Ginkgo Forest Winery Grand Opening Saturday

Did you know a new wine tasting room opened in Old Town? I’ve driven past a few times, making mental notes to check it out. Tomorrow is the perfect time to do so. Ginkgo Forest Winery, from Mattawa, WA (just outside Vantage in Eastern Washington) is having its grand opening tomorrow, September 28 starting at 11 a.m.

There will be food and wine pairings and live music from guitarist George Turner and art from Bill Colby. You can also enter to win a gift basket, and there will be specials on wine.

Even if you’re not able to make it to the grand opening, stop by Ginkgo Forest in Old Town and give them a nice welcome to Tacoma.

Here’s a handy-dandy video to learn more about Ginkgo Forest Winery.

Ginkgo Forest Winery | 2221 N 30th Street, Tacoma | (253) 301-4372 | Open Wednesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.-6 p.m.

Drink Up: Dune Cocktail Event at Hilltop Kitchen

You may or may not be familiar with author Frank Herbert, a Tacoma native, who wrote the original Dune series of books. He’s well-loved with the science fiction literature set, and he’s got quite a fan base here in Tacoma, including Hilltop Kitchen’s own Chris Keil.

Why not combine your love of literature and booze? Hilltop Kitchen is hosting a Dune Cocktail Event on October 8 from 7-10 p.m. It’s a day that also happens to be Frank Herbert’s birthday, so you can raise a glass…or two…to him.

I had a chance to preview the cocktails that will be available at the event. And no, I did not drink all of these by myself. If I had, you would have seen me on the news in handcuffs with the title, “Tacoma Foodie gets rowdy and publicly embarrasses herself”, or something like that.

There will be six special craft cocktails in honor of Dune and Frank Herbert, including the Harkonnen Cocktail, Orange Catholic, Bene Gesserit, Duncan Idaho, Honored Matre and  the Golden Path (not pictured). All cocktails will be priced at $10.

My favorite was the Harkonnen Cocktail, with mezcal, Zaya rum, and smoked demerara salt, served over one of their signature hand-carved giant ice cubes. Those ice cubes get me every time. Conveniently, here’s a video from Brian of Better Cocktails at Home demonstrating how to make it yourself.

Though I didn’t get to taste the Golden Path, it sounds pretty amazing. It’s served hot, with cinnamon-infused tequila, mulled apple cider and Becherovka, which I’ve termed “a fancy version of Fireball”.

If you want to learn more about Frank Herbert and his writing, or about the event and cocktails, Post Defiance has a nice piece about them both.

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.

New Sausages at The Red Hot

The Red Hot is one of my very favorite places in Tacoma. The food is consistently good, the beers local and cold, and the atmosphere easy and comfortable.

I’m normally a creature of habit when ordering at The Red Hot, but this time I was told there’s two new sausages on the menu, and I had to give them a try. Sure, they have their Test Kitchen Thursdays each week, with new and creative combinations, but the two new sausages are on the menu for a couple months. They’ll be rotated out eventually, so get ’em while you can.

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