In Puyallup, you can find a room with a brew

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In Puyallup, you can find a room with a brew

Saturday, February 12, 2000

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER RESTAURANT CRITIC

When you combine a preservation-friendly architect and a restaurateur, you get a place like the Powerhouse: a revival of a long-neglected historic building as a restaurant with style.

The multitasking maestro of the Powerhouse is Dusty Trail (that's his real name; "I had sadistic parents," he said). The Powerhouse used to be exactly that: A Puget Power substation that routed electricity to the Puyallup Valley until it was abandoned 30 years ago.

Trail, who also owns the Engine House No. 9 brewpub in Tacoma, bought the sturdy red-brick substation, shooed away the pigeons and installed a gravity-fed brewing system that takes advantage of the building's high-rise L shape. The restaurant fills the ground floor, and Trail's interior design pays homage to the building's past.

The look is stripped-down light-industrial: brick walls, bare wood floors, heavy ceiling timbers, exposed metal conduits for the glass-shaded light fixtures. Old power meters, gauges, oversized glass insulators and other electrical gear accent the theme; a couple of huge ferns soften it. When a train rumbles by on the tracks next to the building, a steel-rod contraption on the walls crackles to life with 25,000 volts of electricity.

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Powerhouse. 454 E. Main St., Puyallup; 253-845-1370 Hours: 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Friday-Saturday. Full liquor service. Visa, MasterCard. No smoking. Accessibility: No obstacles. Free parking in lot.

"It's such a good building to start with, the trick is not messing it up with kitschy, cute stuff," Trail said.

The Powerhouse menu supplements pub-food basics with pastas and a chicken dish or two.

Appetizers lead off with Breasts of Fire ($6), a saute of boneless chicken chunks awash in a chili cream sauce that's zestfully addictive. Bacon wraps baked shrimp stuffed with horseradish ($7.50) in a starter that needs the moistening daub of ranch dressing that comes on the side.

In with the burgers -- flame-broiled half pounder ($6.50), blue cheese mushroom variant ($8), Cajun or teriyaki chicken ($7) and veggie ($7) -- on the sandwich menu, the Power Dip ($8) layers thin-sliced steak on a flattish bun, alongside a cup of jus on the plate. Pastas include a beguiling toss of bowties with grilled chicken, artichoke, sun-dried tomato and mushrooms in a pesto cream sauce ($9).

Naturally, there are plenty of house-brewed beers and ales on tap, with the regular lineup of a half-dozen pints ($3) joined by a changing seasonal selection. The wine list includes five reds and five whites, none more than $20, and the bar serves mixed drinks, too.

Trail, who was born in Texas and grew up in Virginia, moved to Tacoma 32 years ago and started his architectural practice. The owner of Engine House No. 9 hired him to help with some design and building-code issues. When the owner decided to sell the business soon after, Trail teamed up with a restaurateur to buy it in 1983.

"I knew the building and liked the building," Trail said. "We totally redid it, got good feedback, and I thought, 'This isn't so bad.' You know, young and dumb."

Engine House No. 9 was a pioneer in serving microbrews on tap and defied conventional wisdom in adopting a no-smoking policy in 1992, Trail said. By then, he had bought out his partner and, as his restaurant interests have grown, they've eclipsed his architectural practice.

"I've always been a good eater and a good drinker," Trail said. "It helps to keep my weight up -- that's the main thing."