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.