What the Tides Tavern sale says about state of Pierce County waterfront dining

The people of Gig Harbor, Pierce County and the South Sound should send thanks to Anthony’s Seafood for keeping Tides Tavern under local(ish) ownership, but, also, hold my beer.

These kinds of sales could always and often do flow instead toward outsider interests who see dollar signs, not desire, and opportunities, not institutions. We probably won’t know how much Anthony’s paid for the business, as both parties confirmed the pending sale Jan. 13 but did not disclose figures, although one can surmise it was an attractive sum, and we won’t know about the property for a few weeks. But is the transfer of an independently owned and operated waterfront restaurant, in a waterfront town, that has lived through nine governorships, seven economic recessions and a global pandemic to a chain — even one with Puget Sound roots — a good thing?

Anthony’s, of course, already has namesake restaurants at Point Defiance and down the street from the Tides in Gig Harbor. In 2022, the Kirkland-based company — founded by Budd Gould the same year Peter Stanley created The Tides (1973) — swooped into Titlow, acquiring Boathouse 19 from the local couple who also had shepherded Lobster Shop since the 1980s.

Was Anthony’s interested in buying Lobster Shop at the time? If it was, Seattle’s E3 Restaurant Group (Metropolitan Grill, Elliott’s Oyster House) outcompeted it, and then invested a few million dollars modernizing the interior and stabilizing the structure. Meanwhile, The Puyallup Tribe acquired the land holding The Ram and restored the building next door for Woven Seafood & Chophouse, which has differentiated itself in design and concept from its neighbors.

The Tides was one of the last remaining vestiges of independent restaurant ownership on Tacoma and Gig Harbor’s plentiful waterfront. Across the Narrows, a few indie venues dot the harbor, but only Netshed No. 9 boasts the same deck-over-the-water experience and only for breakfast (plus limited evening hours on summer weekends). In Tacoma, only one of 10 waterfront restaurants, if you include Point Ruston’s WildFin and Copper & Salt at Silver Cloud Hotel, is wholly independent. Katie Downs, in theory although not necessarily in execution a counterpart to the Tides, remains with the founding Hilger family.

But there is — was? — no place like Tides Tavern.

Tides Tavern was indie-owned for 53 years

When I spoke with Peter Stanley for a story about its 50th anniversary in 2023, the New England native recalled his search for a restaurant space in Tacoma.

“All I could find was cinder block,” he said.

Gig Harbor, however, had old, wood buildings, right on the water, for a bargain price.

“For me, it’s all about the ambiance of the place,” he explained. “How does it feel when you walk in the doors? Do you feel at home? Do you feel comfortable? I like it to feel warm. All of those other things that come with it — people follow their nose.”

He had no idea how to run a restaurant.

“What could be better than pouring beer and making pizza for your friends?” he mused. Barriers, he continued, were shorter and fewer, permits were approved in a snap, and work could be done “on the cheap and on the quick.”

How times have changed.

In an interview with The News Tribune after news of the sale broke, Peter’s son, Dylan, eager to spend more time with his family and maybe take a summer vacation instead of working most days from May to September, hinted that the family had been seeking a buyer. It’s not clear for how long. Their goal was two-fold: Find a party both capable of running an all-day restaurant with a roughly 100-person staff and committed to the heart of the Tides.

Anthony’s, with decades of experience and its own seafood supply arm, definitely has the chops to do the former. The latter is rarely guaranteed.

At least one local, responding to a KING 5 video about the sale, called attention to fairly recent history. When Anthony’s bought Harbor Lights in 2000, the company pursued minor, largely unnoticeable upgrades — before an overhaul 13 years later that this paper described as “bland,” leaving the mid-century restaurant with as much soul as a Starbucks.

Dylan Stanley said his dad “hit it off” with Gould and spoke highly of Gould’s daughter and Anthony’s CEO, Amy Burns. The new owners, who directed my interview request to the news release, want to keep it the same, said the younger Stanley. Anthony’s is “committed to upholding the same care, warmth, and Northwest hospitality that have made the Tides such an important gathering place for generations,” said Burns in a statement.

Can Anthony’s hold onto the heart of the Tides?

There’s a difference between updating out of necessity, whether for code or safety or comfort, and updating for administrative ease, efficiency or conformity, whether for misguided reasons of giving the people what corporations think people want or bottom-line business realities.

Running a restaurant is incredibly hard work. Running a successful restaurant as a single operator is even harder. Running a successful one-off restaurant on coveted waterfront that has sustained 50-plus years? In this economy? Increasingly unthinkable.

Call it a tavern, a bar or a restaurant: The Tides is a shining example of a rare feat in a punishing industry that feels ever-more precarious against the backdrop of a flummoxing tussle between customers’ perceived value and restaurants’ hard financial truths. Yet The Tides’ success has stemmed not from the food or the view or even the vibe. In my restaurant-theory mind, it has thrived through five decades by achieving the mysterious harmony of people and place that many restaurants try to duplicate but usually fail to replicate.

It’s the kind of magic that keeps restaurant people working in restaurants even when they left the last one bruised and emotionally battered. The kind that provides first jobs to local teenagers who, standing guard at the door on a bluebird day, learn to subdue the rage of an adult who doesn’t want to wait an hour-and-a-half for a table. The kind that woos high-school pals back for a beer on the same date year after year. The kind that feels as comfortable for locals and tourists alike as their own living rooms. The kind that always feels just right.

Building a place like The Tides — and holding onto that magic through the advent of the internet and “everyone’s a critic” spheres of influence — takes sincere dedication. Culture doesn’t just happen. Reputations are quickly broken. Employees come and go. Owners sometimes do, too.

Little changes and some big ones have assuredly occurred at Tides Tavern through the decades. The sale is a big one. Stanley had an office upstairs; Anthony’s has an HQ. The Tides will flow. We just don’t yet know which way.