Comfy new cafe coming to downtown Tacoma will have homemade biscuits, seasonal salads
While some optimistic entrepreneurs bend toward neighborhoods, others believe in the dynamism of downtown cores, where power brokers and pencil-pushers, locals and outsiders, coalesce.
Kevin Lee is in the latter camp. In early 2025 he plans to introduce Third Space at 921 Pacific Ave.: a coffee shop, cafe and larder with a menu of hearty sandwiches, likely to include a cheesesteak and Italian sub, homemade biscuits and seasonal salads.
Similar to the new Three Hearts on Hilltop, it will blend seamlessly between breakfast and lunch, starting with biscuit sandwiches and leading to a signature smashburger and potentially a weekly pasta special. Recipe testing has had Lee exploring ingredients inspired by his Korean heritage with a handle on Americana — as in a housemade, marinated sausage patty with a perilla leaf aioli. He has also experimented on a miso-butter biscuit with crispy seaweed flakes and will make ingredients like pickles and sauces on site.
Anything not made in house will come from local partners, he said, whose products will be featured on retail shelves. He has already landed on beans from Naomi Joe Coffee, roasted just a mile away inside 7 Seas Brewing, and Halmoni Kimchi, a new mother-and-daughter pickle company based in Tacoma. Just before Christmas, he shared a glimpse of the biscuits during a sold-out pop-up at Naomi Joe.
The name embraces the idea of a cafe as “a place to socialize that’s not home or work,” as Lee described it, pulling ideas from recent trips to Paris, London and Korea. “We want it to be very inviting.”
A culinary school grad, he spent much of the last decade working for Beecher’s, managing the iconic Seattle cheese brand’s flagship store at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. After leading the opening of a new location in Bellevue, he needed a change. His family has a history in the local industry, and Lee, not yet 35, felt the now-or-never bug.
“I love going to restaurants and coffee shops,” he said in November. “Why don’t I just make it myself?”
His search for a space led him to a shuttered Pita Pit at the Provident Building., where he’ll join Gene Juarez Salon and Maxwell Synové Photography.
Lee has been busy transforming the high-ceiling space into a warm, stay-a-while kind of place. First was painting the gray-and-green walls in navy blue. Next comes gold accents and dark woods. There will be a window counter and a lounge-y nook, plus a banquette with table seating.
He was attracted to Tacoma thanks to an influx of unique new businesses and a growing “good energy,” he said. He pinpointed a void downtown: There are great coffee shops and even a dedicated matcha shop. There are quick stops for a breakfast or lunch sandwich on-the-go, and there are full-service restaurants focused on dinner. What about the in-between?
“I love community things, but also my struggle was, every time I go to a coffee shop, the food isn’t that great. If you’re a coffee person, we make great coffee, and you can get great food.”
If you want to peek behind the curtain of what it takes to open a small food business in Tacoma, Lee has taken a fascinating, and very public, approach in documenting his journey on Instagram. Following a Nov. 22 introduction, his “Starting My Own Cafe” video series has shown him walking into the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, talking shop with a contractor and a graphic designer, drinking coffee and tackling the inbox — at another local coffee shop.
THIRD SPACE TACOMA
▪ 921 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, instagram.com/thirdspacetacoma
▪ Planned hours, to start: Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-4 p.m.
▪ Details: coffee shop, cafe and larder in downtown Tacoma; target opening early 2025
This story was originally published December 30, 2024 at 1:11 PM.