Happy 40th Birthday to Antique Sandwich Company

Happy 40th Birthday to Antique Sandwich Company

I love a good small business success story, especially if it’s a family business. The Antique Sandwich Company on Tacoma’s North Pearl Street is celebrating its 40th birthday this month. The business, started in 1973 by sisters-in-law Tamie Herridge and Shirley Herridge and their mother Arlene, was later joined by Dick Meyer, owner of Traditions Cafe in Olympia. The community is invited to a celebration of their 40 years of business this Saturday, August 24, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Forty years is a long time for any business to continue on, but especially a restaurant, which faces stiff competition, rising food costs and a whole host of other factors that make keeping the doors open a difficult task. Antique Sandwich Company has not only survived, but flourished, maintaining a customer base that keeps coming back for their homemade pies, giant milkshakes, freshly made cinnamon rolls and sandwiches.
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Broadway Sizzle

Broadway Sizzle

I see a lot of food-related events run across my desk each month, and I try to make it to as many as I can. One upcoming event that has stood out to me is Broadway Center for the Performing Arts’ Broadway Sizzle, August 31 from 5 to 7 p.m. Following the event, you can choose to combine the dinner with a show and attend the premier night of the national-touring musical, Chicago.

Call me crazy, but it sounded like a great excuse to get dressed up for a memorable night on the town. The dinner will be at a communal table set up under a tent in the middle of Broadway. Chef Dustin Joseph has created a menu utilizing all local ingredients (menu below), and if you love food, it’s a delight to read (and equally good to taste).

I’m very much looking forward to attending the event, and hope to see you there! Tickets for dinner only are $75, or $150 for both dinner and tickets to Chicago, and can be purchased online. Ticket sales benefit Tacoma Free For All, Broadway Center’s 100 percent free programming each month.

Menu for Broadway Sizzle

Wine and Beer Garden
Braised pork macaroons, pickled sweet onions (Walla Walla, WA), apple jelly (Yakima, WA), caramel sea salt biscuits

Compressed watermelon (Hermiston, OR), thyme-chevre, aged balsamic, honey (Lakewood, WA / Spring Valley)

Dinner
(Family style)
Grilled corn (Puyallup, WA / Sterino Farms), cilantro aioli, cotija cheese, chile dust Heirloom tomato salad (Yakima, WA),  fresh burrata, basil, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette

Cucumber-kale-farro salad (Puyallup, WA / Duris Farms), goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, lemon-cilantro vinaigrette Heirloom melon cornbread

(Plated)
Rosemary grilled (Columbia River, WA) salmon, crisp wild mushrooms (Olympia, WA / Ostrom Farms), sweet potatoes, rose hip jus

Pesto grilled hangar steak (Niman Ranch), chipotle potato salad, caramelized onions, grilled peppers (Wapato, WA / Inaba Farms), aioli

(Dessert station)
Honeyed biscuits, cinnamon creme, macerated strawberries Roasted peaches (Wapato, WA / Pence Orchards), lavender (Sequim, WA / Purple Haze Farms), pistachio Chantilly cream

Hilltop Kitchen Food and Drink Menus

Hilltop Kitchen Food and Drink Menus

I visited the newly opened Hilltop Kitchen for a little weeknight cocktails and dinner. What I found was a fantastic Latin-inspired menu that is mostly vegetarian…and has a good amount of vegan options, or items that can easily be made vegan.

Craft cocktails are all priced $10, and are divided between Goes Down Easy and Boozy and Odd. Everything we ate and drank was excellent, as was the service.

The photos of the menus are below — they’re not great, but they give you an idea of what Hilltop Kitchen has going on (click to enlarge).

Co-owner Chris Keil says they will soon offer lunch, and now have a happy hour with $6 drinks from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. daily.

Look for my full feature on Hilltop Kitchen in the Weekly Volcano/Ranger/Airlifter next week.

Their address is a bit hard to find online, so I have it for you below, as well as their current hours. Happy drinking!

Hilltop Kitchen | 913 Martin Luther King Way, Tacoma | Open Monday-Wednesday 3 p.m.- last call at 12 a.m., Thursday-Saturday 3 p.m.- last call at 1:15 a.m. Closed Sunday. Happy hour is 3 p.m.-7 p.m. daily.

Pickle with Duris Farm

Pickle with Duris Farm

I thought I’d do a little re-blog of this post I did a few years ago on my cooking blog, A Big Mouthful, about Duris Farm in Puyallup and their amazing refrigerator dill pickle recipe.

Duris is now open for the summer — and it’s the perfect place to get all your pickling supplies! If you’ve never pickled before, don’t worry. It’s actually super easy with their recipe (below), and you can pick up everything you need as a one-stop-shop at their stand.

They also have other vegetables and their own canned and pickled items for sale.

Over the years, this has become my go-to pickle recipe. Give it a try!

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I Wanted to Dislike Yeti Yogurt, but…

I Wanted to Dislike Yeti Yogurt, but…

I previously wrote about how there are way too many frozen yogurt shops in Tacoma, and I still do believe that.

Yeti Yogurt, a Pacific Northwest chain, opened up shop kitty corner to Gibson’s Frozen Yogurt in Tacoma’s Westgate neighborhood. They’ve also opened one in Fircrest, and in Puyallup.

I wanted to dislike Yeti Yogurt.

I really did.

But then I tried it.

Maybe it was the glowing frozen yogurt dispensers, modern interior or what seemed to be a mile of fun toppings…but what really sold me were the flavors.

18 flavors at a time.

Flavors like Nutella, cookies and cream, salted caramel, bananas foster, baklava…and that’s just the tip of the fro yo iceberg.

Do yourself a favor. DON’T go there. It’s too good.