One of Tacoma’s only vegan restaurants is closing, and the building has been sold
Viva Tacoma, one of two dedicated vegan restaurants in the area, is closing after service on Feb. 28 following a decade in the Proctor District. Owners Nancy Parkison and Richard Baker, who also are selling the building to new proprietors planning to transition it into a pub, announced the closure on Instagram last week.
“Thank you to all our wonderful customers that have supported us through the years,” they wrote. “We will love you and miss you!”
Fans in the comments lamented the loss of a source for “delicious dairy-free,” raw and gluten-free foods, including housemade baked goods. It also strived to use organic-certified ingredients.
“Another huge loss for the vegan community,” wrote one. “No other place like this around here,” said another.
Many restaurants now offer vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free dishes as part of their regular menus, although allergies remain a concern for some customers. Quickie Too in Hilltop has served vegan fare since the 1990s, while places like Happy Belly in downtown Tacoma and Gather Juice on Sixth Avenue have joined the modest plant-based fray in recent years.
The reason for the closure is straightforward, Parkison told The News Tribune in a phone call on Thursday.
“Taxes have gone crazy, food prices have gone crazy — especially organic, which we are,” she said. Wages have also increased to levels that have strained the balance sheet, and those challenges show no signs of falling or slowing down, she added. “We just can’t do it. It’s just not feasible.”
She said they weren’t collecting a paycheck themselves and haven’t taken a vacation since opening the restaurant in 2620 N. Proctor St. in 2014.
“But we did this … because we wanted to give back to our community and show people that you could eat this way — vegan, gluten-free and organic food — and you can be healthy. But that era is gone,” she continued.
Business was thriving before the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, but ever since it has felt increasingly unsustainable to be a small, independent restaurant.
Parkison and Baker opened Viva as a semi-post-retirement project, they explained in a Facebook video last year as they celebrated the restaurant’s 10th anniversary. They had run a “very successful” security-alarm company for 25 years.
Early in their relationship, said Baker in the video, they agreed that later in life they wanted to find a way of “paying it forward” after their own good fortune.
“It was nothing specific,” he continued,” but they knew it would focus in some way on health and well-being. “The idea of owning a restaurant never came up.”
Through their personal interest in health, they became regulars at a plant-based restaurant called AmeRAWcan Bistro in the St. Helens neighborhood. When the chef, Francisco Hernandez, told them he was closing that restaurant, he asked the couple if they wanted to embark on a joint venture. They found the Proctor space, previously Capers Cafe, and developed a menu that combined favorites from the bistro and the couple’s own repertoire: walnut “meat” enchiladas, cauliflower wings, a Philly-style sandwich made with grilled portobellos, a Hawaiian-inspired pizza with tempeh, black-bean burgers and peanut-sauce stir fry.
The restaurant catered to both takeout and table service. Today menu prices range from $12-$32.
In recent years the kitchen was led by the original chef’s brother, Erlindo Hernandez. In a comment, Parkison alluded that he had plans to cook elsewhere “in the near future.”
Details of the building sale were not yet available, but new owners will have access at the end of March, said Parkison.
Viva Tacoma will serve its final meals on Friday, Feb. 28, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 9:56 AM.