sunday supper classics, such as meatloaf, braised pork, and macaroni and cheese, painted with sophisticated strokes. The menu changes seasonally, which is why some dishes described here no longer are listed. My one quibble with the menu is that it’s short — around 15 items total. A party of two could conquer the menu within a few visits. My solution: look to daily dinner specials for variety.
Three visits spread over several months found service that carried the cadence of a restaurant in tune with fine dining. Servers never committed the “are-you-done-with-that” sin of early plate clearing. Flatware was replaced with each course. Water glasses never ran dry.
Tableside wine prattle was lengthy and professional, with hosts insisting on tastes for the indecisive, and insightful tasting quips when prodded. The nine-page wine menu listed treasured bottles and well-priced sippers, with heavy emphasis on Washington reds.
The only downside to otherwise-excellent service was a visit when dining off the regular menu interfered with a multicourse fixed wine dinner (a monthly event) in the main dining room. Long pauses and occasionally neglectful service made us rethink dining at JW when the staff is preoccupied with a special event.
Consider well-conceived sauces and gravies the hallmark of JW. A silky beurre blanc held lemony tang, the buttery sauce pooling beneath exquisitely grilled halibut ($35). Another sharp beurre blanc, this time with wine, dressed up angel hair pasta with wild prawns ($26).
Williams created the most sophisticated spin I’ve seen put on jaeger schnitzel. Prosciutto mushroom gravy topped medium rare pork tenderloin sliced into supple medallions ($22).
A rosemary demi-glace with veal meatloaf matched the richness of the meatloaf’s prosciutto wrapper, flanked by garlicky mashed potatoes ($22). A roasted-and-fried half chicken came with another beautiful mushroom sauce, this time with marsala, and a welcome bonus of early-spring asparagus ($21).
A flat iron steak ($25) with a blue cheese compound butter oozed funky flavor onto house-cut fries laced with garlic and more blue cheese. Pork shoulder ($24) in the winter was spiked with a puckery apple cider sauce, served atop mashed potatoes licked with cream, in a presentation that reminded me of an inverted shepherd’s pie.
From the appetizer menu, start with seafood. Lobster cakes ($15) dressed with a peppadew aioli held equal parts heat and sweet, with far more lobster than filler. Also on the starter menu, ahi was barely seared, with a sweet-sour plum sauce and fried wontons for scooping ($14).
On the meatier side of the starter menu, I savored another great sauce — ancho chile and roasted red pepper sauce— on filet mignon bites ($13). The house flatbread ($12) meshed strong flavors: tart grapes, veiny blue cheese and pan-fried prosciutto.
If given a choice between the berry crumble or the cheesecake, always side with cheesecake. We enjoyed a chocolate cheesecake topped with raspberries, with a dreamy cloud of fresh-whipped cream ($7).
This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Gig Harbor’s JW restaurant hits mark as finer-dining option."