Its Old West saloon style facade and jutting awning are nothing that will ever land it onto some glossy magazine pages extolling the best in Tacoma design. If it weren't for the yellow lettering, you wouldn't notice it at all as your car sails on by.

Well, that place is Buffino's Golden West Restaurant and Lounge. There's nothing surprising or unexpected about the Golden West. It looks on the inside exactly as you would picture it upon viewing the outside. Interesting carpeting, funky smells, low lights, beer signage, pull-tabs and dart machines. It's the sort of neighborhood joint where people just walk in, saddle up to the bar and see what movie is playing on the DVR.

A rite of passage - from a casual patron to a "regular" - is the ritual of writing your name on the back of the bar. Yes, you have to ask for the Sharpie by the cash register, but you have to be bold enough to ask for it. Regulars have been writing then names there for decades.

Other draws to the South Tacoma Way watering hole are the $1.75 Rolling Rocks and tasty 100-year-old spaghetti recipe.

Friday and Saturday nights bring the owner out with his band, the Back Porch Band, to play blues and jazz.

LINK: Current entertainment schedule