Restaurants in Lakewood

Since coming under new ownership in early 2011, Vinum Coffee & Wine Lounge has injected its menu of sandwiches, burgers, and pub fare with shots sparkling wines, smooth espresso drinks, and craft beers. In the kitchen, chefs shuffle together hot and cold sandwiches, keeping things simple with french bread pizza or tomato and brie or recreating Old World flavors with the monte cristo or chicken carbonara from ingredients that include chicken, roasted tomatoes, and a plethora of cheeses. Burgers and hot dogs—having evolved from the same common ancestors as sandwiches—also populate the menu, arriving topped with chili, avocado, grilled mushrooms, and bacon.

To wash down bites, Vinum's bartenders pour craft brews that fall on all points of the taste spectrum, from the light wheat notes of the Haywire Hefeweizen to the moody malts of the Storm King stout. The full bar serves up a wide selection of liquors, a well as wines, such as Massimo Argentina malbec and Maryhill Washington riesling that tint balloon glasses with red and gold hues. Bubbly beverages include sparkling mimosas to soothe nerves after a long week of ogling car washes.

The staff at Steph's Pizza crosses culinary borders, ladling New York–style pizzas with house-made sauces and Italian cheeses. After concocting the dough from scratch, the team hand-tosses each thin-crust pie and layers it with a smorgasbord of toppings, including barbecue chicken, feta cheese, house-made alfredo sauce, and canadian bacon. In between churning out slices, Steph’s Pizza also fills plates with chicken wings, lasagna, mac 'n' cheese, and 10- to 12-inch calzones that eaters can fill with an array of meats and veggies or use to store a spare ruler.

At 6:30 each morning, the doors to Rain City Cafe and Coffee open to unleash the smell of freshly percolated espresso and coffee. The baristas pack the deli-counter cases with breakfast sandwiches from Mike’s East Coast Sanwiches, pastries from Corina’s Bakery, and bagels from Bagel Boyz.

While they import all of their morning eats, they craft their own afternoon meals. The resident sandwich artist, Sean, makes a selection of sammies, grilled paninis, giant wraps, and salads.

Shakabrah Java's short-order wizards whisk together a menu of meaty, vegetarian, and vegan-friendly breakfasts and lunches, earning the diner the 2011 award for Best Breakfast from Tacoma Weekly. During morning hours, veggie skillets brim with a kaleidoscopic harvest of yellow squash, zucchini, and tomatoes; chefs can accommodate vegans by replacing the eggs with marinated tofu. Between bites, diners can sip cups of MarketSpice tea that come directly from Pike Place Market, or mimosas and beers that come directly from glass bottles.

Some think of raw-food diets as restrictive and bland, but with chef Francisco Hernandez pulling the strings in the kitchen, that's not the case. “One look at AmeRAWcan Bistro’s menu is enough to convince anyone that raw doesn’t mean boring,” according to the News Tribune writer Rosemary Ponnekanti](http://gr.pn/Uj9hgP). “Vegan burgers, sesame falafel, kelp noodles, kale chips and cheesecake are just some of the possibilities.” Raw cuisine this delectable requires preparation methods unfamiliar to some. Hernandez and his team soak seeds until they sprout, grind cashews for faux milk and cheese, and dehydrate grains for “bread” that they use to create sandwiches or feed to health-conscious ducks in the park. They never heat any ingredient to more than 116 degrees, which preserves the full spectrum of vitamins and enzymes in each morsel.

While many of the restaurant's dishes mimic foods that are normally cooked, others are straightforward in their freshness; tomato-cucumber gazpacho, for instance, with chopped sweet peppers, basil, and mint. Smoothies and juice blends fresh-squeezed from granny smith apples, parsley, and beets wash raw bites down.

At a separate kitchen station, the chefs layer organic meats and cheeses onto organic, preservative-free bread baked by Essential Baking Company of Seattle, crafting hearty sandwiches that they serve on a set of plates designated for meat. Though the menu is healthy, patrons can find hints of decadence in the form of raw chocolate truffles, beer, and wine.