Pot pies and pizza at double brewpub in Tacoma’s Stadium District

A search for just the right Puget Sound location for a restaurant and a taproom has led two regional breweries to Tacoma.

Odin Brewing will open its second location in the former home of The Hub in the Stadium District, a companion to the original taproom and restaurant in Tukwila. Downstairs, in the old Harmon space at 204 St. Helens Ave., Northwest Brewing will introduce its first taproom, Pint & Pie.

Harmon, which continues to operate its Pacific Avenue location and The Hub in Gig Harbor, abruptly closed last summer, leaving behind a fully functional brewery and two large spaces with mostly functional kitchens — not to mention a centerpiece pizza oven upstairs.

“That thing in and of itself was probably worth the price of admission,” said Odin owner Dan Lee. “I knew I had to figure out how to get in there and make this work.”

Northwest owner Greg Steed discovered the space early this year, but it was too big for his Pint & Pie concept. Fortunately, Lee also had been on the prowl for a restaurant space. The pair had an existing working relationship, too: Since 2017, Northwest — known as Trade Route Brewing in its initial iteration — has brewed out of Odin’s Tukwila facility in a joint production agreement.

“It’s got a little bit of funk to it,” said Steed, who years ago had considered buildings in the city’s historic brewing district, where 7 Seas, Black Fleet and now Sig Brewing call home. Now Northwest is neighbor to Doyle’s Public House and within a stone’s throw of Le Sel Bistro and mere blocks from Wright Park and the dining corridor off Division Street.

Steed and Lee signed their leases three days before the state-mandated shutdown of non-essential businesses, but fortunately construction has continued.

Pint & Pie opens June 23, with ample outdoor seating in the gravel patio on the 2nd Street side of the building, with Odin Brewing Tacoma to follow later this month.

PINT & PIE BY NORTHWEST BREWING

Loosely modeled after a classic English pub, Pint & Pie will function primarily as a taproom featuring Northwest beer, from the Road Trip Pale Ale to the Stormy Daze IPA, both on tap and in cans.

Steed describes the concept as neighborhood-centric, family friendly and unpretentious.

“We want to entertain younger clientele but at the same time, we don’t have this crazy nightclub aspiration,” he said.

In other words, stop by for a pint and maybe have a slice of pie.

Belle Epicurean, a Seattle-based bakery and caterer, will provide those pies in both sweet and savory form with a side salad. Steed couldn’t yet speak to flavor specifics, but they will likely rotate. At its cafes in downtown Seattle and in Madison Park, Belle serves savory breakfast tarts with gruyere and ham or Walla Walla onions and a variety of savory breakfast sandwiches. Sweet pies also will be on the menu.

“Everybody looks at me like I have three heads when I tell them I’m serving pie here,” said Steed. “We’re not trying to be an English pub, but a little of our concept follows what has worked really well in England.”

After working in marketing at AB InBev in Seattle, Steed bought into what was then known as Trade Route Brewing. He revamped the branding in 2017 to center on the Northwest and closed the brewing facility. Sine then, head brewer Matt Cooke has brewed in Odin’s Tukwila facility.

In Tacoma, both businesses will eventually use the existing downstairs brewery for specialty and one-off beers — the stuff beer nerds love, they said. They anticipate production to begin this fall, once they can complete the federal licensing process.

ODIN BREWING RESTAURANT

“We are all about beers that really play well in that nexus between great food — not fine food, I’m not talking about foie gras — but I’m talking about great food, accessible food, and beers to match,” Lee told The News Tribune in a phone call last month.

Head brewer Nick Heppenstall, who joined the team nearly a decade ago after brewing at Mac & Jack’s in Redmond, will continue Odin’s track record of “great beers designed with great food in mind.”

They serve food in Tukwila, but Lee admits it has always played second fiddle to the beer.

In Tacoma, the open kitchen and pizza oven will swap those realities. Near the entrance of 203 Tacoma Ave. S., skylights and roll-up garage doors let in natural light. The bar atmosphere extends through the heart of the space, but in the back, a quieter dining room overlooks the bay.

Helmed by chef Kristen Lyons, a Tacoma native who coincidentally worked as Harmon’s executive chef in the first half of 2019, Odin Tacoma will serve its food-friendly beers in a full-service restaurant.

Given the timing of the opening, she has created a menu that will extend beyond the restaurant and into a hybrid deli and mercantile model.

“People’s eating habits have changed, and the whole world has changed,” she said, noting the pandemic’s effect on the frequency and style of cooking at home.

Odin will offer fresh pasta, homemade sauces and meat by the pound from a counter. The idea, she said, is “opening the mind and opening the eye of what a community bar-restaurant can do.”

The market side of the menu might include roast beef and brisket, marinara sauce or bolognese, all of which will evolve and change as the kitchen takes advantage of the opportunity to get creative.

In the restaurant, pizzas will of course play a main role, with beer incorporated into the dough and toppings ranging from meat-laden and three-cheese to a pickle pie with goat cheese, bacon, red onion and briny dill pickles. Appetizers will include fresh takes on pub classics, such as stuffed jalapenos with shrimp and bacon, while sandwiches will entail everything from “a great burger” and fish and chips to skewered meats seasoned with harissa.

Of her cooking style, she told The News Tribune, “It needs to be simple. It needs to be clean. It needs to make sense.” She leans “simple, delicious, accessible, but just a little bit different.”

ODIN BREWING TACOMA

▪ 203 Tacoma Ave. S, Tacoma, 253-301-3636, odinbrewing.com

▪ Details: Monday-Friday 1-9 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

PINT & PIE PUBLIC HOUSE

▪ 204 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253-244-7943, instagram.com/pint_n_pie

▪ Details: Monday-Wednesday 12-9 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday 12-10 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

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This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.