The Church Cantina When you’re in a city full of bars, pubs and dives, setting yourself apart from being “just another bar” is about curating the crowd and achieving this feat is usually predicated on the atmosphere. It should be obvious that decor is a major part of marketing your business and grabbing your piece of the market through your target customer. Church Cantina has done an amazing job of this and it starts at the name. A church theme can attract those with gothic ideologies or personal style, especially in the evening. Traditionally, a Cantina serves drinks and meals and has decor specific to a crowd or less popular audience. I have to say they checked all the boxes. Their logo is a Gothic style cathedral with ‘The Church Cantina’ written underneath in the same gothic style font with a red and black color scheme used for their menu.

Dancing GoatsDancing Goats is one of the newer cafes to open in Tacoma. Post COVID coffee is hitting downtown Tacoma in waves and it’s got a few more surprises but Dancing Goats finally making its way to Tacoma is huge. First opened in our state capital Olympia, WA in 1988 it’s very much a heritage brand to WA although in an effort to scale the business it was moved to Atlanta to grow the roasting side of the company early on in the 90’s. It’s actually pretty cool they are just entering the Tacoma area. There’s something to be said about waiting for the right time and focusing on what makes sense until an attractive opportunity presents itself. And the Brewery Blocks is that opportunity. Their location at the entrance and next to the neighborhood signage is definitely an advantage. But their own branding is eye-catching and brightly colored as well. 

The brew boom of the PNW doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. Washington and Oregon have many great breweries and micro-breweries, and while Tacoma has a few it’s the taprooms that really have it dialed in around here. You’ve got your speciality ones, your traditional settings and now we have our first futuristic experience. The Living Taproom was designed with several seating experiences in mind. Upon entering the space you’re in the living room, it’s standard, a couch facing two chairs, a table and rug in between and plants framing it all. Walk past the living room and the space opens up, there’s high tables for standing, tall chairs for bar seating, group size tables with chairs, couple sized tables with chairs, a swing set seating area that’s a main attraction and outdoor seating with furnaces and a fire pit. The owners did their job with the decor, the drinking and the pouring that’s all on the patron.

Mt Fog | Saturday, February 4Seattle’s own Mt Fog describes her music as “forest folktronica,” evoking the push-and-pull relationship between the natural and the inorganic. Truly, it’s easy to listen to Mt Fog and imagine the swirling synths, insistent beats, and alien vocals reverberating around a misty Pacific Northwest wood. Mt Fog is the work of Carolyn B., an artist whose adventurous, elastic vocal style hit the sweet spot for fans of Bjork or Joanna Newsom, serving as the perfect accompaniment for her largely minimalistic electronica. Her voice phases in and out of recognition, warping and wrapping itself around chiming keyboards.