New restaurant with weekend brunch and a dance club in the back coming to Tacoma
The team behind The Boom Boom Room and Shake Shake Shake are planning a joint restaurant-nightclub in Tacoma’s Stadium District that will also serve weekend brunch.
Manuscript & Dialogue will replace Odin Brewing, which closed in June after three tumultuous years, at 203 Tacoma Ave. S. The long, industrial space — notable for its high ceilings, brick walls, exposed beams and unexpected view of Commencement Bay — was formerly occupied by The Hub. Below it, through a separate entrance at 204 St. Helens Ave., the casual coffee shop Stadium Cafe has operated since spring.
The new concept from Robert Stocker will offer a different ambiance from his Stadium District burger shop (retro ice cream parlor) and Sixth Avenue cocktail den (midcentury glitz), which he co-owns with business partner Lewis Mageo. He anticipates a quirky-meets-natural vibe, with a “tree chandelier” anchoring the dining room, jute ropes lining the open kitchen and funky-colored lights.
Eda Lovelace, the beverage director at Boom Boom Room, also will lead the bar on Tacoma Avenue South. A vocalist and DJ who plays EDM, deep-house and dub-step tracks, she is likewise the driving force behind the dance-club element.
That’s where the double-name comes in: Manuscript encompasses the restaurant side of the business, while Dialogue refers to the club.
MANUSCRIPT - THE RESTAURANT
Manuscript marks the return of chef Anna Gonzales, who TNT Diner highlighted in a 2022 feature on women reshaping the city’s restaurant scene.
She last ran 3uilt, known for sandwiches and fresh oysters, at 7 Seas Brewing on Jefferson Avenue and at a standalone location near the County-City Building and the main branch of Tacoma Public Library. The former closed in early 2022 and the latter last January.
The menu will harness the power of the gas-powered stone pizza oven that has long been the focal point of this space. At Manuscript, though, guests will be able to sit at the pizza counter. For whatever reason, previous restaurants here kept it as a service station.
On housemade dough, “Each pie will ideally have no more than four toppings,” Gonzales said, such as a margherita with fresh mozzarella and garlic confit or a creamed potato sauce sprinkled with prosciutto, onions and capers. “We want to pay homage to the ingredients.”
Her team will make pasta from scratch, she said, including classic and vegetarian lasagna and bucatini in a simple garlicky, white-wine butter sauce with spinach and salty romano cheese, to which you could add pan-seared salmon or wild mushrooms.
Two of the biggest draws are likely to be local oysters on the half shell — one of Gonzales’s specialties from 3uilt at 7 Seas — and weekend brunch. She pointed to the likes of a Dutch baby and French toast, eggs benedict on homemade English muffins and shakshuka.
They also anticipate developing a larder situation, said Lovelace, with pastas and sauces for sale to reheat at home, for instance, along with fresh loaves of bread.
“We want it to be good but also good for the neighborhood, and for everyone,” she said, alluding to some new restaurants with entrees above the $30 mark. Overall, the hope is to foster a space that “feels nice but also casual.”
The bar will take advantage of supplier relationships developed at Boom Boom Room, which is known in part for its high-end bottles, and will focus on draft and barrel-aged cocktails — a choice that will allow them to easily can beverages for to-go sales and keep things tidy on the dance floor. Well liquors as well as beer, wine and cider will lean on Washington and Oregon producers.
DIALOGUE - THE DANCE CLUB
Dialogue will be the dance club’s identity, accessible through the Manuscript entrance.
Stocker has carved out a hallway between the restaurant and the dance floor: A series of angular frames will be lit in such a way that it “feels like you’re entering another dimension,” he said.
This back room seemed under-used by previous tenants, but the live DJ sets aim to change the course.
Lovelace and her husband had discussed opening their own club. Stocker, it turns out, ran what he described as the region’s first mobile discotheque and hosted “epic” DJ nights at a gallery he owned many years ago. He had been on a quest to open a third business, theoretically a dive bar. After a few misses, he toured this space “and really liked it.” He handed the club reins to Lovelace.
“I noticed a hole for newer artists to break in — the Seattle music scene is very cliquey,” she said. In Tacoma, “There’s not a whole lot of places to dance.”
With Dialogue, she hopes to give up-and-coming DJs a stage to perform and audiences to enjoy themselves.
“It won’t be just a little play sound system,” she added. “We liked the shape of this place. It will sound really good back here.”
The club will operate later on Friday and Saturday nights. Drinks will be accessible through a small pass-through bar window, and the kitchen will wind down to mostly pizza after 10 p.m.
MANUSCRIPT & DIALOGUE
▪ 203 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, manuscripttacoma.com
▪ Details: pizza, pasta, oysters and weekend brunch join draft cocktails in the front, while a dance floor with live DJs Friday-Saturday nights will take shape in the back room
▪ Target opening: early 2024, follow instagram.com/manuscripttacoma for updates