TASTING NEW DISHES >>>

Since summer of 2011, Marrow Kitchen and Bar has been tempting taste buds with artful, compelling and quite frankly, delicious masterpieces. The dishes are inventive. The mood it creates is lively and engaging. Dining out at Marrow is more than dining out; it's a full-on social event that binds our community together. When Marrow announces a new menu; people change plans.

Drop those plans.

Marrow launched its winter menu a week ago. Some staples have stayed, such as the potato doughnuts. While other dishes have gone through a metamorphosis, like the marrow, of course. It hasn't gone, and won't be going anywhere but is now presented with a rich and salty duck confit.

I began my venture through the new menu items with roasted wild mushrooms with lemon shallot vinaigrette, mache, grilled baguette and pecorino Romano cheese ($11). The server who recommended it is now on my Christmas card list. The trio was lovely, light and refreshing. The roasted mushrooms were flavor forward producing a lovely and soft earthiness.

I dabbled from the "Marrow" (for the meat eaters) and "Arrow" (for the herbivores) sides of the menu.

I recommend the hangar steak poutine with Beechers cheese curds, marrow gravy and shoestring fries ($17) for the red meat lovers. The steak - while a bit tough and chewy in some bites - was seasoned perfectly with peppery undertones. I'm a woman of simple pleasures and the cheese curds, gravy and fries beneath were all amazing on their lonesome but together created a trifecta of perfection, salted just right and just enough gravy and cheese curds to not make it too rich.

Lovers of earth grown grub will enjoy the red pepper capellini with spaghetti squash, sun-dried tomato pesto, pine nuts, broccolini, basil chips, pecorino Romano and grilled baguette ($16). The sun-dried tomato pesto and red pepper throughout the squash was a light, not overbearing balance of flavor. The seasoning on the broccolini couldn't have been better. All and all the dish was a tango of flavors, dancing together in harmony. The basil chips protruded from my dish in a lovely presentation and lent a light crisp earthiness to a couple of bites, I wish there were a couple more. I wish I had some right now.

I only scratched the surface of the new menu. Word on the street claims the escargot, foie gras and tender elk osso bucco are worthy.

As always the staff's menu knowledge was impressive, which came with prompt, efficient and witty service to boot. - Jackie Fender

MARROW KITCHEN AND BAR, 4 P.M. TO 2 A.M. TUESDAY-SATURDAY, 21 AND OLDER, 2717 SIXTH AVE., TACOMA 253.267.5299