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Olympia and especially Tacoma have increasingly hip and sophisticated dining scenes, with everything from laid-back cafés to seasonally driven restaurants with water views. After those cities, Gig Harbor and Bellingham have the best food scenes—they’re not terribly big, but support fine little crops of notable restaurants. You’ll also find good brewpubs and indie coffeehouses in most of the larger towns in the area. Edmonds also has a growing bounty of exceptional eateries.
On the road, refueling takes place at country-style cafés, farm stands, and kitschy or specialty shops like the ’50s-style sweets shops of Port Gamble and Snoqualmie or the Norwegian bakeries of Poulsbo. None of these is in short supply, and many eateries, however small, pride themselves on using local ingredients.
This artisan ice-cream parlor has a few locales in Tacoma, but the newest one in the lively Point Ruston district is especially appealing because you have to walk only a few steps to enjoy your treat while strolling along the beautifully restored waterfront. Flavors here range from classic (mint chocolate chip, strawberry) to seasonally inspired (pumpkin, wild blueberry).
Before ordering dessert from whichever Bellingham restaurant you're dining in, keep in mind that this stellar artisan ice-cream parlor is open until 10 or 11 every night, and the thick, creamy concoctions here are seriously superb. The team has come up with literally hundreds of rotating flavors over the years, from coconut latte to burned sugar to black currant–mulled wine.
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