SNIPPETS FROM OUR SUPER BEST OF TACOMA ISSUE >>>
Hey South Sound! Want to have the Super Best day ever? The Weekly Volcano has hand-crafted your day with picks and suggestions from this year's Super Best of Tacoma issue. Enjoy.
A dream come true for lovers of hot yoga, Expand Yoga in downtown Tacoma offers original, 26-pose hot yoga and hot Vinyasa yoga in a heated studio overlooking a tree-filled park. Bonus: the studio has shower facilities. The 60- to 90-minute classes are more than affordable. At $5 and $7 a pop, skip a latte or a cocktail and you've got the cash for a class. Sharing the belief that yoga changes people's lives, Expand Yoga's owners set a goal of providing "awesome, affordable hot yoga to everyone and anyone who is interested." Goal achieved. - Jennifer Johnson
[Expand Yoga, 1015 Pacific Ave., 2nd Floor, Tacoma, 856.472.9642]
Old Milwaukee Cafe on Sixth Ave is unassuming, tucked into a corner building just daring you to drive on by. But don't do it! Go inside and get the Wild Huckleberry Pancake; get two if you're feeling crazy. Each pancake takes up an entire plate and is just as much huckleberry as it is pancake, which just about made me bow down to worship this breakfast concoction. Each bite will make you swear increasing loyalty to all huckleberry kind. The pancake pairs nicely with a side of chicken sausage. One bite of pancake + one bite of sausage = breakfast bliss. - Kristin Kendle
[Old Milwaukee Cafe, 3102 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.761.2602]
There aren't many hair salons where you can get a piercing or a tattoo the same day you get your faux hawk. You can do just that at Supernova Hair and Tattoo. Head hairstylist and owner Jana Lencioni has about two decades of hair mastery behind her, and other stylists specialize in cuts, color and the great hair beyond. While Supernova can do normie hair, this is especially the place to go if you want something unique and edgy. Kick back and enjoy the music (don't expect any elevator tunes here) and get ready to knock the socks off your hair salon expectations. - KK
[Supernova Hair and Tattoo, 817 Division Ave. #A, Tacoma, 253.428.8288]
Your closet is full of amazing clothes you haven't worn in ages because, well, you're tired of them. UrbanXchange has a solution: its in-store buyer will pay you for unique, in-fashion-now clothing, shoes or accessories. It's how the store stocks its shelves with awesomeness. You get a voucher for store credit or cash. Shopping here means chances of someone wearing the same dress as you at a party are slim. True story: I once bought my own shirt back. - JJ
[UrbanXchange, 1932 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2280]
There. Now it's in print: STINK has the best restaurant name ever, so haters please move on. Stop writing nasty letters and spewing vicious comments about what has now been declared the best restaurant name ever. From this day forward, society will embrace what is delicious and delightful inside STINK and forgo the bitter jealousy that rages within over the fact that you didn't come up with an awesome name like STINK for your own imaginary cheese and meat restaurant. - Steph DeRosa
[STINK Cheese and Meat, 628 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.426.1347]
Built by Jacob Fjelde as a commissioned work for the Norwegians of Tacoma, this public sculpture was dedicated May 17, 1913, to commemorate the 99th anniversary of Norwegian Independence. Henrik Ibsen is most noted for his play A Doll House. He is also credited as a father of Modernism. His realism revolutionized theater, moving the medium from being purely entertainment to being regarded as art. Today the sculpture serves as a talking point for English and drama majors who happen by, or any transient sleeping in the park. - Joshua Swainston
[Wright Park, 316 S. G St., Tacoma]
How do you fill seats at a restaurant? Offer a creative, innovative menu with product-appropriate pricing. If there was a book on winning locally in the food game, Pacific Grill's owner, Chef Gordon Nacarrato, would be the author. The chapter on happy hour would consist of one page and one rule only: "Happy hour is about showing appreciation for your guests' patronage by giving something back; make the drinks less expensive and say ‘Thank you' with discounted menu items." Pacific Grill offers non-stop happy hour all day every day in the bar with 50 percent off the bar menu. That's one tasty thank you. - JJ
[Pacific Grill, 1502 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.627.3535]
With a sweeping view of our gritty city, Stanley and Seafort's is an ideal locale for romantic wining and dining. The twinkle of city lights, an illuminated view of the Dome and glimpses of the Puget Sound - a view doesn't get much better. But let's admit it: this glorious view is best seen from the lounge. Luckily, the vantage point is a perfectly good excuse to indulge in a happy hour beverage of the adult nature while you take it all in. Doesn't get much better than that, now does it? - Jackie Fender
[Stanley and Seafort's Steak, Chop & Fish House, 115 E. 34th St., Tacoma, 253.473.7300]
The evolution, over the past few years, of the basic punk-meets-old-school-rock of the Fucking Eagles into a many-limbed punk rock behemoth with members totaling at around eight, give or take, seems to have happened gradually and relatively organically. As I meet with the band at their practice space - all of the members and I crowded into a small room - the drummer, Stu Linkert, jokes that more members were added to fill out the stage and make the group seem more impressive. What with all the guitars, backup singers, tambourines and harmonica that now fill out the band, the Fucking Eagles have started to resemble a bastardized, incredibly noisy interpretation of Spector's Wall of Sound. Read the full story here. - Rev. Adam McKinney
[The New Frontier, Fucking Eagles, Girl Trouble, DJ Melodica, (happy birthday Wade!)Saturday, Aug. 13, 9 p.m., no cover, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]