A Century on Holly Street
How one of Bellingham’s oldest cafes has kept its doors open for over 130 years
By Grace McCarthy
The few lamp posts lining Holly Street glow above downtown Bellingham’s bare streets. The night’s full moon waxes from its neatly placed position in the sky and assists the twinkling lights below.
Distant cars on Railroad Avenue chase the inevitable silence of a subdued Tuesday at midnight. The softened patter of rain lingers like a guest who has overstayed their welcome.
From the Gold Rush to the digital age, the Horseshoe Cafe’s flickering crimson sign reminds passersby of its enduring history since 1886 on Holly Street. The Horseshoe continues to welcome guests at least 17 hours every day while claiming to be Bellingham’s oldest cafe.
The Horseshoe has witnessed dozens of neighboring storefronts open and close their doors over the past century — from war surplus businesses to other homestyle cafes like McCracken’s.
But one thing has kept the Horseshoe’s doors open through numerous wars, changes in commercial industries and exponential raises in property taxes: the community of its customers.
“Very few businesses last over 130 years. That’s unheard of,” said Kate Groen, one of Horseshoe’s current owners. “It’s a testament to the community of Bellingham to support something so long that’s going to keep it open.”
For over a century, the Horseshoe has shifted to the beat of the people around it. Sehome was the original hometown of the “Horse Shoe Saloon.” It catered to a population of fewer than 3,000 residents who flocked to the region for its natural resources. The Horseshoe survived the state’s prohibition that spread across Washington in 1916. Later, it was incorporated as a fish and tackle store that sold hunting licenses and sandwiches. Smoky cardrooms filled with gamblers also defined the early years of the restaurant.
Jeff Jewell, historian at the Whatcom Museum, said the Horseshoe moved across Holly Street in 1958 to its current location, in part, to expand their post-prohibition cocktail lounge. Day drinkers regularly camped out at the Horseshoe’s ominous bar, the Ranch Room, until that demographic died out in the early 1990s. Around that same time, the Bellis Fair Mall opened in 1988, and retail shifted to north Bellingham which cast downtown into a minor identity crisis.
Downtown’s ability to redefine itself was a process that took many years, Jeff said.
Bellingham eventually created a culture and arts hub from downtown. But many still deemed the the block Horseshoe was on as “seedy.” The Horseshoe managed to balance this change and played up its role as a retro staple with an enigmatic history at the turn of the millenium.
“They presented it in a kind of Tom Waitsian, Charles Bukowskian way. A certain romance to the alcoholic lifestyle.” Jeff said. “It’s hip. It’s cool there’s a place like this still.”
During the artistic era of the late 1990s, longtime Horseshoe customer and local graffiti artist Shawn Cass packed his bags at 19 and moved from Arkansas to Bellingham.
For Shawn, the homey environment of the Horseshoe is an embodiment of the town itself.
“After a late night you could come here and eat and it’s cooler than going to Denny’s. The Horseshoe just has that local, privately owned vibe to it,” Shawn said.
He noted subtleties like the black-and-white photographs of Bellingham at every booth, reminding customers it has been around longer than they have been alive.
A few of the the archived images that line the Horseshoe’s narrow hallway remember the late Rowdy Buckaroo, known as Bellingham’s Robin Hood of the early 2000s. The Horseshoe hired Rowdy Buckaroo to put coins in expired parking meters around town to help save unsuspecting residents from tickets.
Shawn created a portrait of Rowdy Buckaroo decked out in his iconic ten-gallon hat, denim ensemble and red bandana on the side of the Horseshoe to commemorate his public servitude.
“Just thinking this place has been open over 100 years is pretty wild. The same seats we’re sitting in people have been sitting in, eating […] food in for over 100 years,” Shawn said.
Horseshoe General Manager Blaire Edwards watches every day as customers connect to the cafe’s history over steaming cups of coffee and warm buttermilk pancakes.
There are a lot of people who come into the Horseshoe who haven’t been here in 30 years and others who have been coming here for 30 years, Blaire said.
The community that continues to support the Horseshoe is just as diverse as Bellingham itself.
“I walked into the bar last week where we had someone from every walk of life sitting there. A person in a suit was having drinks with people, and then there’s Eva, a little old lady who’s been coming here since her 30s and she’s probably in her 80s now,” Kate said. “We had service industry people, we had tattoo industry people. You look down the line and it’s literally everyone.”
Many things about the Horseshoe remain unaltered, including the gooey, cheesy fries.
Kate still remembers her first meal at the Horseshoe: A hot coffee and the cafe’s signature fries. The greasy dinner shared during an evening study session with pals symbolized a newfound freedom for high-school Kate.
At 16, Kate would never have imagined herself in charge of one of Bellingham’s treasured icons. Kate said sales have gone up since her family took over in 2015 and doesn’t plan on losing that momentum.
The current owners are well aware of the seedy reputation attached to the restaurant’s location. To combat this, they’re invested in marketing themselves as a friendly establishment for everyone. Part of this marketing includes new merchandise collaborations with local Bellingham artists. After Cass’s mural of Rowdy Buckaroo, the Horseshoe hired him to design shirts and hats, featuring a play-on-words design of a horse coming out of a shoe.
Survival for the Horseshoe has meant adapting to Bellingham’s many transformations.
“It started as a smoke shop, fish, tackle, bait shop where you could get your hunting license or fishing license and a sandwich and your smokes. The idea was that it was open to anyone and inclusive to everyone,” Kate said. “I think the Horseshoe has done a good job of being that way for the last 130 years, where everyone feels as if they can come in.”
The grill sizzles above laughter of service workers nursing their last beer. Smells of the most recent batch of cheesy fries waft through the cafe, tempting hungry customers. Daily specials scrawled on the chalkboard entice regulars as American folk rock fills the silence of an otherwise quiet Tuesday at midnight.
A new generation of customers pay their tabs and shuffle out to Holly Street, not knowing the changes they bring to Bellingham will shape next incarnation of the Horseshoe Cafe.