BJs Restaurant and Brewery

It was the brewery part that got my attention. I'm always on the lookout for breweries to take Paul, and there are plenty of them around here. BJs is beautifully decorated, and very comfortable with black leather(ette) seating, dark woods, granite, and slate. And they have a lot of employees circling around. There's the person who greets you, the person who seats you, the person who tells you your server will be with you shortly. Your server takes your order and you don't see her until she drops off the check. There's one person to drop off your food, and another person to take your plates away. Personally I'm always kind of exhausted when I leave a place like that.

The food was okay, not great, not good, just okay. Paul wasn't very impressed with their beer. He likes a hoppy beer, but didn't think their IPA was very good. He had a taster and said they pretty much all tasted the same. Maybe it's the Belgium style of brewing that he's not fond of, who knows? Anyway, happy hour appetizer, hamburger for me, giant chili baked potato for him, and our drinks came out to a smidge over $51.

I think we should have gone to the Hub.

Murano's Bite

I confess: Paul and I eat for our entertainment. Can you blame us? There really are quite a few good places in Tacoma to chose from. We were looking for some place new, and remembered hearing good things about Murano's Bite so off we went.

Now, I love a good Manhattan, and they are hard to find, let me tell you. Bartenders either forget about bitters and vermouth, or they dump in some juice from the marachino cherries, or (worse case scenario, and I'm talking to you McMenamins!) they add cherry liquor. The Bite's Manhattan was just right, cold, smokey, slightly sweet...um-um-ummmmmm. Paul ordered a Scotch, and was soon enjoying some Dewar's (evidently their house brand).

The food was good too. Not great, but good. Paul had Chicken Ceasar Salad, and I had their organic chicken something. Okay, okay, yes, obviously I liked my chicken, but I'm not convinced our dinner was worth the bill -- with drinks, dinner, and tip it was over $75.

That's a pretty fancy evening for us. I'm not sure we'll be back for dinner, but we couldn't help but be tempted by their lobby bar. Beautifully decorated and so inviting, maybe we'll go back with some friends for their Thursday night all night happy hour. Anyone interested?