Hello, thanks for checking out Transiterranean, a Tacoma-centric transit newsletter-blog exploring commuting, food, drink, and destinations across the City of Destiny, Puget Sound, and beyond! I’m Michael Grass, a former journalist and communications professional who has lived car-free for about 25 years, including in Washington, D.C., New York City, Seattle, Bellingham, and now Tacoma. 

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It’s clear walking up to Side Piece Kitchen in South Tacoma that this biscuit and cheesecake restaurant has a very devoted following. On a recent Saturday not soon after their 8 a.m. opening, there was a long line out the front door extending into the Oakes Village strip mall parking lot. As far as I can tell, there aren’t too many places in Tacoma that will draw that type of line.    

I won’t rehash the entirety of Side Piece Kitchen’s origin story, but this snippet from their about page should paint a good picture: “Just two burnt-out, life-long food industry workers with a $2000 payday loan and an Instagram account, we opened as a take-out only kitchen operating out of a rundown commissary. We never had any idea that Side Piece would be anything more than a way to make a living while we looked for our next jobs.”

Everything is scratch made on site and “unapologetically TACOMA” to the core. The food is delicious. There are only a couple tables inside the place, which strongly exudes a 1970s vibe, complete with vintage chairs, coffee mugs, and macramé owls hanging from the walls. 

At some point, I should do a larger comparison of different versions of biscuits and gravy in Tacoma, but there’s a lot to like about The Stoner SOS. It’s served with two types of gravies — mushroom and sausage — and topped with pickled jalapeños and an aioli made with Mama Lil’s peppers. 

Most Side Piece customers naturally drive there — many also walk out with cheesecake to go — but there is also decently good transit access via Pierce Transit’s Route 3, which departs Commerce Street Station in Downtown Tacoma every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on Saturdays. (Sundays, there’s only one bus an hour.) The Tacoma Mall Transit Center, where Route 3 offers a connection with Routes 41, 52, 53, 54, 55, and 57, isn’t too far away. While I wouldn’t necessarily say that walking along S. 47th Street is a joyous experience, the sidewalk on the south side of the roadway between S. Oakes Street and the transit center is generously wide compared to most in Tacoma. 

A reminder: Sound Transit is gearing up to open the Federal Way Link extension into South King County on December 6, bringing 1 Line service to three new stations: Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Downtown Station. 

Although Sound Transit Express bus service between Seattle and Pierce County will remain unchanged with the new Link extension to Federal Way, Sound Transit is looking to implement some mostly limited changes in Fall 2026. That includes truncating Route 574 at Federal Way, where Tacoma and Pierce County residents headed to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport via transit would need to transfer to a 1 Line train to reach the airport. (Route 574 would see its service frequency increase to buses every 15 minutes for most of the day.) 

As The Urbanist’s Ryan Packer reported last week via Bluesky, Sound Transit’s Rider Experience and Operations Committee, chaired by Tacoma City Councilmember Kristina Walker, will soon consider a proposal for the agency to purchase three Brookville Liberty light-rail vehicles from the City of Portland for use on the T Line in Tacoma, replacing three aging vehicles manufactured by Czech tram manufacturer Škoda.  

Unlike the T Line’s 5 Brookville Liberty streetcars, which have two sets of doors, the 3 Škoda 10T vehicles, built in 2002, have additional doorways at the end of each car, a feature I’ll miss when they’re retired from service.

The Federal Transit Administration — disclosure, where I worked as a communications consultant 2002-03 — has awarded Pierce Transit $6.7 million in funding from the FTA’s Buses and Bus Facilities and Low or No Emission Programs which will allow the agency to purchase seven new Compressed Natural Gas buses to replace aging buses.

The Pierce County government, Washington State Department of Transportation, and the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce have partnered and launched a 9-month pilot bus service connecting the Key Peninsula with Gig Harbor. 

Since relocating to Tacoma from Bellingham, I’ve been using Sound Transit trains (the S and T Lines) more frequently than local Pierce Transit buses, so I don’t have as many opportunities to regularly interact with familiar faces behind the wheel. Although I can see T Line operators through the front window when trains approach station platforms, once aboard, there isn’t an opportunity to directly exchange pleasantries since train operators are in a securely locked booth and sequestered from riders.     

But there’s a particularly friendly Pierce Transit bus driver on Saturday mornings on Route 11 whose schedule overlaps with my regular outings to (and from) the Proctor Farmers Market. My interactions remind me why bus drivers are important civic ambassadors who can be very in tune with the rhythms, challenges, and joys of the communities they serve.

This particular Route 11 operator is always genuinely excited by the bags of fresh local produce, freshly baked bread, and market goods coming on board for the return trip headed downtown. Paraphrasing a typical reaction: “Oh, those greens look so good!” My Saturday market routine has been part of his recent routine driving Route 11.

While the vast majority of Proctor Farmers Market customers either drive, bike, or walk there, there’s a hardy bunch of familiar passengers who use Pierce Transit buses to reach the Proctor District on Saturdays, despite the once-an-hour service on Routes 11 and 16, which intersect in the heart of Proctor at N. Proctor Street & N. 26th Street. It’s unfortunate that there’s only minimal transit service to and from Proctor or else I might visit neighborhood businesses there more regularly. Despite the less-than-convenient bus schedules, my weekly market outings directly support Washington agriculture and local market vendors, all the while not clogging Proctor’s streets with another parked car.  

This time of year, many farmers markets across Western Washington are winding down for the season. Some have already shuttered for the season, including the Broadway Farmers Market in Downtown Tacoma. Proctor’s market is the only year-round market in the city. 

Some things that have jumped out and have led to delicious eating in recent weeks: 

As part of an upcoming service change rolling out on December 14, Pierce Transit is planning to add two weekday departures on Route 11, which connects Downtown Tacoma and Point Defiance Park via the Proctor District. The route, which currently sees hourly service on weekdays, would see additional trips departing the Point Defiance Ferry Terminal at 7:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., giving North End neighborhoods, including Proctor, and the University of Puget Sound some slightly better transit frequency.

“No matter where crews add spikes, pigeons discover new niches to roost” at Sound Transit’s Capitol Hill Station in Seattle, The Seattle Times’ Mike Lindblom recently wrote about the agency’s ongong efforts to deter pigeons from congregating and creating messes at its stations and along track infrastructure. Lindblom’s article reminded me of a late summer work trek to Olympia when I was waiting for an Intercity Transit express bus at Lakewood Station’s Bay 6. Overhead was home a group of roosting pigeons in the bus bay’s canopy tucked away above a metal grating that was installed, presumably, to keep them out.

You might not be able to see the pigeons in the photo here, but beware of what’s above and where you step below. I haven’t been through Lakewood in awhile, so perhaps this mess has been addressed already.

If you’re taking an Intercity Transit Route 600 or 610 (formerly Route 620) express bus to Olympia from Pierce County and want to avoid roosting birds en route, you may want to catch an express bus at the State Route 512 Park & Ride instead of Lakewood Station.