Feb 11 2024 62 mins 4
Chris Miller from The Red Hot joins us to share about 17 years of running one of Tacoma’s most popular bars. He talks about starting bar in Tacoma, all the lessons he’s learned along the way, and advice he has for other people with a dream of opening a bar in Tacoma. He shares about working all over the Puget Sound as a Union Carpenter before deciding to get in the bar business.
How The Red Hot in Tacoma Started
After an injury forced Chris Miller to reconsider his career path, he decided to take a big risk and start a hot dog bar in Tacoma. His brother owned a bar in another town, so he took the leap and decided to open a bar in Tacoma. He talked about driving around Tacoma and just calling signs in windows until he found his 6th Avenue location for the bar. “I started looking around at spaces and it was 997 square feet, that includes the bathroom.” he says, “In those days… smaller bars did not exist in this town. It didn’t seem small to me. But everyone who came in was like, ‘What are you doing!?'”
He shares about how starting out it was just him and his parents working in the bar. He didn’t have a business loan or cash, so he took a risk and put everything on his credit card to open. “I thought I don’t have any money, but I can build it,” Chris said. “I had some friends from the industry who would come help. My folks were there right next to me.”
“People always ask me how I decided on beer and hot dogs,” says Chris. “I just like beer and hot dogs!”
The success of The Red Hot surprised him. “I thought we’d sell like a couple dozen a week.” He worked a double 5 days a week and did admin stuff on his days off. He emphasises that he was working at the bar constantly and brought home very little in the beginning. “My wife carried our family,” he says. “I think for the first year it was like that. Putting in the work and some miserable times.”
It started working out after a year, and they hired their first staff member. He didn’t realize how busy it would be once it took off, so staffing up was the next challenge. Over time The Red Hot went from being a small family owned business to a very successful bar- winning Best Hot Dog in Washington State. From hiring baristas instead of servers to having a tiny bar, Chris talked about how the things that made them different set them apart.
How to Open a Bar in Tacoma
Chris talks about how much more expensive leases are in Tacoma. It makes things much more challenging for regular people wanting to open their own bar. He had help from other bar owners in Tacoma, especially the folks from The Parkway and Doyles. “There was a lot of luck involved,” he says. “If I’d known how hard it was going to be I wouldn’t have done it.”
From signing commercial leases and learning what triple nets are to dealing with the permit department at The City of Tacoma, Chris shares about all the lessons he has learned in the past 17 years. He worries that it’s only become harder for someone like him to open a bar in Tacoma, and that is not good for the fabric of Tacoma. “Spaceworks should be a way bigger thing than it is,” he says. “We need to make it accessible for goofballs like me!”
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