RON SWARNER: GRITTYSHOOT â€" LABOR DAY WEEKEND IN TACOMA >>>
Spending Labor Day weekend enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes and smells from our own backyard:
Masa2811 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.254.0560We’re all used to the “third-wave†coffeehouses by now, the post-Starbucks cafés where baristas command more machinery than some industrial chemists, and your morning cappuccino, drawn from a $12,000 machine, is decorated with a heart, a leaf or the likeness of SpongeBob's bud Patrick lovingly coaxed out of foam.
Masa, on a busy corner in Sixth and Pine, is a new kind of third-wave joint: It's a Mexican restaurant with a coffee joint,
Satellite Coffee, embedded. What this means in practice is not just world-class espressos and lovingly brewed coffees from Portland's
Stumptown folks, but killer coffee drinks, too.
I enjoyed the best Mexican Coffee drink of my life at Masa today. Freshly brewed French pressed Stumptown Coffee mixed with Patron Silver Tequila, Patron Xo Cafe Tequila Liqueur and Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur served in a tall coffee mug.
I was up. I was down. I was up. I was muy bueno.
LINK: Masa's Web site
LINK: Best of Tacoma 2009
