What's the beer scene like? I'm looking a possible move and am curious about the important things like food and beer. Thanks guys.
@BBThunderbolt can likely answer any questions you might have in that regard. From my limited experience, I think it's pretty outstanding for such a relatively small town, but Terry can provide you with a lot more information about the beer and food scene there.
Housing is a huge issue. IIRC, from an article in the local paper a few days ago, the median price for a house is now north of 700k. Finding a rental if you're not a college kid is quite a chore (WWU is the largest employer in town, and has about 15k undergrads). If you're still working, finding a job that pays decently is a bit tricky. An option might be to look at Skagit County (the next county south). Mount Vernon has several breweries, Anacortes is a fun town, and prices down there are a bit more reasonable, although that's changing. Beer-wise, we've got about 14 breweries in town, with a couple more scheduled to open this year. These breweries cover most of the beer world, except Belgians. Chuckanut, one of the best Lager breweries in the country just moved their operations to Burlington (a half-hour or so south) when they lost their lease (but then, the landlord turned around and leased the property to Structures...... hmmm.), but is still easily available. Structures is highly regarded for their Murkbombs, Saisons, and barrel-aged beers. IMHO, Wander is the best brewery in town, doing a wide variety of styles, all well done. Boundary Bay is well established (the oldest brewery in town), and their restaurant is usually busy. Otherlands makes some great beer as well. We've got a ton of restaurants, at least one of most styles; Ethiopian, Cajun, lots of Mexican, various Asian styles, etc. Whatcom County produces over 60% of the nations raspberry crop, and farming is still a big deal out in the county, so the weekly farmers market has plenty of stuff April-December. Ask some more specific questions, and I can give better answers.
Within the last 3-4 months. Haven't walked by there lately, so I'm not sure where things stand as far as physically moving things in and out.
Every time somebody from the Bay Area cashes out, and moves up here and starts looking for a house, they can just cash bid, and either meet the sellers price, or exceed it. Kinda the same with some Seattle-area folks: Amazonians push up the price of the Seattle market, folks can't afford to stay in Seattle, so they go farther out, which pushes those folks farther out, etc. The ripple effect is real. We're getting a lot of retirees, which pinches the market for working folks even more.
Well, I'm not sure. At first I thought the landlord was just gonna sell or build on the spot, the City is heavily pushing gentrification in that neighborhood (Old Town). But then to turn around and lease it to Structures confuses me. Maybe Cnut wanted to get out of the restaurant end of things (with the Burlington brewery, they've got plenty of room for expansion), and the timing worked out for that? Nobody I've asked seems to know much more than they're using some of the Bham brewing equipment at Burlington, and the rest is in storage until they expand South Nut. All the kitchen/restaurant stuff was sold at auction. The restaurant/bar always had folks in it, but was rarely busy like Boundary Bay is, so I'm guessing they just chose to focus on the beer production. Bellingham, with it's WWU students, is still an IPA town, so Cnut didn't get the foot traffic (being slightly away from the core of downtown bars and breweries is probably a bit of a factor. It'll be interesting to how Structures, with all their hype does there. I have a couple friends who wouldn't go to Cnut because it was "out of the way" [despite being just down the street from Elizabeth Station, which they regularly frequent. Shrug.] and are huge Structures fanboiz I wonder how prevalent that attitude is among others). But, that's all that is, a wild-assed guess, and more questions.
That's stupid. I thought denver was going off the rails... https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1600-Eudora-St-Denver-CO-80220/13286928_zpid/
You should see the prices 45 minutes further north up in Vancouver/Canada... $700k gets you maybe half a house. Which is prolly why Bham has gone crazy too. Bellingham is great though! Wish there wasn't a $200 (PCR test) surcharge to visit right now LOL at Chuckanut being out of the way
Well, in fairness, it was a way from their regular loop of Structures, Wander, The Local, Otherlands, and K1. I am looking forward to seeing how their attitude on the location changes once Structures opens up in the same spot.
