Why this family-friendly pizza parlor with a patio is exactly what Tacoma needed
As the Seattle Mariners pushed the boundaries of how long a baseball game could be late last fall, in yet another failed quest for the American League pennant, Dean Shivers schemed up a new flavor of his Tacoma restaurant’s signature Detroit-meets-Grandma-style rectangular pie. Instead of red sauce, a bed of balsamic-glazed onions. House cheese blend plus dollops of cream cheese. Jalapenos. Thinly sliced all-beef hot dog. Scallions. Celery Salt. He called it “The Seattle Dog Pizza.”
“That’s right, you heard it,” he said, eyes wide. “I wanna know: mustard or no?”
He then tries a bite with a squeeze of yellow mustard.
To those who follow, this flavor combo was not out of the ordinary for Tacoma Pie, the pizzeria Shivers, a longtime bartender-turned-chef who goes by Dino, first opened as a ghost kitchen in 2020.
At the time, I wrote that he was “killing the Tacoma takeout game.” You would order a pie by calling or texting — not weird in the weird days of the pandemic, or certain culinary corners — and pick it up outside The Gourmet Niche, a commissary kitchen at 7104 6th Ave. You have to understand: The idea of retrieving food from a kitchen you couldn’t see was not yet established in Tacoma; Shivers’ concept predated Buddy’s Chicken & Waffles and Side Piece Kitchen, two later successful takeout-only models that also moved into restaurant spaces of their own.
“We outgrew it within six months,” recalled Shivers in a recent interview on the patio of his brick-and-mortar, which landed almost exactly four years ago at 4417 6th Ave. “We kind of knew we had a product.”
A family-friendly pizza parlor
At first, the restaurant, formerly a wine shop called Vino Aquino, felt somewhat sparse. With the help of his mother, other family and friends, Shivers said he “literally pieced this place together.” He found a mantle to be the back bar at Second Use, built a bar top from a nice slab of live-edge cedar from a guy in Graham, and snagged a cheap 60-quart Hobart mixer in Chehalis.
As you enter the building, up a shallow-grade ramp, the pizza ovens and a multi-tasking staff greet you from an open kitchen. The small bar seats just a few people, but hanging out there feels like hanging out with your cool industry friend. I instantly fell for the ambiance — and The Fix, a shake of tart lemon, subtle pineapple rum and brusque fernet that achieves its mission every time. This is the workingman’s pizzeria Tacoma needed.
Slowly but surely, Shivers softened the adjoining space into a dining room, where they recently added table service (instead of ordering at the counter). He painted “pizza is life” on the streetside fence and dressed up the patio with a tent and a bocce court, where this summer he hopes to resurrect a casual league he ran while managing Crown Bar back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. (Crown Bar is now Kingfisher & Rye Tavern.) If you don’t yet love fernet, you’ll learn at Tacoma Pie, “The Home of the $5 Fernet,” as Shivers ends many of his endearing Instagram videos. And you can bring the kids!
“It’s always been a work in progress,” he said in April.
Visits over the years revealed turns of the restaurant screw that could have gone awry in the wrong hands. He expanded the menu to include baked pastas, like a comforting manicotti and bolognese/ragu ziti. The Jersey hoagie shows Tacoma what a Jersey hoagie can be — with capicola, mortadella and Genoa salami, provolone, properly marinated onions and chopped lettuce with an oregano’d oil-and-vinegar, and not the ham-and-mayo insults that pass as “Italians” at a few too many delis, bars and grills here. Salads are pizza-parlor classic in all the right ways, from the chopped romaine Caesar with crunchy homemade croutons to the house with salami, mozz, black olives and raw mushrooms.
Then came the evolution of the pub pie: a 12-inch round pizza that cooks in just a few minutes, versus the 30ish needed for the Detroits. When he added the tavern pie, a third kind of pizza prolific in the Midwest, with a crackly, thin crust cut into squares, I returned again and again, mixing and matching pies with hoagies and pasta, a cold beer or Lion’s Mane.
Why the diversification? Shivers recalled going home after a long day at the restaurant and opening his fridge to discover that his girlfriend had ordered a New York-style pie from Camp Colvos. “She’s like, ‘I didn’t want the bready pie!’” It helped him realize that Tacoma Pie needed to offer variety — both for taste and timing.
He also laughed that “damn near every day” someone rolls in looking for a slice of sweet pie, so he leaned into the moniker. Flaky chicken pot pie, custard pies like coconut key lime, and fruit pies from strawberry to Dutch apple rotate through the ovens.
“I didn’t even want to do pizza honestly,” admitted Shivers. “I wanted a fancy Italian restaurant!”
Born in San Francisco but an adopted Tacoman of several decades, he recognized a gap in fine Italian fare in the area. But he pivoted when his business partner, a cook with years of experience in high-end restaurant kitchens, passed away. His friend’s inspiration lives in the humble pastry case by the cash register: a chocolate and banana bread pudding that resourcefully uses leftover pizza dough, served warm and finished with caramel sauce.
From Detroit pizza to Tacoma tavern pies
Inspired by Golden Boy Pizza and Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in his hometown, as well as Metro Pizza in Las Vegas, Shivers started with the takeout idea out of necessity. He knew he needed a food that was meant to travel, so he honed his recipe for a focaccia-base rectangular pie with lacy, burnt-cheese edges that takes cues from Sicilian, Detroit and Grandma styles. The dough is batched and cold-fermented for a day before rolled into balls, then fermented another day before prepped for service. Staff arrives as early as 5 a.m. to begin pressing the dough into Lloyd pans, manufactured in Spokane, for a par-bake — an essential step to achieve the crispy, crunchy casing with a bouncy middle, said Shivers.
House pies, now available in small (8x10-inch) and large (9x13) sizes, range from La Casa with fennel sausage, black olives and mushrooms to Pollo Fumoso with roasted chicken, ricotta and Daddy Dino’s peppers, Shivers’ fermented spin on Mama Lil’s. You can also build your own, but creative specials — like that Seattle Dog pie — abound.
“Part of my philosophy is taking these great sandwiches and using our bread to recreate them,” said Shivers, who affectionately refers to all his dough as “bread.”
He tried a quesabirria pie with consomé to dip (look for it again around Cinco de Mayo), tested a chicken mole at Valentine’s Day, jambalaya leading to Mardi Gras and has used chile verde sauce as a base for a pizza pie with pork. The Thanksgiving special returns annually with roast turkey, garlic-parm mashed potatoes, Gram’s cornbread stuffing and fresh-cran relish.
Once the three fermentation days are up, any unused focaccia dough continues to rest through Day 5, eventually becoming a pub pie, tavern pie or bread pudding.
“As the dough ages, it sours and loses its lift,” explained Shivers. “It can’t become focaccia-esque.”
He referenced an Emily Dickinson poem about dandelions: “We should not mind so small a flower / Except it quiet bring / Our little garden that we lost / Back to the Lawn again.”
As the evolution continues, he anticipates adding focaccia sandwiches for lunch, savory turnovers somewhere between a bao bun and a “super soft inside, crispy outside” calzone, more new pies and pastas.
“It’s fun to just kinda keep pushing,” said Shivers.
Maybe what we’re both trying to say is: Tacoma Pie has finally found its stride, and not enough people are talking about it.
Tacoma Pie
- 4417 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253-320-8734, tacomapie.com
- Tuesday-Wednesday 3-10 p.m., Thursday 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Sunday noon-8 p.m.
- Details: family-friendly pizzeria and bar with patio, plus bocce court; known for pizza, baked pastas, hoagies and cocktails
- TNT Diner tip: Expect 30-minute wait for Detroit-style pies, less for pub and tavern; you can order ahead by phone for dine-in with approximate arrival time
- Takeout/Delivery: order online for pickup, delivery via DoorDash