Sometimes strangers in Tacoma offer to share the moment by volunteering to take a photo of you. Might as well take them up on it! In the spirit of sharing, we’ll try to be good guides as we take you around Tacoma on a Tuesday.
Times change. We originally created this Tacoma Tuesday list in January of 2018, and it’s in need of an update! Many featured businesses closed, others are whistling a different tune (we understand!), and we see new Tuesday experiences opening their doors to you.
So, it's Tuesday and despite it all (whatever it may be) you want fun, action, an atmosphere to stimulate your senses, a trivia question to awaken the powers of your mind and memory, cheaper than usual wine, a place to take the little one, or just a way to narrow it all down and focus on what’s different about this particular weekday.
Residents and guests, jokers and dancers, entertainers and geeks, weirdos and readers, class-acts and those who are just low-key, we have it all here for you, folks; welcome to Tacoma.
Morning Brew
Image from Metro Parks
Coffee Meet-up - 50+ Social
Weekly on Tuesdays
Metro Parks, Center at Norpoint
9-11 am
Free coffee and conversation in the Norpoint lobby with no pre-registration required. Just come if you feel like it, or because your friend dragged you along, or because you’re looking for a friend who would drag you along.
Tacoma City Ballet is housed in the Merlino Arts Center, a building you might know as the home of Corina Bakery and The Grand Cinema.
Suit Up for PE
Tacoma City Ballet invites adults to drop-in for some good-old-fashioned artistic expression each week (or as often as you can). Pull your dance shoes out of their box, find your courage, and see what you can do with those limbs of yours. Miss Marina provides beautiful live music to accompany the dancers, so now you can’t resist.
Free Adult Ballet
Weekly on Tuesdays
Tacoma City Ballet, Merlino Arts Center
10- 11 am
This free drop-in course is part of the Adult Open Class Division.
Adult Contemporary Dance
Weekly on Tuesdays
Tacoma City Ballet - Merlino Arts Center
6:30-7:30 pm
Drop-in rate is $15, or $10/class for a 5-class card.
Wrong library, right idea. This quilt hangs at the Swasey Branch, but each branch, including Fern Hill, hosts public art and offers events for all ages.
For Bébé
Baby Storytime
Weekly on Tuesdays
Tacoma Public Library - Fern Hill Branch
1-1:45 pm
Bring your baby all the way up through 18 months (1.5 years to the rest of us), but don’t drop them off! This is a togetherness time, if you get my drift. Storytime lasts about 20 minutes (with interaction and time for movement, so don’t worry if baby isn’t much of a sit-stiller yet), but you can hang out and chat afterwards.
Crafts in Community
Image from Tacoma Tool Library
Make it Sew
2nd & 4th Tuesdays
Tacoma Tool Library
6-7:30 pm
Want to sew? Wish you could sew? Remember how your grandma used to sew? Tacoma Tool Library is here to help those dreams comes true with Make it Sew. This free program teaches how to use a sewing machine and then provides self-directed time (with guidance!) for creating some practice pieces. All materials are provided, so leave any of those pesky excuses at home.
Location Note: Make it Sew meets at Tacoma Public Library Swasey Branch through March 2024 while the Tool Library renovates home base at the Main Branch.
For Literary Lovers & Film Enthusiasts
Tuesday is your day if you love the written word, the audible word (don’t want to count out all you audiobook readers filling your commutes, walks, and chore hours with flights of literary fancy), screenplays, visual storytelling, or a night out at the cinema. Choose a book club or a film, or catch the matinee AND make it to a book club if you’re free and easy these days.
The Grand Cinema on Fawcett Ave where you can catch the Tuesday Film Series.
Tuesday Film Series
Weekly on Tuesdays
The Grand Cinema
1 Matinee (typically 1:45 pm) & 1 Evening Showing (usually at 7 pm)
Each Tuesday The Grand expands their offerings and widens the perspective a bit to include a film that shows for just one day. Live in the now, catch the moment. Tuesday is the day.
Swasey Book Club
3rd Tuesdays
Tacoma Public Library Swasey Branch
6:30-7:30 pm
It’s free to read and free to meet and you’re free to share your ideas. The March 2024 selection is Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis (which I happen to have on my shelf at home after being drawn to it years ago on the shelf of a used bookshop if Fairhaven).
King’s Books moves beyond just selling books to creating community with a multitude of book clubs.
King’s Books Book Clubs
Banned Book Club
3rd Tuesdays
monthly meetings alternate between in person or online
7 pm
Night Owl Nature Book Club
3rd Tuesdays
Zoom
7 pm
Meet people, talk books, share ideas, and support a local independent bookstore.
Bon Appetit - Let’s Eat (Tacos & Otherwise)
Taco Tuesday doesn’t get old. That’s why it comes every week. That’s why we eat Tacos on non-alliterative days too. Eleven Eleven steps it up for us by providing tacos for vegans, double-decker no less (soft taco wrapped around those crispy shells we grew up eating in the 90s, and we’re not sorry about it). Get taco deals in the Dome District at The New Frontier, and spice it up (or possibly down) with a slice of pizza pie in Proctor.
These are tacos, and we did eat them in Tacoma, but they aren’t the exact tacos you’ll find at Eleven Eleven and The New Frontier—just want to be clear. Guess we have some Taco Tuesday business to attend to!
Vegan Taco TuesDays
Weekly on Tuesdays
The Eleven Eleven
Tacos available from 5 pm to close
For the vegans and all the rest of us who like to eat like that sometimes.
Taco Tuesdays
Weekly on Tuesdays
The New Frontier
11 am-midnight
Beef, chicken, al pastor, or veggie tacos for $2.75 each.
Take-out Twofer Tuesday
Weekly on Tuesdays
Millhouse Proctor
3-9 pm
Two 12” pizzas for $22 to-go only (it’s tempting, but we won’t say “for two” because we really don’t know how many of you are eating these two 12-inchers).
Bingo night or not, it’s always fun to stop in at Pint Defiance. And if you remember the walls being green, it’s been too long!
Get Your Wings Ready—It’s Bingo Night!
Play some bingo, cheer yourself on, order something from the tap (could be The Mule’s housemade non-alcoholic, gingerful lemony ginger beer), and get yourself to bed on time.
Bingo Night
2nd & 4th Tuesdays
Pint Defiance
6-8 pm
Tuesday Bingo
Weekly on Tuesdays
The Mule Tavern
7 pm
Image from Crown Bar
For Trivia Geniuses (and those with aspirations)
We remember a time when Tacoma was Tuesday trivia crazy with weekly trivia at The Forum and The Swiss (RIP) along with good old Crown Bar who is keeping the Tuesday tradition alive. We’ll share trivia opportunities on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but that’s for another post! Make Tuesday an evening of competition, collaboration, and community at Crown.
tuesday Quizfix Trivia
Weekly on Tuesdays
Crown Bar
7:30 pm
Stay on and catch the late night happy hour, 10 pm to midnight.
Sip & Chill/Sip & Learn
You feel like meeting a friend for a drink and you could go anywhere, but it’s Tuesday and that means we can narrow it down for you a bit. Get settled in for a tête-à-tête and try some wine you’ve been curious about downtown or see what’s on tap in the brewery district while expanding your mind.
It’s not quite patio weather at en Rama yet, but you can get this delectable pimento cheese spread any Tuesday along with your half price bottle. Indoors or out, it’s sure to be good.
Half Price Bottles
Weekly on Tuesdays
en Rama
3 - 10 pm (Happy Hour 3-5 pm)
An established favorite in Tacoma for cocktails, small plats, and conversation. Every Tuesday en Rama offers half-price bottles of wine and sherry. Tuesday is a perfect evening to settle in for pickled veggies, a nice beverage, and handmade pasta.
Grit City Think & Drink
2nd Tuesdays
With UW Tacoma at 7 Seas Brewing
6:30-7:30 pm
You don’t have to enroll at UW to get an education! Learn from, and engage with, scholars and experts on a particular topic of interest in a relaxed, all-ages environment. An interactive lecture starts things off, with giveaways, and a time for Q&A.
For Divas, Entertainers, & Wallflowers Waiting to Emerge
Tuesday is a prime night in our city for singing out! Pick your song or get your ground-breaking comedy set ready. We're waiting for you!
Definitely don’t go so many years between karaoke nights as we have. Definitely do wear your cool sandals when you get up there.
New Talent Tuesday
Tacoma Comedy Club Downtown
6:30 pm doors, 7:30 pm show
New Talent Tuesday lives on, it continues in search of comics unknown, unsung, unheard. If you’re curious, get over there. If you want to stand up, make sure to sign up ahead. The show is free, so you can probably afford to laugh. Ages 18+
Nightly Karaoke
Bob’s Java Jive
9 pm-close
Some businesses are just proud to be open 7 days/week. But Bob’s—a historic landmark, teapot shaped, once inhabited by other-than-human primates (but it’s been a long time)—is not only open every day, but offers karaoke every day. Beat that.
We know we didn’t track down everything that happens on a Tuesday in Tacoma, but maybe we’ve managed to convince you that even a mundane weeknight can be a good time here in the City of Destiny.
If we missed a Tuesday special that you know about and love, tell us! We’d love to include it next time.
If you're feeling socially ambitious, looking for more to do, or made a personal commitment involving fewer Netflix nights, take a look at our Tacoma blog for events to attend and paths to take through the city we call home.
KEEP IN TOUCH ABOUT TACOMA LIFE, COMMUNITY, EVENTS, HOMES, AND A BIT ABOUT US.
