Why is Bob’s Java Jive, Tacoma’s iconic coffee-pot bar, painted all white?

In the gritty underbelly of crisscrossing highways, Tacoma’s coffee pot-shaped dive bar has lost its color — temporarily — as the owner, just a few years into his stewardship of the century-old icon, completes a much-needed exterior restoration project.

The bar remains open daily for drinks, bar bites, karaoke and other shows.

The whole building — pot, spout, handle, rim and trim — was painted bright-white in the waning days of 2025, but the process began last summer, explained Richard Walden in a phone call this week.

He consulted a masonry expert to determine how to properly repair cracks in the cement facade. The pot, constructed in 1927 on a wooden frame covered with about 3 inches of cement (not stucco, as some assume, said Walden) affixed at different times, was showing serious signs of wear when he took over in 2022. For his first major project after buying the local landmark, which joined the city’s historic register about a decade ago, he replaced an antiquated, leaky tar roof with a modern-day rubberized silicone roof. He also upgraded the outdoor patio, swapping a limp chain-link fence with cedar and bamboo, to blend with the tiki theme inside the dimly lit bar.

To maintain The Java Jive’s revered curb appeal and protect against the Pacific Northwest’s incessant winter wetness, Walden then turned to the cement and the paint.

“There’s pretty much a huge list that I’ve had since I got it,” he said. “This was up there on the list.”

A contractor by trade, Walden said the unique structure “had never been actually repaired and painted correctly.” The masonry expert recommended targeted epoxy injections that spread through the cracks and backfill “chunks of original material that wanted to flake off or that we were afraid would flake off,” continued Walden. His crew then added a “thin layer of texture” to smooth it all out, striving to match the original texture while covering blemishes.

That work and the subsequent painting has required at least three consecutive dry days. Checking the forecast in December, the weather seemed that it would cooperate, so he taped plastic over the windows and got to painting.

Of course more rain arrived, pausing the operation in between base layers. In the next dry span, which according to forecasts could happen around Jan. 14-17, Walden will add another coat of white. Then, when three more damp-free days hit, the detail work will begin: painting the window frames and awnings blue, as well as the inner door frame and arch above it, and the top rim, spout and handle red.

“We have a whole portfolio of pictures to get it back to where it was,” said Walden, including photos of each letter. He had the prints developed into right-sized stencils to precisely match the original layout of the bar’s name near the top of the pot: World Famous (in blue) Bob’s Java Jive (in red).

The experience of owning and restoring the bar hasn’t always been easy, or cheap. He faced pressure and fines from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, in part for using citrus wedges in drinks without having a sink exclusively used to wash produce. Walden has contended that the oddly shaped, old structure can only accommodate so much plumbing infrastructure.

He continues to check off items on that long list — next up is a new floor throughout the bar, upgrading to a more “cleanable and less porous” surface.

The Java Jive owner estimates he will spend at least $150,000 of his own money on the total restoration project, but he is grateful to have received a couple of grants through the Pierce County Historic Preservation Grant Program, which provides up to $35,000 for buildings with landmark status. His experience as a contractor has also helped cut down on costs, he said.

“My plan is to force the city to love me,” he said with a laugh. “So I’m gonna make this coffee pot look like a Disneyland wonder: a perfect piece of ceramic, beautiful and nice and clean … something the city can be proud of.”