The Creamery Building in Arcata will soon be home to a new restaurant. The aptly named The Pub at the Creamery is well underway, and will feature high-quality pub food, wood-fire pizzas and roughly 30 beers on tap. 

“I think it will have a huge impact on the Creamery District,” Jacqueline Dandeneau, executive director of the Arcata Playhouse, told the Outpost. Dandeneau sees this new business as a good sign that the neighborhood is thriving.

Dandeneau also serves as director of the Creamery District Community Leadership Committee, a group of local business owners and Arcata city staff who are dedicated to helping revitalize the creamery building and surrounding area.

A big push towards this project came in 2010, when Dandeneau and the Playhouse received an Our Town Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which supports using creative placemaking to inspire economic development.

Art in the Creamery District

This was part of a “national initiative to recognize the arts as vital contributors of society,” which means looking at how the arts can help create empathy, increase communication and even reduce crime, Dandeneau said.

After receiving the grant, the committee started working with the City of Arcata to see how they could make the neighborhood more accessible to small businesses. The city was very receptive, and in 2015 Arcata adopted a Creamery District commercial zoning ordinance. This ordinance changed some of the land use codes for the area from industrial to commercial, making it possible for all kinds of new businesses to open in the area, including bars and restaurants.

Other efforts to reinvigorate the area have included the biennial Creamery Festival, and a monthly Night Market and District Nights. All of these projects have helped transform the area into an up-and-coming neighborhood.

Jake Pickard, co-owner of the Pub at the Creamery is excited to open a new restaurant in Creamery District, which doesn’t have a lot of nearby food options. Between the already existing businesses and the increased foot and bike traffic to the area from the nearby section of the Humboldt Bay Trail, Pickard thinks his business will be really successful. 

He also thinks The Pub will help increase traffic to the other nearby businesses. If people come there to eat, they might stay to shop at Bang Bang Vintage, or go see a show after at the Arcata Playhouse.

But the Pub might not be the only restaurant coming to the area. Both Pickard and Dandeneau told the Outpost that the owners of Sunny Brae based restaurant La Trattoria bought and are renovating a space in neighborhood. But the Outpost was unable to confirm a timeline for its opening.

Pickard said that he doesn’t mind the prospect of some competition and he actually hopes to see more restaurants open in the Creamery District.

“Having more people see the Creamery District as a place to go for everything will really be beneficial,” he told the Outpost.

Pickard said that The Pub will hopefully be open by Feb. 14, 2019, but that this may be subject to change.