Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The new Palouse Caboose is on a path to opening.
Since the new building went up last fall on a vacant lot along Main Street in Palouse, owner Will Hume expects to open the venture sometime in June.
In the midst of waiting for its liquor license to come through and other matters, Hume and co-owners are entering into the final detail stage.
“There’s a lot going on, but we’ve got good hands on deck, so it’ll work out,” Hume said.
One task is completing the dining area’s furniture, which Hume, co-owners and friends are building in his shop across Beech Street from the restaurant.
Aside from that, they are installing equipment while contractors are finishing electrical and plumbing.
“We’re getting close. It’s almost there,” Hume said.
The wooden structure at the corner of Beech and Main will be a new version of a onetime tavern in Palouse.
Hume, a furniture maker who grew up in Moscow and spent years working in restaurants in Portland, Ore., and Pullman, bought 8,500 square feet of property from a group of owners to site the new operation.
The space in front will also allow for a large patio area with garage door access.
The endeavor to create a new Palouse Caboose grew from Hume’s original plan last spring to install a food truck with a patio – after the Brick Wall Bar and Grill burned to the ground in April.
However, his application with the state Liquor Control Board was denied. They wouldn’t allow beer and wine sales from a non-permanent structure.
Hume’s partners in the venture now include his mother, Mary DuPree, a retired professor in the music department of University of Idaho, and his father Mark Hume, a Moscow architect and builder who designed the building.
Additional partners include Eric Wilkerson and Kim Rundle, who is the front-end manager of the Breakfast Club restaurant in Moscow.
The new Palouse Caboose will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week.
The menu will include burgers and fries, chili verde, gumbo, locally made bread and local produce.
Hume said he expects to open no later than July 1.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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