Johnnys Seafood to reopen with real bistro, delivery hub

Server Jessica Pierce couldnt resist a bowl of steamed Thai Penn Cove mussels prepared by chef and manager Tim Ewing, center, as she and wait staff, including Dawne McMichael, right, sampled food Friday at the remodeled and expanded Johnnys Seafood in Tacoma. DEANJ.KOEPFLERStaffphotographer

A Tacoma waterfront landmark, shuttered since January, will reopen Monday after a multimillion-dollar remodeling and expansion that created a new waterside light-dining option for Tacomans and returns the company that owns it to the retail seafood business.

Johnnys Seafoods updated building at 1199 Dock St. on downtowns Thea Foss Waterway remains in the location the seafood market has occupied for 39 years, but it has several new uses.

The expansion will increase employment at the Tacoma location from the four who operated it before it closed to 24, said Bob Simon, general manager of Pacific Seafoods Washington division.

The old buildings on-site eating facilities consisted of two picnic benches outside the building where customers could eat the shrimp and crab cocktails and smoked salmon they had bought inside at the retail fish counter. The rehabilitated structure has tables for 48 diners inside and a like number outside along the expanded esplanade overlooking the waterway.

The building is equipped with a full kitchen and bar as well as the traditional retail cases for seafood. The bar will also serve beer and wine.

Johnnys, owned by Oregon-based Pacific Seafoods since 2006, added the bistro in part at the suggestion of the city of Tacoma, which owned the building before selling it to Pacific. In return for a reduced price on the structure and the land, the city required Pacific to invest in the remodeling and to create amenities that would add to the liveliness of the Foss Waterway.

The Foss is a former industrial inlet from Commencement Bay that the city and its Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority have been cleaning up and improving for two decades.

Pacific also operates waterfront bistros at two of its Oregon coast locations.

In addition to the bistro and the expanded retail market and distribution facilities that Pacific created, the seafood company expanded the waterfront esplanade that stretches along the waterways east side through its property.

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Johnnys Seafood to reopen with real bistro, delivery hub