Wooden City’s last day on Pac Ave has arrived. What to know about the new digs
Wooden City Tacoma will officially close its Pacific Avenue restaurant after service on Tuesday, April 14 as the business and most of the staff transition into a much bigger, ritzier location at 1102 Broadway.
Owners Abe Fox, Jon Green and Eddie Gulberg anticipate revealing the new digs by the end of the month.
“We’re really excited to be open on Broadway,” Fox told TNT Diner during a sneak-peek visit last Thursday. Staff, including executive chef Lili Mancini, bar manager Alex King and GM Erin Conners Bergfield, are also eager to settle into a fresh home, which is “the most exciting thing,” he said.
The food and drink that have come to define the Wooden City experience since its 2018 debut at 714 Pacific Ave. will remain largely intact at the new location with some enhancements, some slight adjustments and a few additions. Think of it as “a bit of an elevated Wooden City,” said Fox.
The biggest change — for both staff and guests — will be sheer size: Where the Pac Ave restaurant holds about 65 people, the Broadway space can fit around 160.
The shell of this former office space has been completely recast for an undisclosed sum. (Permit filings show at least $600,000.) At 7,000 square feet, it features soaring ceilings, a mezzanine and industrial remnants of its 1906 roots, including steel support beams, exposed brick walls and oversized arched windows.
Upon entry through a brand-new doorway, the line of sight runs straight to an open kitchen surrounded by unique earthy tiles and, key to the brand, a blue-tiled wood-fired oven. Running that ducting out the front of the building was definitely a structural challenge, said Fox, but they were able to make it happen with the support of developer J Squared Investments. (The News Tribune rents office space from J Squared.) He and Gulberg, the lead builder, spearheaded the design.
The front room is designed around the other beating heart of the restaurant for this trio: a long curved bar along the brick wall, made from oak with walnut accents. Throughout the lounge, seating includes a quad of booths, low and high-top tables made by Tacoma’s own Splinter & Slag (Gulberg’s former company) and Richlite, and a banquet table to accommodate large parties.
“It just creates an energy in the room,” said Fox of a busy bar that feels intertwined with the dining room.
The main, standard-seating dining room follows as you walk toward the back. Here you’ll find minimalist wooden booths with the brand’s signature ocean-blue cushions and a brick-red textured wall. Seating is flexible, with a mix of tables including two large booths.
Up the stairwell, there’s an overflow dining area and a private dining room (a major upgrade) with a mural by Tiffany Hammonds, a local artist known for her “Face of Nations” works.
Wooden City’s big move
Construction began last July, but they first shared news of the move in the fall of 2024. At the time, Fox said the Pac Ave restaurant was busier than ever, and the kitchen — in a physical sense — had reached the limit of what it could handle. The group had also grown considerably, personally and professionally, since 2018.
Their growth model was not to open different concepts in the same city, as some restaurant groups do, but to focus on bringing a “middle restaurant” — an every-occasion kind of place, good for groups of varying sizes and solo diners alike — to other mid-sized cities. Since 2020, that journey has led them to open Wooden City restaurants in Spokane; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Birmingham, Alabama. They tried in Seattle with a tavern in Greenlake, but it closed late last year. They are currently in the process of opening a location in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Say what you will. Tacoma loves the place.
Under the company’s head chef Jon Green, the culinary program since Day 1 has been rooted in the simple idea that you need not reinvent the wheel to satisfy the palate. A luscious Caesar, just great chicken wings and burgers, house-cured salmon on sourdough, comforting stuffed Hungarian wax peppers, French onion soup, and of course the wood-fired pies. They also make their own pasta (beet ravioli, spicy lamb rigatoni) and switch up certain dishes and the wood-fired sides depending on the season.
The bar has mixed a blend of classic and house cocktails prepared with precision, spearheaded by Fox who likewise has managed the front-of-house side of the business. Both had worked in the industry for decades in bigger cities before settling into homes and families in Tacoma and opening their first restaurant with Gulberg.
That ethos nurtured a menu that is as fun to eat as it is worthy of revisiting — thanks to consistency, hospitable staff and a come-as-you-are or celebration-ready vibe, depending on your needs. Coalescing those traits in one place is perhaps the thorniest gap in Tacoma’s restaurant scene.
It shows: The original Pac Ave restaurant has become one of the busiest in town, full-stop. There’s no trick per se to sliding into a stool at the bar, but the place has been consistently packed night after night, seven days a week, for years.
The new space will temper the waits and allow for additional reservations. There is also a lounge-like waiting area.
As previously reported, they will retain the lease on the Pac Ave space for a new concept — they have the name, the design and the idea, said Fox. It will also center around the bar and honor the Pacific Northwest. They plan to put some money into the revamp.
“We want people to walk in and have it not look like Wooden City,” added Fox.
Reservations on Pac Ave are limited through the last day, April 14, but you can add your name to Resy’s “notify” list should a table become available due to a cancellation. The bar is walk-in only.
Wooden City Tacoma
- Last day at 714 Pacific Ave. - Tuesday, April 14
- Planned opening at 1102 Broadway - late April, follow instagram.com/woodencitytacoma for updates