North End residents, pizza restaurant clash over ‘rowdy’ karaoke nights
Tensions are running high between the North End’s Bigfoot Pizza and Bar and neighbors in the area after the two clashed over noise complaints and late-night activity outside the business.
Bigfoot Pizza and Bar, previously known as Sammy’s Pizza, has served pizza to residents of an otherwise sleepy corner of the North End for years. Residents of the area have been upset lately with what they described as increased noise and late-night activity that began in January when Bigfoot began hosting karaoke nights more frequently.
The tenor of the conversation changed after reports of a “shots fired” incident in the early hours of Feb. 28 at 13th and North I Street – around the corner from the restaurant. Tacoma Police Department Sgt. John Correa said the department received seven different calls reporting the sound of gunshots, and though officers didn’t make contact with any suspects on the scene, they did find four shell casings on the street.
With that in mind, both neighbors and management at Bigfoot turned out at a recent North End Neighborhood Council meeting – which very nearly descended into chaos as they engaged in a heated discussion about what happened. The restaurant the next day turned to social media to rally support from its patrons, and, when a commenter responding to the post offered to “[take] up arms” to defend the restaurant, neighbors’ concerns escalated further.
Until the “shots fired” incident, the conflict was a classic business vs. neighbors disagreement, a familiar story that has played out in other Tacoma neighborhoods over the years. Recent developments have caused some to fear for their physical safety and have elicited the involvement of government agencies ranging from the city of Tacoma to the state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board to the Tacoma Police Department.
Todd Vetsch, who has owned Bigfoot since 2021, said he’s never witnessed such negativity in the neighborhood.
“I just want it to be a fun place where people get good food and have a good time,” Vetsch told The News Tribune. “I’m not trying to disrupt the whole neighborhood or anything.”
How it all began
Bigfoot Pizza and Bar was until 2024 known as Sammy’s Pizza. Vetsch said he bought the business in 2021 and spearheaded a rebranding that included a name change. The restaurant has been in the same spot since at least 2012 as Sammy’s, he said.
Bigfoot has had a spirits, beer and wine restaurant liquor license since 2023, according to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, or LCB. It has served pizza and drinks but has also had game nights since before Vetsch took over. He slowly has started to incorporate events like free poker, trivia and karaoke.
The business has been posting about some of those events on platforms like TikTok, and some of those posts have gone viral – which Vetsch said has meant more attendance than usual. The events have been a significant boost to Bigfoot’s revenue, he said.
“We’re a struggling small business, and we’ve been trying to do different events to see if we can get business up,” he told The News Tribune. “And it has been a real struggle for the last five years.”
Thom Rees, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1999, said the restaurant for years was a fixture in the neighborhood, known primarily as a place to get good pizza. Rees said the problems started when Bigfoot started hosting karaoke nights that kept the establishment open later, which led more patrons to hang around outside and be disruptive late at night.
Rees said he and his neighbors have made more 911 and 311 calls about Bigfoot in the last three months than ever before. He said neighbors have witnessed patrons engage in loud arguments after leaving Bigfoot, and one neighbor saw a couple having sex in their car.
South Sound 911 has received 18 calls for service for the three intersections surrounding Bigfoot and for the restaurant itself since Jan. 1, public records show. The calls vary in topic, but the most common are noise complaints or reports of disorderly conduct.
The news of the recent shooting has increasingly put the neighborhood on edge, Rees said.
“If the clientele this establishment is marketing to appears to not be caring and considerate of our community, then that’s a problem for us that live here,” he said.
Vetsch, the owner, said Bigfoot has been having such events since at least 2025, but since the start of the year began hosting karaoke on Friday nights. Vetsch and manager Divine Chev said they didn’t think anyone in the neighborhood had problems with the restaurant. That changed about two months ago when some neighbors first came to discuss it with them.
Chev said she and Vetsch sought to take neighbors’ concerns seriously and hired a security guard to monitor the area. Bigfoot has one professional security guard and three employees who are tasked with ensuring that patrons don’t loiter after Bigfoot closes and that they keep noise levels down, they said.
“We understood the noise [complaints],” Chev said. “That was completely true. We understand. We took the precautions that needed to be taken. But now it’s expanded to something way more than just the noise.”
Vetsch said the complaints have taken on a concerning tone. He’s heard from people worried about Bigfoot’s patrons robbing their homes, selling drugs and more.
“And I’m like, why do our karaoke goers or event goers have to be thieves?” Chev said.
Not every neighbor has been combative, Chev said, but some have.
“It’s like they want to see us gone, and then they’re telling us that we’re dangerous,” Chev said. “And I’m like, my kids are in here every day.”
On the Facebook comments about “taking up arms” to support Bigfoot, Chev said, “They’re literally harmless.”
“I don’t think that that was violent or anything,” she told The News Tribune. “We have personal relationships with these people, and they’re great.”
Rees said that when he has spoken with the restaurant’s management to express his concerns, the conversation has been productive. His problem with Bigfoot is the late nights that he said have been causing problems in the neighborhood, and he just wants the restaurant to go back to the way it was before.
“It’s the viral marketing that encourages people not from here to flood here, and then turn around and be inconsiderate of the neighborhood that they’re in, because this isn’t a nightclub district, this is a neighborhood,” he said.
“Coming into this quiet neighborhood with that kind of viral impact, it’s problematic,” he added.
Local agencies get involved
Sam Guter, a spokesperson for LCB, said the establishment’s liquor license means it’s allowed to sell and serve alcohol between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m., and has been since 2023. She said since the end of January, LCB has received 15 complaints about Bigfoot, including that the business has been “disruptive” and has been a detriment to the neighborhood’s safety and quality of life. LCB has assigned an enforcement and education officer to investigate, she said.
“Our officer has visited the location twice, and the investigation is ongoing,” Guter wrote in a statement.
Tacoma’s District 2 council member Sarah Rumbaugh said the city of Tacoma has received complaints about Bigfoot involving noise levels, parking and traffic, safety and licensing.
In response, the city’s tax and license staff worked with Bigfoot to ensure it had the correct license to host trivia nights and comedy events, she said. Tacoma Fire Department staff recently performed an inspection, and the city’s code-compliance staff is scheduling “strategic, after-hours inspections” to determine if Bigfoot is engaging in any noise violations.
“The owner has been cooperative,” Rumbaugh wrote to The News Tribune. “They have removed advertising for “21+” hours, hired licensed security for specific events, and have started closing earlier to mitigate late-night issues — for instance, closing at 1 a.m. last Friday.”
Rumbaugh said the city is not obligated to shut restaurants like Bigfoot down when it receives complaints. It is focused on ensuring that the business is fully compliant with the city’s code, she said.
The tension between the restaurant and neighbors are “growing pains” as Tacoma becomes a more densely populated city, she said. Tacoma in recent years engaged in a significant zoning effort called Home in Tacoma, to allow for more types of housing to be built in more parts of the city.
“I have a lot of empathy for the community because we’re going to continue to have issues with business and residential areas because we’re creating denser residential districts, and there’s going to be this tug between those two uses, and we’re going to have to work that out,” she told The News Tribune.
Correa, the Tacoma Police Department’s spokesperson, said the department is aware of ongoing frustrations in the neighborhood, and the community liaison officer and division commander for the area have spoken with neighbors and North End Neighborhood council members about the concerns.
“They’re currently working with the business and the neighborhood on what they can do to help address any of their concerns,” he said.
