Downtown Tacoma bar reopens with this meatball sandwich, hot chicken and more seating
Little Radio, a restaurant and bar originally sister to Tacoma’s Wingman Brewers, will reopen next week under adjusted ownership after a hazy, months-long hiatus.
Paul Jackson and Michael Hilborn, who were previously involved with both businesses, are behind the resurrected concept at 728 Pacific Ave. Similar to its initial iteration, the new Little Radio will focus on pub classics: thin, crispy-edged smashburgers, a meatball sandwich with house marinara, chicken wings tossed in fermented garlic honey.
“We’re trying to shoot for having some of the best cheeseburgers in town down here,” said Hilborn, describing the restaurant as a neighborhood-styled bar but in the heart of downtown.
The restaurant was hampered by pandemic restrictions — especially limited capacities and the winter shutter of indoor dining, the duo told The News Tribune last week.
“This is finally going to let us tell people who we are,” Jackson said.
Little Radio opened in July 2020 and temporarily closed in May when some equipment malfunctioned. It ended up not rebounding. In late August, Wingman’s owners announced they would close both the restaurant and the brewery, which childhood friends Ken Thoburn and Derrick Moyer founded a decade ago.
“This last year has truly been hard for all of us and we couldn’t have made it this far without you,” the brewers wrote on social media at the time, saying a return was possible but unclear, and pointed to “the difficulty of the year.”
Though details of the private ownership shuffle were not shared, Jackson confirmed that Wingman would be sold in some capacity, potentially as a turn-key brewing operation. A ProBrewers listing was posted this week for the 3,250-square-foot production space, with equipment capacity of 1,100 barrels per year and a bottling line.
THE NEW LITTLE RADIO
Return visitors will recognize the atmosphere, which is both casual enough for a pop-in beer and cool enough to meet a date. Major differences include an upgraded back room, now outfitted with more tables for both sitting and standing (something that was strictly off-limits in Washington state until last June), a wall-sized art installation created by Hilborn, and a larger selection of wine, beer and spirits.
Where the bar used to focus on specialty, tiki-leaning cocktails, it will now feature a few classic-ish ones — a coffee-laced Manhattan, a classic Buffalo Trace old-fashioned — designed by Jen Mahoney, a return staffer who has worked at several bars around town. Draft beer will remain local, but the fridges will expand with more canned and bottled options, including the new Heidelberg from 7 Seas.
In their first go-around, the team noticed that many guests stopped into Little Radio while waiting for a table at Wooden City, one of Tacoma’s best restaurants, and The Matador, which just celebrated its 15th anniversary. They also feel compelled to become a go-to for fellow service industry professionals.
That’s why the new menu’s burger, for instance, starts at just a few bucks for a single half-pork, half-beef patty, cheese, and garlic aioli on the bun. From there, you can add a patty (or three) and bacon, or “deluxe it” with lettuce, pickles and onion. Make it vegan by swapping Impossible meat.
Other dishes include red curry mussels, beer-battered fish and chips, and the prized possession of Nashville hot chicken on brioche, plus pickles.
Hilborn, who helped create some of the specials Little Radio started running in late 2020 and early 2021, called the sandwich — one still elusive in the South Sound — a kind of personal obsession.
LITTLE RADIO TACOMA
▪ 728 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253-327-1436, littleradiotacoma.com, instagram.com/littleradiotacoma
▪ Details: reopening Dec. 14; shareable and a la carte pub classics (most about $5-$15), plus full bar, with neighborhood vibe
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 10:20 AM.