Drink cider in the living room you’ve always wanted at new Tacoma bar

Tempted by forest green walls, awestruck by the slice of Western Red Cedar hanging, miraculously, on the back wall.

This live-edge fixture serves as the locus of Cider + Cedar, a new taproom and bottle shop in downtown Tacoma, in more ways than one.

Importantly, through meticulous drilling by co-owner and resident arboriculturist Sterling Paradiso, it is the source of a rare draft selection of 10 Pacific Northwest ciders. Historically, it is a literal piece of our region’s bounty, at least a thousand years in the making.

Ask Paradiso about it and you’ll realize you’ve stumbled into not just a one-of-a-kind cider bar but also the office of an expert, a professor so giving of his time and sincere in his wisdom that another cider will be in your hand before you can say apple.

In addition to the rotating selection of 10 ciders on tap, Paradiso and his partner — in life and in business — Mia Daughenbaugh have curated a thoughtful bottle collection showcasing regional small producers.

She has been enjoying cider for at least a decade, thanks in part to several years in Europe, where cider never lost its allure.

The U.S. began to re-embrace cider maybe five years ago, she said, despite its origins as the drink of choice for early settlers. Waves of German immigrants in the 19th century, among other factors of industrialization, replaced it with beer. It’s an ancient beverage, though: the Spanish have been brewing sidra for more than 2,000 years and Celtic Britons since Roman times.

Consider also that Angry Orchard, Boston Beer Company’s cider brand, debuted in 2012.

I asked if they learned from those early days of cider exploration. They laughed.

“There are ciders we will never drink again,” admitted Paradiso.

Before the pandemic took hold, the drink was on the verge of something special here in Tacoma. In February, Tin Hat Cider opened in Brennan Sandstrom’s garage in South Tacoma, and Grit City Ciderworks recently opened in Hilltop. Last fall, Tacoma Brewing launched its cider brand and Incline Cider House debuted at the Brewery Blocks.

The duo looks forward to being a part of the movement. In fact, they believe Tacoma could become an epicenter for PNW cider.

Bringing PNW cider + Olympic cedar to Tacoma

All of the wood inside the ground floor space at 612 Tacoma Ave. South was sourced near Cedar Creek in the Olympic Peninsula, where Paradiso purchased an enviable swath of land more than a decade ago.

“I grew up with this notion that I could just go to the woods and build a house,” he recalled of his childhood, splitting time in Tacoma and Olympia. He did just that, but while working from the woods in digital animation, he discovered an appreciation for trees that became impossible to shake.

Fallen trunks, cut in the ‘60s he said, lay not to die but exist in lush surroundings. Heavily logged in the early 20th century for straight-lined cedar timber ideal for shakes and shingles, land like his was ripe with opportunity — if you knew how to transform it from underbrush to relic.

“I felt like I could make cool furniture out of it,” he said. “All along, I felt it would really shine in bars and restaurants.”

Daughenbaugh planted the seed of opening a bar a couple of years ago, and the rest is history. Quite literally.

“People think turtles are neat because they’re 150 years old, but trees are thousands,” mused Paradiso. “It’s cool that they’re big, but it’s the age that I think is cool.”

Strike the right chords and he might enlighten you with figurative branches of the oldest known living single organism (a more than 5,000-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine in Nevada), or the oldest known root network (an Aspen grove in Utah’s Fishlake National Park). Tacoma might be a mid-sized city now, but millennia ago it was an oak savanna, like much of North America.

Daughenbaugh joked that after traveling, she would slide through her partner’s photos and realize, “All you took pictures of were trees that you saw!”

She admits it has nurtured her appreciation for forests, while she has honed his for cider.

“Cider is just the apples. It’s hyper-regional,” said Paradiso, noting the terroir they inherently carry and the family history they tell. “We hope we can give people a wider sense of what cider can be.”

Added Daughenbaugh, “If you say you don’t like cider, it’s almost like saying you don’t like beer because you’ve only had Bud Light.”

They have curated a list 120-strong of regional producers, stocking about two dozen right now with several varietals within. Some are bone-dry with little to no residual sugars, others are funky or sharp, barnyard-tastic or straightforward.

One thing will always be for sure at this particular cider stop: Only all-natural, of-the-earth fermented apples may apply.

“If you add cherry flavoring and red food coloring, that’s not a product we’re trying to sell,” said Paradiso.

The couple delayed opening this spring due to the pandemic, and welcomed guests indoors for only two weeks before adjusted Safe Start rules nixed indoor drinking. They offer limited sidewalk seating but encourage guests to drop by for a growler fill or bottle from the shelf, also crafted from that same Western Red Cedar.

The hanging piece dates to the Roman Empire, Paradiso believes, and the main table to the Renaissance.

“Come look at this old piece, drink at it, admire it,” said Daughenbaugh. It’s an experience you probably can’t have at home.

CIDER + CEDAR

▪ 612 Tacoma Ave. S, Tacoma, 253-327-1404, ciderandcedar.com

▪ Details: shop + bar (now serving meat and cheese boards) open Wed-Thurs 4-9 p.m., Fri 4-10 p.m., Sat 2-10 p.m., Sunday 2-8 p.m.

This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 9:54 AM.