What do you actually do with a 1916 Elks lodge when the Elks are gone? If you’re McMenamins, you spend years and serious money restoring it room by room and open it as a hotel, bar, restaurant, and concert hall. The result, on Broadway in downtown Tacoma, is one of the more genuinely surprising buildings you can walk into in this city.
The Spanish Ballroom sits on the upper floor and it’s the main reason to visit. The ceilings are high, the walls carry hand-painted murals referencing Tacoma’s history — some of it uncomfortable, rendered with enough honesty that you pause and read — and the whole room has the acoustics of a space that was built before anyone thought about soundproofing as a design afterthought. When a band is set up at the far end, the sound travels. Standing in the back with a drink, you can hear clearly and still have a conversation at normal volume between songs. That’s rarer than it should be.
Shows here tend toward mid-size acts — touring musicians, local favorites with a following, occasional comedy nights. Tickets usually run $15 to $35 depending on the act. The capacity keeps things from feeling like a stadium experience, and the floor layout gives you room to move without being crushed. Check McMenamins’ event calendar before you go; there’s no single night of the week that locks in the best programming.
The building itself is worth arriving early for. The hotel rooms above are decorated with original art tied to local Tacoma stories — McMenamins does this at all their properties, but the Tacoma location’s murals feel more substantive than decorative. The ground-floor bar, the Crystal Ballroom bar space, and the outdoor beer garden each have their own character. If you show up at 6 p.m. for a 8 p.m. show, you’ll have time to explore without feeling rushed.
Food is straightforward McMenamins fare — burgers, fries, pub staples. Nothing about the menu is trying to impress you, and that’s fine. The kitchen is there to fuel an evening out, not to be the reason you came. Prices are moderate: most entrees fall between $14 and $20. The bar selection is what you’d expect from a Pacific Northwest operation with its own brewing and distilling — their Ruby Ale on draft, their own spirits if you want to keep it in-house.
Parking downtown can be tricky on show nights, especially weekends. Street parking on the blocks surrounding Broadway fills up fast, and the nearby garages are a reasonable backup. The venue is walkable from several of Tacoma’s more active restaurant corridors if you want to eat elsewhere first, which is worth considering if you care about the meal more than the convenience of staying put.
The Elks Temple opened as a McMenamins property in 2019 after a long restoration. It hasn’t been around long enough to feel like a Tacoma institution yet, but it’s building toward that. The bones of the building were always there. Someone finally let them be seen.
