New Restaurant in town: STINK!

I completely owe a debt of gratitude to my husband's step-brother for tipping me off to STINK, a new deli here in Tacoma. He had me at 'peanut butter, bacon, bleu cheese & jelly'. REALLY???!!!

It's been a month since we had that conversation (a month and 2 days, to be exact) and I haven't been able to get that sandwich out of my mind. Today, my gal S and I went to try it out.

For the locals, Stink is located near the corner of St. Helens & South 7th, across the street from Amocat Cafe and a couple block jaunt up the hill from South 9th. That area is becoming chock-a-block full of good eatin's, but there's always room for me.

The interior is nice - very much a deli, but slightly warmer. Plenty of seating, beer & wine and dry sodas if you like them. It looks like they do table service when they can as well as to-go orders. They brought me water while I waited for S to arrive and I had plenty of time to peruse their menu.

If you're going to an eatery to try a specific dish, try NOT to look at the menu - especially when it looks as good as this one did. Man, I was sorely tempted by several dishes - the simple veggie sandwich with radishes and salted butter (I adore radishes with salted butter), the prosciutto & brie with fig confit, the grilled cheese of the day (asparagus, truffle-infused ham and fontina), the Pierre-Robert with roasted garlic (are you serious? I cannot wait to go back for that!). I knew I would be sad if I didn't get what I had come for, so when S got there, I ordered The Stinker (chunky peanut butter, bleu cheese, bacon and blackberry preserves on multi-grain bread, grilled).

First bite: Brief apprehension, then bliss.

Smokey, salty, sweet and the funk of bleu cheese. The bread was great, too - light, good grill marks, not too wet with melted PB & J. Texturally pleasant and good grief, so delicious! I could only eat half, but you can be sure I took the other half home for later.

S had the Tuna Steak sandwich. It was tasty - with ginger, wasabi, mayo and some carrot slices. Perhaps I didn't read the menu description closely enough, but when I order a Tuna Steak sandwich, I expect it to come out in steak form - not chopped into a chicken salad texture. Again, it was tasty - it just wasn't what my friend felt like she was looking for in a sandwich.

Still, we will return (I've got my eye on you, Pierre-Robert) and S is going for THE Turkey Sandwich. I will report dutifully when we go again.