Tacoma’s The Swiss celebrates 27 years Monday with a throwback sandwich, growler to-go
When Jack McQuade, Bob Hill and Gail Bertagni opened The Swiss on Jefferson Avenue in 1993, there were few places to find craft beer.
Bertagni knew how to cook, and McQuade and Hill knew beer after working at Engine House No. 9 together. They installed eight taps, always with a mix of domestics, imports and microbrews — the standard term for small-batch beer at the time.
What was always on tap: Alaskan Amber, an alt-style ale from the Juneau-based brewery.
Fermented longer and at colder temperatures than the average ale, alts carry a malty backbone with just a hint of hops. It was named one of America’s favorite beers in the 1988 Great American Beer Festival, when breweries like Boston Beer Co, (the makers of Sam Adams), Sierra Nevada and Anchor Brewing were considered true crafts.
“There was really no place else in Tacoma where you could get that,” said Carole Ann McQuade. “They grew really fast because of that. In that respect, there weren’t a lot of other options in Tacoma for what they were providing.”
After Bertagni died in a tragic accident 11 years ago, and Hill retired a few years later, the McQuades have kept The Swiss going. This weekend marked 27 years in business (though the building has been a saloon since 1913).
Now Alaskan Amber sits alongside a couple dozen drafts, including hard seltzer.
How times have changed.
“You’ve gotta evolve,” Jack McQuade told The News Tribune in a phone call from the restaurant, which reopened on March 31 for takeout during the coronavirus closure. “If you don’t evolve, you’re like the dinosaurs, and we all know what happened to them.”
THE SWISS PLAYS ON
The Spazmatics, an ‘80s cover band, played the last show at The Swiss, for now, on March 14.
“At that point in time, people just had a different mindset,” said Carole Ann. “Reality hadn’t really hit.”
They opened for takeout that Monday, but “it felt weird,” so they had the taps flushed clean and closed. Then the University of Washington Tacoma, which didn’t exist when The Swiss opened 27 years ago but is now the couple’s landlord, asked if they would open for takeout for a virtual installment of Grit City Think & Drink. The restaurant hosts these casual lectures and discussions every second Tuesday, but COVID-19 forced them online.
“That was kind of the tipping point,” said Carole Ann, who added they had been considering a takeout program but needed that community boost.
The chef agreed to return to work, and now The Swiss is also supporting the Hero Meals program developed by the Downtown Tacoma Partnership, which delivers food to front-line workers during the pandemic.
“It’s always been a very personal business,” said Carole Ann, adding that a handful of employees have been with the restaurant for nearly a quarter century. “They like to know the owners; they like to come in and see familiar faces.”
No matter how many years of food and beer and music, though, the past few weeks have not been easy.
“Nobody is doing what they need to be doing,” she continued, but they are looking forward to a return to normalcy, and the growth of the historic brewery district and the Brewery Blocks development down the street.
Added her husband, “There’s a sliver of — a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. We’re in this limbo phase, but put a positive spin on it. Keep Tacoma strong and keep us going, and keep the whole town moving forward.”
Watching the downtown evolve around The Swiss exemplifies that resiliency, they said, especially given that “people thought they were crazy” for opening a pub here in the early ‘90s.
“It was a fun place, and people wanted to be part of it,” said Jack. “With Gail’s great cooking, the music, the atmosphere — it’s a pretty special place. We always, in my mind, kind of wanted to be like Cheers, where everybody wants to go and everybody knows your name.”
Take the pub’s tagline, “You’re only a stranger here but once.”
“That was my philosophy from Day 1,” he said. “It’s a fine line between three feet on one side of the bar and the other side of the bar with your friends and customers. I come here every day, and every day’s a little different. Whoever comes through the doors makes the place. It’s the same building, but it changes all the time.”
His wife thinks he needs to give himself more credit.
“You just don’t make a run like this,” she said. “It’s pretty miraculous.”
The support from “overwhelmingly kind” longtime customers is keeping them going right now.
This anniversary won’t be the same, particularly without the pub’s hallmark live music, but to celebrate, The Swiss is offering a growler of Alaskan Amber and a throwback sandwich: the Yesterday, turkey on sourdough with cream cheese, provolone, cranberry, lettuce, tomato and onion, served with fries or tater tots.
The Swiss
▪ 1904 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma, 253-572-2821, theswisspub.com
▪ Details: Anniversary deal valid on Monday, April 27; takeout available Monday to Friday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.; call or order online
▪ Hero Meals also available through the restaurant’s website
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM.