Verified by SPOT · 8

Cooks Tavern

North End, Tacoma · New American · $$

Cooks Tavern has anchored North Tacoma since 2016 with a formula rare for a tavern: a menu that actually rotates through different regional cuisines instead of settling into one lane, alongside a beverage list locals plan evenings around. The lamb burger and chicken and waffles get the most repeat orders, but it's the beignets - a New Orleans transplant on a Pacific Northwest tavern menu - that surprise first-timers. It runs low-key by design, outperforming its own modesty night after night.