FOCUS ON WAITSBURG
COMMUNITY
With a population of just over 1,200 people, Waitsburg is a small town with a quiet, unassuming Main Street. Yet within its two-block historic district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, you’ll find something quite unexpected: an extraordinary concentration of artists, makers, musicians, chefs, writers, and craftspeople. It is the people who make Waitsburg special, and over time they have quietly transformed the town into a uniquely creative community in the Walla Walla Valley.
Four-time James Beard Award nominee Mike Easton crafts handmade pasta at the acclaimed Bar Bacetto when he’s not recording music in his studio, making prints, or performing with his band, The Low Plains Drifters.
Joe Roberts and Tiina Jaatinen—art collectors and publishers—own The Royal Block, a five-room boutique hotel that regularly hosts poetry readings, artist talks, live music, and exhibitions. Their bar, open Thursday through Saturday evenings, has become one of the town’s favorite gathering places.
Suze Wood, an equine massage therapist and graphic artist, owns both PressRoom and Duke + Remington, while Caitlyn Potts and Trevor Corbin recently opened Wolfling Coffee, which has quickly become a favorite meeting place for locals and travelers alike.
David Gignac is something of a renaissance craftsman. With a background in theater set design and experience across numerous artistic disciplines, he is an accomplished sculptor, metalworker, carpenter, painter, and fabricator. He also created the portrait of Alfred Hitchcock that hangs inside Atelier Waitsburg.
Waitsburg has long attracted creative people. Charles Smith once called the town home, while Jim German opened the celebrated Jim German Bar in 2007. After its closure in 2015, that space found new life as Bar Bacetto. Wine writer Paul Gregutt and his wife, artist Karen Gregutt, moved here in 2005 and have spent years introducing others to this remarkable little town.
There are painters, sculptors, woodworkers, designers, musicians, chefs, writers, and craftspeople of every kind. None of them would likely describe Waitsburg as an arts town, yet together they have created exactly that. It was this authentic creative community, more than anything else, that first drew us here.
ATELIER
Over the past year, we’ve been steadily restoring our building at 120 Main Street, and we’re delighted to have recently opened the doors to Atelier Waitsburg.
We now welcome guests for tastings, wines by the glass or bottle, and intimate dinners. Soon we’ll also introduce our Living Room Series, one of the ideas we’ve been developing for the space: relaxed evenings built around vinyl records, comfortable lounge seating, and thoughtfully prepared comfort food inspired by cuisines from around the world.
HISTORY
Settled in 1859 and originally known as Delta, the town was later renamed for Sylvester M. Wait, who built the region’s first flour mill along the Touchet River in 1865. Today, Waitsburg remains the only city in Washington still operating under its original 1881 territorial charter.
Its early prosperity was built on dryland wheat farming and grain production, while its location made it an important supply point for miners traveling to the Clearwater River gold fields. The town also carries a lesser-known history of cooperation: early settler Albert Gallatin Lloyd established a peaceful agreement with the local Palouse people, allowing them to camp on his land—an arrangement that continued informally into the 1940s.
More than 160 years after its founding, Waitsburg remains remarkably well preserved. The brick commercial buildings constructed in the late nineteenth century have found new life as galleries, tasting rooms, cafés, boutiques, studios, and gathering places. It is a town that honors its agricultural heritage while continuing to evolve through creativity, craftsmanship, and community.
For us, there couldn’t be a more fitting place to continue the next chapter of Holocene. Atelier Waitsburg was created to become part of that same creative community: a place where wine, conversation, music, food, and art naturally come together.
For us, there couldn’t be a more fitting place to continue the next chapter of Holocene. Atelier Waitsburg was created to become part of that same creative community: a place where wine, conversation, music, food, and art naturally come together.
While our schedule occasionally changes, we generally plan to be open Thursday through Saturday afternoons and evenings. Tastings on other days are available by appointment. Please be sure to check with us or watch the @atelierwaitsburg instagram for updates to scheduling, sometimes pretty short notice.
This November, Waitsburg will also become home to Grenache Fest 2026.
We hope you’ll come spend an afternoon with us.