Downtown Tacoma coffee shop, NA bar has closed permanently

Soulberry Coffee House, which also offered an array of nonalcoholic drinks, has closed after just two years at 2310 Court A in downtown Tacoma.

Owner Terri Quintana Jessen shared her decision on Instagram just after Thanksgiving. The last day of service was Dec. 15.

“Over the past few weeks we’ve taken a deep and honest look at our business, our future, and the sustainability of our current path,” she wrote Dec. 3. “As much as we have fought, poured, adapted, and hoped, it became clear that continuing forward would come at a cost we can no longer carry.”

In a phone call this week, Quintana Jessen pointed to a cascade of challenges as a small business that just became too much to bear.

“I’ve reached a point where I can’t raise prices because it’s not fair to consumers, but I’m also not making any money,” she said. “It’s just so hard right now.”

Quintana Jessen started Soulberry as a wholesale and direct-to-consumer coffee roasting company in 2021. She opened the cafe on Court A — tucked behind Pacific Avenue between South 23rd and 24th — in December 2023. Knowing the area was somewhat bereft of foot traffic, she leaned into the idea of doubling as a nonalcoholic bar and bottle shop to create a niche destination.

Soulberry offered a cozy setting with big tables to enjoy a coffee, custom tea blends or an NA cocktail while getting some work done or reading a book. The shop also hosted live music and other events.

While 2024 was largely a great year for the business, explained Quintana Jessen, 2025 revealed a “stark difference,” she said. After an expected post-holiday, winter-season lull from January through March, “It never really picked back up.”

She and her staff hoped summertime crowds would return, especially for the selection of NA bottles.

“They just never really showed, or they showed and just weren’t spending as much money,” she continued, adding that she has heard similarly from other small business owners.

As vendors also had to raise their prices (coffee has been particularly volatile), she found herself struggling to pay her staff, let alone paying herself. Around Thanksgiving, she realized it was not feasible to keep Soulberry going — either as a cafe or as a roaster.

“I’m sad — I’m really sad,” Quintana Jessen told The News Tribune. She’s rooting for all of the other coffee roasters, cafes and independent restaurants always trying to make it work but especially right now in the midst of a “rough economy,” she said. “People tell you it’s hard. Nothing prepares you for just what that means.”

The owner of Sober AF, a nonalcoholic bottle shop and bar on South Tacoma Way, was able to scoop up some of her remaining inventory. As for the space, Quintana Jessen said there has been some interest but no word yet on what it might become.

Despite its feeling of being off-the-beaten path, other businesses on the block include Lollar Pickups and Guitar Repair, SPUN Clay Arts Studio and Tacoma Glassblowing Studio. On Pacific Avenue, Cheers Bar and Grill looks toward an early 2026 opening in a former bank branch, while Berliner Beerhall and the very new Bas Que Bakery operate around the corner.

The Jack in the Box closed in late 2024, but Cornus House, a 199-unit apartment building across the street, began welcoming tenants in January.