Taphouses are ubiquitous in the Pacific Northwest, but bars like Cider & Cedar are rare
In the Pacific Northwest beer bars are commonplace, even the local neighborhood watering hole has a great selection compared to the taphouses of 10+ years ago. But even though Oregon and Washington are chock full of craft cideries its still hard to find a real hard cider taphouse, especially one with a “cider garden”. Even the ones we do have can sometimes feel a little cookie cutter, not so with Tacoma, Washington’s Cider & Cedar - a cider bar worth going out of your way to visit.
First opened in 2020 in a different location, Cider & Cedar relocated and reopened in March in Tacoma’s Theater arts district at 744 Market St., where it is walkable from the Pantages and Rialto, Opera Alley, McMenamins Elks Temple, and other popular restaurants and bars. In addition to the larger more central space in a higher traffic neighborhood, it also has an outdoor garden area. Cider & Cedar held a soft opening for the new location as an afterparty for the Northwest Cider Symposium where the cider industry got to experience the wonderful new space first hand. The cozy and ornate taproom with it’s highly decorative design flourishes and carefully curated draft and bottle/can list excited visting cidermakers and industry personalities for what was possible in an on location cider bar setting.
Husband/wife co-owners Mia and Sterling Paradiso both had experience in the bar/restaurant industry and recognized the void left to fill with a cozy, sophisticated but casual taphouse that could hold its own against the ambiance of any wine bar, cocktail bar, or brewpub. They also recognized another problem in the cider scene; an over abundance of flavors and dedication to sweet and semi-sweet fruited ciders where the apple varieties can take a backseat to tannic, bittersharps, bittersweets, and crab apple based ciders. These cider apple (rather than dessert apple) varieties better showcase the apple variety, yeast and growing terroir with more complex flavors that shouldn’t be hidden with additional stone fruits or berries or back-sweetening. Because sweet and extra fruit stuffed ciders are the mainstream, many of the small more traditional or experimental cidermakers don’t have distribution and are unknown to the general public, even devout cider drinkers.
Cider & Cedar specializes in dry and off-dry ciders, but keeps two semi-sweets on tap for variety. All of the drafts are from Oregon or Washington with the occasional offering from British Columbia. The bottle selection is also deep, with a showcase from both the pacific northwest as well as from other parts of the world.
“There are hundreds of small cider producers in our region, many of whom are using apple varieties specific to making fantastic ciders - bittersharps, bittersweets, crabapples - these heirloom varieties lend themselves to a delicious beverage,” says Mia Paradiso. “That said, many of these producers don't work with distributors, so their ciders are often not as well known or easy to find - despite being up there with some of the best ciders in the world. These are the ciders we focus on bringing in - ciders that you likely won’t be familiar with or find in the grocery store.”
Sterling Paradiso utilizing his artistic woodworking skills on the Cider & Cedar taphouse
Outside of the cider selection, the visual appeal and swanky feel of a high-end whiskey bar draws people in and keeps them there. The space is punctuated by wood features both polished and unpolished from shelves and chairs, to driftwood chandelier, live-edge tables, and the root system of an ancient tree that branches out to the draft.
“The wood is just as much a part of the experience of visiting our taproom as the ciders are - at its core, Cider & Cedar is a celebration of the Pacific Northwest, and the trees (both apple and old-growth) that make it so special,” adds Mia.
Cider & Cedar co-owner Sterling Paradiso is also a local artist, he sourced all of the oak that made it’s way to the taphouse from the Olympic Peninsula, near Hoh Rainforest and they built it out themselves. Nearly all of the trees are old growth cedar, untouched before it was logged in the early 1960’s only for straight grain shakes and shingles, leaving behind the most beautiful parts that the Paradiso’s salvaged. Sterling cut up, hauled out, and transformed all of it into what you see in the space.
One of the most striking wood elements is the alien skeleton-like raw root chandelier, lighted from behind the tentacle-like root system snaking overhead. The root chandelier is from an old growth root system that Sterling had been eyeing in the woods for almost two decades before they transformed it into a suspended light piece. A giant slab coffee/cider table underneath the chandelier is a chunk from the same stump as the root chandelier.
the “little bear cave” at Cider & Cedar
Another unusual area is the section near the front of the bar that they call the “little bear cave,” this is a knotted root formation of old growth cedar formed around a small room they keep their dog “Bear” in when the bar is open. As far as they know this extremely rare formation that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings is unexplained by scientists.
The central feature has to be the draft system that flows through an LED light backlit cross section of a tree stump that is about 1,000 years old. This lacquered, corner two slice section looks unique because it captures the more than three feet of the base of the tree and was literally centuries in the making.
Cider & Cedar is just getting started, hosting live music Friday’s and Saturday’s, gearing up their garden courtyard for the summer, and adding a small food menu soon. The taphouse is 21+ solidifying it as a serious cider drinkers haven for adults.
Cider & Cedar
744 Market St #102b, Tacoma, WA 98402
Wednesday - Thursday 4pm – 10pm
Friday 4pm-11pm
Saturday 2pm – 11pm
Live Music Fridays & Saturdays 6pm-9pm
