Coffee shop joins beer and cider at Brewery Blocks in downtown Tacoma

Batdorf & Bronson, an Olympia-based coffee roaster, will open its Dancing Goats Coffee Bar at the Brewery Blocks on Saturday in downtown Tacoma.

It would have been the company’s second Tacoma location, following the 2020 opening of a shop at the Waterfront Market at Point Ruston, formerly known as the Point Ruston Public Market. On Dec. 28, Dancing Goats wrote on Facebook that it would close at the end of the year, describing the logistics of operating there as “difficult to maintain.”

Like its neighboring businesses in the restored factory building from the early 1900s, the Brewery Blocks cafe design focuses on the century-old wooden beams, according to a news release. With a mission to promote sustainable coffee and community, the space features three long communal tables, a roll-up garage door and Adirondack chairs on a narrow concrete patio.

Coffee styles range from pour-overs to drip and any espresso drink of your choosing. A mix of sweet and savory food will be available, as well as home-brewing supplies and, naturally, bags of beans.

“The Brewery Blocks development and downtown Tacoma are host to a vibrant business and artisan community, and we are honored to be a part of that,” said operations director Aaron Shively in the release.

Delayed drastically by the pandemic, he and his team began planning the downtown shop in 2018.

“Tacoma has always been a wonderful town, and there’s so much going on there right now,” he told The News Tribune in February 2020.

They had been considering another location up the hill, he added, but discovered the Brewery Blocks project, and “it just piqued my interest.”

At that time, Dancing Goats was slated to join three other food businesses at 2101 Commerce St., but two of those tenants — a Seattle barbecue restaurant and a retro burger shop from two Tacoma restaurateurs — accepted the offer to cancel their contracts as the pandemic dragged on.

Incline Cider House, the development’s first commercial tenant, opened in late 2019. Camp Colvos Brewery + Pizza, serving New York-style pies and slices, debuted last July and First Citizens Bank a few weeks later. Apartment dwellers also moved in last summer.

With the arrival of Dancing Goats, two vacant units remain: the space above Camp Colvos, with a main entrance on C Street next to Incline, and the space that shares a wall with the pizzeria, whose entrance would be on Commerce Street.

A spokesperson for the development said Friday they have no updates on potential tenants.

Dancing Goats has been part of the Puget Sound coffee scene since 1988, when Larry and Cherie Challain opened their first Dancing Goats cafe in Olympia. Two years later, the couple bought the roaster Batdorf & Bronson and in 1994 expanded to Atlanta, where they now operate a roasting facility and several cafes.

Through direct relationships with farmers and cooperatives in coffee-growing regions, roasts often hail from South America and Africa, with occasional beans from Southeast Asian nations including Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The new Tacoma cafe will operate daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m. and plans on hosting a grand opening party in February.

DANCING GOATS COFFEE BAR - TACOMA

▪ Brewery Blocks, 2012 Commerce St., Tacoma, 253-292-1530, dancinggoats.com

▪ Daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

This story was originally published January 22, 2022 at 5:00 AM.