E9 Firehouse & Gastropub — Restaurant in Tacoma

Yesterday after PT my husband and I decided to grab a meal before heading home. E9 sounded interesting so we drove there.

I grew up in the north end of Tacoma and have easily been up and down 6th Ave a few thousand times in my life. I had NO idea that one block north of 6th Ave was a 1909 historic firehouse which is where the restaurant and bar are located.

The original firehouse doors are still there. It is decorated with equipment used to fight fires back in the day. The original pole is still there along with a ladder, hose, hose reel, nozzles, fire call box, and pictures. Being a horse person,owning a horse ranch in Roy and knowing horses would have pulled the fire wagon, I was intrigued that the horse stall front were still there along with the horse’s names mounted above their stalls. Wouldn’t you know there was a Rowdy, which was the only horse name matching one of my horses!

There were pictures of the actual horses from the firehouse hanging on the wall. They also grace the cans from the brewery that used to be housed in the firehouse. The brewery has a separate location in downtown Tacoma. The manager was kind enough to take the time to give me a brief history which I found fascinating.

Onto the meal. There was an extensive menu with lunch specials in addition to what was on the menu. My husband was going to have the mushroom Philly until he realized it had no meat so he ordered the pulled pork cheeseburger sliders with Tater tots instead. It had good flavor and he liked it but the heat from the jalapeños was a bit more than he preferred. It did not slow him down or stop him from enjoying his meal.

My meal was amazing!!! I was vacillating between 3 different options but settled, in a good way for the Maple Dijon Fries Chicken Sandwich with Tater Tots and Firehouse dipping sauce, from one of several fry choices.

Our food was made to order and quickly served. The chicken had excellent flavor and was tender and juicy and the real thing, not a frozen piece of mystery meat.

We both had coffee. It was flavorful and not your typical bland restaurant coffee. Our server was friendly, attentive and took great care of us. As we are in Tacoma often, we will...

My 12 year old didn’t get to eat, and we were humiliated by the manager. We went towards the end of breakfast and they asked if we want breakfast or lunch menus. We asked for breakfast, but our son decided he wanted lunch. The server took our order and was going to comeback with a lunch menu so our son could order. We waited FOREVER for our food. We had our coffee while we waited and the half and half they provided with us was bad, it was coagulating. They replaced our coffee and brought us milk because they didn’t have any fresh half and half... what? Ok, no big deal (I guess). We FINALLY got our food and it was really good. We were starting to complete our meal and realized that our son still didn’t have his food. We tried to be patient, but it was taking forever. We ordered a sandwich, no cooking involved, and only 5 minutes after we ordered our food. What can possibly be taking so long?? My husband went to go talk to the server and she offered to take it off our bill, we’ll ya, we never got it, you better take it off our bill. He sat back down and asked to talk to the manager, because we recognize that it’s not the server’s fault. She came over combatively and scolded my husband for the way he talked to the server, saying she has been working there for 4 years. She also dismissed every one of our complaints. Obviously the customer doesn’t come first here. She was so rude to us and handled the situation HORRIBLY. We were very nice and patient and all she really had to do was be apologetic, we didn’t want free stuff or anything, just an apology, but instead, she was treating us like WE did something wrong. We said, “don’t worry, we will not be coming back”, and she said “excellent”. My jaw dropped, I can’t believe how she talked to us, I seriously can’t believe it!! The table next to us never got their food either. As we were leaving, they held up a box with the sandwich in it asking if we wanted our sandwich in a mocking fashion, we all ignored them and walked out because we were humiliated!! As we walked out the door, I looked back and saw the server, the manager, and the cook were all laughing at us. I CANNOT BELIEVE how we were treated!!! We will never be...

I have loved this place for years. But the management of the kitchen is so awful that even the most normal breakfast rush overwhelms them. We had a 2 hour window of time to get a breakfast before my wife had to pickup a coworker to drive to Portland. An hour after ordering our food, they hadn't started it yet. They took a relaxed morning and turned it into a stressful rush. We expressed our frustration and swore (not at he, but as an exclamation of our frustration). So, the manager came and rather than apologize, gave a half apology, half excuse before focusing on our mistreatment of his waitress. He essentially blamed us for the problem, not the 90 minute wait for bacon and eggs.

A manager in such a situation has one opportunity to make things right. He failed and made things worse by focussing on us as the problem, not his own mismanagement. He could have fixed everything by beginning with a remedy for his mistakes, then expressing concern for how we treated his waitress. Instead, he may have lost a regular customer for life.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I respect people working in the food service industry. It takes a LOT to get me where we were. And I'm not proud that we reacted that way. We apologised the moment he raised the issue. But he made the whole situation our problem, not his. He shifted the blame to us. That is unacceptable!

I truly this was a unique issue today. We have loved this place for years. But we were not alone today. We saw a large group get their food delivered 20 minutes apart and tables get fed who arrived after we'd ordered. The wait staff was short staffed for the number of tables and also had to play hostess and bus tables. The kitchen looked frantic. But it is not unreasonable under the busiest of times to expect Eggs Benedict and Bacon and Eggs to less than an hour. And it is never appropriate to blame upset customers. I hope this place can figure out how to manage the kitchen better. I feel so badly for the front...