No comedy, no problem. Find burgers galore inside this Tacoma club
For a spell, Tacoma Comedy Club sold tickets to half-full shows and people attended them, albeit masked and six feet from their cackling neighbors.
It was a flicker of normalcy and leisure in a summer tainted by the dark ink of COVID-19.
Starting Aug. 7, the club will welcome guests once again — for burgers, beers and popcorn chicken.
We’ll call it: Tacoma Burger Company.
Adam Norwest, who opened the comedy club with his wife Bree and parents in 2010, was forced to close for the second time this year after Gov. Jay Inslee upended the state’s recovery plan last month. Original guidelines for Phases 2 and 3 permitted live entertainment at reduced occupancy, but now such fun must wait until Phase 4.
“It kind of set us into like … what?” Norwest said in a phone call. “We’re just like a restaurant. It’s huge, so our tables are super spread out. We don’t understand why one person talking changed it.”
When he spoke to The News Tribune’s Chase Hutchinson at the time, he hypothesized that live entertainment would not return until next year at the earliest. The club could survive six months maybe, he said, but not a year or two.
“It just sounds like forever,” Norwest said this week. “I’ve kind of just accepted it. I can’t sit around depressed.”
Rather than toil over how to pay rent and how his employees — some of whom had quit jobs they took after being laid off at the comedy in March — would make their own, he hatched an ulterior business plan.
“We know how to make burgers. Our audience loves burgers. We already have the plates for burgers. Why not just make burgers?” joked Norwest.
The club has a full kitchen and regularly serves a small, rotating menu of burgers, sandwiches and desserts. Previous patrons will recognize a few favorites at Tacoma Burger Company, such as the peanut butter bacon cheeseburger and the Bleu Buffalo salad with grilled, not fried, chicken.
In club form, the kitchen would serve up to 275 people nearly simultaneously, but as a half-full, socially distanced restaurant, it can accommodate more ingredients for more dishes.
The Norwests consulted with a Gig Harbor chef to create the menu, starting with appetizers like loaded nachos, fried pickles and cheese bread to baskets of fish and chips or popcorn chicken.
Then, of course, there are the burgers — 10 varieties, from Norwest’s favorite Triple Double (two quarter-ounce patties with three slices of American cheese, plus the requisite LTO and special sauce) to the Classic Crunch with potato chips between the buns.
“We didn’t want to just whip together burgers,” said Norwest. “Some are simple, some are more complicated. We want it to stand out.”
In addition to the peanut butter legend, fancy takes include the Hot Hot Heat with jalapenos, pepperjack and hot sauce; a three-cheese burger with cheese curds, too; and the Italian Meatball, a pork and beef patty with provolone, parmesan and marinara. Substitute an Impossible vegan patty on any burger for an extra buck.
For $25, test your gravitational pull with The Ultimate Food Warrior, a mountain of four quarter-pound patties and four cheeses served alongside not one but three sides: fries, onion rings and cheese curds. A 35-minute round lands you a spot in the internal hall of fame; fill your belly within 25 minutes and it’s free.
Unlike the comedy club, the burger restaurant will allow kids, save for certain nights, and offers a brief menu to please.
Norwest and his crew used the downtime last spring to refresh the space — painting, reupholstering booths, moving around walls. After deciding two weeks ago to open this restaurant, they have also adjusted the entrance so guests know they’re entering Tacoma Burger Company and not a dark cavern of comedy.
The loss of entertainment maybe has one perk: alcohol, including 20 beers on tap, will be cheaper.
And what of Tacoma falling in love with its temporary new burger company?
“I have dreams of that, and I also have nightmares of no one coming,” laughed Norwest.
He envisions the restaurant and the club becoming one.
Meanwhile, the Norwests continue to develop their plan for a restaurant in Gig Harbor and operate their other clubs: one in Spokane, which is fully closed right now, plus one in Oklahoma City and another in Appleton, Wisconsin, both of which are open.
Tacoma Burger Company opens Friday, Aug. 7, at 5 p.m., followed by all-day hours. Starting next week, the restaurant will host “socially separated trivia” every Wednesday (no kids after 7 p.m.) and themed trivia every Sunday. Lunch specials include a burger and fries for $6.99, and on Tuesdays, all booze is half-off.
On August 9, $3 of every sale of the Jon Ryan Burger (two 4.5-ounce patties with American cheese and Canadian bacon) will be donated to the Tacoma Rescue Mission.
TACOMA BURGER COMPANY
▪ 933 Market St., Tacoma, 253-533-3840, tacomaburgerco.com
▪ Hours: daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (10 p.m. Friday and Saturday)
▪ Menu: apps $6-10, burgers $10-12, desserts $8
▪ Details: dine-in or takeaway, plus delivery through Grubhub; reservations available through OpenTable; kids welcome (except at Wednesday trivia)
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 5:00 AM.