Dining calendar: Pacific Grill starts brunch; Star Chefs gala and Sumner wine walk this weekend

Here are things you should put on your dining calendar, starting with events happening this weekend and continuing through the month of March.

PACIFIC GRILL BRUNCH BEGINS

Downtown Tacoma’s Pacific Grill will begin weekend brunch service for the first time Sunday. However, there’s a catch. Reservations are required, and limited. To make reservations, call the restaurant at 253-627-3535 or make reservations online here. Brunch reservations can be made from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Alex Anton, the chef of Pacific Grill’s Events Center, has designed a plated brunch menu to feature as many ingredients made at the restaurant as possible.

Executive chef/co-owner Gordon Naccarato described house-made bagels and lox; house-cultured butter; house-made bacon using Snake River Farms Kurobuta pork bellies and house-made pastrami. Dishes will include a Dungeness crab omelet; Belgian yeasted waffles with brandied figs; panettone French toast with maple creme anglaise and a few dishes that were previously featured on the brunch menu at Naccarato’s other restaurant, Smoke + Cedar (which closed in October). Those dishes include the “hot mess” pastrami hash; prime rib dip sandwich and others.

SUMNER WINE WALK

The Sip & Stroll Wine Walk begins at 4 p.m. Saturday at participating merchants in downtown Sumner. A $20 ticket buys a map, a commemorative glass and six wine tastes at 20 participating businesses.

On the day of the event, sponsored by the Sumner Downtown Promotion Association, tickets are available at the will-call meeting point at Bank of America in downtown Sumner, 921 Alder Ave. Photo identification is required for proof of age. More information at 253-307-9970 or promotesumner.com.

STAR CHEFS ON BROADWAY 2016

The Star Chefs gala, benefiting the Broadway Center’s Arts Education programs, begins at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Pantages Theater. The theme is Secret Superhero Society, with carnival-style games, entertainment, live and silent auctions, and dishes prepared by some of the finest South Sound chefs.

Dinner will be prepared by Chef Alex Anton from the Pacific Grill Events Center and Asado Chef Kyle Campisi. Starting the meal will be an appetizer plate with house-cured salmon lox with rye crisp; a Frenched chicken drumette and radish slaw from Anton. The salad, main entree and dessert from Campisi includes a jicama salad; tenderloin steak with rosemary fig demi and roasted chilies with quinoa.

Lobby chefs will serve three nibbles each. Here’s a sampling: Basilico Ristorante Chef Giampaolo Forschetti will serve polenta cups stuffed with speck-wrapped prawns and with fondue cheese. WildFin American Grill Chef Ainoy Vongsy will serve Double R Ranch sliders with bacon-onion jam. Happy Belly chef Jennifer Johnson will prepare sweet potato corn chowder.

Attendees are encouraged to dress in masks and capes. Tickets are $235, but a limited number of tickets are available, or the event might already be sold out. More information at 253-591-5894 or broadwaycenter.org.

SLIDER COMPETITION AT MUSEUM OF GLASS

The fifth Slider Cook-Off is returning to Tacoma’s Museum of Glass at 6:30 p.m. March 26.

Competing at this year’s cook-off of tiny sandwiches and burgers will be Doyle’s Public House, The Fish Peddler, The Pine Room, The Red Hot, The Social Bar and Grill, and Stacks Burgers (the food truck). Served alongside sliders will be beer from Pacific Brewing and Malting and the Gig Harbor Brewing Co. Dessert will be The Cookie, the oversized cookie baked at Metropolitan Market.

Also at the competition: The Dusty 45s will perform, a pinup hair-do station will get you looking the part and there’s even temporary tattoo art. Glass artist John Miller will create a giant glass burger in the Museum’s Hot Shop.

Tickets are $45 for museum members or $55 without membership. Guests must be 21 years old to attend. More information at 253-284-4708 or museumofglass.org/slider-cook-off.

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 4:35 AM with the headline "Dining calendar: Pacific Grill starts brunch; Star Chefs gala and Sumner wine walk this weekend."