Old dive gets some serious TLC. Now it’s a cozy, cool pub — currently a winter wonderland

There are three main reasons why one might find herself rumbling down Veterans Drive Southwest in Lakewood: boating, hospital or military base. Over the past few years, though, a fourth rationale has emerged.

Look for “The Pub” sign and the vibrant “eat, drink, be lively” mural on the eastern wall of the building just before you reach American Lake Park. On first blush, it looks like any other dive with regulars and pool tables — and for much of its life, it was very much that. But since owner Lauren Lively took over in 2015, she has endeavored to create a repose that continues the neighborhood-bar mantle while serving home-cooked meals and frequently hosting live music.

Find a seat inside the cozy, lodge-like space or the equally comfortable, heated and covered, patios in the front and back. Order a beer from a draft list exclusively featuring Pierce County breweries or a proper cocktail. Dig into a country game hen with veggies and sweet potatoes, roasted in a sage brown butter, or a grilled Reuben with caraway sauerkraut and parm-dusted potatoes.

There is no deep-fryer here, so pub classics like chicken wings get covered instead with crunchy Tim’s Cascade chips, baked and tossed in a house sweet’n’spicy sauce. There are lots of sandwiches, including a house-smoked brisket and a brie and seasonal chutney grilled cheese, but like any great pub, comforting dishes — “a plate that Grandma would make,” said Lively — abound.

Those shift with the seasons. For winter, it’s all about hearty favorites: potpie with that brisket, Guinness-braised bangers and mash, a supple meatloaf (thanks in part to red peppers in the beef) wrapped in bacon. In summer, the star was yum yum chicken and fried rice, inspired by the beloved creamy sauce popularized at American hibachi tables. Like much of the menu, it’s accompanied by veggies (here, broccoli and bell peppers). Soups are made in-house and salads include a kale Caesar and a classic wedge with ample Roquefort.

A longtime bartender, you can — and should — trust the cocktails. Lively and her staff craft all the syrups, like the holiday spice currently showcased in Port in a Storm, an egg-white sipper with gin, port and lemon.

Also for the season, try the whimsical butter beer, best enjoyed under the Harry Potter-inspired cloud with hanging candles that’s situated above the bar from pre-Halloween through the New Year.

A ‘LIVELY’ PUB IN LAKEWOOD

Becoming a full-service restaurant with a cocktail program, a trusted neighborhood bar and a travel-worthy destination, has been a slow-but-steady journey, explained Lively.

She described the 2015 version of the Lakewood dive as “not a place that you would’ve come to.” The “you” of course is up to interpretation — everybody is loved by somebody! But The Hammer, as it was then known, had been through various owners, also under the name Lake City Tavern. A hefty road reconstruction project, adding curbs, storm drains and sidewalks, wrapped in 2021. Squeezed geographically by nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord, it was, in Lively’s telling, “forgotten land.”

“For years you would drive by without even looking,” recalled the native Tacoman and musician, who moved home after a long stint in Seattle to enlist all her energy (and resources) into the 1930s-era tavern at 9601 Veterans Dr. “It was either here or Nashville!”

No stranger to the food and hospitality industry, her family operated Lively Markets, at one point with five stores in the greater Tacoma area. (One still stands but is no longer theirs, at South 45th and Pacific.) With the help of her father, grandfather and friends, she scraped gray paint off the checkered linoleum floors and restored the wood paneling on the walls. They built a fully covered and fenced front patio and paved a parking lot. Lively then freshened and tidied and thoughtfully sugar-dusted every detail with the sense that this was a haunt that was both lived-in and cared for.

She renamed it Lake City Pub, trusting that pubs are the ideal negotiator: restaurant if you need, bar if you don’t, and whatever else in-between.

Changes were gradual. The kitchen was small, pushing hot dogs, paninis and popcorn. After gathering enough if-you-build-it thread, Lively officially bought the property a year later. In 2019, she removed one of two pool tables (now there are none), a decision she didn’t take lightly. A pool league brought in customers. “To evolve out of that, I’d be letting them down,” she said. Then, the pandemic arrived.

“I always knew I wanted the next step,” she said in December. “I loved the idea of being in a place where the guy who worked on the $1 million house and the millionaire could sit at the bar together. You can be jovial, and you can have beautiful food. You shouldn’t not know about it because you’re in a dive bar.”

The COVID break inadvertently provided that window. She closed the pub in March 2020 and reopened with all of the aforementioned perks, plus a landscaped beer garden, two years ago this month. Next door, her husband Jason Metcalf, who worked for Starbucks for many years, runs the coffee shop Morning Ale.

Lively admits some old-timers were lost along the way, but overall, “the chance we took worked,” she said. “This was my Vivian,” she joked, in reference to the iconic 1990 film, “Pretty Woman.” “I let her be whoever she wanted to be.”

We sat at a table near the stage, where her dad, as musician Lew Schmgy, hosts an open-mic every Wednesday night. The twinkling Christmas lights of nearly two dozen trees surrounded us. She redecorates with the seasons, too. May we all take the trip to see each one.

THE LAKE CITY PUB

▪ 9106 Veterans Dr. SW, Lakewood, 253-267-1309, facebook.com/TheLakeCityPub

▪ Tuesday-Thursday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

▪ Details: cool, cozy, done-up dive with full pub menu and Sunday brunch (most dishes $11-$20), local beer and cocktails, plus two covered patios

▪ Daily happy hour for 8-year anniversary with $8 food and drink specials, 2-6 p.m.

This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 5:15 AM.