Aside from one small section of general organic goods, the entire store is dedicated to wheat and gluten free items. I poked around and found a few things I couldn't live without, while Chris showed me the spotless new store. My daughter discovered his daughter watching a show in the back room, and they became fast friends while we talked.

Chris would like to use the back room for community and support group meetings, he's already got it mostly cleared out after the move-in, and he'd love to talk to anyone in the area who'd like to arrange to use the space. He's also thinking of adding a deli at some point, as well as a freezer section.

As the name implies, the store is mostly for pantry items right now. I picked up a loaf of tapioca bread (make a grilled cheese on the stove with that and it's actually pretty decent) a package of mac and cheese, some "Mini Tout Chocos" and cereal. Acorn Pantry has every imaginable gluten free mix, sauce (gluten free soy sauce, so hard to find right now) and flour, as well as a frighteningly tempting array of snacks.

Last night, Ensie Sarah Freitas, JcBetty and Patricia were brave enough to taste test some of the goodies with me. We tried Pamela's Dark Chocolate Chunk cookies and Valpiform "Mini Tout Chocos" (mini chocolate cakes).

As someone who hasn't really eaten baked goods in a long time, everything more or less tastes great to me, so I thought it would be fun to see what others thought. The cookies were a definite hit, and really what is not to love? They taste more or less like a dark chocolate candy bar with a hint of cookie consistency.

The cakes, on the other hand.....didn't go over so well. Chris had warned me that they improve drastically with 5 seconds in the microwave (which we didn't have on hand) but I think if you haven't been gluten free for a long time, these might be a bit of a disappointment. They remind me a little of the year every mom in my neighborhood tried to unload their zucchini stock by baking zucchini everything and trying to foist it off on the kids. The taste was a little off, and the consistency a little too dry. That said, I'd eat them but I'd probably not invest the money again. I'd be curious to try some of their other flavors and see if they are any better.

Fortunately, Acorn Pantry has a huge stock of Pamela's cookies in every flavor, so I can taste test my way through them all. You know, for you, dear reader. I am willing to make the sacrifice.

Acorn Pantry Outlet
15631 Pacific Ave S
Tacoma, WA 98445
253 531-2570

Gluten Free

Finally, a (partially) gluten free bakery in Tacoma. First reported on Tacoma Hotel Blog.

The Junior League of Tacoma proudly presents our fourth annual Cook's Tour on Saturday, May 10th.

This year's Tour is going to be the most amazing one yet! · Be personally escorted to five of Tacoma's most beautiful homes.

· Meet five very exciting chefs that are helping shape Tacoma's up and coming "cuisine scene" Chefs from MAXWELL'S, HERBAN CAFE, SOUTHERN KITCHEN, POUR AT FOUR, AND PACIFIC GRILL preparing and serving tastes of their specialty of choice

· See how professional decorators and home décor experts set a perfect table for a perfect gathering.

It's going to be a very fun event that you won't want to miss. Get your ticket today, bring along some friends, sit back and leave the driving to us - and just enjoy the tour!

Tickets are $50 and are on sale now. Space is limited so reserve your ticket today! Shuttles leave the Welcome Center at Annie Wright at 10:00am, 12:00pm, 2:00pm and 4:00pm.

Call the Junior League of Tacoma (253) 383-1030 to purchase your ticket today!

For more information about A Cook's Tour please visit our website at: jltacoma.org

....by the way, she'd probably like to bring a friend.

First, the good: excellent chips and salsa. While we decided what to order, two types of salsa and bowl of bean dip arrived alongside two big baskets of chips.

Frinklin's creamy tortilla soup looked fantastic, as well.

Our lunch entrees were a little rough, however. Frinklin's "torta" was really your basic chicken sandwich, complete with French roll and au jus. My enchilada and taco combination and Ensie's two taco combination sported cold pre-fab hard taco shells, and a big mound of overly-seasoned Spanish-style rice. The refried beans definitely suffered for their "no lard" or other animal fats policy, as well. I was not in love with the enchilada sauce and was definitely happy to incorporate a little of the acompanying salsa for flavor.

This is not to say the food was terrible or even bad, just not really any better than can be had at the chain restaurants in the area, and not quite as good as Moctezuma's or El Toro, which serve the same sort of combo-plate style food. Gringo is very new, perhaps they'll step out of the box a little in time as they grow into the location. Maybe they'll go in a completely different direction with the menu or try something a little more authentic.

With live blues in the evenings, and decent happy hour prices, it's probably a great place to go for a basket of chips and a drink or two. With a steady flow of business people already streaming in at the rush hour, I think Gringo de Loco will succeed whether or not the refried beans are a little bland. I might give them another try in a month or two and see how things are working out. If you visit, let me know what you think.

(Wondering about the name? Ed's Diner addressed it recently.)

Gringo de Loco
928 Pacific Avenue
Tacoma, WA
253-272-0300

Mexican, Downtown

Yesterday's Lincoln destination was Nhu Thuy, a no-frills-just-good-food restaurant on South 38th. Kids buzzed in and out of the restaurant, chased each other around tables, and got up to admire the fish tank while we enjoyed a delicious lunch of spicy carrot beef stew, meatball pho, and home style lemonade. (Vietnamese lemonade is fantastic. Try it some time.)

On the walls, Nhu Thuy has posted up some Yelp.com reviews, including one that made me laugh a little at the writer's disbelief that good pho could be found, in all places, in Tacoma! Well, yeah, look for the whole neighborhood where all the signs are in Vietnamese, silly.

Although we went with our standard favorites, Nhu Thuy has a full menu including rice and rice vermicelli dishes, as well as pho. Our server was very personable and had a great sense of humor about the kids, although he did forget to bring me my iced coffee. This I can forgive, I didn't really need the caffeine, anyway.

My beef stew arrived already spiced just about right, I really didn't need to add too many serrano pepper slices or other accompaniments, but I did manage to dig in to the giant pile of fresh basil that came with it. My eldest is crazy about meatball pho, but my youngest opted just to slurp the noodles out of her extra bowl. With the size of the portions it's really not necessary to buy children under 6 their own soup.

Apparently, they also serve a fabulous veggie pho. This is all the rage amongst the Yelp reviewers. Our carnivorous family got out of there for about $15.

Nhu Thuy
758 S 38th St
Tacoma, WA 98418
253-474-3992

Lincoln, Vietnamese

Things will look a little odd for a while, while I track down some issues with the new design. Let me know if you find any broken links.

I'm going to work on integrating it better with the rest of the site, but for now I am going to do something else for an hour or two! I hope you find it useful.

*Fircrest is listed because it's part of the Tacoma Public school system, and I didn't want to split it up.

Every Friday from 12 to 1, an increasingly large group of people meets up at Frost Park, on the corner of 9th and Commerce, originally just to eat lunch and put some safe traffic in the park, but now also to compete for the title of "Best Illustrator in the Universe - Of Tacoma." How can I achieve this fantastic title, you ask? By creating the best chalk art piece within the one hour time frame.

Competition is heated for this illustrious title. This week, it got even tougher with the addition of a sweet prize from Embellish salon.

You probably won't catch Tacomamama winning any drawing competitions any time soon, but I like to come and sometimes bring bubbles for the kids and hang out and watch the action.

One reason I haven't brought it up much is that the park is not terribly little kid friendly. It's really just a very small patch of grass, with stairs and a fountain surrounded on three sides by very busy streets. So if you would like to come and try out your mad chalk skillz, make sure you have someone to watch your littler ones. All are welcome though, so if you work downtown or you have some time to kill on a Friday afternoon, stop by and check it out.

You might be lucky enough to meet such local celebrities as the Tacoma Gnome himself, Mr. Gadsby Glasrud.

Vote for the winner here

More photos on Flickr

Frost Park on FeedTacoma

It's looking pretty good in there, these days. The first thing you see when you walk in the door is their best feature: inexpensive produce. When I shopped there today, red peppers were .74 each, half pints of blueberries were 2 for a dollar, and tomatoes were cheaper than I've seen anywhere else in town these past few months.

Now that the remodel is nearing completion their natural foods section is larger, including many gluten free items. They also sell a lot of Taste of Thai and Tasty Bite in the Asian section, many of which are gluten free.

For the time being, they'll even bag your groceries for you in celebration of the grand re-opening. (Normally, it's strictly bag your own, unless you are disabled or have a baby in the cart.) I think they've caught on to demographic changes in Tacoma, and it seems to be paying off in many more people than I've ever seen shopping there on a weekday afternoon.