Latest news with #LoboBakery
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
15 new restaurants, cafes and a food pod to try around Pierce County
An ambitious cafe has opened downtown, an experience chef has landed in McKinley with an all-day Filipino restaurant, and pizza has returned to Proctor. These are just a few of the new places to eat and drink around Tacoma and the South Sound this spring. In our last edition of recently opened restaurants, we highlighted a cocktail bar in a coffee shop, several fresh faces on Tacoma's evolving Sixth Avenue, and a few spots in Fife and Federal Way. As we look toward summer, here's a look at new restaurants and food trucks in Pierce County. ▪ 921 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253-797-8605, Kevin Lee has assuredly made a splash since announcing his new breakfast and lunch spot in downtown Tacoma and opening in April. You won't recognize the old Pita Pit, as the space now feels airy and bright, ready for you to dig into a biscuit sandwich, a slice of quiche, a salad, a pastry from the awesome Lobo Bakery or a fun flavor from The Common Cookie. Eggs are cracked fresh. Espresso hails from down the street at Naomi Joe Coffee Roasters. Folks have swung by and returned already for more. Let's hope this invigorating energy leads to more investment in this stretch of Pac Ave. Open Monday-Friday 7 a.m.- 3 p.m. ▪ 764 Broadway, Tacoma, 253-302-5296, Formerly Cremello Cafe, Bostwick Cafe's previous name has returned but again under new ownership. Cecile Lahti took over the downtown coffee shop in March and recently expanded to a full seven-day-a-week schedule. Find Caffe d'Arte coffee, pastries, light sandwiches, and lots of space and outlets to spread out and stay a while. ▪ 716 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253-327-1680, Under new ownership since January 2024, downtown Tacoma's only still-standing brewery (for the moment, perhaps) is now serving food. Former Grit City Greens co-owner Sean Guay spearheaded a new in-house food truck, from which taproom customers — or anyone in need of sustenance — can order paninis, sub-style sandwiches and brats. There's also charcuterie boards, potato salad and grilled cheese 'dunkers,' if you'd prefer a nibble during trivia or to accompany your beer. ▪ 3511 McKinley Ave., Tacoma, At his new McKinley Hill restaurant, chef Gerold Castro blends years of hospitality experience with his Filipino heritage while honoring the many Mexican cooks who keep America's kitchens running. Dishes range from lumpia and crispy pork belly with guava-chili jam to mahi mahi or lechon and braised-pork tacos, from chicken mole to Filipino-style beef caldereta and pancit. Breakfast is served all day, including a longanisa burrito, ube French toast and lechon benedict, plus coffee and a full bar. Open Wednesday-Friday 11 a.m-7 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. ▪ 2515 N. Proctor St., Tacoma, 253-301-2994, Fondi has been a well-loved name in Gig Harbor dating to the early 2000s and in 2019 became independently owned and operated. Chris Olson scooped up the former Millhouse (and before that, Europa Bistro) space in the heart of Tacoma's Proctor District for its second location of this new era, opening in April. Here a gas-powered oven churns out the same Neapolitan-style pies. The salads come in three generous sizes, there's a full bar and the place is family-friendly. Brisk business for dine-in and takeout is anticipated. Open Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. and Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-9 p.m. ▪ 11101 Pacific Highway, Lakewood, 253-302-4564, This space near the Lakewood train station has seemingly been cursed in recent years, but its neighbors, Kko Kko Chicken and Los Cuervos, are busy destinations. VK has attracted a loyal following in the Lincoln District since opening in 2019, especially for its Northern Vietnamese specialties. Maybe these owners have the goods to hold strong here in Lakewood, too, which they introduced in early April. Beyond the usual, try the cha ca la vong (halibut cooked in turmeric, scattered with dill and served with baguette), grilled whole squid and cold duck salad. Open Thursday-Tuesday 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (closed Wednesdays). ▪ 8408 Steilacoom Blvd., Lakewood, 253-495-5043, I Love Tacos first landed in Tacoma's East Side (716 E. 64th St.) and then added a second truck parked regularly in downtown Puyallup (203 W. Pioneer Ave.). This spring, co-owner Hugo Maldonado added a third truck in Lakewood, just east of Fort Steilacoom Park. Choose among asada, pastor, chorizo, pollo and tripe on tacos, quesadillas, mulitas and tortas. Other popular items include the classic California-style burrito, supreme nachos and the Love Asada fries. Open Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. ▪ 2365 Tacoma Ave. S, Tacoma, The owners of two mobile restaurants have teamed up to offer their Caribbean food through a takeout-only kitchen near downtown Tacoma. Abby Woods of Trini Plate, which you can also find on Saturdays at Proctor Farmers Market, and Karen Stringer of Bajan Station are serving Trinidadian doubles (baras, or flatbreads, with channa and your choice of sauces, including a tamarind chutney and Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce), halal jerk wings, pigeon peas and rice cooked in coconut milk, salt-cod fritters, handpies and more. Orders preferred directly through Square online, but you can also use DoorDash — delivery is available for a fee, but you can also avoid extra costs by picking up at the commissary kitchen. Ordering open Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. ▪ Waterfront Market, 5101 Yacht Club Road, Tacoma, The Waterfront Market near Point Ruston has a new tenant in the anchor stall next to the main entrance. Belly Smoothie Co. opened in May with a menu of smoothies (Sunny Dee, Jelly Belly, Thin Mint and Get Nuts among them), fresh juices, espresso drinks and matcha lattes. It replaced Zaya, a Ukrainian bakery and cafe, which replaced Dancing Goats Coffee Bar. While at the market, you can also check out Bobaholic Cafe, Wild Sugar Gelato, Eco Purpose Boutique, The Kind Bee and Co., Shugie's Jewelry and Gifts, and more local businesses. The smoothie bar is open Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ▪ Point Ruston, 5115 Grand Loop, Tacoma, 253-448-2145, The walk-up-only fish and chips counter from Wildfin American Grill is now open for the season. (Note that it sometimes closes in inclement weather.) Pick up a basket of Alaskan cod or halibut dipped to order in a beer batter, starting at two pieces for $15.59 or $19.48. The menu also features buttermilk-marinated, steak-cut fried calamari, crisp cod or banh mi-style seared cod tacos, and seafood chowder. Add a cup to any main for $3.99. Wash it down with a blackberry-basil milkshake or a soft-serve ice cream cone. Open Monday-Wednesday at 3 p.m. and Thursday-Sunday at 11:30 a.m., closing at dusk. ▪ Pind Kohala Food Pod, 1824 S. Meridian, Puyallup The owners of Little India and RJ's Burgers at Tacoma's Freighthouse Square have opened a food pod in Puyallup. Just south of MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, the outdoor food court hosts three trucks: one with a similar menu to Raj Singh and Rajinder Kaur's original Indian restaurant, one serving pizza and burgers with an Indian twist, plus a coffee shop called Mocha Stop. Open daily 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. ▪ 1128 E. 72nd St., Tacoma, Good Vibes Espresso added a seventh location to its series of coffee huts in Pierce County, joining three other Tacoma shops, two in Puyallup and one in Fife. Using Dillano's roasts, the shop offers your typical espresso drinks in many sizes — from a two-shot 12-ounce to a four-shot 24-ounce hot, and up to a whopping five shots and 32 ounces cold. Specialties include Hawaiian salted caramel with white chocolate, Lava Flow with strawberry and coconut, and Liquid Sunshine with pear, white peach and pineapple. Smoothies, energy spritzers and Italian sodas are available, as well as on-the-go food and pastries. Open weekdays at 4:30 a.m., Saturdays at 5:30 a.m. and Sundays at 6:30 a.m. ▪ 8825 N. Harborview Dr., Gig Harbor, 253-432-4211, Chili Thai, which operates five other restaurants in Pierce and Kitsap counties, took charge of Gig Harbor Thai Cuisine this spring. The owners had been seeking a restaurant on this side of the Narrows, but closer to the bridge than their existing Silverdale outpost, for about a year, manager Paul Tuncheleeporn told The Gateway in May. They decided in this case to keep the existing Gig Harbor moniker but have expanded the menu to match their other locations. Importantly for the summer months, they invested in air-conditioning! Open Monday-Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at noon. ▪ 3550 Market Place W., University Place, 253-541-2744, This new shop from Wendy Schutzler and David Coldiron is a cook's delight in University Place and a great place to shop for anyone in your life who loves a good home-cooked meal. The Essential Pantry specializes in curated goods including a range of olive oils sourced from around the world, various vinegars for cooking and drizzling, and dried herbs and spices a-plenty. The shelves also are stocked with select kitchen goods like mugs, bowls, linens and cookbooks. Across from Whole Foods, next to Pearl Tea and Chambers Bay Distillery. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tacoma's best new bakery is quirky and talented. Try the churro cruffins
Miguel Silva-Glenn worked in many New York kitchens, but it was a stint at a bakery known for its chocolate babka — in a city with lots of luscious babkas — that changed his life, and maybe ours, if you're likewise on an insatiable quest for pastries of a certain kind in or near Tacoma. At Breads Bakery, the Mexico City native met Keely, who was looking for a part-time job while in college. The manager jokingly advised them to keep their distance. 'He was wrong!' she recalled this spring at their commissary kitchen in Central Tacoma, where their mobile-and-wholesale-only Lobo Bakery miraculously manages to bake around 1,000 'croissant units' every week. On a recent Wednesday, Miguel was tending to mounds of freshly made dough awaiting their overnight rest before being portioned, laminated and rested again. They bake most of their weekly haul on Fridays, filling dozens with homemade raspberry-plum jam, roasted apricots and crushed pistachios, chocolate and tahini. They maneuver the same laminated dough into three-inch tall metal tins to create towering cruffins, the muffin-croissant hybrid that originated in Melbourne, Australia, in the early 2010s. A signature move for the Miguel-Silvas involves rolling the pastry in sugar and piping in dulce de leche — find these churro cruffins most Saturdays at the Proctor and Puyallup farmers market and weekdays at Third Space and Naomi Joe Coffee. Lobo Bakery is elusive in that way, but pastry people (myself included) will travel for the right stuff, and Lobo has surely got it. The Miguel-Silvas left the big city for Keely's home state about a decade ago, in search of a more affordable living and perhaps an eventual business of their own. They lived mostly in Seattle until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic urged them across the Cascades to be closer to family. They started delivering babkas, kouign-amann, tartes and flan directly to customers and to a few local grocers in Spokane under the name The Collection Bakery. Readying for their next life move, they missed New York but saw an opportunity in the South Sound, where the pastry game still feels wide open. 'It's so much money to start your own thing there,' noted Miguel, especially without outside investment. Instead of returning to Seattle, they bought a home in Lakewood. Amid raising two young children, they taught themselves how to laminate pastry through YouTube videos and cookbooks, found a commercial kitchen space, invested in some new equipment and relaunched the bakery in Pierce County with a focus on croissants. Steadily, word has spread of their fine honeycomb structure, of their playful flavor combinations and of their varying shapes such as 'squiggles' and 'knots'. Instead of combining naturally tangy rhubarb ('to me it's sweet enough,' said Keely) with the usual strawberry, for instance, a recent spring favorite added lemon. Their classic almond croissant stands out, too, omitting the usual extract and relying on their own frangipane blitzed with skin-on almonds. In less than five years they have conjured around five dozen flavors, including raspberry and hibiscus, cherry and cardamom, strawberry and lychee, roasted pineapple and rum. Their strengths also extend beyond viennoiserie into chocolate chip cookies, Ukrainian honey cake, the occasional empanada, tres leches, challah and focaccia. 'You know, we worked at an Israeli-Jewish bakery,' said Keely, nodding to his Mexican and her Ukrainian families. 'We try to integrate our culture and our culinary backgrounds.' Also: 'We both get bored!' Just a few hours into a baking marathon ahead of a jam-packed Mother's Day weekend, the lineup featured croissant 'nests' topped by burnt strawberry jam, raspberry-rhubarb compote with pastry cream, and lemon curd with meringue. They use every scrap of their laminated dough — remnants are reconfigured into flaky cinnamon rolls, pecan sticky buns and the 'pretty and evil at the same time' croissant knots. With the help of two employees in the kitchen and Keely's mother at home, they have committed to four farmers markets for the high season: Lakewood on Tuesdays plus Proctor, Puyallup and Maple Valley on Saturdays. In March, they unveiled their new branding and wolf logo ('something a little wild and a little weird!' as they describe it) and announced their first push into wholesale, which already has a waiting list. They're taking it slowly because — praise be to the benevolent croissant lords — they have every intention of opening their own storefront in Tacoma, said Keely. 'So we want to make sure we're crafting to high-quality standards but add some variety, and not overextend or over-saturate the market for our own brick-and-mortar.' Wherever they land, Miguel anticipates doubling-down on his cooking experience by resurrecting The Collection concept as a seasonal supper club. For now, taste the not-too-sweet treats for yourself at the following locations: ▪ Naomi Joe Coffee, 2101 Jefferson Ave. — daily 8 a.m.-5 p.m. ▪ Third Space, 921 Pacific Ave. — Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-3 p.m. ▪ Lakewood Farmers Market, Fort Steilacoom Park, Tuesdays 2-7 p.m. ▪ Proctor Farmers Market, North 27th and Proctor, Saturdays 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ▪ Maple Valley Farmers Market, 25719 Maple Valley Black Diamond Road SE, Saturdays 9 a.m.-2 p.m. ▪ Details: croissant-focused mobile/wholesale bakery, seeking storefront by 2026; follow for updates and weekly menus
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Anticipated downtown cafe now open with biscuit sandwiches, horchata coffee
Third Space, a new Tacoma cafe serving breakfast sandwiches on housemade biscuits, locally roasted coffee with custom syrups, and hard-to-get pastries, is now open at 921 Pacific Ave. Owner Kevin Lee set out to build a space that would fulfill quick needs for office workers while also providing a daytime destination in the downtown core. He kicked things off with just drinks and pastries on April 14, building to include sandwiches on April 21. This week, he'll introduce the lunch menu. Core to the offerings are square biscuits in classic butter-only and cheddar-chive. They are appropriately sturdy for handhelds that range from a bacon, egg and cheese to a vegetarian choice with fresh guacamole. For more of a snack, grab one for $5 with another housemade specialty: strawberry jam. The pastry case here is another compelling reason to choose Third Space, as Lee was very intentional in partnering with other local food and drink businesses. From Lobo Bakery, indulge in a selection of laminated pastries ($6) ranging from an almond croissant to a seasonal number most recently filled with lemon-laced rhubarb. Don't sleep on the cruffins, especially the churro number filled with dulce de leche. The Common Cookie, based in Sumner, has delivered a series of sumptuous treats ($5.50) that happen to be gluten-free, such as the macadami-banana and the glazed blueberry-lemon which was reminiscent of a muffin in all the best ways. Coffee, of course, is a draw, and the beans come from just a mile away at Naomi Joe inside 7 Seas Brewing's Tacoma taproom. (Naomi Joe Coffee is also one of the only other ways to secure Lobo pastries outside of a few farmers markets.) In addition to the usual espresso drinks, house specialties highlight subtly sweet syrups that Lee and his staff also make on site. Try the Orange Spice latte, finished with real zest, or the horchata with a creamy cinnamon boost. One special note: Like most coffee shops today, Third Space keeps cow's milk and alternatives in the fridge, but you won't pay extra for the latter. Whether you need to be dairy-free or prefer it, Lee doesn't think it should cost you more. Lee started working on the former Pita Pit space late last year. Thank goodness he got rid of the bright-green and dark-gray paint, refreshing it with a cool midnight blue and swapping the pendant lighting for mod-style frosted globes with gold accents. He kept the footprint of the kitchen that now feels less like a fast-food operation than a modern open kitchen with a wood-slat base and quartz countertop, behind which you can see staff cracking eggs right onto the griddle. Seating aims to satisfy various needs. Have a quick meeting at the lounge area in one of the street-facing windows. Take a coworker or friend to lunch at one of the tables along a banquette. Grab a quick bite at a high-top. The big mural on the main wall with characters eating, working and chatting showcases the Third Space mentality as 'a place to socialize that's not home or work,' as Lee described it last fall. He left his management job at Beecher's Cheese to open his own business, taking after his parents who ran a couple of cafes in downtown Tacoma when he was growing up. The Third Space Instagram page has amassed more than 21,000 followers in just a few short months, thanks in part to his deep-dive 'Starting My Own Cafe' video series. Over 31 episodes so far, he has documented everything from permitting with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and sharing his vision with the graphic designer behind the shop's cute branding, to picking paint colors and perfecting recipes. He visited equipment providers, walking through rows of espresso machines and coffee grinders, and got the low-down from the technician who fixed the walk-in cooler. Along the way, he also divulged detailed numbers — down to the cent — in a rare behind-the-scenes of what it really takes to start a small food business. Think nearly $26,000 plus a loan for every piece of coffee equipment. After the inaugural week, just with coffee and pastries, he said the cafe brought in a little more than $5,300 in sales. Then he broke down the cost of goods (about $1,600), labor (around $1,700) and weekly rent ($980). On paper, that lands about $1,040 in profit — before other expenses such as internet, utilities and loans, he explained. 'I think it's safe to say we're probably in the negative this week,' Lee said in that April 20 video, but 'for this week, the most important thing is not our numbers, but that we were able to get open to serve you and have such amazing people come through our doors.' As Third Space settles in, look for the menu to evolve into lunchier sandwiches and salads, with later hours and weekend service possible. ▪ 921 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, ▪ Current hours: Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-3 p.m. ▪ Details: new cafe with local coffee, pastries and house biscuits, sandwiches and salads; weekend hours anticipated in coming months
