The day just seemed like Sunday. I was up early, relaxed, and enjoying myself. Peg had dinner with friends Donn and Debbie Irwin the night before and returned with two sage biscuits and a "to go" container of pulled-pork. I debated with myself about taking the easy way out and having a pulled-pork sandwich or to make some broth and make a play on pork and dumplings. I chose the latter.
I put a cup of water in a sauce pan and set it to boil. I then sliced a carrot thinly, chopped some onion and celery added some pepper, sea salt, smokey paprika, and garlic powder. Once the veggies were cooked I let the broth reduce and then added the pulled-pork. I heated a huge Debbie Irwin sage biscuit in the microwave and then spooned out enough pork stew to cover two biscuit halves and then added some ground pepper on top. I took my shallow bowl of goodness, a camera, a cup of coffee, my sketch book and went out on our deck for a wonderful breakfast under a beautiful blue sky morning in the Pacific Northwest.
Breakfast was just as I imagined it. It was pork stew with sage dumplings. If I owned a family style restaurant that breakfast could make me rich.
I then began writing and drawing in my sketch book until I noticed movement down on the lawn. Two of our deer friends were nibbling on the blackberry leaves and enjoying the morning sun. Hours later this buck moved about a hundred feet and sat down by another forest of blackberry bushes. I watched in amazement as he twisted and pulled his head back till it was almost upside down so he could dine on the tender leaves without having to stand up. Now, that's my kind of animal. If I could lay down underneath a Cloverleaf Pizza oven and stretch my neck around to enjoy a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, black olives, sausage, mushrooms, and real bacon anytime I wanted . . . my life would be complete.
Peg joined me on the deck with her breakfast and we compared notes for the day and our calendars for the next couple of weeks. Peg announced that there was a movie playing at the Grand Cinema she wanted to see. It was a one-showing foreign film, Tangerines. The showtime was 1:50 in the afternoon. I bought in.
The Storyline: War in Georgia, Apkhazeti region in 1990. An Estonian man, Ivo has stayed behind after almost all the other Estonian settlers have left, to help a friend harvest his crop of tangerines. While Ivo builds crates for the tangerines, his buddy, Margus picks tangerines. In a bloody conflict between their houses, two badly wounded men survive. Both hate each other. Ivo takes them in and nurses them, after making them swear to not kill each other while in his care. Bands of fighters from each side of the conflict come to Ivo's door. Will the tangerines make it to market? Will the wounded men kill each other? Will anyone survive? The imagery is stark and dreary, but when the sun shows through the morning fog as it feels its way through the little valley you realize there is beauty there as well as in Tacoma, Washington.
We talked about the film as we drove away. We were only going as far as The Hub, where we wanted to dine on their deck on this gorgeous day. Even after we sat down we still discussed the movie.
The Hub has only four small tables on their deck, but you can choose to sit inside just a few feet from the deck and still enjoy the outdoors. The Hub has two overhead doors that roll up letting everyone see the sun, flowers, and plants on the deck.
The service is fast and the food is good at The Hub. On top of that they have Happy Hour pricing from three to six.
Peg is always looking for beauty. She had me take a photo of the electrical service connection above the deck, so she can sketch it later.
After we placed our orders Peg noticed that the Japanese Maple next to where we were seated had shriveled leaves. She let our waiter know that something should be done about the tree with the red translucent leaves, "The tree needs to be watered!"
The deck also has triangular sails that help provide some shade for deck diners. A slight breeze helped cool us, but still the sun was hot and bright.
Both of us ordered the house salad, which was on the Happy Hour menu. For $4 each we had a wonderful wild greens salad with fresh shaved Parmesan, cherry tomatoes, and almonds. I've paid more and gotten less many places.
Peg thought the greens were tough, but I just used my fork and stuffed them into my mouth. I thought they were tasty. The cheese was generously shaved into the salad. Ceasar Salad is also on the Happy Hour menu.
I love slaw, so next time I might have to order the fish and chips or something else with slaw to try it out. After the salads came two of the best food servings for the price in the South Sound.
Peg ordered the smoked salmon small plate for $10. It was served with half a dozen small slices of French or sourdough bread drizzled with balsamic vinegar.
In addition there was a red onion relish, a good size lump of goat cheese, and a mound of smoked salmon. Peg took most of it home.
For $10 it was a super deal. I love goat cheese and the red onion relish was definite hit with me. And smoked salmon? Love it. I helped myself to a couple of helpings and we still had a doggie box.
Also for $10 is their Seared Ahi. Rolled in seeds and thickly sliced I could devour two orders of the tuna, but can get by with just one . . . if I have to . . . I guess. If they served the ahi with lime wedges and some real wasabi I would be in heaven. The tuna was perfect. I could have this for lunch every day, especially at that price. The pink color of the fish just glowed. It was wonderful.
With excellent prices and excellent food it's easy to see why we never go there. Almost every time we drive by The Hub there was no parking anywhere near the restaurant. Stopping in after an afternoon movie is perfect for us. Parking was close.
After we finished eating, we sat and enjoyed the sight of people walking by and on their way to Wright Park, only a block away. As we finished our lemonades, we picked up our gear, and our to go box and left the restaurant. We walked down the ramp and out into the alley. As we walked past the deck we saw our waiter with a pitcher of water. He heeded Peg's word and was watering the Japanese Maple.
We returned home, where we finished out the kinda Sunday evening on the deck taking in the view and watching the Doman Family Deer forage around the yard. I can hardly wait for next Sunday, which just might be tomorrow . . . or the next day . . . or both.
