Maybe you really don’t need anything new in your life this month. In that case, save this for later and go find a sunny spot, sit a few minutes, have a bite to eat. Sometimes the same old stuff is just right.
How do you feel about change? It’s in the air across Tacoma, the return of things once lost, the reopening of places once closed, the transformation of one restaurant into another, the creation of brand new gatherings. We’ve been hearing about and experiencing this change across the city and wanted to gather some of it up in one place. What follows is a list of 10 new, renewed, returned, resurfaced, reconstructed, reopened spots and experiences. Some showed up in the last month or so, others are brand new in June. We’re taking a bit of license and using “new” loosely.
Hey, maybe we’ll see you out there! But if we don’t see you, we hope someone else saw you instead and gave you a friendly wave. Whether it’s something on this list, or another thing entirely, see if you can find something new this month. If you do, we’d love to know about it.
Learn all about this event on the Tacoma Refugee Choir site.
1. New Event - The Inaugural Heart of Tacoma Festival
Saturday, June 4th, 10 am - 4 pm
Haub Family Field at LeMay - America’s Car Museum
A new festival full of heart and soul and care for the environment and care for each other. That sounds good to us! After a couple of years of so many cancelled events, it was encouraging to get the email from Tacoma Refugee Choir highlighting this brand new gathering for the Tacoma community.
Expect music and dance. Look for song and story from Tahoma Indian Center. Explore over 30 vendor booths, food trucks, and activities for kids, and—as described by TRC—“ the opportunity to participate in African dance, learn a Ukrainian song, sing along with a Latin band, learn a Hawaiian dance, sing karaoke, and play games.”
2. It’s Back! - La Paloma Marketplace Returns
Opening Day: June 4th, runs each Saturday through August
10 am - 2 pm
N. 27th & Proctor
Not seen in full street market form since pre-pandemic days, the La Paloma Marketplace returns to Tacoma this month—oh lolly day!
Look for vintage treasures, handmade goods, edible treats, and vendors of varying ages and abilities. This is a woman+minority-owned marketplace with values rooted in accessibility, sustainability, and community creativity. Supported by sponsors from across the city, many of whom are small business owners, and some of whom got their start at the market, it’s truly a community endeavor. Founded by Molly Alvarado—the visionary and steward who continues to keep it going—this market is one more aspect of Tacoma that makes us glad to call this city home.
The La Paloma Marketplace runs concurrently with the Proctor Farmers’ Market, and is located on the neighboring block, so you can pick up ripe berries, a fresh smoothie, and some butter lettuce from the farmers, then cross over for items like cards by local artists, vintage apparel, jewelry, ceramics, and maybe even a houseplant. Keep up with La Paloma on Instagram.
Image from Point Defiance Park
3. Beach Access - Owen Beach Reopens
Opening Celebration: June 4th
11 am - 1 pm, 11:30 am Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
After 16 months of closure, Metro Parks is reopening one of Tacoma’s favorite waterfront spots. We’ve missed Owen Beach! The parks department achieved a lot during the closure of the beloved beach from designing safer entrance and exit routes for pedestrians and cyclists to expanding beach access for people with physical disabilities, to creating more parking, updating facilities, and designing with rising sea level in mind. This is a place we’ve gone for quiet walks together, a place we’ve brought visitors from out of the state and out of the country, a place where we’ve gathered for picnics, and we bet a lot of you have memories like that too! Read more about the event on the celebration page.
4. Hot New Slices - New Tacoma Pie Location
Wednesday - Saturday
5 - 9 pm
4417 6th Ave
We became Tacoma Pie fans during an all too brief stint when they were down on the west end of 6th Ave near our place. During pandemic times it was pretty satisfying to walk to the pick-up window at their temporary location and carry a big pizza home. We’re excited for Tacoma Pie to have a home of their own, and glad it’s still on 6th! If you haven’t tried it yet, get over there!
Detroit style, Sicilian style, Grandma style
Deep dish - the crust is thick and high, and crisp, and soft, and so much lighter than it looks (as in fluffy or something, not as in “lite”) - delicious!
Follow Tacoma Pie on Facebook and Instagram to catch weekly specials and to make yourself hungry
P.S. 1 of these pizzas turned into 3 meals for the 2 of us! Note: when it comes to pizza—and almost everything else—we usually eat the whole thing!
Image from Millhouse
5. Hot New Slices II - Millhouse Comes to Proctor
Open Daily
10 am - 9 pm
2515 N Proctor St
Proctor welcomes Millhouse into the location left empty after Europa Bistro bid us all farewell. Millhouse is related to Gig Harbor’s Millville Pizza Co, so if you’ve enjoyed that waterfront spot across the bridge, you’ll want to try the new iteration here in Tacoma. Choose from 8 or 12 inch pies, sandwiches, pasta, salads, breads, and cookies (all made fresh daily) or settle into the adjoining Blind Pig cocktail and wine bar for drinks (open 3-10 pm). We haven’t made it in for a meal yet, so we can’t share any opinions, we’re just here to spread the news and hope to sit down for some food and drinks soon. If you’ve tried it, tell us what you think!
Find fresh flowers, produce, hot food, and probably a few of your friends at the Eastside Farmers Market on Tuesdays.
6. Tacoma Farmers Markets Expand - Eastside & Point Ruston
It’s that time of year when there’s a farmers market on offer almost every time you turn around, or at least every time you run out of fresh greens and foraged mushrooms. The Broadway Market opened in May, and the Proctor Farmers’ Market picked up with weekly markets in April, and now that we’ve arrived in June we can all add the Tacoma Farmers Markets at Point Ruston and McKinley to the calendar. Hey, might as well throw in the Steilacoom and Lakewood markets as well.
Sunflowers, crocosmia, snapdragon, lilies, and gladiola waiting for you in Proctor—buy a mixed bouquet or ask for a bunch of the one you want. Be one of those people who makes me smile walking down the sidewalk with an armful of blossoms.
Sundays: Point Ruston Farmers Market
11 am – 4 pm
June – September
5105 Ruston Way
Tuesdays: Eastside Farmers Market
3 - 7 pm
June - August
35th & McKinley (just down the street from the Top of Tacoma!)
Tuesdays: Lakewood Farmers Market
2 - 7 pm
June 7 - August 30
Fort Steilacoom Park, 8714 87th Ave SW, Lakewood
Wednesdays: Steilacoom Farmers Market
3 - 7 pm
June 15 - August 24
1700 Lafayette St, Steilacoom
Thursdays: Broadway Farmers Market
10 am - 2 pm
May - October
9th & Broadway
Saturdays: Proctor Farmers' Market
9 am - 2 pm
March 26 - December 17
(extends into the “off-season” with markets on 2nd Saturdays)
N 27th & Proctor
Image from WW Seymour Botanical Conservatory - A glimpse of the new living wall covered in 1,200 plants.
7. Renewed Oasis - W.W. Seymour Conservatory & Living Wall Reopened After Renovation
Wednesday - Sunday
10 am - 4 pm
In Wright Park at 316 S G St
During our years of living near Wright Park, the conservatory felt like one of my friends, a place to go warm up in winter, to be stunned by the immensity of the lemons growing near the entrance, to be entranced by orchids, to take deep, humid, earthy breaths. After a year of closure, the conservatory reopened in May. Now there’s a living wall covered in 1,200 plants, a habitat for golden dart frogs, a carnivorous plant bog, a remodeled gift shop, and lots of structural and systemic improvements. It’s a special place, you can know and feel that without facts but facts are pretty cool, so how about this: did you know our conservatory is 1 of only 3 public Victorian conservatories on the West Coast? Thank you, Metro Parks! Read all about it, or better yet, come visit. Entry is free, but you can support the conservatory with a donation, by volunteering, or by becoming a member!
Image from Lauda - A new locally owned small business to discover.
8. New Shop - Say Hello to Lauda
Wednesday - Saturday
11 am - 5 pm
Downtown, 506 S 11th St
If you were in and out of The Fernseed on South Tacoma Way for houseplants, workshops, or flowers over the last couple of years, you probably met Amelia, founder and curator of this new downtown business, Lauda. Always a kind, hospitable, and encouraging presence when I’d stop in for flowers, I’m excited to see those gifts expressed in her very own shop. What will you find there? Go be surprised, or if you just can’t wait, take a peek at the online shop. Here are some hints: think writing implements, think well-made, colorful, functional items for home, for hands, for gifts.
Image from Point Defiance Park
Image from Metro Parks Tacoma
9. New Closure - 5 Mile Drive Outer Loop Closed to Autos
Bittersweet. That’s the one word summary for how this change to a Tacoma tradition feels. Bitter mixed with sweet because it’s a change, and so often, that’s how change is. And bitter mixed with sweet because this change means some people, due to physical ability, may never experience some of Point Defiance Park’s most beautiful spots again, yet for those who can enter without a motorized vehicle, the outer loop will be more peaceful than ever. It’s sweet to be on foot or wheels without the worry of cars. It’s sweet to let a little one run, run, run without the risk of traffic. It’s sad to think of folks mourning the loss of a slow, quiet drive through the woods to a favorite picnic spot or viewpoint. True and true. The decision wasn’t made with the intent to limit enjoyment by people in motorized vehicles, or even to enhance it for those outside them; the determination is that due to slope instability it’s just not safe to send cars out there anymore. Maybe it’s bittersweet mostly because it’s a reminder that even things that seemed solid and fixed do alter and erode with time—cause for sorrow and for hope.
Image from ALMA Tacoma - Eat ALMA Kitchen’s fabulous veggie hash out on the patio or inside at the cafe.
10. Honey Reborn - ALMA Cafe opens
Wednesday - Sunday
9 am - 4 pm
1322 Fawcett Ave
Remember Honey? That sweetly named cafe within ALMA became one of our favorite places to meet a friend for coffee or brunch, a welcoming, light-filled place to sit with a book or a journal and their delicious Honeybutt Latte or fragrant iced tea. Honey closed up along with so many other indoor spaces during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The good thing is, ALMA shifted to service on the Patio, their heated, covered, outdoor space. Thank goodness for that! Now, the next evolution of Honey is here, simply called ALMA Cafe, its doors are open once again. Inside those doors find brunch and baked goods, coffee and cocktails, tea and slushies, the familiar ALMA atmosphere, and maybe even faces from around town you haven’t seen in a while. It’s good to see this spot renewed.
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