ANNOUNCER: TACOMA FAVORITE TESTS THE WATER IN GIG HARBOR >>>

Sitting next to Gig Harbor's new Galaxy Theatre is sitting pretty indeed. Lele Tran, who owns Tacoma favorite Le-Le Restaurant with husband Andy, made the adventurous choice of opening another restaurant in Gig Harbor. Swinging open the doors nine years ago, the original Hilltop Le-Le's and the sadly failed Lakewood venture of 2007 provided great practice for the spotlight attention and scrutiny restaurants receive when opening in Gig Harbor's latest hot spot, Uptown Gig Harbor, a planned shopping, dining and movie-going complex that looks as though it were a Bellevue transplant. Elegant, graceful and beautifully appointed, this smaller space offers Vietnamese and Thai cuisine. Prices are not the easily affordable ones of Tacoma.

The boys review Lele Restaurant (yes, they slightly changed the name) in Gig Harbor on the Weekly Volcano's Web site.

JOSE S. GUTIERREZ JR.: THIS IS A HUGE SHOW >>>

A night of partying and paying homage to some of the Northwest’s best hip-hop artists is in store at The Royal Lounge in downtown Olympia for tonight’s Body Rock 1.0 party.

The Body Rock 1.0 features the clever combo of Black Stax (made up of Seattle underground hip-hop icons The Silent Lambs Project and songstress Felicia Loud) and DJ TC Islam (son of Afrika Bambaataa) â€" who formed in 2008 following a series of successful collabos.  Also featured is Khingz formerly Khalil Crisis â€" one half of super duo, Abyssinian Creole (with Gabriel Teodros) and recipient of Seattle Magazine’s Hip-Hop album of the year 2009 for his futuristic masterpiece, From Slaveships to Spaceships. 

Olympia’s own SP aka Slo Poke and Source Unsigned Hype Alumnus will take the stage with upstart MC, Icky Spitz to shut the stage down and make way for 25360 DJ of The Year 2008, DJ Drastic and DJ Sweet Elite with yours truly being blessed to host the joint! 

I couldn’t not get down with this lineup.

Check out a dope show tonight.

[The Royal Lounge, Thursday, Sept. 24, 9 p.m., $5, 311 Capital way, Olympia, 360.705.0760]

RON SWARNER: COUNTDOWN TO TERMINATOR STOUT IN TACOMA >>>

The Tacoma City Council gave the green light for the city to buy the vacant land north of the planned McMenamins brewpub, and starts the 18-month clock on developers Grace Pleasants and Rick Moses to secure financing to buy back the land from the city to plop a retail and residential complex atop of a city-owned parking garage.

Read the full details on The News Tribune’s Web site.

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Must Have Been On The Darkside: Scientists confirm the Moon is covered with hydrogen and oxygen particles. Hey! That’s water!

Service Above Self â€" Doh!: Former Rotary bookkeeper charged with theft.

Screw Lifting Hay Bales: Sumner OKs $2.5 million for YMCA.

Here’s Hoping It’s Not Empty Rhetoric: U.N. council urges nuclear disarmament, Obama presides.

Eye Opener: Census worker found hanged.

This Could Save Newspapers: Accused rapist attempts to buy all copies of the local daily in hopes of avoiding the ensuing bad publicity.

Pointless Research: Top 10 Ig Nobel award winners for silly science.

Happy Birthday Arthur Guinness!

MATT DRISCOLL: THIS OLD BUILDING >>>

I remember watching the Kingdome come down. That was awesome. The Kingdome was atrocious.

Watching the historic Luzon Building in Tacoma, on the corner of 13th and Pacific, come down on Saturday and Sunday, however, won’t be nearly as enjoyable. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s going to be sad â€" and not just because they’re not using high powered explosives. As many have pointed out, it’ll be sad because a piece of Tacoma history will be gone forever.

That said, I think it’s important to see the reality of the situation. The Luzon Building, trees growing out of its side and bricks crumbling, is literally falling down â€" a disaster waiting to happen. While many have been quick to throw leaders like Eric Anderson under the bus for not swooping in and saving the Luzon â€" like, somehow as a City Manager he’s got super powers and a tree that grows hundred dollar bills â€" the fact is plenty of efforts were made. The shit economy doomed all of them. This is the world we live in. It’s reality.

Let’s give Tacoma’s resilience a little credit here. We’re not defined by our buildings, or â€" to reference another hot button debate â€" even our future beams or berms. Tacoma is defined by its people. Our history and character is only lost or compromised if we let it be.

[Luzon Building, Saturday, Sept. 26-Sunday, Sept. 27, 13th and Pacific, Tacoma]

JAKE DE PAUL: OLYMPIA TEEN NAILS CONTEST >>>

Back in mid-August I told you Olympia teen Morgan Hanrahan was competing in the 28th Annual National Beef Cook-off. I prove it here.

Check it out. She won.

Hanrahan won the Teens Cooking with Beef category with her Southeast Asian Steak Salad. Take a peek at her recipe. Oh, I will eat it all right.

She grabbed $10,000 for her salad. (Insert your own salad days joke here.)

MATT DRISCOLL: TRANSPORTATION FAIR AT TOLLEFSON PLAZA TOMORROW >>>

As part of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber’s Tollefson Plaza Summer Lunch Series, a whole slew of regional and city organizations will be hosting a “Transportation Fair” on Friday, Sept. 25 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in, well, Tollefson Plaza of course.

Sponsored by the City of Tacoma, Pierce Transit, Transportation Choices Coalition, Tacoma Wheelmen’s Bicycle Club, and Downtown: On the Go!, the Transportation Fair will offer commuting tips, bicycling options, and information on the public process of both the Pierce Transit redesign and Tacoma’s Mobility Master Plan. And as if that stuff wasn’t exciting enough, there will also be prizes and giveaways.

Here is what I predict will happen:

Many of the commuting tips and traffic reduction advice offered at the Transportation Fair will quickly be put to the test by a large swath of people that, after arriving at Tollefson Plaza, simultaneously realize how inhospitable it is. The plaza’s typically lonely pink concrete will inspire a sense of “I’ve got to get the fuck out of here” in much of the crowd.

The gridlock will be messy.

CERVEZA SISTERS: THE TASTY ROAD TO THE TACOMA CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL >>>

Forty-three brewers from around the U.S. and Canada will converge on Tacoma Oct. 3 for the Tacoma Craft Beer Festival. My sister and I are attempting to drink and review TCBF participating breweries’, er, brew, right here on Spew to prime you for that day of drinking. Next up:

21st Amendment Brew Free! or Die IPA
Though canned beer has been around for decades in the U.S., the thought of canning beer in the craft beer world has always been a bit of a joke. However, in 2002, Colorado small craft brewer Oskar Blues Brewery put its Dale's Pale Ale in a can. Nice.

Today, craft beer in cans is more common as modern beer cans use a water-based lining to protect the beer from exposure to aluminum and subsequent leeching that creates that special metallic twang found in canned beer of yore. Cans also deliver some of the freshest beer possible, as there's no risk of exposure to light (producing skunked or light-struck beer) or to oxygen (rendering the beer oxidized).

Riding the craft beer can wave 21st Amendment Brewery serves its Brew Free! Or Die IPA in, yes, a can.

At 7 percent abv and 70 IBUs the Brew Free! Or Die IPA is no wussie can o' beer. It’s hoppy enough for an IPA fan but gentle on the bitter scale so that pale ale fans will enjoy it, too.

LINK: 21st Amendment Brewery

LINK: Tacoma Craft Beer Festival

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Tacoma Craft Beer Festival cover story

There's simply no need to dump sub-par "beer" down your throat. It's just not cool, bra. ...

JENNIFER JOHNSON: I LOVE LAMB. LAMB, LAMB, LAMB >>>

Folks at Gateway to India in Tacoma have confirmed that their sister site in Gig Harbor did not open last weekend as planned. Now they’re shooting for mid-October at the earliest.

“No, it’s not open yet. We’re still waiting on deliveries,” explained Tacoma Gateway staffer over the phone last night.

Not that I’m holding my breath or anything, but I am very impatient to see what dishes will be on the Gig Harbor menu. My curiosity has been piqued with their promise of a bigger kitchen and more meat dishes.

I love lamb. Gateway in Tacoma makes a wonderful creamy korma ghost lamb. With more space for larger broilers, I can only imagine what they can turn out across the bridge.

Dare I dream of rack of lamb?

Possibly some lamb chops that melt off the bone?

Oh, let it be so.

[Gateway to India, 6565 Kimball Dr., Gig Harbor, 253.552.5022]