Tacoma’s newest downtown bar now open with a flashback menu and ugly plants (on purpose)

Tacoma’s newest downtown bar opened last week, and it might look familiar for diners of a certain age.

The Fern Room is a microcosm of all-things-1970s: Macrame art, ferns crammed into all corners, a ‘70s-era soundtrack and a drink menu that reads like a bar menu straight out of 1978. I’m talking fuzzy navel, Harvey Wallbanger, tequila sunrise and a grasshopper.

The concept is a piggy back on the rebirth of “fern bars,” which in the ‘70s was a catch-all term for yuppy bars for singles. They usually were decorated with ferns and faux Tiffany lamps. (See: The Regal Beagle from “Three’s Company.”)

Gone are the tiki drinks and decor that formerly adorned the space at 728 Pacific Ave,, which opened in 2012 as Tacoma Cabana.

The Fern Room’s proprietors are the same as Tacoma Cabana, which might come as a surprise because its owners, Jason and Robyn Alexander, announced last month that they were exiting the space. They intended to hand it over to a former employee, but the plan fell through.

The husband-wife team instead decided to make the bar smaller and more manageable. They reduced the footprint to the original size of Tacoma Cabana before a bar expansion added the neighboring space.

All that tiki decor they removed is slated to move into the upstairs space at the downtown Tacoma nautical-themed bar the couple opened in January — Devil’s Reef in Opera Alley.

The thatch hut that ringed the bar is gone, replaced by hanging macrame lamps. The bar now sports a wood herringbone pattern. The curtains look like the ones you remember from your great aunt’s living room.

The barkeep, Jason Alexander, described the cocktail menu as everything you loved about cocktails from the ‘70s and ‘80s, minus the sorority girl sweetness.

“I applied all my tiki knowledge and know-how to these old drinks from the ‘70s and reimagined them,” he said. “They’re obviously not tiki drinks, but they’re definitely influenced, so you have nice depth and balance of flavor in the drinks.”

Take Alexander’s version of a lemon drop, which combines Deep Eddy lemon vodka, house Vic’s mix (his Trader Vic’s rif on a housemade sweet-and-sour mix), plus coconut cream to balance the tart-and-sweet.

“My Vic’s mix is on the tart side,” Alexander said. “The Deep Eddy lemon vodka is kind of tart. It made for a bracingly tart drink and I thought I needed a little lightener in it. I thought, why not throw cream in there and see what happens?”

He describes the result as something akin to a tart “lemon meringue pie effect.” He serves that lemon drop over pellet ice, not served chilled and up.

That house sweet-and-sour mix is a labor of love for Alexander and the bar’s staff. One employee’s job is to hand squeeze lemons, limes and oranges twice a week.

Alexander also scratch makes the bar’s coconut cream. He steeps coconut in coconut oil and milk and adds a few secret ingredients.

The cocktails on the “smooth and creamy” side of the menu — the grasshopper, brandy Alexander, fuzzy navel and lemon drop— are dairy-free because they’re made with that house coconut cream.

The next category of drinks Alexander calls “lush and dreamy” are a collection of sour cocktails — an amaretto, midori and whiskey —and classics such as the salty dog and tequila sunrise.

“I wanted to cram as much grapefruit flavor as I could into the salty dog,” he said of the grapefruit and vodka cocktail that comes with a touch of salt. “You get grapefruit layered four ways in this drink between the flavored vodka, the juice, a grapefruit cordial and other things.”

He’s also experimenting with frozen cocktails with the opening menu offering slushy versions of a Long Island iced tea, a white Russian and Mac Nut Chi Chi.

Specialty and slushy cocktails are $12, high ball cocktails are $10 and beer and wine choices are $4-$6.

The kitchen menu, designed by Robyn Alexander, covers more ‘70s territory with Swedish meatballs over egg noodles ($12), salisbury steak ($12) and deviled eggs ($6). There’s also street tacos ($9), caprese skewers ($6), tomato soup and grilled cheese ($12) and a turkey croissant sandwich ($12).

The Fern Room

Where: 728 Pacific Ave., Tacoma.

Hours: Open at 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 4:30 PM.