Tides Tavern...and A Little History

While cousin T was in town one of his requests was to head over to the harbor (Gig Harbor) to visit The Tides. He remembered coming here when he was out for our wedding almost 11 years ago now.

The Tides represents part of our history really. Over 13 years ago now G & I met while both working their. G picking up the random shift while home from Alaska, T working a few nights a week to supplement the minimal teaching salary at the time. Neither looking for a relationship at the point but as the story goes one thing led to another...

The Tides staff Christmas party provided an opportunity to dance and laugh and two years later we were saying our vows on the shores of Longbranch at the Glen Cove Estate (outside of Gig Harbor proper) and of course our 'after reception party' had to continue at the The Tides that night, which it did and Cousin T remembers it with fondness.

The Glen Cove Estate where we had our wedding & reception

The Tides will always be a place we love to take out of town guests and visit ourselves. It's truly a landmark in the northwest. We've met people all over the nation and if they know of or have been to Gig Harbor then they know The Tides.

Gig Harbor used to truly be just a small fishing village not the high rent, luxury part of town it's become in the last 30 years but The Tides continues to be a constant for folks in all tax brackets.

So we headed over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to Gig Harbor about a 7 mile drive from our home

The Narrows bridge before renovation

Cousin T hadn't been over it since it's expanded into a two bridge- bridge now....I hate to even let myself remember back to our wedding when the day of our wedding to date; The Narrows bridge had the worst traffic back up in history...hours and hours to get across the bridge to the harbor..Yes, the day of our wedding, our DJ didn't make it, many of our guests didn't make it, T's 85 year old grandmother had to sit in the car waiting to get on the bridge for almost 2 hours to make it to our wedding....the expansion has made these stories a thing of the past luckily.

New Narrows bridge

We arrived at The Tides

The weather was fairly clear so we had some pretty good views.

We decided to sit in the area that used to house the pool table when both G & I worked there....the pool table is long gone these days.

First to be ordered Alaskan Amber for the boys. G truly believes there is no better place to have a pint of Alaskan than The Tides Tavern. He swears it just tastes better coming outta their taps.

Having both worked here we have a love/hate relationship with Tides food. We hate when they mess with the fish & chip batter (history shouldn't be messed with when it's this good) luckily it seems they've returned to their historical batter and we're happy for that. G believes they have the best chowder (too thin for my taste), I love their fish & chips and that's what we typically get when we go back these days.

So G & I both went for the Fish & Chips with a side salad (when we both worked here it was called a "dollar" salad meaning it cost a dollar too.) Now it's a side salad and costs $2.95 same salad; inflation.

Cousin T ordered a peppercorn steak.

We all enjoyed our meal, our time together and for G & I reminiscing in our history.

The Tides will continue to be part of us. We both believe our past history of working in restaurants helped develop the passion and love for food, cooking and wine that we have now. So we have to give The Tides credit for it's part in our personal evolution.