STEPH DEROSA: DINNER WITH DEROSA >>>

Mmmmmmm ... pink cookies!  Herban Café is where I am having this week’s Dinner with DeRosa.  So grab a bottle of wine, peruse the extensive, flawless Herban Café menu, take a seat, and get to know this week’s guests:

Located right next door to Herban Café is my own personal, local Caldrea supplier: Urban Gourmet & Garden.  Robin Jensed and Catherine Attebery (I love saying their names out loud) are the dynamic duo that own and operate this astounding kitchen store.  It’s a few times a month these girls see me wander in breathless and in a state of fret.  I’m usually in dire need of a last minute gift of some sort.  With a smile on their faces, and a complimentary laugh, they drop what they are doing to ease my unprepared-ness.  Within minutes they’ve found the cure for what ails my needs, and they send me on my way.  I’m sure they are aware that the quicker they find what I need, the quicker I am out of their hair â€" so it’s really a win-win situation on both parts. 

Have you ever taken the time to step into Great Northwest Popcorn on Pacific Avenue to chat corn with Pat or Kathy?  They are just a few spaces down from urbanXchange, toward 21st Street South (Can we get a few more stores in Tacoma with the word “urban” in the name?)  KAke and I have special ordered pink popcorn for a certain duo’s fourth birthday last year, and the service was exemplary.  She made the popcorn whatever color we wanted, whatever flavor we wanted, and at the exact serving amount we wanted.  This was all done for a very reasonable price, and made a really creative party favor for our girls.  If you’ve never been into Great Northwest Popcorn, take the time to stop by and be over stimulated with many bins of old school candy that will take you back to your childhood.  Well, your childhood minus the bully ass-kickings, at least.

How did I know you had your ass kicked in school?  Lyndean told me.

With just a tiny amount of skepticism and only a half-bottle of wine in me, KAke took me to meet a tarot card reader.  Her name is Lyndean, and as I discovered shortly after meeting her: she’s pretty friggen’ cool.  I won’t go into detail what was discussed, but she was just about dead-on reality when it came to my personal life.  I was amazed and astonished after my reading, and actually had a change in my outlook on life.

Not only did I ask Lyndean about my personal life, but also I asked her what my local community could look forward to.  I find it my duty to declassify this pertinent information having to do with the future of Tacoma.  Read slowly, and pay attention: Religious disambiguation, symbolic clarification on all romantic reveries, and lots of fresh broccoli.  Consider yourself warned.

Melinda was the best part about my Hub lunch experience last week.  It’s the new pub from the Harmon Brewery folks. I look forward to getting to know this extremely friendly and outgoing girl at our theoretical Herban Café dinner. 

Bringing the beer, liquor, and wine to our dinner this week will be Mike, one of Doyle’s über-cool bartenders.  I adore Mike.  He helped the Tacoma Beer Society get its start at Stadium Bistro, and helped fight for us when things got sticky.  Doyle’s owner Russ Heaton rescued us on more than one occasion with the TBS, and we owe him and Mike noting but gratitude.

Mangiamo!