New cafe, cocktail bar is coming to Adams Mall in Pullman

The owners of Pullman nightclub Etsi Bravo are expecting to open a new cafe and cocktail bar in the next two weeks at Adams Mall on the Washington State University campus.

Crybaby Café is the first of two businesses that Cory and Blake Preston are opening in that building. The second is a currently unnamed night club that will eventually open in the former Stubblefields space. Stubblefields closed in summer 2020.

Joining them as co-owner is Pullman native Raustin Memon. He pitched the Etsi Bravo owners the idea of pursuing another bar and restaurant on the college campus.

Cory Preston said they could not pass up the opportunity.

“Being on the WSU campus and wrapped up in the spirit is something we wouldn’t have been able to turn down if we had 100 other businesses,” he said. “This is really a special opportunity for us to be a part of this.”

Blake Preston said Crybaby Café will have a 1,000-square-foot outdoor seating patio in addition to its indoor seating. The Prestons initially planned to use the indoor space as a kitchen for their upcoming nightclub, but decided it could be better used as a cafe.

Memon said they believed WSU students would appreciate having an independently owned coffee shop close by on College Hill.

He lives a couple blocks from Crybaby Café and said it has already generated excitement from students he has met.

The cafe will not only serve coffee beginning at 7 a.m., Cory Preston said. It will also stay open into the nighttime and offer lunch and dinner items as well as cocktails, beer and even espresso martinis.

“It’s our background,” he said. “We couldn’t help ourselves. We have a bar, we came from being bartenders. If anything, that’s what makes it unique.”

Memon said he approached the Prestons because Etsi Bravo is one of the best bars he has been to and felt their talent and attention to detail could work for campus establishment, too.

Cory Preston said their future plans for Adams Mall will not affect Etsi Bravo, which has been operating on East Main Street since 2015.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.