DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

It's the small things in life: The new Amocat Café not only sells baked goods and quiche, but you can also score Cracker Jack for 75 cents.

Deals: Goodfellas Italian Steakhouse inside the Great American Casino offers a four-course dinner every Tuesday from 5-7 p.m. for $20. Hell's Kitchen in downtown Tacoma hosts Tightwad Tuesday featuring $2 wells, $2 beers and $2 tacos.

Aloha: Mikie Burgers on Center Street in Tacoma added a new burger to its repertoire last week. The Island Mikie loads a quarter pound patty, Swiss cheese, Canadian bacon, pineapple, salsa and sweet chili mayo between its giant sesame seed bun. The $4.35 burger has been reduced to $3.75 through the end of June.

Future Things Are Coming: Brix 25 in Gig Harbor hosts 7 Seas Brewery for two, five-course brewmaster's dinners Thursday, June 17 at 6 and 6:30 p.m. The cost is $60 a person. Reserve your spot at 253.858.6626.

Food Matters: The 11 weirdest foods and gadgets at the National Restaurant Association trade show.

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LINK: Restaurant coupons

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 2010 >>>

1. The Tempest Lounge kicks off its Thursday night Acoustic Open Stage event at 7 p.m. with hosts Kim Archer and Nick sandy. If you play an acoustic instrument and sing - show them what you got. Acoustic groups are welcome.

2. Wild Waves Theme Park will host the world's largest swimming lesson at 7 a.m. Keep those elbows high people.

3. Washington artists Clarissa Callesen and Ruby Re-Usable (aka Diane Kurzyna) featured in the book Who's Your Dada? Redefining the Doll through Mixed Media will discuss their artistic process at 7:30 p.m. inside the Olympia Timberland Library.

4. The Pierce County Arts Commission celebrates its 25th anniversary with a party that includes a presentation of the President's Awards to Pierce County Councilwoman Barbara Gelman, Elida Kirk Lathrop, Arts Downtown Puyallup and others, beginning at 5:30 p.m. inside the Pierce County Community Development building at 3602 Pacific Ave.

5. The Lakewood Playhouse hosts the live radio play Hard-Boiled Detectives: From the Surreal to the Sublime! featuring Sam Danger, Dan Turner and Philip Marlowe, plus wine, beer and hors d'oeuvres, at 7 p.m.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

Opening Today: The Amocat Cafe opens today at 625 St. Helens Ave. in Tacoma. It's hours are 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday, and is expected to expand those hours in the future. We wrote a little something on it a while back. The three-room (eventually four rooms) cafe serves pastries from Essential Baking Co. and doughnuts from Le Donut on Hilltop. Check out the full length Guerrilla Marketing Viral Trailer for Amocat Café, directed by Tacoma Urbanist Erik Bjornson, below. Oh, by the way, the credit card machine hasn't arrived yet, so bring cash today.

Nosh League: Join our foodie social conglomerate and attend our wine and cheese tasting July 8 at Cork!

Wine Month: June is "Lesser Known Grapes" month at Pour at Four in Tacoma. Drop by the Proctor District wine bar to taste four varietals that you may not be hip to: Counoise, Mourvedre, Petit Verdot and Blaufrankisch.

Tuesday Deal: Goodfellas Italian Steakhouse inside the Great American Casino offers a four-course dinner every Tuesday from 5-7 p.m. for $20. Do it at 10117 S. Tacoma Way in Lakewood.

Smoking Deal: 99 Bottles in Federal Way will pour five smoke beers for $5 tonight from 5-7:30 p.m.

Food Matters: The spoon-fork mash-up has nothing on this – the ultimate marriage of sushi-eating style and ease.

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LINK: Restaurant coupons

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2010 >>>

1. The Sixth Avenue Farmers Market opens today for front door shopping, plus personal chef Jasmine Beiracki will demonstrate how to make a baby greens salad, singer/bassist Josiah Bogle performs at the market's opening at 3:30 p.m., DJ Bobby Galaxy spins at 4:30 p.m. and it all goes down until 7:30 p.m. on Pine Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

2. Flow, an exhibit of calligraphic art by two very different practitioners of the form - classically trained sumi painter Andrea Erickson and modernist Maureen McHugh - closes today from noon to 5 p.m. at mineral.

3. Essays and speeches will be delivered by students from five Clover Park School District middle schools at 6:30 p.m. inside Mann Middle School in Lakewood. See the future.

4. Saxophonist Kareem Kandi hosts an open jazz jam at SAX on Sixth Restaurant and Lounge beginning at 9 p.m.

5. DJ Omar spins at 10 p.m. inside Jazzbones.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

RUNNING PROUD >>>

I snapped this photo just outside Steilacoom High School in Lakewood this morning.

On behalf of the Weekly Volcano and Swarner Communications, I'd like to extend special prayers and thanks for those who died serving our country, and those brave soldiers, and their families, who still serve.

DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

Prime Night: Goodfellas Italian Steakhouse in Lakewood offers a full prime rib dinner for $14 every Thursday.

It's Back: The Varsity Grill has brought back its monthly Martini Club, which will be held tonight from 5-7 p.m. Your $5 allows you free appetizers and $5 martinis. Drink up at 114 Broadway in downtown Tacoma.

Meat Buddies: Pour at Four in Tacoma's Proctor District hosts a complimentary BBQ Wines for Memorial Day tasting tonight from 5:30-8 p.m.

Nosh League: Join our local foodie club then join us for our first outing July 8.

Future Things Are Coming: Primo Grill hosts a grilling cooking class June 26 from 2-4 p.m. The $65 fee includes recipes and instruction, lunch with a glass of wine, tax and gratuity. Reserve your spot at 253.383.7000.

Food Matters: The New York Times reviews Epicurious and Big Oven, two cooking apps.

LINK: Restaurant coupons

LINK: Wine and beer tastings, dinners and events

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: Send us your restaurant and lounge news

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2010 >>>

1. A handful of superhuman androids escape off-world servitude and return to Earth, and it's up to a disillusioned cop to stop them, permanently. In other hands, or a few more years deeper into the '80s, Blade Runner might have ended up just another sci-fi actioner with might restoring right, but the 1982 movie was based on a Philip K. Dick novel and director Ridley Scott was more ambitious - especially in "The Director's Cut" version, which screen at 7 p.m. inside the Tacoma Public Library's Main Branch.

2. Beginning at 6 p.m. Nestle up to pianist Mr. D in El Gaucho's piano lounge, sip on a cocktail or glass of wine while the D-ster works "The Girl From Ipanema" and watch the fortunate in the dining room eat giant slabs of delicious meat.

3. Bernard Shaw's famous play Major Barbara dismantles a cherished idea: "Right is right; and wrong is wrong; and if a man cannot distinguish them properly, he is either a fool or a rascal." Anyone in tonight's Tacoma Little Theatre audience, who believes this, is, like the twit who speaks it, in for a good moral tweaking by this socialist-capitalist-diabolical play, which begins at 7:30 p.m.

4. The Lakewood Playhouse offers a pay what you can performance of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, adapted by Frank Galati, at 8 p.m.

5. Megaton Leviathan, Bloodhunger, Christian Mistress and Throne Of Bone lay down some lovely metal inside Hell's Kitchen beginning at 9 p.m. Expect your cell structure to be different when you leave HK.

LINK: TCC's Chamber Orchestra, Schoolhouse Rock Live!, Tacoma Farmers Market and other events

ONE BIG PARTY TODAY >>>

Greece Is The Word: Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church's annual Greek Taverna, which is a smaller sibling to its annual fall shindig, will be held today from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. St. Nicholas will serve gyros, manestra and keftedes, tsureki bread, salata, spanakopita, baklava, beer, wine and other beverages not as fun. There will also be Greek music and dancers. The church is at 1523 S. Yakima Ave. in Tacoma.

Wine To Beer: Water to Wine hosts a beer tasting today from 2-5 p.m. at 9014 Peacock Hill Ave. in Gig Harbor.

Birthday Party: Russ Heaton, co-owner of Doyle's Public House, celebrates his 40^th birthday at 8 p.m. inside his joint. Celtic rockers Ockham’s Razorwill be in the house, too.

Happy Hour: GoodFella's Italian Steakhouse in Lakewood hosts a Saturday happy hour from 4-7 p.m. They offer half-off all drinks as well as $5 appetizers. More happy hours can be found here.

Future Things Are Coming: The Varsity Grill has brought back its monthly Martini Club, which will be held Thursday, May 27 from 5-7 p.m. Your $5 allows you free appetizers and $5 martinis.

Food Matters: Do you really have to replace your cumin and sage every six months? Salon asks the experts.

LINK: Restaurant coupons

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

LINK: Send us your restaurant and lounge news

WHAT? >>>

"Been dazed and confused
for so long it's not true."
-Led Zeppelin

During the month of May and June well drinks and select beers cost $1 at Longhorn Saloon & Restaurant in Lakewood, all the time. It's not a happy-hour deal or a Thursday night special or some other bullshit promotion designed to get you drunk enough to pay an inflated price later on. Well drinks and select beers cost a $1, all the time. Oh, you'll need to mention the ad in today's issue of the Weekly Volcano. Just a mention is all.

By the way, Bobble Tiki is working on his Fourth of July costume this week. If you have any used Sparklers you'd like to donate, e-mail bobbletiki@weeklyvolcano.com.

Longhorn Saloon & Restaurant

10011 Bridgeport Way SW, Lakewood
253.581.2580

LINK: South Sound happy hours

THEY ARE THE WORLD >>>

Opened less than a month, The Green Coconut Tree in Lakewood already has a steady packed lunch crowd. The tiny joint serves Chinese, Vietnamese and ... yes a full complement of Jamaican cuisine.

Green Coconut Tree offers many of the dishes one might find in Jamaica: curried chicken, curried goat, curried potatoes, jerk chicken, beef patties, fried plantains, roti, oxtail and beans and rice. The ripe plantains, sliced thin and sautéed with butter and a bit of sugar and salt, come on the side of most plates or can be ordered à la carte. The curries are spicy but not too hot, and the goat in particular is very flavorful.

The jerk chicken sandwich was delicious, if a little small. The saltfish, however, excelled on all fronts - perfectly cooked and spiced, mixed with butterbeans, green onion, tomatoes and fresh thyme, and served with a side of plantains.

Of course I ordered a couple ginger beers to wash it down.

I'll report on the Chinese and Vietnamese dishes next time. Pho noodle soups, rice dishes, chicken curry, Kung Pao dishes, lemon grass chicken, pan-fired noodle dishes, rice vermicelli noodle soups and bubble tea await.

[Green Coconut Tree, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, 8813 Edgewater Dr. SW, Lakewood, 253.473.4444]