Islanders have one more option for on-island dining with the grand opening of Lia (Bardeen) Lira’s much-anticipated Bramble House tonight (Wednesday, June 1).

“It’s a joy to see it finally ready for guests,” Lira said in an email to The Beachcomber. “It’s been amazing to see all the details finally come together. A true realization of a vision!”

As The Beachcomber reported in December, Lira, the daughter/step-daughter of islanders Tom and Jo Ann Bardeen, returned to Vashon after 15 years of perfecting her culinary chops at notable restaurants in New York City and around the world to open a restaurant of her own. And now, after about 10 months of work, Lira’s dream is open for business.

To get any kinks worked out before she hit the ground running, Lira opened Bramble House to a selection of family and friends for four meal services over the past weekend — dinner Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and brunch Saturday morning. Guests were treated to their meals in return for feedback via questionnaires and conversation with Lira herself.

“We wanted to get the staff trained with actual guests and also have the opportunity to get feedback from islanders about the comfort, menu choices and service,” Lira explained. “The experience has shown me how supportive and open the community is to local business.”

The menu is eclectic in its offerings, with a variety of choices, including meat, seafood, grains, pasta and vegetarian dishes.

The most unique part of the menu, however, is the note that explains Bramble House is a non-tipping establishment, and service charges are built into the prices of food and wine.

Lira said it was important to her to open the restaurant with a non-tipping structure.

“This means that the pricing we have on the menus and wine list is the total price of your meal. Guests won’t need to add 15 to 20 percent on to the bill,” she said. “This also allows me to pay fair wages to all the staff and offer them consistency in their income. I want everyone who works at Bramble House to know they are part of a team and feel proudly involved in what we are trying to do.”

Lira also pointed to what she sees as issues inherent to the traditional tipping system, such as the realities of sexism and racism, the unfairness of servers having to hope they can make up for poor hourly wages with tips and kitchen staff that are often dramatically under-compensated.

“To me, the best answer … is to run this restaurant in the style of any normal business,” she said. “Even though this is a progressive move on my part, I’m confident the island will be able to understand the important social issues associated with it.”

Starting tonight, Bramble House will be open for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The restaurant is located on Vashon Highway at the north end of town, across from Ober Park.

“I’m excited to be an addition to the great restaurants already on island,” Lira said, “and I hope to offer a new and different option for dining out.”