#1782 - Airport Bar and Grill, Tacoma, WA - 5/20/2012

Airport Tavern, Tacoma, WA - 2012

South Tacoma Way is a great stretch of dive bars and ramshackle memories of when it was part of Highway 99 and a major thoroughfare, elaborate signs and business models beckoning drivers off the road. That faded away in the 60s, when Interstate 5 and Tacoma Mall snatched the traffic away, but for a fan of old dive bars, it is one of the best stretches in the state.

I haven't found much history for the Airport Bar and Grill, but you know it's been around for a while, not just from the weathered signs and decor, but because it was named for the old South Tacoma Airport which closed down in the 70s. The Airport Cigar Store is listed at this address in the bars section of city guides from at least 1940 in the 60s. It's now a mishmash of comfortable styles now, a gay bar with drag shows, but playing country music for a single elderly patron when we came in.

Airport Tavern, Tacoma, WA - 2020

5406 South Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409 - (253) 475-9730
Est. ? By 1940 - Building constructed: 1927
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