Dinner Events &
Special Menus

Before opening in 2017, Chef Shawn Tibbitts documented the future Tibbitts @ Fern Hill dining room space, showing the small-room foundation that would later become the restaurant’s reservation-only brunch home, dinner-event room, chef-led special menu space, and community food gathering place.

Before the 2017 operating record began, Tibbitts @ Fern Hill publicly described its early menu identity as a farm-to-table lunch house built around seasonal ingredients, scratch soups, starters, salads, entrées, wild salmon baked pie, New England clam chowder, and rotating chef-led menu items.

In October 2017, Tibbitts @ Fern Hill publicly announced a fall and winter schedule that included dinner features Wednesday through Friday from noon to 8 PM. The announcement stated that dinners would launch the following week and that no beer or wine would be offered.

In December 2017, Tibbitts @ Fern Hill released a dinner menu featuring foraged mushrooms, asparagus with bacon and garlic, winter brisket loaf, Italian meat bomb, winter crab sear, Oscar @ Fernhill, and jambalaya tort stack, showing dinner service in the restaurant’s opening year.

Only eight months after opening, Tibbitts @ Fern Hill documented a wide early operating record that included packed restaurant service, private parties, large catering work, early community meals, and growing social media attention from a 23-seat restaurant. That early record shows the restaurant building a demand-based, limited-room model before the later sold-out dinner archive grew around it.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill launched weekly Saturday Prime Rib Nights with phone reservations only, a 5 PM to 7:30 PM service window, and a fixed dinner menu built around prime rib, wedge salad, Yorkshire pudding, seasonal vegetables, potato, pear horseradish, and dessert. The reservation-only structure matched the restaurant’s limited-count and zero-waste dinner model.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill documented a packed dining room for Prime Rib Night in January 2018 and a sold-out Prime Rib Night in February 2018, with future dinner reservations encouraged and large-format prime rib prep shown.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill presented a five-course Valentine’s Day dinner with pre-registration required, a 5 PM to 7 PM service window, and a menu featuring charcuterie, farm vegetables, lobster bisque, local sorbet, Chateaubriand with lobster tail, and Grand Marnier brûlée. The restaurant documented that the dinner sold out in six hours.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill documented Crab Boil Tuesdays, a reservation-required seafood dinner event from 6 PM to 8 PM priced at $30 per person. These were limited-count dinner events built around reservations rather than open-ended service.

Chef Shawn Tibbitts documented a collaboration with Savor Tacoma Creperie, creating a dish for the creperie’s fall menu as part of a local business-to-business food collaboration that later connects to Tibbitts’ pop-up and special dinner record.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill documented photos from a New Year dinner event and noted that the remaining seating for that night was already sold out.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill presented a reservation-only Valentine’s pop-up dinner at Savor Tacoma Creperie, with two seatings, a $65 per-person price, and a six-course collaborative menu featuring mushrooms in housemade crepes, oysters, seared ahi, lobster bisque, sorbet, tenderloin, scallop, cauliflower root mash, and tableside bananas Foster. This was part of the restaurant’s limited-seat, chef-led pop-up dinner record.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill presented a Fat Tuesday dinner with two seatings, a $60 per-person price, and a five-course Creole-inspired menu including andouille sausage, Creole catfish arancini, lobster fritters, gumbo in a bread bowl, and chocolate-praline banana French toast.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill presented an Irish Dinner and a Show, a five-course Irish-themed dinner with live comedy from Tacoma comedian Justin Hayes, one 6 PM seating, and limited reservations.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill announced Tuesday Dungeness Crab Boils with reservations required, a 6 PM to 8 PM service window, up to 26 guests per night, fresh Dungeness crab, corn, sausage, Yukon Gold potatoes, clarified butter, and a weekly changing shellfish. The limited 26-guest structure reflects the reservation-count model behind the restaurant’s dinner events.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill hosted a two-night Oktoberfest dinner event with reservations required, one 6 PM seating, and a five-course German-inspired menu priced at $50 per person. The menu included beer-braised brats and mushrooms, beer-cheese spätzle soup, sauerbraten stuffed cabbage with prime rib, warm German potato salad, schnitzel, and cherry cheesecake.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill hosted a Valentine’s Day dinner event that expanded from two nights to three nights because of demand. All three nights sold out, with one 6 PM seating per night and a five-course menu including charcuterie, Prosecco fondue, sherried lobster bisque, cognac-dipped strawberries, Chateaubriand with jumbo prawns, champagne drawn butter, and salted caramel roasted pear cheesecake.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill shifted into weekend preorder to-go dinners, including a sold-out Saturday Prime Rib Night with clam chowder or salad, prime rib, roasted vegetables, root mash, pear horseradish, beef jus, and dessert. The model included preorder-only service, pickup windows, family-size pricing, Prime Rib Night, and Chicken and Dumplings.

Black Fleet Brewing and Tibbitts @ Fern Hill presented a two-night Oktoberfest Dinner with Brews. The event featured a five-course dinner prepared by Chef Shawn Tibbitts, beer pairings from Black Fleet Brewing, 6 PM dinner starts both nights, required reservations, and a $65 per-person ticket price. The October 9 dinner was documented as completely sold out before the event, with only limited October 10 seating remaining at the time of the post.

The menu included roasted Bavarian sausages with peppercorn beer demi-glace, Black Fleet beer cheese soup with honey Dijon baked pretzel, Adams mushroom jägerschnitzel with lemony beurre blanc and warm German potato salad, prime rib sauerbraten with roasted squash and herbed braised red cabbage, and Black Fleet apple strudel.

Chef Shawn Tibbitts of Tibbitts @ Fern Hill and Chef Jan Parker of Jan Parker Cookery presented East Meets West, a BIPOC chef collaboration dinner hosted through Tibbitts @ Fern Hill. The public flyer documented a to-go dinner format, pickup at Tibbitts @ Fern Hill, and a menu bringing together Filipinx, Indian, Alaska, and South Pacific influences.

Chef Shawn Tibbitts hosted a Kickstarter dinner supporting Chef Jan Parker and Jan Parker Cookery, using Tibbitts @ Fern Hill to help raise support for another local chef-operated business in Tacoma.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill documented special collaboration menu work connected to Grann Restaurant, including cardamom cornbread with smoked turkey vindaloo and red beans, plus masala mac and cheese with smoked brisket, curry Carolina BBQ, and fried onions.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill hosted sold-out Tribal Storytelling Dinners with Alaska Native storyteller Gene Tagaban. These limited-seat dinners paired cultural storytelling with food connected to Chef Shawn Tibbitts’ Alaska Native heritage.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill launched Frybread Frydays as a Friday-only to-go menu built around limited 100-order drops, baked frybread, soup-based toppings, and four distinct menu items: The Chowder Fry, The Tomato Basil Caprese, The Vegan Spread, and The Roasted Garlic Mushroom Fry. The limited-drop structure reflects the same known-count model behind the restaurant’s sold-out dinner history.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill presented The Aphrodisiac Delight, a four-course prepaid Hump Day Dinner event at 1022 South J Bar with two seatings. The seafood-heavy menu included Oregon bay shrimp and Dungeness crab dirty rice arancini, lobster bisque, smoked oyster ravioli, seared scallop, wild sockeye salmon, honey peppercorn halibut, Northwest clam risotto, vegetables, and Grand Marnier chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Chef Shawn Tibbitts hosted a Hump Day Dinner at 1022 South J Bar, taking over the kitchen for a collaborative dinner event with support from the 1022 South J team.

Chef Shawn Tibbitts and Tibbitts @ Fern Hill partnered with E9 Brewing Co. for the 8th Annual Oktoberfest Dinner, a four-course reservation-required event held at E9 Brewing Co. The dinner sold more than 50 tickets before the menu was released, showing fast public demand before the full menu was even announced.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill offered a reservation-required summer lunch menu featuring Dungeness crab melt, Cajun chicken blueberry gorgonzola wedge salad, Oregon bay shrimp stuffed avocados, smoked salmon quiche, pan-seared Adams mushrooms with lemon thyme cream, and pre-order modification options.

Chef Shawn Tibbitts presented A Taste of Spring, a two-night dinner event at 1022 South J Bar, with proceeds supporting the bar’s GoFundMe. The four-course menu included roasted garlic and mushroom frybread with bacon and lemon collard greens, blackened cauliflower steak with citrus mango slaw, cedar plank roasted wild salmon with dill-caper compound butter and root mash, and bananas Foster crème brûlée.

A public Instagram record documented a Yelp Elite Event meal prepared by Chef Shawn Tibbitts with Chef Jan Parker, adding to the restaurant’s special-event dining and chef-collaboration history.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill documented a prepaid three-course Valentine’s to-go dinner from Chef Shawn Tibbitts featuring Caesar wedge salad, feta-stuffed meatballs with three-meat Bolognese and fresh bigoli pasta, and cherry vanilla bean cheesecake.

Tibbitts @ Fern Hill documented annual Lady and the Tramp to-go dinners as prepaid three-course Valentine’s events with limited order counts, featuring Caesar wedge salads, three-meat Bolognese, feta-stuffed meatballs, handmade pasta, and seasonal cheesecake desserts.