The most exciting development in this city so nice they named it twice, is the new Power House Theatre in what was formerly the city power plant.
A group of investors, including Mark Anderson from Foundry Vineyards, did an amazing repurpose of the aging brick structure and have created a replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars theatre in London, England. Look for Shakespeare and other live theatre throughout the year.

This month, Marilyn Forever Blonde, opens for a two-week run before heading to New York. In December, Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory will take the stage.

Always heralded for our great historic downtown, some fun new restaurants and specialty stores have joined the retail mix. In April, Green Spoon Eatery started serving their healthy, tasty food for brunch (weekends) lunch and dinner at a sophisticated new spot on Main Street just a few doors from Bright’s Candies. Look for Green Spoon to offer ready-to-go meals sometime this month.

At the end of July, Public House 124 (124 E Main) opened on the block between Colville and Spokane to fans and steady crowds. Everyone’s favorite bartender at the hotel, Matthew Price-Huntington and building owner Jim Sanders put together a great team including chefs David Ponti and Chris Teal, former sous chef at Whitehouse Crawford to create what they are calling “a social dining experience.” What that means is an exciting, casual but seriously good food joint with a dizzying lineup of liquid refreshments, where reservations are unnecessary and you will definitely want to wait for a table on busy nights.

Up Hwy 12, in Waitsburg, Charles Smith opened Anchor Bar on Main Street across jimgermanbar. Look for live entertainment on weekends, including the ‘burg’s resident wine writer and musician, Paul Gregutt.

Vegans rejoice! The Garden Vegan Café opened this summer, next door to Colville Street Patisserie with healthy choices including gluten-free options.

Two new establishments for breakfast are also in the works. Maple Counter Café on Alder next to Marcy’s Bar plans to serve breakfast and lunch, while Bacon & Eggs will be another breakfast option on Main closer to the Whitman Campus. No dates yet for their respective openings.

Over on Spokane Street in the Warehouse District, Stephenson Cellars has morphed into an art gallery with new artists showing every month as well as a pop-up store within the tasting room called Casa Girasol.

If that name sounds familiar, it should. The pop-up pottery shop is a venture from the people who own Girasol Vineyard & Inn and features artisan pottery from Mexico. These rustic, earth-toned clay pots, many belt-high and taller, are crafted by traditional methods in small family compounds.

Next door to Stephenson Cellars, (in Annabelle’s former spot, they closed in June) Lotus, a new import store for clothing and jewelry from Thailand and India has opened. Further up Spokane Street, Charles Smith Wines is a mecca for everything black and white in his stunning new tasting room. If you are in town Thursday nights, don’t miss his Blues & BBQ from 7-10PM.

Several new vintage stores have opened, our fav from last year, DéBouché, next door to Brasserie Four, has great vintage furniture updated with carefully chosen vintage and new accessories.

In July, Door Number Two, a vintage clothing and furnishings store, opened next door to The Garden Vegan Café in a tiny space but some friends have told me what great finds they have uncovered including designer handbags and gently worn cowboy boots.

And in the former location of Cheese Louise, Greg Roybal and Alexa Palmer opened a higher-end recycled clothing store, Blue Mountain Trading Company. If we have their concept right, they canvas the best of the discount and consignment stores on the coast and pick only the most fashionable, highly desirable pieces to bring back to Walla Walla. Some of their finds are repurposed into an entirely different garment, such as taking a fleece hoodie and reinterpreting it into a sexy halter dress.

On the sad news, downtown saw the closing of the only full-time art gallery, Willow in September. And currently, the home decor and accessories shop, By Arrangement, is selling everything as the owner is retiring and closing the store.

You’ll notice that we haven’t even started talking about what’s news in the Walla Walla wine world. We’ll leave that for our Fall Release edition that will come out just before the big weekend in November (4-6).

However, if you are planning a visit, book your stay now. Long-time visitors know that accommodations go quickly and you will want to reserve those dinner reservations as well.

Until then, go drink some Walla Walla wine.

We are pleased to introduce a new feature for our What’s Up blog ~ a look ahead at upcoming events and news of interest to the wine visitor.

If you follow us on Facebook page or on Twitter, you will have gotten first word of these happenings.

Wineries on the Move:

Trio Vintners are the first of the incubator wineries to leave their airport location. Next month, look for their new tasting room on 2nd between Alder & Poplar Streets. They will use Forgeron Cellars as their wine production facility.

Also moving by late summer, Glen Fiona Winery, which is owned by Washington Wine & Beverage Company of Woodinville, will be relocating their tasting room to downtown. Update: Glen Fiona has not reopened a tasting room in Walla Walla. We’ve heard that they are selling the brand from their Silver Lake property in Woodinville. (more…)

Here is a wine visitor’s update on the good food stories happening in Walla Walla:

This week, five Walla Walla restaurants announced they were in various stages of closing their doors. We reported earlier that 26Brix had closed. This was followed by news stories in the Union-Bulletin that Luscious by Nature, Destination Grill, Pine Street Grill (formerly Elmers) and Caravaggio (at the airport) were closing.

For those who thought that for some reason Walla Walla might be spared, this is the hard reality of the nationwide slowdown. While the underlying fundamentals differed for each business, December’s winter weather and the snapping shut of disposable dollars hastened the inevitable conclusion ~ things were not going to get better quickly or in time to save their businesses.

If you follow the link to the UB stories, be sure to scroll all the way down to the comments from locals.

A recent Tourism study clearly indicated that visitors want more reasons to stay over Sundays.  To address this, Downtown Walla Walla Foundation is actively encouraging merchants to open on Sunday and have been getting the word out to the various tourism outlets and lodging properties that Walla Walla is open seven days a week.

The downtown merchant association now counts 45 merchants and services open on Sundays, including 19 restaurants, cafe and coffee shops, 14 retailers, 11 tasting rooms, one museum and the Farmer’s Market.

Be sure to check out the Sunday happenings in downtown Walla Walla on your next visit to our Valley.

Horizon Air announced this week that it is accelerating the phase out of its 37-seat Q200s turboprops currently servicing Walla Walla and replacing them with fuel-efficient 76 passenger Bombardier Q400s. This move had been scheduled for April 2009, but rising fuel prices has spurred the implementation date forward to this October.

Walla Walla had been hoping for the reinstatement of a fourth flight to and from Seattle. However, the greater capacity will go a long way to increase both business and visitor traffic.

According to Bombardier’s website, the Q400 is the most fuel efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft of its size in the world, burning 30 percent less fuel and producing 30 percent less CO2 than a comparable jet.  Passengers will appreciate the larger overhead bins designed to accommodate standard roller bags. Furthermore, the “Q” in the model number stands for “Quiet” due to the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system on the technologically advanced turboprop airliners.

One has really made the big time when your town is profiled in The Gray Lady herself!

Wine Takes Over a Town, and Prosperity Follows

It will be interesting to see what a rush of new awareness this brings to Walla Walla.

What a transformation downtown Walla Walla has undergone in recent years! From the ’90s when tumbleweeds blew through Main Street to a vibrant, energized downtown, Walla Walla has seen tremendous growth and revitalization in recent years. Especially notable is the increase in tasting rooms throughout the core area. On Main Street, Waterbrook Winery has been joined in recent years by Fort WW Cellars, Sapolil Cellars and DaMa Wines. East Main will soon have a new anchor when Nicolas Cole Cellars, at 229 E. Main ~across from Backstage Bistro ~ opens their tasting room doors in time for Spring Release Weekend.

In March, Walla Walla’s oldest flower shop, O’Con’s Flowers (next door to Merchant’s Deli) closed the retail side of their business and their location will soon be the new home for (more…)

Looking for your own piece of vineyard heaven? Joe Chauncey of Boxwood Architects, Seattle is involved with planning the Bergevin Springs Vineyard Estates with several area winery owners and J.T. Atkins company of Bend, Oregon.

Located on 400 acres within the rolling Palouse hills north of Walla Walla, Washington, the project will include 10 vineyard estates and winery buildings.

It was one line in the February edition of Wine Business magazine’s article on the ‘Top 30 U.S. Wine Companies’ that grabbed our attention. “Precept Brands #21 is building a 250,000-case facility in Walla Walla that should be operational for the 2008 harvest.”

CEO Andrew Browne confirmed the story in an email, but said an official announcement would follow after permits and ground had been broken.

This is a significant first for our valley. Up until now, case production was well under 75,000 cases with Canoe Ridge Vineyards the Valley’s largest producer followed by Waterbrook Winery (Precept) and possibly l’Ecole #41. Stay tuned for location, but good bets are for the west side of the valley near the new highway.