South Sound Eats

Jan. 10, 2009 at 11:57pm

Tacoma team spins a pizza parlor in Normandy Park

Can we get a Cafe Mia in the South Sound?

Posted by Ed Murrieta in First Bite, Restaurant Openings
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I drove a little north of the South Sound border to Normandy Park, south of Sea-Tac, tonight for a taste of handcrafted, stone-baked pizza a Cafe Mia, a soon-to-open pizza-pasta-sandwich restaurant overseen by Troy Christian and Sean Quinn, the Tacoma team that opened Maxwell's Speakeasy + Pub early last year and established Asado in 2005.

Cafe Mia inhabits a soaringly spacious, casual-service location decked out in Tuscan yellow and earthy tiles in a brand-new mini-mall that calls itself a town center.

From a first bite on a night in which samples of pizzas and meatballs were served along a buffet cured meats, caprese salad, Tuscan white bean and rosemary spread, artichoke-spinach dip and crispy, house-baked flatbread and bottles of Cline "ancient vine" Zinfandel, I can say this: I hope Christian, Quinn and their financiers find locations for their new concept in and around Tacoma. Hey, we offer Emerald City Smoothies, Herfy's burgers and Papa John's pizza outlets -- just like Cafe Mia's Normandy Park neighbors.

In the South Sound's upmarket pizza arena, Cafe Mia could be an artisan-style competitor to pizza restaurants like i.talia in Olympia and Pizzeria Fondi in Kent and Gig Harbor. Hand-formed, dinner-plate-sized pies are priced $9-$11. Breakfast items (frittata and strate) are $7 and $8. Salads, from mixed greens to Tuscan bread, are $6-$8. Meat and veggie sandwiches are $7-$9. Pastas are $8-$9. Cafe Mia also does party-sized portions and trays.

The hand-formed pies that I sampled off the buffet line at Casa Mia tonight were intriging: sparcely but craftily topped (I grabbed slices of sausage, and tomatoe-basil-garlic-and-cheese, but the menu also boasts roasted wild mushroom and roasted chicken breast with wine-cured salami) and with a thin crust whose crisp but chewy characteristics were evident even cold.

Quinn sent me out a hot pie: house-ground sausage, marina and mozzarella cheese topped with two eggs and ribbons of basil. Hot from the oven, the crust was lighly blistery with good wheaty flavor and a sturdy, dusty bottom that took the heat of the stone oven. The two eggs were nicely cooked -- just past sunny-side up; the yolks oozed when bitten.

Cafe Mia is set to open next Saturday. Christian said he plans to bake bread at for Maxwell's at Cafe Mia. I'm hoping for more than bread -- a Cafe Mia in the 253 area code.

Christian and Quinn are also working on a restaurant in Scottsdale, Ariz., a 200-plus seat version of Asado, set to open in March.

Cafe Mia
19803 1st Ave. S, Suite 104
Normandy Park; 206-429-3145

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