TWOKOI Japanese Restaurant forced to temporarily close

By Ron Swarner on November 17, 2014

I stared at the message: TWOKOI is closing. My stomach turned, and my eyes watered. It wasn't until I approached the message a third time that "temporary" registered.

TWOKOI Japanese Restaurant is forced to temporarily close due to the construction improvements to 17th Street outside the restaurant's huge windows. According to the city of Tacoma Construction Projects website, "The University of Washington Tacoma has expressed a desire to re-align South 17th Street into a continuous Street and to reconfigure the intersections at South 17th/Broadway/Jefferson and South 17th/Commerce/Jefferson. This work will include a new rock wall on the north side of South 17th Street between Commerce and Broadway; new ADA ramps at both intersections; curb, gutter, sidewalk; a grind and overlay of Jefferson between South 19th and South 17th and a road section on South 17th between Commerce and the west side of Broadway. This project will also include some utility upgrades."

TWOKOI management, although scared to death, will take advantage of the downtime to make improvement to the Japanese restaurant.

The restaurant will close Nov. 27, and according to TWOKOI management, remain closed until probably May 2015.

The website will remain live, where updates will be posted.

Bye-bye best sake collection in the South Sound.