I have always said that Tacoma is a sandwich town but when the owners of the outpost, originally Outpost Kitchen now Outpost Sandwiches, first moved to downtown Tacoma they were right options for a unprocessed sandwich were dismal and unexciting. Tacoma is fortunate they decided to do something about it. Since their opening Outpost continues to grow as a staple in the downtown Tacoma lunch service. It was interesting to see the growth in real time. It felt as though it was all word-of-mouth. Someone would leave the office on a lunch adventure and return to the office with a sandwich sleeved in parchment paper and I’m sure the questions arose. “Oh, that’s smells good, oh where did you find that? Oh, how much was it? Oh, how long have they been around?” Eventually, the questions stopped and the praise began, local clothier and community business eTc Tacoma has collaborated with their downtown neighbor Outpost in the past as well. Outpost has also done community outreach and given back through portions of proceeds going to feeding kids for the Summer via specialty lunch meals, put together for Daz Deal community programming another downtown activation. The owners are a handsome couple and one treat of the experience is seeing how in unison they are preparing lunch orders, call-in orders and moving seamlessly together. The food is so good they’ve even had IG accounts start their content rollout with just their sandwich offering. There’s a lot of reasons to love this business if you can find it.

There’s almost too many good things to say about the Grand Cinema in Tacoma. At its core function, it stands for art with a hyper focus on cinema in the best way. It’s a nonprofit, providing a pathway to pop culture while keeping its doors and programming open to local and international film enthusiast, supporters, directors, and film industry professionals. All of that speaks to and sticks to the heritage that began at the Grand Cinema, once the Grand Theatre, in 1997. Two years prior in 1995 the cinema was closed after being freshly built, but was saved and turned into a nonprofit by to Tacoman film enthusiasts. Since then it’s functioned well, and only continues to stay head of the curve culturally while doing its civic duty, provide entertainment and service, at a high-level.

Gungor | Wednesday, April 12The field of progressive and indie rock has long had a complicated relationship with spirituality. Pink Floyd, for instance, had a shared disdain of organized religion thanks to their experiences in the school system. The Flaming Lips found inspiration in the cosmic chaos and beauty of everything, reveled in Jesus imagery, and narrowed their religious focus a bit more on In a Priest Driven Ambulance. In the modern age, the most openly Christian artist accepted into the folds of alt-folk-rock royalty is Sufjan Stevens, who managed to bring in fans of all stripes thanks to his playfully inventive and plaintively emotional music.Gungor – a music collective led by the husband-and-wife team of Michael and Lisa Gungor – has its roots in the early music of Michael Gungor’s, which tended toward the contemporary Christian rock genre. As time went on, the duo’s interest in exploring different avenues of music seemed to intensify, as did their desire to explore spirituality of types. Now, around 10 years into this transformation, they’ve become a band that happily blends not only genres – including bedroom pop, indie folk, trip hop, swelling balladry, electronica, psychedelia, and more – but dogmas as well, always searching for that ineffable connection with the world, wherever that may be.For those who still might be nervous about seeing what they think of as a “christian rock” performance, consider that their latest album, Love Song to Life, features songs that recall early ‘00s Radiohead, Carrie and Lowell-era Sufjan Stevens, the gauzy indie disco-pop of the 2010s, and Arcade Fire at their most bombastic. Regardless of where you sit on the spectrum of belief, there is something that will find you connected to Gungor, which what we hope to experience from both concerts and those little interactions we have everyday with one another.

Coffee culture is continuing to grow in Tacoma and it continues to be exciting to have options. Tacoma hasn’t always been a place with variety as a priority; it’s more of an oldie but goodie place. The more of the market place independents take up the less need for chains like Starbucks and far less market potential for them to poach. I’m not saying we don’t need them but more us and less them should always be the goal. Although keeping in mind there may be some Tacomans who own franchises and those should be the ones most frequented. There is a lot of charm and tradition built into our businesses. But as of late (the last 5 years) we are starting to see the rumblings of progress. Slowly more independent coffee experiences are developing throughout Tacoma and that’s bringing Tacomans into neighborhoods they haven’t traditionally frequented. It’s great businesses that often create cross pollination within cities. An area may feel out of the way until you have a reason to go. And Old Town Tacoma hasn’t been injected with something new in a while. Space is a major part of the issue, there’s only room for about 4 businesses on the little strip of N 30th anyway, but it’s prime real estate and holds significant historical value. The space they occupy was once completely owned by the Spar, one side was the Spar cafe while the other catered to the Spar bar. During my early years of college living elsewhere and coming home to the Spar felt like the most authentic part of Tacoma, the Old Town history and proximity to downtown via Schuster Way offered a level of convenience to the Waterfront prior to its developments and my version of nightlife simultaneously.