– by Casey McLain, South Sound Bureau Chief –
In the middle of what is quickly blossoming into a beer hotbed, Craig Moore’s new taphouse and bottle shop Copper Door opens Friday, April 4. Located in the Stadium District, Copper Door is a couple blocks away from Harmon Brewing’s Harmon Taproom.
Moore, a Tennessee native, spent several years of his life living in Portland working in the restaurant industry. After some time spent back in Tennessee, facing the trials of the spoiled Northwest resident out of his new found habitat, Moore began to miss the local fare available in the Northwest.
A trip back to Tacoma, where Moore still had a friend, helped shake the violent or grungy stigma attached to Tacoma that has thoroughly outlasted reality.
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Walking into the Copper Door offers no indication that the unit used to be a hair salon, with the walls painted, and a copper backsplash behind the bar. While standing at the bar, what will eventually become a barrel room is to your right, as Copper Door intends to collaborate with local brewers to barrel age their beers in a variety of wine and liquor barrels.
At this point Copper Door’s bottles total 550 varieties of beer, and their shelves have capacity to add more space as customer demand shapes their inventory.
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In addition to their extensive bottle offerings, Copper Door also features 16 tap handles, including a nitro tap and a cider tap. (Pints to drink, growlers to go.)
Moore characterizes Friday’s opening as a “soft opening,” and plans on being open seven days a week from then on.
Despite the “soft opening” characterization, Copper Door features a pretty extensive and impressive tap list:
- Ninkasi Spring Reign APA
- No-Li Empire No. 8 Session IPA
- Narrows IPA
- Coronado Islander IPA
- Sound Brewery Quad Pro Quo
- Speakeasy Betrayel Imperial Red
- 7 Seas Cascadian Dark Ale
- Avery Brewing Ellie’s Brown Ale
- Full Sail LTD Series 06 Black Bock
- Sierra Nevada Gnarwhal Imperial Stout
- Green Flash Palate Wrecker Imperial IPA
- Stone Go To IPA
- Chuckanut Dunkel Lager
- Fremont Brewing Dark Star Imperial Stout
- Deschutes Obsidian Stout (on Nitro)
- ACE Fermented Apple Cider
Find Copper Door:
12 North Tacoma Avenue
Tacoma, Washington, 98403
map
Casey McLain is the founder of North and South of Royal Brougham, a replacement-level Seattle sports blog, and can be found tweeting about beer and sports @CaseyMcLain34.
