He brought craft beer to Tacoma before it was cool. This visionary icon will be missed

Like so many of the people who helped shape the Tacoma we know today, Pat Nagle was many things to many people.

Nagle was the renowned life of the party. He was a tireless entrepreneur who helped create a local brewery and taproom scene that still thrives. He was an avid outdoor enthusiast, often found making the first ski tracks down the mountain or on his kayak in Commencement Bay. A proud Foss High School graduate, he was a lifelong champion of Tacoma.

More than anything, though, Nagle — who died unexpectedly Feb. 23 of a heart attack, according to his family — was a friend, the best anyone could ask for, in the words of those closest to him.

Nagle, who turned 60 three days before he died, is known for launching Harmon Brewery and Restaurant in 1997. Working closely with the late Fred Roberson, he was instrumental in helping to transform the nine-story Harmon building, at 1944 Pacific Ave., from a vacant, largely derelict warehouse into one of Tacoma’s downtown gems — an anchor for the 2000s downtown renaissance spurred by the arrival of the University of Washington Tacoma.

But according to Jesse Holder, who came to know Nagle in the early 2000s, just as his mom, Carole Ford, was becoming Nagle’s longtime business partner at the Harmon, he was a lot more than that.

“He had a love for dogs, and he was like a golden retriever himself. He was the friendliest, happiest, most non-grudge-holding person in the entire world. He was just an amazing human being,” said Holder, who today works for a local beer, wine and beverage distributor. “Everybody sees Pat as Mr. Tacoma. He was a pioneer in the beer scene. To me, he was like an uncle — always there.”

In all, Nagle spent roughly two decades guiding The Harmon Brewery and Restaurant. Along with Ford, he also opened three other restaurants across the area. He sold the final shares of the small empire he’d built, which by then included locations of the Hub in Tacoma, Puyallup and Gig Harbor, in late 2019.

In a twist of fate, according to a representative from Harbor Hospitality, the company that bought out Nagle, a sale of The Harmon Brewery and Restaurant is expected to close this week.

The Pacific Avenue restaurant’s last day in operation under current ownership was Feb. 25, two days after Nagle’s death. Business at area Hub locations continues, the restaurants’ representative said.

According to Mathew Shaw, property manager and president of the company that owns the historic Harmon building, a Pierce County-based restaurateur is expected to occupy the space when the sale closes and a lease has been finalized.

Once a beacon of activity — a destination that energized a downtown in desperate need of new life — the Harmon Brewery and Restaurant now sits dark and empty, at least for the time being.

Groundbreaking visionary

Survey Tacoma’s exploding brewery and taproom scene, and Nagle’s lasting impact isn’t hard to find.

You can see it in the bars and on the local menus, according to Matt McLaren, co-host of the Grit and Grain podcast and a sales and brand manager with Orcas Distributing in Kent.

In the local lore, most brew historians agree that E9 was Tacoma’s first brew pub. Others still swear it was the Harmon.

McLaren, who washed kegs for Nagle when he was a teenager, says the distinction matters little; what’s certain, he told The News Tribune, is that Nagle’s approach to business and adult beverages helped pave the way for all the flourishing craft beer options we have today.

“He seemed to have his finger on the pulse of what people really wanted to hear. I think he noticed early on that people wanted to have access to knowledge that most people don’t have, which I think is why Pat and some of his staff insisted on describing beer in kind of a technical way,” said McLaren, noting that in the late 1990s, few people knew how to gauge a beer by ingredients like hops, malts and grains.

“Now, 20-some years later, you can’t go to a place that takes his craft beer seriously and not hear them describing beer that way,” McLaren continued. “As more businesses opened up, they had to compete, and they adopted things the Harmon was already doing. They had to offer high-quality product, and they had to offer knowledge. That’s a trend that’s still going strong.”

Beyond Nagle’s accomplishments in brewing — which included Harmon beers winning multiple Great American Beer Festival medals, thanks in no small part to former head brewer Mike Davis — his influence in Tacoma’s downtown revitalization was just as profound, according to Shaw.

Shaw got to know Nagle when his restaurant became the first tenant in his stepfather Fred Roberson’s restored Harmon building. Together, the long-time partners had a vision that few others could see at the time, he said.

“I drove down in that neighborhood and the Harmon Building really stood out to me,” Nagle told South Sound Talk in 2018. “This big, tall, brick building … what a great building. I had noticed there were a lot of microbreweries popping up in Seattle, Portland and even Olympia, but Tacoma seemed to be the only place without a microbrewery restaurant.”

Nagle’s confidence paid off, Shaw suggested.

“I think Pat’s impact was tremendous. He got the sandbox with Fred and took risks, and started something that didn’t exist in Tacoma. That area, at the time, was not particularly safe. A lot of people thought they were crazy. It took a lot of guts, and he pulled it off,” Shaw said.

“As the building owner, the Harmon was our anchor tenant that got us on the right track right away,” Shaw continued. “That was a very successful restaurant, really for years.”

According to Holder, one of the things that made Nagle one-of-a-kind was his love of Tacoma and its people. Through his restaurant, Nagle supported numerous worthy causes over the years, including the American Heart Association and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Puget Sound.

Through the relationships he built, Nagle’s generosity and warmth spread much further, Holder said.

“Pat liked good food, he liked good beer, and he liked amazing people,” Holder said. “Having a brewery and being able to provide stuff that he enjoyed — and give back to the community — was his vision.”

‘So proud of Tacoma’

Nagle wasn’t just a legend in the world of local craft beer — he was a Tacoma kid, through and through, according to his mother, Myrna Nagle, now 85.

Predictably, Myrna Nagle said the sudden death of her son came as a shock, one the large family — including Pat’s father, Jack, and siblings Mike, Laure, Shannon and Colleen — is still reeling from.

Only adding to the heartbreak, Pat’s beloved 14-year-old black lab, Walter, died the same day, his mother said.

Myrna Nagle described Pat as a “very giving” person who “loved people and was very outgoing.” The bar business was in her son’s blood, she believes; Pat’s grandfather ran the long-defunct Frank and Mike’s Tavern on Sixth Avenue, a location that’s now home to O’Malley’s Irish Pub.

“Like his grandpa Frank, he had the same personality — with the giving and the caring and always having all kinds of ideas for something new,” Myrna Nagle said. “I think that was just Pat. He loved being around people, and up until the day he died, he was still having new ideas.”

According to his younger sister, Shannon Sandri, Pat was shaped by his upbringing. He studied business and marketing at Washington State University and dabbled in medical sales before returning to Tacoma to open the Harmon. Even when his restaurant business was at its most successful, he never forgot his roots, she said.

“We had such unique and special childhoods, and I think he probably wanted to give back to the community because of that,” Sandri said. “He’s always been so proud of Tacoma. He wanted to give back to people in Tacoma, and focus his energy on his local community.”

On Monday, Myrna Nagle looked back on her son’s life, cut short, as one driven by passion, conviction and care for those around him — and the place he called home.

“He was just born that way,” Myrna Nagle said.

“He wanted to share everything with everybody. If he had something, he’d give it away.”