Need a Monday pick-me-up? Check out the always-amazing combo of pizza and beer at Katie Downs tonight. The Tacoma waterfront bar and eatery hosts Two Beers Brewing Co. and Seattle Cider Co. for a brewers' night from 6-8 p.m.

Pizza and beer is a match made in heaven, and everywhere else. Beer is known to cut through fatty, greasy and creamy types of dishes - such as thick crust cheesy pizza (read: Katie Downs.

The Pizza

Katie Downs is still going strong after Dr. John Hilger and Mike Ebert opened the tavern - which is now a bar - in the fall of 1982.

The waterfront restaurant and bar serves 6-inch and 12-inch deep-dish pizzas loaded, and I mean loaded with cheese. Each pizza is hand rolled and baked for 20 to 25 minutes. Katie Downs serves deep-dish pies so fat and smothered in golden-browned cheese; one slice is enough for a meal. The red sauce is rich and loaded with tomatoes - although many folks prefer the white sauce, as in the Rainier with its bay shrimp, artichoke hearts and red onion. The crust is buttery thick and chewy - so tasty that, long after your stomach is full, you just can't stop.

Katie Downs won the Weekly Volcano's Tournament of Pizza - the 2011 incarnation of our annual March Madness-themed food throwdown where eaters from the South Sound weigh in on the best of the best, whittling a field of 64 competitors down to one champion through daily, heated voting.

The Beer/Cider

Two Beers Brewing Co. began operations in a small Seattle basement in 2007 and today produces unique beers including six year-round, 13 seasonal and a host of intricate infusions in its 4,800-square-foot Seattle SoDo neighborhood brewery.

Joel VandenBrink, the founder of Two Beers Brewing, launched the Seattle's first cidery since prohibition last August, thanks to his Two Beers sales rep and former farm boy Eric Willard, who shared his small-batch ciders with VandenBrink. Diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which makes beer difficult to digest, VandenBrink launched the Seattle Cider Company. Cider is naturally gluten free and easier to digest.

Tonight's Lineup

KATIE DOWNS, 6-8 p.m., Monday, Sept. 15, 3211 Ruston Way, Tacoma, 253.756.0771