Popular Sixth Ave restaurant reopens 11 weeks after fire; neighbor’s timeline unclear
Eleven weeks after an accidental kitchen fire damaged side-by-side restaurants on Tacoma’s Sixth Avenue, one returns to full service on Friday.
Dirty Oscar’s Annex reopens Aug. 18 with the same menu of brunch favorites — a bacon-stuffed waffle, crab cake benedict, smoked pork hash and moonshine mimosa flight among them. New happy hour dishes and dinnertime offerings, including flatbreads, pastas and gumbo, will debut by fall, said general manager Carleen Preble.
All told, she explained to The News Tribune this week as contractors finished the final few light installations and staff returned tap handles to the bar, the space required a complete clean-out but only a slight refresh.
Longtime followers of the 15-year-old restaurant probably won’t notice any major changes. It looks mostly as it did prior to the fire, which broke out in the early hours of May 26 in the kitchen of neighbor North China Garden. Both businesses are owned by Jenny and Kwan Yee.
Everything at Dirty Oscar’s was removed, stored and cleaned, said Preble, down to the bottles on the bar, chairs, tables, plates, glasses, stoves and ovens. The biggest hurdle was replacing ceiling insulation above the kitchen area. Contractors were able to crawl into the ceiling from an access point outside the front of the building, she explained, but in the back half of the restaurant, they had to tear out and replace the drywall from the inside.
“Everything has been painted,” she added — mostly black again, but the main wall of the bar area and a dining room nook with two high-top tables is now red. Original fans might recall the color from Dirty Oscar’s early days in the late aughts. The Prohibition-era black-and-white photos have also returned to their rightful place.
All but a couple of her kitchen and service staff stayed on through the 11-week closure, according to Preble, who said she has made a point to keep the door open as they worked to remind customers that Dirty Oscar’s was only temporarily closed.
The almost three-month hiatus has “brought everybody together,” she said. “All they wanted to do was be back here.”
North China, on the other hand, is unlikely to reopen anytime soon, said Preble. She pointed to a slow-moving insurance process as the main reason for the delay. They are committed to the storefront at 2303 6th Ave., she added: “That was their start almost 20 years ago. They will rebuild there.”
Investigators determined the fire was likely accidental, perhaps caused by a forgotten burner. Flames charred the back of the building and a house behind it on Trafton Street, The News Tribune reported in July.
Preble anticipates that the Chinese restaurant will need to replace not only the burnt kitchen, equipment and walls but also dining room furniture due to lingering smoke damage.
Nonetheless, she and her staff at Dirty Oscar’s are “just bouncing off the walls” to welcome guests back to 2309 6th Ave. The doors open at 8 a.m. Friday.
Note that Dirty Oscar’s is 21-plus only, but Mini Oscar’s Annex, its sister restaurant in Sumner, is all ages.
DIRTY OSCAR’S ANNEX
▪ 2309 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253-572-0588, dirtyoscarsannex.com
▪ Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 8 a.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m.-10 p.m.
▪ Breakfast menu available 8 a.m.-noon Friday and until 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
▪ Details: 15-year-old brunch and done-up bar food favorite reopens Aug. 18
MINI OSCAR’S ANNEX
▪ 813 Academy St., Sumner, 253-750-3157, oscarsannex.com
▪ Monday-Friday 4:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday-Saturday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
▪ Details: Family-friendly version of Tacoma’s D.O.A., open early for breakfast near Sumner Sounder station
This story was originally published August 17, 2023 at 2:12 PM.