On March 19, by the time the clock neared 8 a.m. at 1702 6th Ave., the ovens had been hot for hours. Staff pulled down the paper that had covered the windows for months and switched on a neon "open" sign. That's how The News Tribune described the first morning at Balloon Roof Baking Co. On the second day, co-owner and lead baker Don Broyles told the paper that Friday had been twice as busy as Thursday, with no official announcement, just word moving through local forums.
The bakery's opening set the pattern for the rest of the year on Sixth Avenue. Most of the year's arrivals and returns serve sourdough, juice, doughnuts and brunch, and they keep daytime hours. They're also bunching into a few blocks between Sixth and Division and the 2800s, where two of the Ave's evening businesses closed or moved out this year.
A street that now opens before sunrise
The clearest way to see the shift is to sort the Ave by when each spot unlocks its door. Here are the hours each business published in 2026:
| Business | Address | 2026 status | Hours as published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legendary Doughnuts | 2602 6th Ave. | Established shop | 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sun–Thu; 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. or sold out Fri–Sat |
| Balloon Roof Baking Co. | 1702 6th Ave. | Opened March 19 | 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, as updated in May |
| Gather Juice Co. | 2612 6th Ave. | Reopened April 6 | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon–Fri; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat–Sun, as of April |
| Katsu Burger | 2805 6th Ave. | Opened in April | 11 a.m. to about 9 p.m. daily, half an hour later Fri–Sat, as of April |
Three of the four are open by 8 a.m. on a weekday, and two are closed by 5 p.m. Balloon Roof is done at 3. Hours change with the seasons, so check each shop's own page before a Saturday run. The overall shape holds, though. The Ave's new business is front-loaded into the morning.
That list leaves out two long-running all-day breakfast spots that bracket the stretch. The Hob Nob at 716 6th Ave. serves breakfast all day at the east end. Shakabrah Java at 2618 6th Ave. does breakfast all day with coffee, in the same block as Legendary and Gather.
The 2600 block is now a breakfast block
The new morning spots sit close together. A morning walk from east to west looks like this:
- The Hob Nob, 716 6th Ave. All-day breakfast, well east of the business district's core.
- Balloon Roof Baking Co., 1702 6th Ave. Sourdough loaves, bagels, croissants, topped focaccia slices, cookies and kouign-amann. A row of tables looks out over the intersection of Sixth and Division.
- Legendary Doughnuts, 2602 6th Ave. Open at 5 a.m., the earliest door on the Ave.
- Gather Juice Co., 2612 6th Ave. Cold-pressed juice, smoothies, bowls and toasts.
- Shakabrah Java, 2618 6th Ave. All-day breakfast and coffee.
- Katsu Burger, 2805 6th Ave. A lunch-and-dinner counter that has started experimenting with mornings. More on that below.
Stops three through five are within about 16 street numbers of each other. You can get a doughnut, a cold-pressed juice and a plate of breakfast without crossing a side street.
Gather's return is a big part of why that block holds together. The plant-based shop first opened at 2612 in 2019 and closed abruptly last winter. It reopened on April 6 under a new partnership, after the health department signed off the week before. The News Tribune described regulars filing back in that Monday morning for old favorites like the carrot-heavy Night Vision and the beet-based Roots. The paper reported prices "inched up a touch." Most juices ran $9.50 to $10 and bowls $13 to $15 at reopening, and the owners said costs had risen across the board.
The cold-pressed process needs a pricey machine that works differently from an everyday juicer. The News Tribune noted Gather was one of the only sources for that kind of juice when it first opened. That's part of why a short closure on this block registered as a real loss.
Even the taproom space ended up serving brunch
The building at 2805 6th Ave. shows the shift most plainly. Until Saturday, Jan. 31, it was The Redd Dog's U-Pour taproom. The Redd Dog then moved its operation to a brewery and taproom at 2302 Fawcett Ave. downtown. The Washington Beer Blog reported a soft opening there on June 17.
Katsu Burger took over the Sixth Avenue space and opened the first weekend in April. It was the Seattle-born Japanese fusion chain's first Tacoma location. The team painted the walls in the brand's orange and purple. The News Tribune reported a mural of Godzilla eating a Katsu Burger would replace the old dog imagery outside.
Its regular hours start at 11 a.m. On Sunday, Oct. 4, though, the restaurant ran a chicken-and-waffles brunch from 8 to 11 a.m. The menu had Japanese-style waffles, hot honey katsu chicken, a Japanese loco moco, mimosas and coffee, according to the 6th Ave Business District's events calendar. A space that poured beer into the evening a year ago spent a fall Sunday morning serving waffles.
The rest of the 2805 building points the same way. The News Tribune reported this spring that Bagel's Bagels, a family-owned shop planning New York-style bagels, sandwiches and coffee, would go into the former Locust Cider space next to Katsu Burger. A building permit application for the bagel shop was filed in March. You can follow the shop at instagram.com/bagelsbagelstacoma.
One block west of Legendary, another doughnut address
The 2700 block has its own doughnut address. In March, The News Tribune reported that Voodoo Doughnut, the Portland chain known for its pink boxes, planned its first Pierce County shop at 2702 6th Ave. That's the former Emerald Leaves space. The city approved a building permit for the project on March 13, 2026.
Same-side-of-the-street geography is what readers noticed first. The paper's follow-up column pointed out that commenters on its story noted Legendary Doughnuts is one block away on the same side of Sixth. Put 2702 next to Balloon Roof's bagels at 1702 and the planned bagel shop at 2805, and the pattern is plain. The newest storefront plans on the Ave are for categories that are already doing business a block or two away.
The city's own plans fit that walking pattern. The $6.6 million 6th Avenue Pedestrian Crossing Safety Improvements project covers the corridor between Jackson and Grant avenues. Its scope includes pedestrian countdown and audible signals, flashing beacons, signal timing changes, and medians or bulb-outs to shorten crossings at selected intersections, per The News Tribune's May report. The same report scheduled grinding and paving at 6th and Sprague in May, a short walk from Balloon Roof's corner at Division.
The late hours moved to the ends of the Ave
The two businesses in the core stretch that closed or moved out this year had something in common. Both were evening businesses.
The Redd Dog's taproom became a burger counter. A few doors down, Pizza Time Pub at 2710 6th Ave. closed early this summer. It sits next to Hi-Voltage Records & Books, in the space that used to be Half Pint Pizza Pub. A planned takeover by Overflo Potato, an Eastside loaded-potato pop-up, didn't go through. The News Tribune reported in September that property owner Patrick Mawhinney was selling the 2,100-square-foot building without an active tenant.
The year's late-night opening landed far to the west instead. Comal en Brasa opened in late summer at 6409 6th Ave., Suite 14, in the plaza with Grocery Outlet and Gyro Bites. It comes from Jose and Sonia Paulino, who also own neighboring Fuego Nightclub. The menu runs from handmade pupusas, including revueltas, loca and loroco, to Salvadoran- and Mexican-style tamales, empanadas, tacos, a plato tipico and soups. You order at the counter. The News Tribune lists hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Tacoma Local Minute notes the restaurant's ordering page lists a separate late-night menu, so check what's available after the dinner hour.
So on a Saturday this month, the Ave's earliest door is Legendary's at 2602, opening at 5 a.m. The latest kitchen is Comal en Brasa's at 6409, serving until 2 a.m. The 2600 to 2800 blocks between them do their heaviest business in daylight.
If you live within walking distance of the 2600 block, the shops that open earliest on the street are part of what you'd describe to a buyer someday. When you want to know how that block-by-block detail shows up in pricing a home near Sixth Avenue, The Network is happy to walk through it with you over coffee on the Ave. Schedule a free consultation.
