STEPH DEROSA: SHOPPING AND DRINKING ON SIXTH AVENUE >>>

Is it just me? Or does the word “stimulate” send your mind into a perverted frenzy also? Whenever someone tells me they are going to “stimulate the economy” I automatically imagine them naked and in the throes of shopping foreplay. Well, I’ve definitely got something you can “stimulate” yourself with in more ways than one â€" the Sixth Avenue District of Tacoma.

For not just one, but for every Thursday evening in December from 6-9 p.m. ending Dec. 18, Christmas shoppers can get that genuine “boutique” shopping experience â€" with an added flair. Independent Sixth Avenue businesses including Posh Home, Urban Gourmet, The Shoe Show, Red Line, Jewel Day Spa, and Far & Wide are labeling themselves as “your hip holiday squad” and giving an intimate, fun-filled shopping experience for you to enjoy. Each shop will have holiday-inspired drinks and treats such as chocolate martinis and warm appetizers. Dude, did you just hear me? I said “chocolate” and “martini” in the same sentence. That right there is enough to stimulate me like no other.

So drink like a fish and spend like Donald Trump, I assure you the stimulation will last for more than one evening as you help an independent business and buy local. I’ll even let you in on a savings secret: Stop by one of the aforementioned shops and pick up a 15 percent off coupon. From what I hear, a discount like that for Posh Home is unheard of.

LINK: Directions to Sixth Avenue

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s lifestyle section Fix

MICHAEL SWAN: BIG ASS COSTCO-LIKE WHOLESALER FOR RESTAURANTS ON ITS WAY >>>

Fife just doesn’t have enough large trucks moving through its streets. It needs another massive steel building at, say, where 12th Street East and 62nd Avenue East meet.

Enter Restaurant Depot. The restaurant wholesaler with around 60 stores in the United States is seeking bids from contractors to erect a new location in Fife.

Restaurant Depot provides restaurants with bulk and industrial food items, such as 87-pound wheels of Parmesan cheese, 160-quart stock pots and 5-gallon buckets of pickles. Chef’s Quality frozen cakes will be that much closer once the building is finished, too.

Membership will be free â€" for restaurants. It’s not open to the public.

LINK: Are you hungry now?

BRAD ALLEN: HO! HO! HO! >>>

This just in from South Hill Mall:

How fast can I run through and around the building?

STEPH DEROSA: TRASHING AND PRAISING DUPONT >>>

Used to live in DuPont. Hated it. As we traveled up I-5 today headed north from the coast, we approached the DuPont exit. Mr. DeRosa requested a swing-by to our old cookie cutter DuPont house. There was nothing inside of me that wanted to return to the old neighborhood, nor run into the snobby, self-serving, and nosey neighbors. When we lived in DuPont some five or so years ago, we had two cool families as neighbors. The rest were duct tape the beer can holder, pop open a can of Bud Light and start mowing the lawn with a beer at 7 a.m. type of neighbors. The let your kids skateboard across my flower bed at midnight even though your child is only 7 years old type of neighbors. Even someone like me, being from Texas, who’s seen the trashiest of neighbors â€" I still think my old neighbors were garbage and ohmygod I need a drink I’m getting so worked up about this.

Ok, got a glass of wine. Enough about them â€" let me save those stories for a future Toilet Tales. Moving on.

So I asked Mr. DeRosa to drop me off at one of the three strip shopping centers upon DuPont’s entry so that I may walk around and mentally ridicule every shop as I passed by. He wanted to go look at our old house, but all I wanted was to fester. So for Dinner with DeRosa this week, I invited the very few kick-ass DuPont people I found in my strip shopping center escapade.

I detest how “Corporate America” Starbucks can be. They apparently have a “policy” that does not allow any employee to have their picture taken with a Starbuck’s uniform on. Seriously? What harm would I have caused by taking your damn picture and talking good about you? You know what, Dupont Starbucks? I would’ve been nice to you had you let me take your picture, but now all you’re going to get is bashed. Hoorah for the Indie coffee shops! Pat Brown from Satellite Coffee or Rachel from Black Water will let me take their picture any day I want.

There are two Starbucks in DuPont. Is that really necessary? Is it also necessary to have at least two Teriyaki places, two nail places, an H&R Block, a check-cashing store, and a tanning place but NO GROCERY STORE? Those poor DuPont citizens. Give them a damn grocery store already. Quit draggin’ your feet, DuPont City Council. Don’t worry, DuPont people, my neighbors may have been assholes, but the rest of you â€" I gotchore back. Store! Store! Store!

Great, now I’m even tenser than before. I need more wine, and a massage â€" STAT. Anyone? Anyone?

My first guests for this week’s Dinner with DeRosa are Amanda and Brianna from Farrelli’s Gourmet Wood Fired Pizza. I’m hoping they’ll bring my favorite salad, Phil’s Creation, and Mr. DeRosa’s favorite Pizza, the Meateater. Crazy thing is Amanda was one of the two cool neighbors I had. She and her amazing family lived directly next door, as a matter of fact. Amanda used to baby sit for me, and her mom was someone I considered a friend. I really liked them, and I hope to catch up with Amanda during my imaginary Dinner with DeRosa.

Someone invited this week, and definitely cooler than the policy at DuPont Starbucks, is Jesse from Domino’s Pizza. Look! I took his picture and he’s wearing a Domino’s Pizza uniform! Oh Noes!

Three of the most congenial people I met today were from Great Clips hair salon. Lydia, Heather, and Cassandra â€" you rock. Come to my make-believe dinner, please? Oh, and keep reading the Weekly Volcano. I bet you guys didn’t know this, but, although reading the Weekly Volcano does cause short bouts of stomach cramping, it can also improve fertility. Much better than a Greek Fertility God, yet still requiring an antacid. Either way, you’ll need a doctor.

Next person cooler than the policy at DuPont Starbucks is Leah of Desert Sun. Come to our pretend Dinner with DeRosa. I promise you’ll have pretend fun.

Although I may bash parts of DuPont, I do love to frequent a certain store in town called The Posh Paws. My first time in was about a year ago, and I love it. It’s not just about the pet items for sale, but the people are so congenial. I always stay in Posh Paws, talking longer than I should. Plus, there’s always some fantastic Great Dane dog in there who loves to be petted and scratched. And, well, petting and scratching is my specialty â€" there’s no denying that. Other DWD guests, meet Danielle. Danielle, meet the other DWD guests. You’ll fit in juuuust fine.

My last guest is one of my all-time favorite Trouble with DeRosa victims, K.T. What are the odds that she’d be toolin’ around inside DuPont’s Posh Paw? Good odds, apparently. I love talking to K.T., so I’m happy to invite her to this week’s Dinner with DeRosa. Plus I think she and Danielle also loathe what DuPont Starbuck’s policy represents anyway, so she could totally kick their green apron wearing asses. And that, my friends, would be our entertainment for the evening: K.T. kickin’ corporate ass. I’ll get the popcorn, you bring the beer. It’s gonna be one helluva dinner.

MICHAEL SWAN: THIS WEEK'S VOLCANO >>>

Mini casinos survive in Lakewood
You know that huge sigh of relief you heard coming from Lakewood after Tuesday’s election? Well, it was well deserved, and it came from the city’s four (count ’em, four) mini casinos.

Proposition 1 â€" an initiative created by anti gambling zealots that would have doomed an industry that provides $2.9 million to Lakewood’s annual tax revenue â€" failed to take hold of Lakewood voters in Tuesday's election.

Read our story on it in this week's issue of the Weekly Volcano by clicking here.

BRAD ALLEN: THE MUSE >>>

The Muse â€" an all-ages, live music and spoken word café â€" will have its grand opening Friday, Oct. 24 featuring Miles From Chicago. The venue in the old Rent-A-Center building on Sixth Avenue will serve sandwiches, soups, salads and dessert, but no alcohol. 

Will this be the new all-ages hot spot that doesn’t host hardcore bands?

[The Muse, 2509 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.212.3934]

LINK: South Sound live music and DJs tonight

RON SWARNER: WHAT, NO SCONES? >>>

ME: Paul, are you writing up this Go Local! organizational workshop this morning?

PAUL SCHRAG: I don't know, you?

ME: I don't know.

Well I guess that's a big yes from Schrag. This just appeared on the Business Examiner's Daily E-mail Newsletter:

Nice job Paul.

Milchen was thorough and impressive. After his hour-long presentation, Downtown Merchants Group President Patricia Lecy-Davis grabbed the meeting for a nuts and bolts session on how to take it to the next level â€" solidify the name (Go Local Tacoma!), establish a footprint (greater Tacoma area, which includes University Place, Lakewood, Puyallup and, basically, Pierce County), set membership categories and prices (done) and establish a board (in the process).

Yes, it will be an organization for small, independently-own businesses to gather strength and battle the big-box retailers and corporate giants of this world through collaborative campaigns, shared resources and education.  It will also be an organization to create and promote vibrant city centers through civic efforts.

As a independent local business owner with more than 40 years living and working in the greater Tacoma area, I was honored and proud to participate in this morning's program. It's a worthy organization with noble goals. I suggest Pierce County independently-owned business check out the Go Local! Web site and climb aboard.

Let's Go Local!

BRAD ALLEN: THE MONSOON ROOM >>>

Pappi Swarner’s pappi texted Pappi that The Monsoon Room was closed Wednesday night. Yesterday, Exit133 reported that the Hilltop ultra-hip lounge closed for remodeling. I have since learned that the Monsoon is indeed closed to make the bar bigger, construct an awning and has a reopening target date around Thanksgiving.

Let’s hope owner Laura Malone can remodel faster. Seriously, what they hell am I suppose to do now?

MICHAEL SWAN: NEW STORIES IN THIS WEEK'S VOLCANO >>>

Building height restrictions in Olympia
For months the debate has raged in Washington’s capital city: to raise building height limits on the isthmus in Olympia, between Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet, or not? It’s an idea the Olympia City Council has been batting around for a while, and Tuesday, Sept. 30 we got our first indication of exactly where they stand. Full story here

Stop driving to work
Truth be told, reducing single-person trips to and from work is not a new idea. It has been heralded as one of the easiest ways to tackle mounting concerns about petroleum dependence, air pollution, global warming and lung cancer, to name a few. Remember carpooling? Well, commute trip reduction is the new carpooling. Full story here

Vets against war not coffee
Tully's founder and Chairman Tom O'Keefe has pledged $15,000 worth of coffeehouse supplies to the organizations behind the java joint â€" GI Voice Inc. and the local chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Tully's spokesman Roger van Oosten of the Fearey Group did not respond to media inquiries about the donation. O'Keefe did tell other media outlets that while he doesn't necessarily agree with some of the political positions of the backing organizations, he does, however, respect members' rights to have a differing opinion. Full story here

Pierce County quality of life meter
The City of Lakewood’s amazing $64.1 million budget is focusing on public safety, neighborhoods, and community facilities! Oh, wait, that’s Lakewood, Calif. Nevermind. Our City of Lakewood, Wash., recently cut more than 5 percent of its neighborhood-policing budget. Sorry about that. Grab full meter readings here

CHRYSTAL MORISETTE: EMERGING MARKET DEVELOPMENT GROWS >>>

"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere,” claims Jon Tartaglia with Emerging Market Development in Tacoma. “Unfortunately, I'll be around for awhile."

That was Tartaglia’s response after we tossed the rumor at him that The Vault had purchased the Varsity Grill.

We discovered the opposite is true.

The Varsity Grill and EMD are partnering with the The Vault Catering Company in downtown Tacoma to expand its operation into the catering business.  Tartaglia couldn’t expound more due to negotiations. The partnership will not happen for several months.

Stay tuned for more details as they develop.