Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Palouse Tavern
The Palouse Tavern has closed.
In an abrupt turn of events, the longtime bar and grill on the corner of Main Street and Beach closed Dec. 21, after proprietors Bob and Tina Brookshier received an notice to vacate.
It was delivered by new owner, Adam Barron, Dec. 4.
“He walked in and handed us a letter,” said Bob Brookshier. “One little sentence on it and that was it.”
The notice gave them 60 days to vacate the premises which the Brookshiers ran for nine years as Palouse Tavern. Previously, it has also been known as the Wooden Nickel and Palouse Caboose.
Efforts by the Gazette to reach new building owner Adam Barron were unsuccessful.
Once the Brookshiers received the notice, they got to work to be able to vacate by the end of the year.
“Next Tuesday, everything will be gone,” Bob said last week.
All of the tavern’s equipment, furniture and furnishings have been sold.
“We were going to have an auction but shoot, people came in and started buying everything. We didn’t need to have an auction,” Brookshier said.
Last Saturday, the tavern held a “chip day” for its last day and night open.
Chips are similar to vouchers, redeemable for beer. The chips are used throughout the year for situations such as someone buying a round of drinks but one person doesn’t want to drink theirs at the time.
Brookshier said he called Avista and scheduled them to turn off the power Jan. 1.
He and Tina will shut the door Dec. 31 and from there, he said he’s not sure what they will do next.
“We haven’t discussed that yet,” said Brookshier, a former truck driver from Imbler, Ore. “I’m gonna retire again.”
First, Brookshier said, he will finish the tavern’s last quarterly taxes and other final paperwork. Last food items have been claimed by the people who bought the freezers.
Some last dinnerware was donated to Needful Things at the Palouse Community Center.
While Palouse Tavern served as an evening and nightspot, it also opened every morning but Sunday for a coffee group which gathered there.
They will now set up in the Roy M. Chatters Printing Museum across the street, after Museum Director Janet Barstow made an agreement with Monte Nearing and Police Chief Jerry Neumann.
The informal group bought the two-burner commercial coffee pot from Palouse Tavern for $125 and have set it up at the museum.
“This is working perfect,” said Nearing.
In addition to rolling dice to cover the cost of the coffee, the group will also donate to the museum.
They will make the coffee and sit in the existing tables and chairs of the museum’s meeting area.
“It’s a definite win-win,” said Barstow. “This group is very important and for me, I am tickled to have them at the museum to learn from them. I’ve got a lot of questions about Palouse history.”
As for the tavern, she said that is a loss for the town.
“The tavern really was the gathering place for a lot of people, not just for drinking,” she said. “We are certainly hoping for a tavern to come back.”
Aside from the Brookshier’s former establishment, the building includes the space behind it, which was once the old post office, along with vacant apartments on the second floor.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)