Sports bar with tons of TVs opens this weekend in downtown Tacoma
The new Cheers Bar and Grill in downtown Tacoma will open this Friday, Feb. 13, the owner confirmed.
Ali and Stephanie Mehdizadehkashi worked to transform a former U.S. Bank branch at 2317 Pacific Ave. into another location of their local sports-bar chain since late 2024. The couple also operates Cheers restaurants in University Place and Puyallup’s South Hill, The News Tribune reported last year.
At nearly 5,000 square feet, the 1960s-era building features high ceilings and angular arches with corresponding columns, now painted red and black against off-white walls. Photos of the former U.S. Bank depict rectangular, fluorescent lights on the ceiling, since replaced with track lighting over black details that match the rest of the architecture. The exterior has been refreshed with that color scheme. The bank’s tall windows have lost their top halves to accommodate televisions: In addition to one supersized screen behind the bar, between each column is a television, as depicted in a video shared on the business’s Facebook page.
“I found a corner that I can’t see a TV!” joked one commenter.
The open dining room offers small booth seating around the perimeter and more communal-style, high-top tables in the center of the space. There are also two pool tables.
Joining a full bar, the kitchen will offer the same menu of pub fare as its sister spots. Shareable plates include bone-in and “boneless” wings, fried calamari, deep-fried mac and cheese bites, beer-battered onion rings, chicken-filled egg rolls and lettuce wraps. Tacos, nachos and asada fries are also on deck, plus four entree-sized salads.
Choose among 11 burgers, from a spicy smoked jalapeño with jalapeño bacon and habanero cheese to a mushroom-bacon-Swiss. The Dome Burger packs two big patties with bacon and cheddar. Chicken sandwiches include one with bacon and ranch and another with teriyaki sauce, while other handhelds entail a Cuban, a cheesesteak, fried fish and gyro on pita.
A few house pizzas use naan as a base with classic toppings like pepperoni or, in a Southwest version, guacamole, bell peppers and pepperjack cheese.
Most dishes range from $13.95-$18.95.
The Mehdizadehkashis opened their first Cheers Bar and Grill in South Hill in 2009. (It wasn’t affiliated with the popular ‘80s sitcom, although some such Cheers did exist in the 1990s.) Just a few blocks south of the new Tacoma location, they ran a Cheers for eight years before selling it in 2020 to the Zips Cannabis empire. In the intervening years, they expanded the Cheers concept to several South Sound cities; all but two — in UP and Puyallup — have since closed.
Mehdizadehkashi told The News Tribune last summer that the Pacific Avenue address was “a desirable location.” U.S. Bank closed the branch in May 2023, according to an annual report, as it added an ATM at 1501 Commerce St. in the Waddell Building.
After purchasing the property in November 2024 for $1.7 million, per county records, city permits show the Cheers’ owners invested at least $250,000 into the foodservice conversion, including a new wastewater connection, fire protection system and a commercial kitchen with ventilation.
The intersection is home to Berliner Beerhall, which fully opened in 2022 after a lengthy renovation and a pandemic-induced pause, and the ambitious Bas Que Bakery. Across Pacific Avenue, a shuttered Jack In The Box remains boarded up and fenced off. A Soulberry Coffee House closed late last year in Court A, behind the new Cheers, but a guitar shop, clay and glassmaking studios continue.
During football season, which of course just ended in triumph for our Seattle Seahawks, the sports bar will open early for breakfast.
Cheers Bar & Grill - Tacoma
- 2317 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, cheerstacoma.com
- Daily 11 a.m.-2 a.m.
- Details: new sports bar in downtown Tacoma, opening Friday, Feb. 13
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 5:00 AM.