New life for Pullman’s Lumberyard

Lumberyard, the large food hall on North Grand Avenue in Pullman that shut its doors more than a year ago, has been revived thanks to new leadership.

Molly Golden and longtime Stubblefield’s general manager DJ Goldfinger are the new business owners seeking to make the cavernous building a food and entertainment destination for all ages. It celebrated its grand opening Tuesday.

“We’ve had a lot of people reach out to us on social media and saying, ‘We’re so happy this place is opening back up. It was such a great idea,’ ” Golden said.

Lumberyard features multiple independently owned food stations surrounding a large seating area.

Goldfinger and Golden co-own one of the Lumberyard restaurants, Timber Bar and Grill. The other restaurants include Yia Yia Nikki’s and a poke bowl restaurant called It’s Poke-Man. A Hawaiian restaurant is expected to move into the facility as well.

Goldfinger said the food hall reminded him of the food trucks he was fond of when he used to live in Portland.

The main building also includes an upstairs outdoor seating area, an indoor children’s play center, a game room with pool and shuffleboard tables and a two-bedroom Airbnb.

Adjacent to the food hall is another building that Goldfinger said will be transformed into an event center. A smaller structure nearby will provide more outdoor seating next to a playground tucked away behind the food hall.

Goldfinger said it was important to him that Lumberyard is a place parents can enjoy with their children. He said they plan to host a monthly event for children that includes snacks and a book reading.

“I started thinking about where would my kids like to come eat,” he said. “What would they like to do? This has two play centers for youngsters. It has a lot of room for them to kind of hang out and move around, parents and children. And I just felt like, this is the dream.”

Lumberyard also will provide entertainment for adults. Golden said weekend nights will be reserved for the 18 and older crowd who can dance to DJ Goldfinger’s music. The upstairs of the main building will be reserved for people 21 and older. Lumberyard also will be open exclusively to the 21 and older crowd Tuesday nights during “Timber Tuesdays.”

The grand opening marks a major milestone in a long journey after Stubblefields, a popular nightclub at Adams Mall, closed last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Goldfinger and Golden searched for a place to open a new business, they received assistance from Aziz Makhani of Washington Small Business Development Center, who helped them develop their business plan and find a location.

Goldfinger is enthusiastic about landing at Lumberyard and in a situation he described as “a dream.”

“It’s a hard journey just going out there on your own and just throwing yourself out there,” he said. “But, this place is just so beautiful and it just stands on its own.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.