The Swiss is closing, but you can own a piece of one of Tacoma’s favorite spots forever
Have you ever kicked back with a beer at The Swiss and wished you could have that PBR guitar? Those Seahawks stadium chairs? How about the Chihulys behind the bar?
Though the storied watering hole in downtown Tacoma is closing permanently, you can take home a piece of it and support the longtime owners’ exit at the same time.
An online auction runs through Thursday at 1 p.m., with a dynamic closing, meaning last-minute bidding is likely. You can preview pieces in person Wednesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Another COVID-19 victim, Louie G’s, the Fife pizzeria and music venue that closed at the end of August, also has an auction that runs through Wednesday at 1 p.m.
Fellow Tacoma hospitality icon Pacific Grill announced its permanent closure just two days before The Swiss. It, too, will host an online auction from Oct. 1-8.
MEMORIES AT THE SWISS TACOMA
Speaking to The News Tribune after the closing announcement earlier this month, Carole Ann McQuade said the business was “a part of our family.”
“There’s been lives and marriages and babies and death. It’s not just a building. It’s so much more than that to this town,” McQuade said.
Nearly everything that made The Swiss what is was for 27 years on Jefferson Avenue is for sale. That means bar stools, marble-topped tables and neon beer signs from Guinness to Alaskan Amber, which co-owner Jack McQuade kept on tap from Day 1, attracting the then-nascent craft beer crowd to this corner of Tacoma.
Four glass sculptures, credited to Tacoma native Dale Chihuly and his studio, have already garnered bids from $900 to $2,100. A Chihuly painting has a $1,400 bid and a set of framed and signed prints is going for $625 as of Tuesday afternoon.
Given the building’s musical history, you can bid on an array of guitars that hung high above the stage side, including one covered in Pabst Blue Ribbon logos. There are accordions, antique drawing tables, street signs and beach cruiser bicycles.
You can wear your love for The Swiss on your sleeve, too: Bid on boxes of T-shirts and hats with the red-and-white logo, or the sandwich board that beckoned you to admire that Chihuly glass display as you explored 30 draft beers and scratch cooking, originally by the late co-owner Gayl Bertagni.
If you have room for the pool table you hovered over many boisterous nights, you can take one home — though it’s the shuffleboard that might end up in a bidding war.
And that welded dinosaur? He’s available.
No, it won’t replace the loss of these Tacoma stalwarts, but may the memory be with you.
For details on the terms of the auctions, visit CyberAuctions.com.
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.