"There's three businesses all hyper located in that strip," Spaceworks program director Jennifer English told Tacoma Weekly in late September. She was explaining why she threw a triple grand opening at South 11th Street and Fawcett Avenue.
The three businesses are Tacoma Knife Sharpening and Mercantile, Civic Roasters, and Hive Provisions and Refillery. All three came out of Spaceworks Tacoma, the small business incubator the City of Tacoma runs with the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber. Their addresses run 502, 504-B and 508B South 11th Street, on the edge of downtown where it meets Hilltop. Thanksgiving falls on November 26 this year, so a carving knife, a coffee order and a refill of dish soap can all be one stop on one block. The knife needs the most lead time.
Why Spaceworks Alumni Open Next Door to Each Other
The cluster grew one shop at a time. Tacoma Knife Sharpening and Mercantile moved into its South 11th Street space two years ago, the first Spaceworks business on the strip. Civic Roasters opened its first brick-and-mortar late last year. Hive Provisions and Refillery moved over from South Tacoma Way this summer.
English told Tacoma Weekly the pattern is common. Earlier alumni Write253, Fab-5, Tacoma Tool Library and The N. Dybevik Piano Company once shared a strip along MLK Way. They have all moved since, and Write253 and the Tool Library now operate from the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch.
She gave two reasons for the clustering. A Spaceworks neighbor can confirm a landlord is decent before you sign. And alumni already have "that camaraderie and support system that's sort of built in," so they know they "can call and count on their Spaceworks neighbor." For shoppers, that peer network is why one short walk on South 11th covers a kitchen shop, a café and a general store.
502 South 11th: How the Knife Counter Works
Tacoma Knife Sharpening and Mercantile belongs to chef Stephen Gangl and potter Sarah Woodson. Gangl does all of the sharpening himself. He trained with Bob Tate in Bozeman, Montana, who learned from Bellingham knifemaker Bob Kramer.
According to the shop's sharpening page, sharpening is drop-off only. You bring knives in any time the shop is open, turnaround is "a few days," loaner knives are available, and the shop contacts you when your order is ready. Kitchen professionals can sometimes get overnight service.
Posted prices are per inch of blade for most knives and flat rates for everything else:
- Standard sharpening: $2 per inch, $7 minimum
- Blade thinning or single-bevel blades: $2.50 per inch
- Serration restoration: $3 per inch
- Broken tips, chips or reshaping: from $5
- Shears or hedge trimmers: $15
- Pruners and loppers: $12
- Food-processor blades: $15
- Lawn-mower blades: $17
- Axes: from $15
At those rates, an 8-inch chef's knife costs $16. A short paring knife falls under the $7 minimum. Serrated bread knives and kitchen scissors are both accepted. Hair shears and grooming clippers are not, at least not yet.
The store sells more than sharpening. It stocks culinary knives and tools for home cooks, chefs and bakers, carries handmade Downing Pottery, and keeps a take-one, leave-one cookbook library by the door. Its Knife Sharpening 101 class costs $100 for three hours in person. No November or December session is posted, and the most recently listed sessions sold out.
The Thanksgiving Calendar Math
The shop is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. With a turnaround of a few days, that two-day closure decides when your knife can come back.
November 2026 lines up like this:
- Weekend of November 14–15. Drop off Saturday or Sunday and the shop still has Wednesday through Friday, November 18–20, to work before the next weekend. This is the most comfortable window for a holiday knife.
- Weekend of November 21–22. A Sunday drop-off is followed by the Monday and Tuesday closure, so Wednesday, November 25, would be the only regular business day left before Thanksgiving. Holiday-week hours have not been posted.
- Thanksgiving week itself. Nothing published confirms whether the shop will be open its usual Wednesday hours on November 25 or over the holiday weekend. Call ahead before planning around those days.
If you're bringing several pieces, such as a carving knife, a bread knife and the kitchen shears, make one mid-month trip. The loaner knife covers any cooking you do that week.
504-B and 508B: The Other Two Doors
The next two storefronts make it worth walking the whole strip.
Hive Provisions + Refillery at 504-B South 11th Street belongs to Michele Jones. Tacoma Weekly called it a "modern general store." It sells goods from small and local makers, including gifts, apparel, art, books, games, candles, cards, jewelry and home and kitchen goods, and it offers concierge shopping. Its refillery sells household and personal-care products by the ounce. A September 2026 Zero Waste Washington newsletter listed the refill options. They include laundry detergent, dishwasher and stain products, dish and hand soaps, cleaners, body wash, shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, face wash, moisturizer, toothpaste tablets and floss. If you're hosting, bring a clean bottle and top up the dish soap before the dinner dishes pile up.
Civic Roasters at 508B South 11th Street is Benita Ki's coffee shop and roastery. She roasts small-batch, single-origin coffee from farms and cooperatives, and her packaging is made from renewable plant-based materials. Tacoma Weekly reported that part of the proceeds goes to community organizations. Tacoma Weekly's October profile of the shop listed a fall menu built on roasted Japanese purple sweet potato, apple, orange, brown sugar, maple syrup and chai. A bag of beans for the morning after Thanksgiving fits on the same trip as the knife drop-off.
When All Three Doors Are Open
Each shop keeps its own schedule, so the times when you can visit all three are narrower than any single shop's hours.
| Shop | Address | Posted hours | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tacoma Knife Sharpening and Mercantile | 502 S 11th St | Wed–Fri 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sat–Sun 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Mon, Tue |
| Hive Provisions + Refillery | 504-B S 11th St | Tue–Sun 10 a.m.–5 p.m., per its website | Mon |
| Civic Roasters | 508B S 11th St | Tue–Sat 7:30 a.m.–2 p.m. | Sun, Mon |
All three are open at once Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Sunday, the knife shop and Hive are open but Civic Roasters is closed. Hive's weekend hours vary by source. A South Sound Magazine listing gives Saturday and Sunday as 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so check before a late-afternoon trip. For the November 14–15 drop-off weekend, Saturday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. is the only time you can do all three stops in one visit.
The Program Behind the Strip
The corner works as a shopping stop because of the support that continues after each business opens. Spaceworks owns the second floor of the Mecca Building at 760 Commerce Street and rents it to small business owners for classes, events and workshops. In September it opened applications for artists to book classroom space or small shows. Alumni can also use its coworking space in the Tacoma Armory at 1001 S. Yakima Avenue for free.
English told Tacoma Weekly that 89 to 90 percent of Spaceworks businesses were still operating before the COVID-19 pandemic. The figure is now 80 to 82 percent. She said the program is building a health-check process to keep following alumni after they launch. Other alumni include eTc Clothing Boutique, Tinkertopia, Stocklist, Manuscript, The Poet, Embellish Multispace Salon and Sober AF Zero Proof Bottle Shop. A new Spaceworks cohort started October 27, so more alumni businesses will be opening and looking for space near their peers.
At AMP Properties Group NW, we pay attention to which Tacoma corners get busier and why. A strip where small shops choose to open next to each other is the kind of block-level detail that affects what nearby homes are worth. If you live near downtown or Hilltop and want to know what your place could sell for this season, get an instant home valuation from us. If your timeline is tight, ask about selling fast for cash.
