We’re still not quite sure if Terry’s Office Tavern is a real and true dive. It certainly looks as though it would be classified as a dive, but it sure doesn’t feel like one.

Instead, Terry’s feels like the neighborhood hideaway. The tavern where local homeowners escape dinner duty and local DINKS go to feel unpretentious comfort. I say this because as Terry’s clock closed in on six o’clock, the place was packed for dinner. Not necessarily with the typical toothless mullets, but with bright eyed couples aging from 25 to 85. These people were coming in for food, not drunkenness.

Bandito Betty and I saw no leather captain’s chairs, but what Terry’s Office Tavern did have was some screaming dive bar décor. A gravel parking lot, an obscene amount of retro beer swag hanging from the walls, and an actual keg tied to the ceiling was enough to call this place a dive. What definitely sealed the dive-bar deal was the patterned avocado-green carpeting that went halfway up the wall. Yeah baby — nothing says “captured grease and smoke smells’” like some carpeting on the walls.

What caught my attention were the generous wine pours. The bartender filled the glass to the rim. That’s right, no half-glass half-ass pour; this one was all the way to the rim. So what if it was poured from the ginormous Costco-type bottle? That glass was filled!

Terry’s Office Tavern has an impressive domestic Budweiser-type beer selection on tap. Alongside the domestics there are three more taps, which house the likes of Red Hook and Deschutes.

Although there was only one person working the floor, she was hustlin’ and bustlin’ very nicely in order to take care of what was to be a very large dinner crowd. By the time we were leaving, there wasn’t a seat left in the house. We wondered what dish Terry’s was known for in order to fill the joint up like that. This was answered by the quote of the night, which came from a friend of ours we lovingly call “Frodo.” He says, “Terry’s Office Tavern has the best worst pizza in town.”

Judging by the amount of people there for dinner, I’m pretty sure he’s right.

Terry’s Office Tavern

3410 N. Proctor St., Tacoma, 253.752.6262

Service: spot-on
Beer: typical
Food: popular
North End DINK count: 25

Bar Exam Dive Grade: C+