DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

(Closed) Military Discounts: Neo Wood Fired Pizza at 8425 S. Hosmer offers free 7-inch pizzas and 99 cent draft beers to all returning troops - every day.

Taste of Tacoma: The annual Taste of Tacoma usually leaves us feeling a little chafed, like we were just stuffed into an obese pigpen like a bunch of caged idiots, and all we can do is wander around buying ungodly amounts of marginal food, offered by "local" restaurants that aren't even local. Then we get bitter and head to the beer garden, before inevitably going home for a nap. Yes, we like to bitch about it. And, yes, we'll do it again this year from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Point Defiance Park.

Sun Block Party: The Varisty Grill in downtown Tacoma hosts a summer beer tasting today from 5-9 p.m. on their patio. Expect a limbo contest around 8 p.m.

Fresh Fridays: Every Friday, 3-6 p.m. folks sell, buy, trade or barter fresh produce, plants and flowers on a small grassy spot with a picnic table in front of the gravel parking area on the south side of Garfield Street in Parkland.

Fridays Uncorked: The Bayview School of Cooking hosts a Rose - The Everyday Summer Wine tasting today from 5-7:30 p.m.

Benefit: The Mark Olympia holds a fundraiser at 8 p.m. tonight for local farm Left Foot Organics as their farm office was recently broken into.

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LINK: Restaurant coupons

LINK: Join the Nosh League