Tak & Toni’s Dome Stadium Tavern

Worth checking out before they tear it down in January to build condos. This old dive bar was shutdown about 5 years ago and was recently reopened and turned into a beer bar /​art gallery. It look scary on the outside but it’s just fine inside (if you like simple dives).

This has sure looked closed the last several times I went by …

Are you a beer connoisseur? This shall be your new Mecca! Their selection boggles the mind and will leave you scratching your head in wonder.
Okay, maybe not. Fine. Definitely not. It’s a ramshackle, well, shack that appeared to be closed until we got about ten feet from the entrance. It was not closed, but merely almost completely empty.
The beers include Bud & Bud Light on tap. Tallboys of Rainier & PBR. A few bottles. One very awesome and entertaining jukebox that we used to play music that was not concurrent with the crowd gathered there. Rumor has it the Ladies’ bathroom is nasty, the Gents’ room is just okay.
It’ll do in a pinch, if you don’t give too much of a crap about no highfalutin fancy lad beer and just want to kick back and have a good time with some friends.
To the fancy lads out there: What’s on your mind, little girl? You remind me of my niece Sally, she’s a dietitian. Hey, would you like to buy a monkey?!

You know how there are like 2 304 920 342 kinds of toothpaste and you can easily spend hours deciding if you want the Whitening kind with fluoride and vitamin D or just cinnamon flavored enamel decay? Thankfully you don’t need to worry about choices here, as your options are few and far in between. So long as you’re cool with sippin’ a tall boy of PBR or Rainier, you’re golden, so get your @ss down here ASAP!
4 Stars for…
–The Jukebox! It managed to have the greatest songs ever!
–Tall boys of PBR and Rainier… for really cheap
–The faux-​brick walls
–A nice bartender (errr… beer preparer?)
Word to the wise: While an overall clean establishment, the bathrooms have seen better days. And by better days, I mean before the great earthquake in the 1800’s they were getting dingy and I don’t think they’ve been cleaned since…

Oh Dome, thank you for your cheap tallboys. Of both Rainier and Pabst. I appreciate the choices. I was ready for a fabulous dive bar, but it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as expected.
The bartender was super nice and only slightly annoyed looking by our choice of music. That was one really good point — you put money in the jukebox and within a song or two it was your selections. No waiting for hours to hear your songs. The bartender preferred more country music, but I’ll forgive that fact.
The bathroom was a little scary, but forgivable.

Go here
Get drunk
Get more drunk
Spend little money
Look at interesting people
Do again in a week

I had heard many a rumor/​story about how scary and dive-​y the Dome Tavern was so when it was suggested we go check it out I was all for it. I grew up in backyard TJ after all I’m sure it’s not nearly as scary as some of the alley’s I had stumbled around in down there. Guess what it wasn’t! I’ll admit I was disappointed by this.
The place is super bright inside, for a dive bar, and clean too. Plus the super faux brick wall added a nice warm charm to the place. Staff was very friendly and all smiles. There was a nice mix of people unfortunately there wasn’t a nice mix of beer. On tap you had your choice of Bud Ice, Busch and Bud Light, in the cooler than had other beers by the bottle like Coors, MGD, and other shitty pissy beer as well as one import, Heineken. Some people in the group went for the Busch at $ 1.75, and per one individual it was very hairy, O_​o, I on the other hand being the big spender went for the $ 2.75 bottle of Heineken.
For entertainment they have a jukebox that has some GnR along with gangsta’ rap, nice combo. As well as a fairly nice pool table and darts. Plus they have TVs over the bar and while we were there they were showing Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, go figure! If you’re looking to drink some cheap pissy beer while watching Wheel of Fortune this just might be your place.

Holy mother of dive bars!
I’m kind of sad i never went to the Dome during it’s «drug haven heyday». Not for the drugs! because now I have nothing to compare it to than Ballard dives or ‘ironic hipster’ dives.
$ 1.75 for Busch. Where else in this city, except perhaps a few special street corners, can you get Busch for $ 1.75?! Heh.
The owners obviously had a lot of time on their hands during the closure, and put effort into cleaning it up a bit. The warped mirror behind the bar was only mildly streaked, the floor was clean, the little tables along one wall neatly set out. The «brick wall» was super 50’s!
The ladies bathroom has carpet. Carpet. In a bathroom. It also lacks soap and towels of any kind. Or a toilet paper holder. There was just a HUGE roll sitting on the counter. There was a noticeable lack of drug paraphernalia. The men’s bathroom is bright orange.
There is one pool table. It appears to be in really good condition. Electronic dart board. Jute box that played Guns N Roses!!! and Def leppard! and then gangsta’ rap.??
The staff was super attentive and really nice! The owner would hover by the door, in perfect timing with the arrival of another regular stumbling in. He would greet them warmly, and when one guy stumbled into the actual door on his way in, the owner gently urged him «Now don’t drink too much tonight».
It wasn’t too crowded when were were there, but we had «über alcoholic» regulars, a group of mama chola’s, a couple stragglers and us. What a mix of characters!