At 1135 Railroad Ave., the aquarium tanks stay lit after the fish shop closes. You can look at them for free while the coffee bar serves until midnight. A few blocks away, Sweet Bay Cafe's brunch kitchen still shuts down in the afternoon. Starting tonight, though, the room stays open until 10 p.m. under murals of agave plants left over from Red Star Taco Bar.
Both changes come out of the same short stretch of downtown history. In September, Bellingham lost several long-running restaurants. The first spaces to come back are cafés that stay open into the evening, and neither is a full-service dinner room. For anyone who lives downtown or nearby, there are now two all-ages places to spend a weeknight evening that didn't exist a month ago.
September cleared a lot of tables
It was a heavy month for last calls. Luna's Bistro in Barkley Village served its last meal on Sept. 11, when the owners retired after 15 years, Cascadia Daily News reported. Magdalena's Bistro & Creperie on Granary Avenue ended regular service on Sept. 13 when its lease ran out after 17 years, according to The Bellingham Herald. Owner Magdalena Theisen told the Herald she planned to keep cooking through private-chef dinners and cooking classes.
Red Star Taco Bar on North State Street closed Sept. 25. Rock and Rye Oyster House, a block away at 1145 N. State St., closed after service on Sept. 26, twelve years after it opened, the Herald reported. In Fairhaven, Corner Taphouse said it would close at the end of September. The owners told Cascadia Daily News that an 80% rent increase was "the final straw." The Lumpia Luv food truck at Beach Cat Brewing ended its run on Sept. 27.
As of this writing, no new tenant has been confirmed for most of those spaces. A business license under the name "Crazy Pho You" has been filed for the former Luna's address at 3004 Cinema Place, the Herald reported Oct. 9. Downtown, the first changes have taken a different form.
The Red Star room becomes Sweet Bay's evening room
Red Star and Sweet Bay Cafe have the same owners and share a building. Co-owner Padraic Markle told Cascadia Daily News that running two full-service menus had been "too much." So Sweet Bay took over the former taco bar space. Starting Monday, Oct. 12, it stays open until 10 p.m. every day.
The kitchen schedule is the same as before. It still closes at 2 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on weekends, and evening visitors will find a few food options, including paninis. Sweet Bay will still serve alcohol, but Markle said the evening room is meant for all ages and won't be built around drinking.
Red Star regulars will recognize Dominique Miller's agave murals, which stayed. Markle and some friends painted a new one of Mount Baker. The rest is still being planned. Markle described comfortable seating, low-pressure games like cribbage and backgammon, and a small stage for live music, and he said the full concept is still coming together.
He explained the idea in terms of how people connect:
"I think there's different levels of community," Markle told Cascadia Daily News. "And sometimes people get intimidated by the deep level of commitment necessary for" some activities, such as sports or volunteering.
Tonight's opening celebration runs from 6 to 9 p.m., and Big Bad Bookstore, a pop-up that focuses on marginalized authors, will be selling books.
The old Woods Coffee space became a fish lounge first
Sweet Bay isn't the first café downtown to try this. Café Hazeltree and Emmaquatics Aquarium & Lounge opened together on Oct. 3 in the former Woods Coffee space at 1135 Railroad Ave., the Herald reported. Emmaquatics moved there from 1208 Cornwall Ave. and closed for about a month to relocate.
The two businesses share the room but keep separate hours, and the details matter if you're heading there on a weeknight:
| Café Hazeltree | Emmaquatics | Sweet Bay Cafe | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 1135 Railroad Ave. | 1135 Railroad Ave. | Downtown, former Red Star space |
| Evening hours | 2 p.m. to midnight | Closes 7 p.m. | Open until 10 p.m. |
| Days | Wednesday through Sunday | Tuesday, Thursday, Friday; Saturday from 12:30 p.m. | Daily, as of Oct. 12 |
| Food after dark | Coffee bar, free hot tea station | Aquarium viewing | Limited options, including paninis |
There's a gap in the schedule worth knowing about. On Mondays and Tuesdays the coffee bar is closed, but the businesses said guests can still use the space as a lounge while Emmaquatics staff are there, and the tanks are free to view outside the fish shop's hours. Their own description of the space, quoted by Cascadia Daily News, promised a "low-pressure space away from home and work," whether someone stops in for coffee, to "stare at some fish," or to study for hours.
The two cafés came up with the same idea separately. Markle told Cascadia Daily News he learned about Café Hazeltree only after his late-night plan was already underway. He reached out to its owners and held his launch until after their grand opening so he wouldn't "steal their thunder." Downtown gained two late-night coffee rooms within ten days.
The room Markle is borrowing from
Markle named Stuart's Coffee House as his model, a place he called a hub for Bellingham creatives. Stuart's was on Bay Street. A Nov. 30, 2000, issue of Western Washington University's student paper, The Western Front, covered a packed spoken-word night there that drew poets, hip-hop artists and musicians. In February 2006, the same paper reported that Stuart's had closed after losing its lease, about a year before the owners planned to return at the Bellingham Public Market. Storyteller Doug Banner, who had performed there for eight years, remembered it as welcoming and close to family.
Other cafés have described themselves as third spaces since then, but they've mostly kept daytime hours. When Daytrip Cafe opened in the former Narrative Coffee space in December 2025, Cascadia Daily News noted the third-space goal along with hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Café Hazeltree and Sweet Bay are taking the same idea into the evening.
The timing matters more once the Portal closes
The new evening hours start just before downtown's best-known outdoor gathering spot closes for the season. The Portal Container Village at 298 W. Laurel St. was scheduled to close after Trackside's Halloween event on Oct. 31, with reopening expected in early May depending on weather, the Herald reported. From November until spring, indoor rooms with late hours carry more of downtown's evenings.
Here are a few evening plans downtown that line up with the new cafés over the next month:
- Through Oct. 25: Doctober runs daily at Pickford Film Center, 1318 Bay St. That puts an evening documentary a short walk from either café.
- Oct. 24, 8 to 11 p.m.: Make.Shift Art Space, 306 Flora St., has a music night on its calendar. Make.Shift describes itself as an all-ages gallery and music venue with substance-free concerts most Fridays and Saturdays. It runs on event nights rather than regular open hours, so check the listing first.
- Oct. 31: Trackside's Halloween event marks the Portal's last night of the season.
- Nov. 5 to 8: The Bellingham Improv Festival is at The Upfront Theatre, 203 Prospect St., and Café Hazeltree's midnight closing time leaves room for a late coffee afterward on Thursday through Sunday.
- Nov. 13, 5:30 to 9 p.m.: Downtown Bellingham's Holiday Wine Walk runs through shops and boutiques downtown.
Sweet Bay's opening is the newest item on that list, and the plan is still in progress. The games and the stage are what Markle hopes to add, and right now the evening room has the murals, the later hours and a short evening menu. Café Hazeltree is already running on its published schedule. Both are worth checking for updated hours before you go, especially as the season goes on.
At Donita Dickinson, we follow what's opening, closing and changing hours in downtown Bellingham so our valuation conversations reflect the street as it is this month. If you'd like to know how your home fits into that picture, ask us for a Free Home Valuation.
