"Side Piece might be the Tacomaest restaurant in Tacoma, if we’re talking attitude. The restaurant is styled like your grandma’s kitchen in 1973, with macrame wall hangings and avocado-toned wall phones, and patrons settle down for breakfast amid a soundtrack of Korn and Ying Yang Twins. Owners Hailey and Dante Hernandez started out in 2022 as a take-out-only kitchen serving “banging biscuits and dank af cheesecake,” and their year-old brick-and-mortar offers more variations on the theme, like the Sizzurp breakfast sandwich: maple sausage, white cheddar, two hard-fried eggs, maple syrup, and chives on a buttery house-baked biscuit. (Their love of stoner and hip-hop culture is reflected in their very funny, irreverent Instagram reels.) The regular menu is full of killer tracks, but keep your eye on the specials, because Side Piece is continually freestyling wonderfully weird-ass items like Thai tea tiramisu cheesecake dotted with boba, or a Caesar salad cheesecake made with anchovies, black pepper, lemon juice, and parmesan, topped with dressed Romaine and croutons. They often sell out of biscuits, so go early." - Meg van Huygen