Loosely inspired by the Crown Bar in Belfast Northern Ireland, Tacoma's Crown Bar is a vibrant neighborhood icon along 6th Avenue that offers a comfortable venue to meet, unwind, and enjoy delicious food and drinks.
Chef Charlie McManus takes pride in his initiative to work with local farmers in order to provide an eclectic menu that's likely to have something for everyone.
Menu highlights include international fare such as currywurst, kebobs, chicken tikka and cajun shrimp as well as classic entrees such as Cougar Gold macaroni and cheese, buttermilk fried chicken, and the all-American hamburger with fries, featuring beef from Thundering Hooves organic cattle ranch in Walla Walla.
Tacoma News Tribune
Crown Bar feels a lot like Gary's Steak Out & Bar. I always felt older, a little more grown up, in Gary's, which closed in July. It wasn't just about paying $30 for slabs of mesquite-kissed beef that put me on my best behavior. It was in what Crown Bar proprietor Charlie McManus calls the restaurant's "bones" - the rich wood-lined walls and back bar that gave the steakhouse an aura of a nonsmoking men's club.
McManus, chef-owner of Sixth Avenue's Primo Grill, bought Gary's building in July. In September, after a spot of paint and better lighting, McManus opened Crown Bar.
Crown Bar is a comfortable neighborhood bar - not the place where you do shots of Jagermeister, but the kind of place where you meet up for a bite and a drink, at the bar or at a big, comfortable table near the fireplace.
Crown Bar's twist on bar food is "street food" - things you might purchase and eat while strolling foreign sidewalks: bratwurst with curry ketchup or an earthy mushroom quesadilla ($8 each).
Kebabs ($8-$9) hold the middle ground between finger foods and small entrees. Tender beef kebabs carried the herby-garlicky allure of North Africa, while the cool, creamy bite of yogurt and cucumber pegged chicken tikka kebabs on the Indian subcontinent.
Entrees are home cooking, in style and sourcing. Buttermilk fried chicken ($18, really juicy and a touch greasy, or "jeasy" as I said after my first bite) is grown by Thurston County organic farmer Jerry Stokesberry. Grass-fed ground beef (in a $13 burger that lacked the flavor of fat) hails from Thundering Hooves of Walla Walla. That sharp and creamy bite in toasty-topped mac and cheese ($12) comes from Cougar Gold cheddar.
Be prepared for grown-up prices on many entrees - up to $24 for surf and turf dishes.
Desserts come from Primo Grill. I hope they don't run out of coconut rice pudding before I return to Crown Bar. This stuff was amazingly creamy, tender and coconutty. And I don't like coconut.
-- Tacoma News Tribune, December 7th, 2007. http://www.thenewstribune.com/ae/restaurants/story/223269.html