We had dinner at Ezell’s Famous Chicken in Tacoma on Sunday, February 12, 2012. We had driven by Ezell’s several times and thought we might like to try it. So far, it’s the only inexpensive chicken eatery that we’ve seen in the South Sound area. This is in sharp contrast to our old neighborhood and surrounding area in the San Gabriel Valley. In SGV there were many chicken places such as Juan Pollo, Dino’s Chicken and Burgers (a.k.a. “Dino’s Bar and Grill” to us), Mr. Pollo, and El Pollo Loco. Chicken doesn’t seem to be as popular in the Northwest, not as much as seafood. We may be wrong and Ezell’s may just be the tip of the iceberg.
Our dinner at Ezell’s actually followed a very eventful day for me. Early that morning my wife and I drove down to the Olympia, WA area. She had training all day for her new job and I planned to meet up with an old friend from high school. She dropped me off at Sacred Heart church in Lacey, WA right before the 8:00 a.m. service. I attended the service. At the beginning they asked if anyone new was there. I hesitantly stood up and everyone clapped. One of the ushers gave me a calendar with the church schedule. The church looked relatively new with the altar not much higher than the level of the congregation and the choir behind the altar. Something they did differently from other churches was read the announcements while taking up the collection rather than at the end. After the service ended I picked up a copy of the bulletin and the Spanish-language version of the archdiocese newsletter, El Progreso.
It was fairly chilly outside but also sunny. I was glad I brought the black fish hat that my dad got me for Christmas along with the fleece that my mom got me. I walked south on the somewhat rural street on which Sacred Heart and a couple of other churches resided. I turned right on the major east-west street first walking along a sidewalk and then a bike path. I soon arrived at St. Martin’s University, a small Catholic liberal arts university. The main administrative building is perched up on top of a hill. That building also contains the bookstore, and, I think, some classrooms. I walked down the other side of the hill and found that there weren’t any more campus buildings to the north. There were, however, some ponds that a sign indicated were part of the regional storm facility. Their purpose was to collect water from rain and storms, clean out its pollutants, and release it back into the rivers and streams. This seemed similar to the spreading grounds that we lived near back in the San Gabriel Valley.
I walk to the northwest and found Lacey city hall, city buildings and municipal library. I returned to the St. Martin’s campus and found the university library that was also closed. I found the student union building, the baseball field that indicated that their mascot was the Saints, what seemed to be an auditorium and another building that appeared to be a gym. In the southwest corner of campus were the student dormitories. Some students were just waking up and walking toward the main campus. I walked east back towards Sacred Heart and found the athletic track and field area. There were many tall evergreen trees around. I wonder how come I never heard of St. Martin’s. It fit my college criteria of a small liberal arts school in the Pacific Northwest. Still, if I had visited it and Willamette, I think I would have still chosen Willamette.
I returned to Sacred Heart at 11 a.m. and met up with my friend from high school. I hadn’t seen him in over seven years when he came down with his wife to San Diego. He drove us to the Olympia waterfront where he pointed out the Phoenix Hotel, the best in town. He parked and we went to the Budd Bay Café for lunch. They’re a very nice mid-priced seafood restaurant right off the docks of the Olympia harbor. Since it was Sunday morning they were serving a brunch buffet. Choices included Manila clams with almandine butter, Dungeness crab artichoke dip, California rolls, omelets made to order, along with bacon, sausage, fruit and other breakfast foods. I had some wasabi-glazed salmon that was pretty good. Our checks turned out to be fairly high, though, at about $30 each.
We left Budd Bay Café and walked past the harbor and crossed a street. We walked around a large scenic lake that my friend said was actually an estuary of the Deschutes River. This was a different Deschutes from the one in Oregon. We then walked to the park near the state capitol building and back down a hill into downtown Olympia. My friend pointed out St. Michael’s church down a street, the former Schoenfield’s Furniture, a restaurant that served good food with lots of lard (he said the name but I don’t remember it now), the Governor’s Hotel, and a local rival of Starbucks (again, I don’t remember the name). At one point we were talking about burger places and he mentioned Burgerville. They only have locations in Centralia, WA and Oregon, but they’re good and they try to make everything with local ingredients. We then drove around Olympia. He pointed out a restaurant, Ramblin’ Jack’s that he said was pretty good. He also described how it used to be a place that sold fireplace equipment. But there was a fire there a few years ago that caused a lot of smoke damage.
We drove to west Olympia that’s more hilly. Streets change names at different points and some intersections have roundabouts. We then returned to Lacey, passed a bikini coffee shop there and he dropped me off back at Sacred Heart. It was after 2:00 p.m. and they were having the Spanish mass. I waited outside near the parish hall but could still hear the mass over the loudspeakers. After mass got out it started getting a bit cold for me. I waited inside the lobby of the church and listened to the choir practice for the evening mass. While there my wife called and picked me up soon after. It wasn’t quite dinnertime yet. We had picked out a couple of possibilities to have dinner on the way, but we decided we could stop by home first.
We drove home and then drove up 19th to Ezell’s. I had called them earlier and learned that they were open until 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. They’re in a strip mall just past the top of the hill on the south side of 19th. The closest cross street is MLK. We turned left at the light there and parked in the small strip mall parking lot. I think it was sometime around 6:00 p.m. Customers order at the counter and there are only a few tables for eating in around the perimeter. It looked like most people were ordering to go. Their menu was on a large board above and behind the counter. On one wall was a poster showing that Guy Fieri had been to Ezell’s. We looked over their menu that included different size orders of their famous fried chicken. We would learn from the woman at the counter that we could choose between original and spicy flavor. There were also larger size orders and family orders of 8-24 pieces.
In addition to chicken the menu had sections for special orders, sides, and desserts. Special orders included fried okra, gizzards, and livers. Sides included baked beans, corn, coleslaw, potato salad, and greens. Desserts included sweet potato pie, apple pie, peach cobbler, and bread pudding. Dessert came in sizes of indy, half, and whole. They served Pepsi products in fountain dispensers. There were a lot of people there ordering take away. A few ate in. Over the speakers they played R&B and rock music.
We placed our order and it didn’t cost too much. I think around $15-$20. It took a while because we ordered fried okra. After a while they called our number, and gave us everything in to-go containers even though we planned to eat in. We each ordered a dark meat snack pack. One of us got the spicy flavor and the other got the regular. Each was a large leg and thigh that we divided up. They were both very good. Both snack packs came with biscuits that we saved for later. The fried okra was good too, crispy and cooked just right. Everything turned out to be a lot of food and my wife saved her bread pudding for later. The bag had the web address for Ezell’s on it. When we looked at it we found there were other locations such as Seattle and Kent.
We drove home and watched the Grammys in the fitness room. We saw Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys on the show. My wife stayed up to see the Whitney Houston tribute. It was the end of a long day. I’m sure we’ll return to Ezell’s.
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