Members of the Pierce County dry squad examine confiscated stills at the county courthouse on January 19, 1924. (Tacoma Public Library photograph)

Columnist Peter Callaghan stopped by my desk tonight to tell me that tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment - the repeal of prohibition.

Pop music critic Ernest Jasmin and I mused about how many Tacoma bars have been in business that long. The only ones we could think of are Bob's Java Jive and (maybe) The Spar.

Any historians out there know of any long time bars, speakeasies or hooch halls we're forgetting?

Pat Nagle, who brought Tacoma the Harmon 10 years ago and recently opened The HUB, is the focus of today's Q&A from Business. Here are some of the highlights:

- "Business is actually right on target"

- "... I believe in Tacoma. I believe in being part of the community."

- "I’m a Cougar and I’m a Tacoman, and I’ve got this underdog attitude."

See the full interview here.

Mmmmm, bacon.

Don't like Mondays? Please don't shoot the whole day down. Instead, point your mouth toward Doyle's Public House, which is testing the theory that everything goes better with bacon. Starting tonight (and every Monday from 8 p.m.-midnight until further notice) Doyle's will cook and sell three slices of Boarshead naturally smoked bacon for $1.

Doyle's Public House: 208 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma; 253-272-7468

California-based BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse plans to open in Tacoma Mall's new lifestyle center in September, my TNT blogging colleague John Gille reports. BJ's also will open in South Center.

BJ's does pub grub and microbrews. The menu on its Web site touts baslamic-glazed chicken, barbecue-chicken pizza, halibut fish tacos and "BJ's Famous Pizookie®," which is another way of saying a cookie with two scoops of ice cream.

The beer list includes pale, blonde, red, brown and wheat ales. BJ's does beer appreciation dinners too.

UPDATED 5/12
BJ's recruited its Tacoma management locally. Tom Dobrinski, who's been general manager at Harmon Brewery and Restaurant for six years, starts training at BJ's Sacramento location this week. Dobrinski says in an e-mail:

The beer will be shipped from a hub brewery in Reno .... We will have 8 flags and usually 2 seasonals along with a couple of guest handles. The South Center restaurant will open first and will have a token small brewing system (like the Ram) and Tacoma will not have a brewery at all.

Parkway Tavern pours imported beers only once a year. Wednesday is that day. That's when the North Tacoma tavern will pit Belgian beers against American beers of similar style. The event starts at 7 p.m.

As Parkway publican John O'Gara noted, "Belgians won by a landslide" last year.

Among this year's highlights, according to O'Gara: "New Belgium Le Fleur Misseur is being shipped to us especially for the event, and the Ste. Feuillien will be poured from a huge 9-liter bottle."

The match-ups after the jump.

=> Read more!

The Swiss: 15 years and going strong.

The Swiss Pub celebrates its 15th anniversary on Monday, and by the looks of the special menu, chef/co-owner Gayl Bertagni will be firing up her way-back machine.

“We’re going to serve some of the foods we opened with,” Bertagni said, noting that The Swiss had little more than a microwave for its first three weeks of operation in 1993.

Among Monday’s menu specials that harken to 1993: microwaved cheese pizzas and “nacho chips with that waxy cheese – you know that stuff at 7-11.”

Expect paper plates, plastic forks and the like.

Also on special will be The Swiss’ popular Today’s Sandwich, the first sandwich on the original menu, featuring turkey, ham, Swiss and cheddar cheeses, with lettuce, tomato and onion on herbed bread. Bertagni said she’ll revive New Bite, a pulled pork sandwich in “elegant barbecue sauce” that’s been an occasional special. “It’s quite messy,” Bertagni said of the sandwich, served on a Kaiser roll with slaw and red onions.

Handful of Lovin’, a Celtic-reggae band, takes the stage around 8 p.m.

The Swiss Pub & Eatery: 1904 S Jefferson St., Tacoma; 253-572-2821

Doyle's Public House poured
16,840 ounces of Guinness stout,
raising $842 for KUOW.

Eight hundred and forty-two Imperial pints of Guinness were purchased at Doyle's Public House from April 7-17, helping the Tacoma pub raise $842 for Seattle public radio station KUOW.

Doyle's pledged to pledge $1 for every pint of Guinness stout it sold April 7-17. The goal was $550.

Full disclosure: I was among the 154 people who bought (and drank) a pint of Guinness (cost: $4.75) on the pledge drive's final day. It tasted much better than those PBRs I heard about on NPR.

The former St. Helens Cafe will become ... St. Harmon's? St. Helens Speakeasy?

Pat Nagle said he doesn't know. Nagle, the restaurant-and-real-estate guy who owns the Harmon brewpub on Tacoma's Pacific Avenue, is the guy who's bailing out St. Helens Cafe and building out a "neighborhood restaurant" in the 6,000-square-foot former fish-and-chippery above Doyle's Public House and Stadium Bistro.

From Nagle, we know this much:

Nagle likes Tom Douglas' seriously good pizza at Serious Pie. He'll install a fiery pizza oven.

He wants to do breakfast.

He wants to do sit-down dining.

He foresees doing delivery in the neighborhood. He wants to do take-out, too.

He wants to "warm up" the cavernous space.

He said he'll install flat-panel TVs.

He said it won't be a sports bar.

He said there'll be a bike rack out front.

He wants to expand the bar and do 25-30 percent beer-and-liquor business.

Harmon brewmaster Mike Davis' beers will be served at the new place.

Nagle said he doesn't have a name in mind.

That's where you come in:

Name Nagle's New Neighborhood Restaurant

Please leave your suggestions in the comments section. It's free to enter. There's nothing to win.

Pat Nagle, left, the owner of Tacoma's Harmon Brewery and Restaurant, during construction of his Pacific Avenue pub in 1997.

The owners of Harmon Brewery and Restaurant in downtown Tacoma will purchase the business that was St. Helens Cafe and plan to open a "neighborhood restaurant" by March 15.

"That's my time line," Harmon owner Pat Nagle told me today. "The city and the state may have different time lines."

There's no name yet for the new place. Nagle said he plans to expand the bar, install a pizza oven and redecorate a bit.

"The consensus is that the place needs to be warmed up," Nagle said of the 6,000-square-foot restaurant. "It's a neighborhood restaurant. It's gonna have some flair."

Nagle said the Harmon's 15-barrel brewing system has the capacity to serve his new location. Nagle said he's interested in serving serious pizza -- a la Tom Douglas' Serious Pie in Seattle. He said some favorites from the Harmon's menu will turn up in the new location. He also said he'll do breakfast.

"It'll be full-service," Nagle said. "It¹s not gonna be order at the door when you walk in."

One thing Nagle won't be doing is a movie theater/restaurant in Tacoma's former Mecca porno theater.

"The Speakeasy is on the back burner," Nagle said, referring to the pizza-pub-theater concept he and partners at the Gintz Group developers have been working on on Broadway in downtown Tacoma. "I can't really comment any more."

Referring to the purchase of St. Helens Cafe and his own Harmon pub, Nagle said: "This just became an opportunity we really can't pass up. It boded well for expanding a business that we already sunk 11 years worth of effort and money into."

Nagle, who's also the real estate business, noted that building that will house his new venture is already home to Doyle's Public House, Stadium Bistro and an upcoming coffee shop.

"I hope we can create an identity for the whole building so it's kind of a destination," Nagle said.

I knew the building that houses Charlie Kempe's coffeehouse, Metro Coffee on the UWT campus, is undergoing some kind of surgery. I didn't know Charlie had surgery.

His friends are throwing a get-well benefit for Charlie. It happens Sunday at The Swiss, 3 p.m.-11 p.m. It's all ages. It's 7 bucks. There'll be music, snacks, prizes and a silent auction.

Metro Coffee: 1901 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma. The Swiss: 1904 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma.

Inside Doyle's Public House in Tacoma.

Yesterday, it was Charlie McManus in the New York Times. Today, it's Parkway Tavern and Doyle's Public House in Esquire. The Tacoma wateringholes are featured in the magazine's Best Bars in America guide.

Long considered Seattle’s ugly stepsister, Tacoma is now undergoing the nip and tuck of urban redevelopment. Cranes swing over the skyline, and century-old buildings are bandaged with Tyvek—courtesy of a massive gentrification campaign designed to buff the saltwater stains from this port town. But the Tacoma renewal works because it preserves the best parts of the city’s tracks-and-timber origins. ... And on the street out front, cars sport the popular bumper sticker, "Admit it, Tacoma. You're beautiful." After a few hours lifting pint glasses at the Parkway, you’ll get it. Tacoma may never be waxed and polished like Seattle, but this salty old broad cleans up well.

Way to go, Tacoma bars.

By the way: I'm lobbying Seattle restaurant critics to review Tacoma restaurants. Stay tuned...

Santa's not going to bring you a fake ID, but if you're over 21, local brewpubs have presents for you: winter warmers and other seasonal beers.

In Tacoma, The Harmon (1938 Pacific Ave.; 253-383-2739) has two versions of imperial stout, including one aged in an oak barrel that previously contained rum, plus a malty American-style red ale on nitro ("It cascades like Guinness," brewer Mike Davis said.) and an English mild session beer (4.7 percent alcohol) with a touch of silky oats.

The Ram (3001 N. Ruston Way; 253-756-7886) has maple vanilla brown, mocha stout and a strong ale. Engine House No. 9 is serving a smooth brown ale.

In Puyallup, The Powerhouse (425 East Main St; 253-845-1370) is all out of winter warmer, but roasted porter and clean kolsch fill the seasonal void. The Ram (103 35th Ave. SE; 253-841-3317) has malty pumpkin ale with cinnamon and nutmeg, and a big-bodied red ale.

In Lakewood, The Ram (10019 59th Ave.; 253-584-3191) features a chocolatey nut brown ale aged in bourbon barrels, and an imperial stout with flaked oats.

In Lacey, The Ram (8100 C. Freedom Lane; 360-923-5900) WinterBrew, a brown ale goosed with clove, orange and cinnamon.

In Olympia, Fish Tale (515 Jefferson St. E, Olympia; 360-943-3650) brewed a light version of its Leavenworth specialty beers, plus a porter and a pilsner.