Iruda Cafe

Iruda is open 11am to 9pm, which puts it in a small group. Tacoma coffee closes early: most of the independents in this set shut somewhere between 2pm and 6pm. Iruda does not open until late morning and stays on until nine, which makes it an after dinner option rather than a morning one, and puts it alongside Sanaa and Lune as one of the few rooms still pouring at that hour.

It is a Korean cafe rather than an American coffee shop that happens to sell a matcha. The house signature is the ade, the fruit and soda drink that anchors a Korean cafe menu, made by hand here rather than pumped out of a bottle. Premium loose leaf teas sit alongside it, and there are fruit smoothies for anyone not drinking coffee at all.

The bakery is the other half of the proposition. Pastries are baked on the premises daily and draw on Korean recipes rather than the standard croissant and scone case, which makes the selection unlike anything else written up in Tacoma. Espresso and the usual latte range cover the coffee side.

Iruda sits at 4916 Center St, on the same street as the Gravity stand and in a part of Tacoma with little other specialty coffee within walking distance. It carries a 4.8 rating across a small number of reviews, which reads as well liked but not yet widely found. There is no website, so the evening hours are worth confirming before a special trip.