Stink is a signature, not an insult.

We think “stink” gets a bad rap. Good cheese stinks. Good wine stinks. Good cured meat very politely stinks. These are the things the old world has been eating and drinking for a thousand years, and the smell of them together is — to us — the best thing about a room.

So we opened a shop around that idea. STINK is the cheese-and-cured-meat counter; El Tufo is the wine bar that grew up next to it. El tufo means, roughly, “the stink” — a small bilingual joke we committed to hard.

What to expect

We are not an all-you-can-eat place. We are not a sports bar. We are not a destination brunch. We are a tight little European-style shop built for people who want to sit down with a good glass, eat something with a story, and leave a couple of hours later thinking the afternoon went well.

Our beverages don’t just taste amazing — they tell a story. Add a hunk of cheese or a slice of cured meat to the equation and it’s time to take a journey you will want to take again, and again.

The room

We’re on the lobby floor of the 909 A Street building in downtown Tacoma. Twin staircases from the sidewalk or an elevator if that’s easier. The floorplan is small. The shelves are crowded. The light is low. That’s all on purpose.

All ages welcome, always. Dogs on leashes welcome outside. Strong opinions welcome inside — ours and yours.

What people have said

• Dutch Randall, NW Military Review — praised STINK for “great food, a community atmosphere, and an even better location off the main drag downtown.”
• Sue Kidd, The News Tribune — visited more than once, which we took as a compliment, and reviewed our appetizers and wine list.

Team

We’re a small crew. The board-builder knows which cheeses want friends and which want to be left alone. The wine person has strong opinions about Mosel Riesling and they will share them. The kitchen runs on one burner and a panini press and somehow, somehow, the grilled cheese is good every time.

Come say hello.