Tune in for cocktails and fresh pub food at new restaurant from Tacoma’s Wingman Brewers

When Ken Thoburn and Derrick Moyer sold their first keg of beer to The Red Hot in April 2011, Washington was home to just shy of 150 breweries, only three of which were in Tacoma.

A wholesaler told the owners of Wingman Brewers that promoting the city on their cans might dissuade new customers from trying the beer. They stuck to their hometown roots and now, nine years later, they are opening a restaurant in the heart of downtown.

Since signing the lease for the double-wide space at 728 Pacific Ave. last June, the team has gutted the former home of Tacoma Cabana to its core, designing the kitchen, bar and free-flowing dining room with plenty of wood, an epoxy floor and splashes of Wingman’s signature orange on the exposed brick walls.

Little Radio — named after longtime tenant Edward Little, a radio repairman — won’t be Wingman 2.0, though.

Chef Victor Mitchell will create a menu of “upscale pub-style food,” and Jim Shoemake, a tiki bar veteran and brewer himself, will run the beverage program, featuring “refreshing, celebratory” cocktails with a little tiki bent. The taps will, of course, host some Wingman brews, but the team also will carry “beers that we love drinking” and funky ciders from around the world, said Michael Hilborn, head of sales and market relations.

A bar and counter-service ordering system will foster “a more casual way of getting an elevated menu.” The concept is intended to be simultaneously family friendly and high-quality.

“The food and the drinks are what I think of as upscale comfort food,” explained Hilborn. “You could eat it everyday, or you could celebrate it once a year.”

A WINGMAN RESTAURANT

The idea was born out of an opportunity to expand the Wingman footprint.

After a collaboration with another brewery that would have opened the door for wider distribution fizzled, the team locked themselves in Hilborn’s garage for 14 hours to hone their long-term vision.

Rather than reach for more sales in other states, they turned inward — toward Tacoma.

“It didn’t sound as close to us as an experience and presence in the city,” said Paul Jackson, Wingman’s financial specialist and Thoburn’s childhood friend. “Little Radio is now the product of that day.”

The prime downtown location was “a dream area,” Jackson added.

At some 5000 square feet, it was much larger than what they originally anticipated.

Hilborn and Shoemake dug into the building’s history and discovered Edward Little. His “hard-working, blue-collar attitude” resonated with the team and their love for Tacoma.

“We love this aspect of our city’s history,” said Thoburn in a release. “It’s a city that works hard but plays harder.”

COMFORT FOOD DONE UP

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, Mitchell, who grew up around Renton and Kent, has not been able to test as many recipes as he had hoped, but he vows to use as many local ingredients as he can. He is eager to be a short walk to the Broadway farmers market.

Bookmarked by stints at two breweries — Powerhouse Restaurant and Brewery in Puyallup and Odin Brewing in Tukwila — Mitchell cooked at Hob Nob and helped open Salamone’s Pizza in the Stadium District. He adored driving by Wright Park, admiring Tacoma’s architecture and learning to love her people. But it was the brewpub cooking that stuck with him.

“I really kinda was attracted to that, the food science in the beer, mixing beer into food and cooking,” he explained.

Though still in progress, the menu will feature an array of “classic pub sandwiches with a nice Victor twist,” he said with a wry smile, adding that his goal is to “make people try weird ingredients” in a familiar package.

Previous to the coronavirus, the concept was leaning toward shareable plates, but now the team feels individualized dishes fit the times, especially with fewer than five people permitted per party in the second phase of Washington’s reopening plan.

COCKTAILS FROM A TIKI VET

Shoemake arrives at Little Radio with an impressive resume.

He took his first bartending job in Emeryville, California, at the flagship Trader Vic’s, the famed tiki bar that dates back to 1934. He later trained and worked with Martin Cate, a now-famous bartender, at Forbidden Island.

These details might seem superfluous, but in the cocktail world, the venues where Little Radio’s beverage director honed his craft are the crème de la crème.

So, why is he in Tacoma? His wife has family ties, and it was always the couple’s intention to move here, though the final push came from her job relocation.

As for the Wingman connection, Shoemake met Hilborn working in San Diego at Craft and Commerce, another reputable cocktail bar. Once in the South Sound, he met Thoburn while brewing at North 47 in Browns Point.

His cocktail program will evoke years of wisdom behind these venerable bars, even if he is modest about his mission.

“The thing about his menu,” explained Jackson, jumping in where Shoemake was shy, “is you might find something on there you’re familiar with — a tiki drink you’ve had before — and when you order it, when it’s set down, there’s going to be something about it. It’s dusted just right, or it’s floated just right, or it’s the right kind of ice cube. It’s just better than something you’ve had.”

Shoemake would say that the menu will be “tiki-bent but not completely tiki,” with “cocktails that sell and are just good drinks. I’m going more refreshing because I generally see that that’s how people want to drink.”

Notably, the bar will not offer call drinks, meaning you can’t walk into Little Radio and order a vodka tonic.

Just as Wingman Brewers pushed Tacomans to step outside their beer-drinking comfort zone nearly 10 years ago, now they look to being part of a growing downtown food corridor.

“It seems like the right time to add to the list of good cocktails in the city,” said Thoburn, referencing programs at places like Wooden City, En Rama, 1022 South J and Devil’s Reef. “Pac Ave is changing, too. Downtown is really upping its game: the food is getting better, the drinks are getting better. It seems like the right time for us.”

The opening date remains in flux, as they would rather show off the whole package versus tinkering with to-go food and drinks. They will also hold off on the secondary side of the large space until they see how 2020 plays out.

And for the record, the state now boasts more than 400 breweries, with more than 50 in the South Sound.

LITTLE RADIO

▪ 728 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, littleradiotacoma.com

▪ Details: opening July 13 under Phase 2 guidelines; check Instagram for updates

▪ Hours: open daily at 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday, midnight Friday and Saturday, and 10 p.m. Sunday

▪ Wingman’s taproom in the Dome District also open daily at 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 11 p.m. Saturday to Sunday

This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.