Who Moved Into Whose Old Space? Gig Harbor's Restaurant and Shop Shuffle This Fall

The building at 3222 56th Street has opened under four restaurant names, and a fifth is coming. It was Tanglewood Grill and then O'Neill's Sports Pub. In 2021 it became Dunagan Brewing, and in 2023 owner Joe Brockert renamed it O'Looney's Irish Pub after his grandmother, Sarah O'Looney. O'Looney's poured its last pints on May 30. Next spring the building is expected to fill with the smell of boiling bagels.

That one address sums up Gig Harbor in 2026. Nearly every new name in town this year moved into a room someone else built out. The tenants keep changing, and the kitchens, patios and taps stay where they are. The owners who left describe costs they couldn't carry. The owners who arrived describe a finished space they couldn't pass up.

The map, room by room

As of today, October 5, here's where each space stands, based on reporting from Gig Harbor Now and The News Tribune.

Most of these rooms are being reused for the same purpose. A pub becomes a bagel shop with a big kitchen. A smokehouse becomes a smokehouse. A tasting room becomes a cafe, bakery and deli. A taproom stays a taproom under a new owner.

Why the last tenants left

The owners who closed or sold this year mostly gave the same reasons, in their own words.

Brockert told The News Tribune that taxes and rising fees made O'Looney's unprofitable. He named liquor-license costs and minimum-wage requirements and said the pub broke even before he paid himself.

At Locust Cider, Jason and Rebecca Spears had already closed taprooms in Seattle, Spokane and Woodinville, which left the Gig Harbor room as their last one. "The economics of running a restaurant or bar have changed so significantly, from wages and other costs, that it didn't make sense anymore," Jason Spears told Gig Harbor Now. He also said that as a Gig Harbor resident he wanted to keep the space open for the community, so he looked for a buyer with a similar vision.

Milkvue Handcrafted Donuts + Coffee closed its Point Fosdick Square shop on May 17 after seven years. One of its owners cited rising rent and labor costs. Milkvue still makes donuts and now sells them wholesale to other stores. Brimstone PNW Smokehouse served its last meal on Pioneer Way on Aug. 2.

In most of these cases the business didn't disappear. Locust cider is still sold in stores in Washington and 12 other states. Milkvue donuts still turn up on other shops' counters. What these owners dropped was the cost of running a storefront: staff, rent, licenses and a full dining room.

Why the new tenants picked these rooms

The incoming owners explain the other half. When Brittany Erwin of B's Bagels bought the former O'Looney's, she pointed to what came with the building. "It's a great location and had already been a restaurant and came with all the equipment and furniture," she told Gig Harbor Now.

The numbers show how much space she's gaining. Her current shop on Uddenberg Lane is about 1,300 square feet with nine tables. On busy mornings, customers who can't find a table get a mat to sit on in the grass nearby. The 56th Street building is 3,556 square feet and permitted for 144 seats indoors and out. The shop already makes about 800 bagels a day on weekdays and about 1,000 on weekends. Erwin said the bigger kitchen will let her sell wholesale to nearby coffee shops and stores and finally take a stand at the Waterfront Farmers Market, which the Uddenberg Lane kitchen couldn't produce enough for.

She was candid about the alternative. "I wanted downtown, but there's so little space and what's available is to rent and the prices are outrageous," Erwin said. "This is a better long-term plan for us."

At The Midway, Trish Huff and her brother Nick Hosea, who started Morso Bistro in 2020, waited for one particular room. "When I heard that Heritage was leaving, I felt this was the best spot in the Harbor. Either we do this here or never," Huff told Gig Harbor Now. A little over a month after the July 2 opening, people were filling the bistro chairs outside the corner at Harborview and Pioneer.

At the old Brimstone, Matt and Brenda Henning bought the restaurant and will run it under the shorter name M4S BBQ. They also own My 4 Sons BBQ on Portland Avenue East in Midland, where the kitchen smokes meat daily over hickory and makes its rubs, sauces and sides from scratch.

Where a handoff kept things running

The Locust Cider sale shows how smooth these handoffs can be. Arthur Rodenhauser runs Joysticks, a restaurant, arcade and collectibles store at The Outlet Collection in Auburn. He took over the taproom tucked beside the Inn at Gig Harbor and plans to rename it Harbor Hideout. In their announcement, the Spearses said the doors would stay open, the same staff would stay behind the bar, the games would keep running, and Locust Cider would stay on tap.

"The plan is to continue with what they were trying to do with creating a neighborhood hangout spot, with the arcade, the games and the live music," Rodenhauser said. The change regulars will notice most is food from Joysticks. Earlier reporting said that was waiting on approval to use the taproom kitchen.

Island View Market on Ray Nash Drive is on the same path. Owner Jerry Montiel has listed the shop for sale himself and is looking for someone to carry it on. He hasn't announced a closure.

The rooms still waiting

Not every vacancy filled quickly. Mizu Steakhouse at 3116 Judson Street closed for good on May 4, and its May coverage named no new tenant. Milkvue's former shop was listed for lease in May, and no successor has been reported.

Some newcomers are building out spaces that never served food. Gig Harbor Meat Company, a premium butcher shop, is going into a former paint store at 6876 Kimball Drive and hasn't announced an opening date. In Purdy, Laguna's on the Bay at 13810 Purdy Drive NW cleared a possible sewer-service obstacle when the City Council approved a code change on June 22. In July, the owner estimated about a year and a half until opening.

The one proposal going through the most public review is also a site that never held a restaurant. Chick-fil-A's plan for the former Chevron at 5115 Olympic Drive shows two drive-through lanes and outdoor seating. As of early September it was still under the city's conditional-use review. The project's traffic study projects an average of at least 1,239 more trips each weekday and says the Olympic Drive and Point Fosdick intersection is already over capacity. Proposed median changes would also limit access to the restaurant and to Metropolitan Market's driveway across the street.

One move toward the water

Gig Harbor Wine Co. is moving the opposite way from B's Bagels, toward the waterfront. Robin and Ben Egeland opened their tasting room on Kimball Drive in 2024 and are moving it to 3202 Harborview Drive, next to gather Gig Harbor and across the street from Dolly Mama. "We're excited about being in a more walkable location where people can stop in while spending the afternoon downtown before heading to dinner," Robin Egeland said. The couple is waiting on city permits for changes to the new space, including some plumbing work. She hopes to open by the end of the year but said the timeline is still to be determined.

Their new neighbor is still getting settled too. gather Gig Harbor soft-opened at 3126 Harborview in June as a grab-and-go market. Owners Mandy Minovi and Pouneh Kaufman have described it as a place to fill the gap Harbor General Store left on Pioneer Way in 2023. They withdrew special-use permit requests for some events, and Kaufman said the cost of pursuing the permits outweighed the benefits. A larger remodel is planned, and reports differ on when it happens. In July, The News Tribune described a fall closure and a 2027 reopening as a Mediterranean cafe. In August, Gig Harbor Now quoted Kaufman saying the remodel would come next year. Until the owners announce dates, gather is open.

Dates on the calendar

• First week of October: Purpose Boutique's target opening in the former Starbucks at 4902 Point Fosdick Drive, according to the most recent report from August.
• No date yet: M4S BBQ at 7707 Pioneer Way. The forecasts for early September and early fall have passed, and the owners say to watch the My 4 Sons BBQ Facebook page for updates.
• Hoped for by year-end: Gig Harbor Wine Co. on Harborview Drive.
• Spring 2027: B's Bagels on 56th Street. The Uddenberg Lane shop stays open until the move.
• Already open: The Midway, Couple of Scoops, and Ivar's Seafood Bar at 4901 Point Fosdick Drive, which opened this spring with seating for more than 80 inside and 30 on the patio. Lost Star Tabletop Gaming Outfitters at 3106 Harborview reopened May 5 after a flood kept it closed for nearly six months.

Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce CEO Miriam Battson asks people to support local businesses "not just when they open, but throughout the year," whether they're downtown, in Uptown, in Gig Harbor North or elsewhere around the harbor. Several of the doors on the map above are open right now.

At Catt Johnson, I keep a running list of which Gig Harbor storefronts are changing hands, because a new bagel shop or a busy corner patio changes what a street feels like day to day. If you'd like to know what's planned near a street you care about, book a call and I'll share what I'm tracking.