SideBar Bistro

A new restaurant has arrived on Tacoma Avenue South, in Red Kelly's old spot near the County-City Building. The restaurant is the SideBar Bistro - note the legal theme - with cherry wood furniture, slate floors, fixtures that look as though they came from Restoration Hardware and three meals a day. JoAnna and Tom Irick - who also own Hot Rod Dog, with locations on Pacific Avenue and next door to their new venture - quietly opened the SideBar Bistro a couple weeks ago, which features Northwest-ish dishes, a full bar, an espresso machine and a gorgeous view of the mountains.

Breakfast, served until 11 a.m., features $3.95 steel cut Irish oatmeal, a $4.75 grilled breakfast panini with Black Forest ham, smoked turkey or bacon, $3.95 Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries, $4.25 quiche, as well as a $3.45 granola parfait and $2.45 bagel with cream cheese. Pastries from Essential Baking Co. are available, too.

Lunch, which should be very popular due to the high-traffic in and out of the County-City Building, consists of nine sandwiches - with a tenth option of building your own - five salads, and soups.

Currently, dinner only has five options: grilled vegetable ravioli ($15.99), chicken Caesar salad ($11.99), SideBar lasagna ($16.99), walnut apple chicken salad ($12.99), French dip sandwich ($10.99) and a chicken pot pie with puff pastry ($12.99). The Iricks intend to add more dishes soon.

Down the long dining room and a dogleg right sits a small bar. All your favorite booze options sit on the shelves, with three micro brews on tap, eight wine whites, 12 reds, three sparkling wines and two dessert wines.  The 2005 Volker Eisele Cabernet tops the wine list at $85. Most bottles are priced between $21 and $29. - Ron Swarner

[SideBar Bistro, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday, corner of 11th and Tacoma Avenue South, Tacoma]

Mmmm ... donuts

The super awesome folks behind Satellite Coffee have a sweet deal for Tacoma and the world at large. If you buy a coffee, you get a free donut sample this Saturday morning. Since Satellite prides itself on selling only products void of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, fake sugar and evil high fructose corn syrup, you can bet your organic ass this newest addition to the Weekly Volcano's list of what we love about Satellite - lovingly called Sputnik Donuts - will be great.

The new handmade pastry will be offered on a limited basis only at Satellite's Masa location on Sixth Avenue in Tacoma - at least initially. Satellite Coffee will gage the response customers give these tasty little morsels-shaped like the 1957 Soviet satellite basically by how many Stumptown Coffee junkies show up for prime time tasting this Saturday - for three short hours.  If it's a hit, the donuts will be back.

Yes, this is a reason to get out of bed before noon. You can go as early as 9 a.m. To be safe, set a reminder alarm on your cell phone now. If Sputnik Donuts are a hit (and how could they not be?), you'll soon be able to get them every single day. - Jennifer Johnson

[Satellite Coffee at Masa, 9 a.m.-noon, 2811 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, satellitecoffeeco.com]