Trackside Pizza – Puyallup

Occasionally, like any small fry blogger hoping to pass 15 views, I like to look at the stats for this blog to see what kind of traffic it’s getting. This obsessive numbers game led me to notice that I get a new hit almost daily from someone who has searched for “Sonic Puyallup” (referring to this post.)

I am actually not surprised. I found nary a hint of any local information when I was trying to ascertain an opening date for Sonic. It’s a special kind of frustration when all-knowing Google can’t answer your question. According to my stats, I obviously was not the only one searching, likely not the only one frustrated. It made me realize this blog might be just the spot to address the dearth of hyper-localized Puyallup news. 

I decided I would do a little experiment and review another Puyallup restaurant, to see what kind of traffic that gets. This one, unlike Sonic, is a true local gem.

Trackside Pizza is my favorite pizza place. My husband and I found their website when looking for a restaurant that would deliver but was not Pizza Hut. We had tried nearly everything in the area, and we were getting weary. Lo and behold, the Tracskide Pizza man arrived at our door with a faith-restoring pie. The pizza crust was thin and crispy, the the toppings tasty and abundant. The sauce, a make-it-or-break-it feature of the pizza for me, is marinara perfection…My only complaint is that they could be a little more generous with it. The chop salad was also terrific, complete with a thick, basil and garlic-infused balsamic dressing. The fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies were melty chocolate goodness.

So enchanted were we by the delivery, we decided to go downtown to check out the restaurant. Its brick walls are adorned with railroad signs from eras passed, and the pizza ovens and prep stations are visible from any table. Little ones get to take pies they made themselves at the table to the cooks on the line, say, “pie up,” and every single person working, in a burst of unbridled enthusiasm, shouts, “PIE UP!” right back. It’s extremely entertaining. And of course, the building sits but a few feet from the railroad tracks – hence the name Trackside – and when a train goes by, the whole place rattles and shakes. It’s the perfect pizza ambiance, the kind of place that gives “local” a good name. 

You can order delivery from the website, though we had to call as our zip code apparently isn’t in the system yet. It would be nice if they would fix that bug.

Whether you’re a native who hasn’t come across Trackside yet, or are just visiting and looking for some good pizza, I heartily recommend it. You won’t regret it.

 

Chocolate chip cookies straight outta the oven

A view of the booths and some signage

 

Frank looks at the pizza ovens

 

 

 

Weird Week

So Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson all passed on this week It was all shocking news, but particularly the news of the death of my parents neighbor Ron.

My parents heard his dog barking in the middle of the night, which they thought was weird because he usually doesn’t lock his dog up. In the morning, a friend found him dead on his deck. He was older and his wife had passed just a couple of months before, but she had been ill for many years while he had a heart attack.

The whole thing got me thinking about neighbors in general. My parents had lived next door to this couple (and their children) for over 30 years, and before that they were the neighbors of my grandparents (who lived in the same house.)

My parents knew the neighbors very well, and I remember when I would wake up in the middle of the night, scared that some noise I heard was someone breaking into the house, my mom would tell me not to worry because the neighbor would be up in just a little while, as he routinely left for work at 4 or 5 in the morning, and he would let us know if something was amiss. This ALWAYS made me feel better.

I’ve lived in my house for over two years now and never even met my neighbors. I know the house to the right runs a day care, and the guy across the street mows his tiny patch of lawn with a riding mower. Granted I’m not much of a mixer, and the “block party” I went to the summer after I moved into the house was enough to scare me away from ever going again.

About 15 years ago, my parents other neighbors moved away and a new family moved in, and I’ve been friends with the daughter ever since. I always thought that was really convenient, having someone I liked right next door. Now that I have to travel a minimum of 30 minutes to see any of my friends, I wish I did know my neighbors and that a daily visit or cup of tea didn’t seem like something from the 1960s. I don’t live in a particularly young neighborhood though, or a particularly young city for that matter. What’s a gal to do?

It is probably more common now to not know your neighbors than to know them. But maybe that’s not true, what do you think? Do you know your neighbors?

Sonic the Drive-In

 The first I had ever heard of a White Castle was when Harold and Kumar went there. We don’t have White Castles ’round these parts. Nor do we have In ‘N Out Burgers nor Carl’s Jrs. And that’s just fine by me. So interested was I in a White Castle after Harold and Kumar that I tried a frozen one (the only kind you can get ’round these parts) and well, yech.

But what we do have now is a Sonic Drive-In. Here in my very own hometown of Puyallup. It’s the first of many in the Pacific Northwest they say. They also say that it’s part of Sonic’s Marketing Plan to run ads for Sonics in areas where they plan to expand years before they open, so as to create an insane demand. That’s certainly what happened here. According to the Tacoma News Tribune, Sonic started airing commercials in Western Washington in 2006, with the nearest Sonic in Vancouver, WA, 2 hours away. When Sonic opened here almost three weeks ago (May 2009), the wait was over 90 minutes. 90 minutes for fast food!

The wait at Sonic. I took this driving by so the real insanity of it is lost.

They may have started airing local commercials in 2006, but I must have seen commercials on cable channels even before that, because I went to New Orleans in February of 2005 and I was very excited to come across a Sonic. I really wanted to try one of their slushee – slurpee type drinks. So I insisted to my friend that we stop. This must have been a very weird Sonic because as far as I remember it wasn’t a drive-in, and we walked inside the restaurant to order. I ordered one of the drinks and was told they didn’t have them. Ooh-kay. So we just left. A few days later we found another Sonic in another part of town, a drive-in. This time I ordered and was served one of the drinks, but they must have made it with tap water because it tasted like chlorine.

So I was hopeful that when the Puyallup Sonic opened I’d finally get to taste one of these drinks as they were meant to be. But I certainly wasn’t going to wait 90 minutes. Like the Krispy Kreme from 2003, we figured it would take about three weeks for the scene to calm down. Shaun and I went mid-week, just before dinner time, a couple of days ago and wound up waiting about 15 minutes I think. At the time I was not hungry so I only ordered tater tots and one of the drinks. I ordered a slush, when I think what I wanted to try was the lime-ade. In any event, the two things I did eat were, well, yech. Shaun didn’t love his meal, but wants to go back to try something different, so I’m sure we’ll be back until I decree that I hate the place and I won’t go there anymore.

I’m not sure why places like Krispy Kreme and Sonic can create such insane demands. I also frequently puzzle at the nostalgia for old times. A drive-in sounds so novel and fun, but let’s be honest, eating in the car is far more uncomfortable than eating at a table. A couple of years ago Shaun and I went to a drive-in movie theater in Auburn because I had never been to a drive-in. It was a double feature. 4 hours spent in a tiny, cramped Subaru, watching a blurry picture on the screen and listening to distorted audio via AM radio waves. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was never better.

When Shaun and I lived in Redmond, I would pass a BurgerMaster drive-in on 520 on my way to work. And since I am not immune to nostalgia or gimmicks, I insisted we try it. We wound up going to this place a few times, because it was actually good. Unlike Sonic. Wouldn’t it be great if we could create demand for a local, homegrown restaurant or chain and just said who cares to corporate crap like Sonic? BurgerMaster is a Seattle chain, with five locations in the greater Seattle area. If you’re nearby any of them, get your drive-in fix there! Don’t bother coming down here for Sonic.

 

Sonic's Menu Board