Out of Stadium & Into 6th Ave. for El Guadalajara?
It appears that the Stadium District El Guadalajara may be moving to the center of the 6th Ave. Business District. Tres Ramos El Guadalajara Inc. has applied for a restaurant liquor license with a new location at 3002 6th Ave. and appears to be taking place of the Neighborhood Market (previously on Tacoma Untapped. A business license check for the current location, on Tacoma Ave. in the Stadium Business District, says it has closed. The building where the Stadium District location was located is owned by X Square Investments II, which is ran by John & Luke Xitco, owners of Asado and Masa. Rumors from a few years ago were that X Group wanted to put an Italian restaurant in the Stadium District building once Guadalajara was gone.
El Guadalajara was recently in the news because they were required to install a sprinkler system in the building due to new nightclub laws but hadn’t done so yet. The Stadium District location has a dance floor in the bar portion of the building.
UPDATE: It appears El Guadalajara may be going into the back section of the building where Neighborhood Market is located.
Wow, that’s an interesting turn for the Neighborhood Market. Are they vacating the entire space? Can’t imagine that small space in the back is anything close to sufficient for a restaurant. Great spot for a restaurant though with the parking lot included. Interesting development…
I heard a rumor about this several months ago and then forgot the details, so I was actually trying to track it down a week or two ago…thanks for putting this out there and reminding me of the Neighborhood Market connection. (Still can’t find my previous rumor anywhere online even with a location, so I wonder if I heard it in-person somewhere.)
I know that John Loesch recently re-took-over Neighborhood Market, but my assumption is that he was going to try to keep it grocery (especially given the stuff going on with the Tacoma Food Co-op, though I’m not sure of the latest on that possibility). The back space does seem small, but then again small restaurants can work well…given that the Neighborhood Market is about the best that this otherwise very walkable neighborhood has for groceries, I certainly hope it doesn’t go away.
(But a non-Masa Mexican restaurant would be quite welcome…outside of happy hour times their food isn’t good enough to justify the price.)
I was also wondering if this meant the Food Co-op’s idea about starting up in the Neighborhood Market was over.
(You certainly can’t get any relevant info from the Co-op’s blog, which appears to be in a deep winter hibernation.)
I stopped into Neighborhood Market today and the staff I talked to said that they aren’t going anywhere. Apparently there’s space at the back of the market that has been vacant for a while, and work has begun on whatever the Guadalajara folks have planned. This space has got to be way smaller than Guadalajara’s current location in Stadium, so I wonder what the story is.
Liquor license for El Guadalajara is posted on the doors of the back portion of the Neighborhood Market building, so I guess it’s a go.