Tacoma cafe with healthy-food focus to close for good in December amid rising costs

Grit City Greens, a Tacoma cafe and catering company focused on healthy eating, will close permanently at 3602 6th Ave. on Dec. 13, the owners announced.

Owners Corie Cameron and Sean Guay with their staff have continued to fill orders through a busy Thanksgiving week. In a message, Cameron told The News Tribune they are sad to close after “a fun 8-year-ride.”

In their November post, they pointed to the challenge of doing business as an independent operator amid higher costs for everything from food and supplies to labor and rent.

“It’s been a tough road for small and independent restaurants these past few years,” they wrote on Instagram and Facebook. “With the challenge of rapidly rising costs across all aspects of the business as well as increasingly difficult landlord-tenant relationships, we are unfortunately at a point where it is no longer sustainable for us to continue service.”

One commenter among nearly 200 recalled her appreciation for “quick healthy choices” as new parents. Another said the meals “helped me when I just couldn’t seem to cook on my own.” Many commended the hearty salads, homemade dressings, variety of proteins and ability to customize.

The business began in 2016 as a private chef and meal-prep service called Crisp Meals. Cameron used her background in nutrition and professional kitchens to create ready-to-eat salads, grain bowls and more for busy Tacomans, growing to a commissary kitchen within two years.

In 2019, the couple opened Crisp Greens, a brick-and-mortar cafe in an unusual low-slung building next to what is now Beer Star.

Hardly a year into their new restaurant setting, the pandemic hit. Cameron and Guay almost immediately started sending meals to local hospitals, a venture that exploded to 5,000 meals in just six weeks. A $21 donation on their website translated to three meals, and the couple delivered the bags themselves.

“Our small crew of local rockstars and friends’ kids learning their first job made it through those stressful and difficult times in 2020 … with the help and support of all of you,” they recalled in their closing post, accompanied by several photos, including one of the couple standing in front of the window keeping tally of donated meals.

In May of 2020, they shared the news that they would add a second location on Pacific Avenue, on the University of Washington-Tacoma campus. It opened nearly two years later and closed in early 2023. Meanwhile, they moved to a much bigger location at 6th and Union.

Late last year, they ran into an unexpected hurdle: A Minnesota-based chain with a similar name, which also started in 2018 and was in the midst of a national expansion, sued them for copyright infringement.

“Rather than fight them as a small business, we gave up the name and all rights,” they wrote on social media on New Year’s Eve 2023.

The business became Grit City Greens.

“We are so proud of and grateful to everyone who’s been a part of our Greens family over the years and everything that we accomplished. None of it would have been possible without them, and without you,” they wrote. “We extend a deep and heartfelt thank you to the people of Tacoma for your continued support over the years. Hopefully we’ve made a positive impact on our community that we were so privileged to be a part of.”

Cameron said she doesn’t yet have concrete plans for the future, but she hopes to find a comfortable place to land in the foodservice industry. They look forward to spending time with their four kids over the holidays.

Grit City Greens will operate standard hours (weekdays 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and weekends 11 a.m.-6 p.m.) through Friday, Dec. 13.

This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 11:41 AM.