JAKE DE PAUL: MANLY NO, BUT I LIKE IT TOO >>>

It’s a real challenge to feel and look manly while guzzling out of a blue kiddy’s bucket with a yellow shovel as a swizzle stick.

Often when I’m hanging at The Rock Wood Fired Pizza & Spirits’ Federal Way location â€" listening to Led Zeppelin, of course â€" I’m surrounded by burly bikers, classic rockers and hip-hoppers who probably drink alcohol mixed with ground espresso, Red Bull and/or gunpowder. And on a hot day like today, I order The Bucket â€" a five rum mai tai-like drink in a blue kiddy’s bucket. It’s refreshing, although it takes balls to drink.

I can’t drink it in the Rock’s packed dining room due to laughter from the kids. So, I retreat into the bar with said characters, drinking beneath ESPN while classic rock fills the entire building at the perfect sound level for both conversation and rocking out.

Like other Rocks in Tacoma, Puyallup, Lacey and outside the area, the Federal Way location features industrial rock and roll décor. However, this location takes the atmosphere to an 11 with high ceilings, crumbling brick walls, rusted steel, ghost-flamed bathroom stalls and, of course, rock and roll â€" guitar chandelier, stage lighting, roadie boxes for bar storage and table tops, semi truck rear doors, and skeletons. Yes, a “Pirates of the Caribbean”-like skeleton with a spray paint can and another playing guitar with flames shooting out. Yo-ho-ho and a bucket full of rums!

The menu is the same as the original locations, too, with more than 20 rock-themed signature pizzas to choose from. If you can’t decide, simply pick your own fresh toppings for the cooks to spread across the sauce before being smothered in cheese and slide into a wood-fueled authentic brick oven â€" which I’m glad I’m not operating today.

[The Rock Wood Fired Pizza, 34817 Enchanted Pkwy. S., Federal Way, 253.835.7625]

LINK: Previously on Spew