OODLES OF GOOD NEWS >>>

If I were to be banished to a deserted island and could bring along only one culinary creation, it would be a noodle dish. Specifically, my mom's homemade chicken and noodles, with broth made from scratch and inch-wide noodles as thick as shoe leather. And then there's spaghetti carbonara, pad Thai, "yakisoba" ... well, you get the idea. Noodles are good.

Apparently, noodles have been very good to Chef Gordon Naccarato, too. He will open a "noodle bar" every Thursday at his Pacific Grill restaurant beginning sometime in mid-February. His long bar top will be the medium - if you want noodles, you'll need to find a seat at the bar.

The "noodles" will arrive in the form of ramen bowls, Japanese-style ramen broth and noodles, bamboo shoots, carrot, daikon, bean sprouts, mushrooms and garnished with delicious soy-brined jalapeños. Noodle Bar specifics, hours, pricing and appropriate dress details to follow soon.

You don't have to wait until February to enjoy Pacific Grill's delicious ramen bowls. They have six varieties on their bar menu and an albacore tuna ramen ($26) on their new winter menu, which was released yesterday. The bar menu bowls are $10, with the option to add pork ($1), chicken ($2), shrimp ($3), duck ($3), Kobe top sirloin ($4) and Godzilla Ramen (all said meats for $5). The bowls also come with optional condiments - Indonesian chilies or Vietnamese fish sauce.

I enjoyed the Godzilla Ramen last night after Third Thursday ArtWalk. It's a huge, deep bowl with ample representation of all meats, in bite-size strips, and loads of noodles. It's about as far from those 29-cent packets of grocery-store noodles and dust as you can get.

[Pacific Grill, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday, 5-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5-9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, bar menu available until closing, 1502 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.627.3535]