By Charles Ames

Two years ago, Kathy Dameron had a vision of opening a halal eatery in Lakewood. It wouldn’t only specialize in Middle Eastern food—it would serve dishes from various cultures and cuisines, all prepared halal.

“I made Tilted Rock because I wanted to share flavors from around the world,” Dameron says. “I think that through the diversity of the food, you learn a lot about other people’s cultures, and food is always something that brings people together. Whenever there’s food, or a party with food, everyone comes together.”

Food is a family affair at the Tilted Rock. Dameron’s husband is Ethiopian and has helped her realize her vision, while Dameron’s son and other family members help at the restaurant—although she’s been adding more non-family staff lately too.

“When you’re trying something new—like, for example, Ethiopian food that you eat with your hands,—you have to explain to people who have never tried it before a little bit about the culture,” Dameron says. “Like why they only eat with their right hand, or how you have to tear the injera to get a piece of it. So it’s not just about eating the food. You’re also learning and educating people about other cultures that they may not have otherwise even known about.”

“Even when I cook Ethiopian food,” she says, “it’s a little bit different from the traditional methods and ingredients. I do have some twists that I put in there and some secret ingredients that I can’t tell you about. Just my preference…And nobody’s complained!”

Dameron, who is Muslim, only serves you food that is halal: that is, prepared according to Islamic dietary restrictions. This entails cooking with foods that have been processed using equipment that has been cleaned in compliance with Islamic law, as well as meat that has been slaughtered using the Dhabihah method outlined in the Quran.

“All of our food is halal. At most of the halal restaurants, you’re going to find a lot of, like, gyros and shawarmas. It’s pretty much the same thing over and over. But I don’t know of, like, a Chinese place where we could get Chinese food that’s halal. I’ve had Muslims come in here who have never tried a taco, because there are no Mexican halal restaurants. So I just want to, you know, spread the diversity of everything, all the different flavors of foods to everyone.”

Dameron’s venture is on the miraculous side. The restaurant took many months to build out, as the Pierce County Health Department patiently conducted and explained the permitting processes. But they allowed her to slowly open. Then she strained a calf muscle on vacation and lost several weeks, since she could not manage the restaurant on her own, before she had a full staff.

But today, she’ll soon be celebrating two years since opening up at 112th and Pacific Avenue South in the fall of 2022—with a multifaceted menu of dishes ranging from Indonesian beef rendang to Mexican street tacos, from Vietnamese bahn xeo to West African egusi soup with fufu.

“People come from everywhere,” Dameron says. “They’ve come from Bellevue and Bremerton, because there are no Asian halal resturants there. We’ve had the kamayan feasts, which is the traditional Filipino meal, where they sit down together and eat from banana leaves with their hands. We’re one of the only places where you can find halal Filipino food anywhere in the state.”

It’s all made by an enthusiastic and inspired chef who’s fascinated by the tremendous culinary diversity the world has to offer—and who believes in mastering each dish through time and patience.

“In Ethiopian culture,” she says, “they judge their new daughters-in-law by how good they cook their doro wot, which is the chicken stew. It’s basically the main dish of Ethiopia. It’s like their staple dish. So I was practicing every day when my mother-in-law was coming to America, then having my husband try it. And he was like ‘Oh, not so much of this, and add a little bit more of this.’ And so I’ve tried it over and over and over, and through time, I’ve perfected it… and my mother-in-law loves me!”