Olympia's Fall Arts Walk Is Also Opening Night for the Downtown That Nearly Lost Three Shops This Summer

"Olympia is kind of a sleepy city, so we just didn't really work as a community place at that hour, you know," Chancellor Pruett, general manager of Rex and Rose, told The Olympian in July. "We're best for people to come hang out, but nobody wants to get up and go hang out at 8 a.m., right?"

He said it right after downtown got some hard news. Within a few weeks, Wayside Cafe, Bucks Spices and Teas, and Rex and Rose had all announced they would close. Three months later, the Fall Arts Walk on Friday, Oct. 2 and Saturday, Oct. 3 will take people past all three of those spots. None of them looks the way it did in June, and none of them simply went away.

Three Closing Notices, Three Second Acts

By September, The Olympian reported that all three businesses "bounced back and found a way to carry on in business, albeit in slightly different ways."

Rex and Rose, at 203 Fourth Ave. E. across from the State Theater, stayed open by changing its schedule. Pruett said the shop needed to show growth over the following two months for its silent owners. The September roundup listed it among the downtown businesses that carried on.

Bucks Spices and Teas closed its storefront at 209 Fifth Ave. E. to sell online. Gabriel Charter, a former employee, then opened Olympia Spice Co. in the same space. "I thought it would be a shame for Olympia not to have a spice company at this location doing the same thing, more or less," he told The Olympian. He also said restaurant owners nearby kept telling him, "You should take over."

Wayside Cafe & Deli set July 18 as its last day at Capitol Way S. and Fifth Avenue SE. Co-owner Jamelle "Jamie" Parker kept the food going anyway. She now makes vegan mac and cheese, rotating cakes, cold sandwiches, potato and pasta salads, and dressings in a commissary kitchen. Those go to the westside and eastside Olympia Food Co-op stores, to Spuds in Olympia and Tumwater, and to a co-op in Yelm. "I turned it into a different business," she said. Her former partner, Kevin Rainsberry, still runs Le Voyeur on Fourth Avenue.

Every Fix Went Later or Smaller

Look at what each business actually changed and the same kind of fix keeps showing up.

Rex and Rose used to open at 7 a.m. It now opens at 10 a.m., closes at 8 p.m., and is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Olympia Spice Co. is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Parker gave up the storefront because she "no longer had the capacity to operate" one, but she still had customers for the food.

The newest restaurant in the area follows the same logic. Off Track opened in September at 422 Legion Way SE, where Gotti Sweets used to be. It comes from business partners Taylor Vroman and Dan Compean. Vroman said he picked the space because it was the right size and he "wasn't interested in opening a restaurant that would consume his life." It also already had a commercial range hood and a walk-in cooler, and he noted that a new hood can be very expensive. The menu is diner food: sandwiches, soups and salads. After about a week, the ham-and-brie "big brie" on sourdough was the top seller. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Other shops moved without closing. Walrus and Kitten Vintage came downtown this summer to 313 Fifth Ave. SE, between Rainy Day Records and Orca Books. Radiance Herbs & Massage and Kindred Moon Apothecary moved across the street to 106 Fifth Ave. SE and reopened in late August.

Here's what has changed on those blocks since early summer.

Arts Walk Is Where Several New Doors Officially Open

Arts Walk runs Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. Individual venues can set their own hours. For several businesses that opened this year, this weekend is their first big public night.

The Infernal Annex, a horror-focused bookstore at 100 Fourth Ave. E., had a soft opening on Sept. 5 and planned to be open daily starting in October. Its Arts Walk listing calls the weekend its grand opening. Hours are Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday noon to 5 p.m. Illustrator Bloom Bárseach Evermore will be there, and on Saturday from 1:30 to 3 p.m. there's a ticketed meet-and-greet with the Hellbound wrestlers. Tickets are through infernalannex.com.

Death Dancer is opening its new space, The Edge, at 412 Jefferson St. SE, during Arts Walk. JOLT News reported this on Sept. 30. The opening show is "Welcome to The Edge: Perspectives on Death, Dying, Loss & Living," with interactive memorial activities and performances. The group's own schedule starts with a grand opening on Thursday, Oct. 1 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 4. On Saturday it includes a talking circle, poetry, Playback Theatre, and a community hangout from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

Rica Cocina took over the former Chicory space at 111 Columbia St. NW in April and serves quesabirria and fresh-fruit margaritas. For its first fall Arts Walk it's showing Nate Naismith's photography and staying open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. both days. Rex and Rose and Glowies, the breakfast-sandwich and coffee shop that opened March 22 at 113 Fourth Ave. W., are both in the Arts Walk venue directory.

A Route Through the New Downtown

The free activity zone is the four blocks around Fifth Avenue SE and Washington Street SE. Expect cornhole, ping-pong, giant Jenga, a community mosaic, a Halloween green-screen, and an Intercity Transit art-bus activity. Most of the businesses above are within a few blocks of that intersection, so it works as a starting point.

1. Start at the activity zone. Studio West Dance Academy performs at Fifth and Washington at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Next door, The Washington Center at 512 Washington St. SE is showing Debra Van Tuinen's "RETROSPECTIVE."
2. Walk Fifth Avenue SE. You'll pass Walrus and Kitten Vintage at 313, Radiance and Kindred Moon at 106, and P.O.W.E.R. at 309, which has a group show of folk, fiber, paper-clay and upcycled art. Olympia Spice Co. is at 209 Fifth Ave. E. and is open Saturday until 6.
3. Cut up to Fourth Avenue. Stop at The Infernal Annex at 100 Fourth Ave. E. and Rex and Rose at 203. On the west side, Childhood's End Gallery at 222 Fourth Ave. W. is showing "Nocturnal," with paintings by Liza Brenner and Jonathan Happ and sculpture by Loralin Toney. Across the street, Cascadia Grill at 200 Fourth Ave. W. has Eden Lane Duo jazz Friday from 6 to 9 p.m.
4. See the cover art. This fall's cover piece is Devin River's textile work "The Gleam," hanging at Stardust Salon, 111 Capitol Way N. Continue to the Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts at 120 Olympia Ave. NE for "Temporal: Stories of Indigenous Present, Re-imagining Indigenous Futures."
5. End at the water. The Arts Market runs along Percival Landing with more than 75 local artists and makers. Rica Cocina is close by on Columbia Street. Vino Mar Bistro, the coastal-Mexican wine bar that replaced Dockside Bistro at 501 Columbia St. NW, also faces the Landing.

Off Track on Legion Way is a few blocks south of the activity zone and serves dinner until 9 both nights. It isn't on the Arts Walk schedule.

What Stays on the Calendar After Sunday

Several of these shows outlast the weekend. "Nocturnal" runs through Nov. 15. JOLT's calendar lists "Temporal" through Dec. 11.

There are also two schedule changes coming up. Trek Bicycle Olympia West on Harrison Avenue closes Oct. 17 and merges with Trek Bicycle Olympia East at 1931 Fourth Ave. E. The Olympia Farmers Market at 700 Capitol Way N. keeps its Thursday-through-Sunday schedule, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., through Oct. 31. Starting Nov. 1 it's open Saturdays and Sundays only. Four of the five Saturdays left in the market's high season come after Arts Walk weekend.

If a summer of closing notices and comebacks on Fourth and Fifth avenues has you wondering what your own place near downtown is worth this fall, Anne at Serving The Sound can walk you through it with local, current numbers. Request a Free Home Valuation and get a straight answer.