En route to the Olympics, stay and play in Bellingham's revitalized downtown

BELLINGHAM — Sandwiched between mountains and water, this college town is blessed with a heck of a front and back yard, one of the state's top cities for outdoor enthusiasts.

The city itself? Well, a lot of outsiders tend to treat it more as a rest stop after swishing down Mount Baker or riding the mountain-biking mecca Galbraith Mountain.

But Bellingham has been working to revitalize its downtown and draw more tourists, especially now that the 2010 Winter Olympics will start soon in Vancouver, B.C.

Bellingham can point to about $30 million in new downtown cultural projects: $18 million for a new art museum, $9 million to refurbish the historic Mount Baker Theatre, and $3.2 million in public and private money for a new independent art-house cinema.

Those projects, along with plans to add more public art and wider sidewalks, make up the heart of the "Cultural District" in downtown.

Like many cities across the country, Bellingham has made building an ambitious art museum a priority. In this recession, though, about a dozen cities have suspended, abandoned or scaled back those plans, such as the Parrish Art Museum in Southhampton, N.Y., and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California.

Bellingham, however, completed its architectural showcase, Lightcatcher, an art museum featuring a 180-foot-long translucent facade that reflects sunlight. It opened in November.

To community and business leaders, Lightcatcher signals that Bellingham wants to be known as more than just a midsize city (70,000) with a big playground for hikers and bikers.

"Bellingham has grown up," said Patricia Leach, executive director of Whatcom Museum.

Growing theater scene

Nearby, the Mount Baker Theatre has completed two major renovations to handle 300 annual shows instead of the heretofore-customary 65.

Recently, Seattle Theatre Group, which organizes shows at the Paramount Theatre and the Moore Theatre in Seattle, has started hosting shows in the 83-year-old theater. Comedian Paula Poundstone is booked for February.

As early as next summer, downtown will also have a two-screen independent art-house cinema, Pickford Film Center, which will sell beer and wine.

Pickford already runs a modest art house. But it has sold out enough shows that the nonprofit has purchased a three-story, century-old building nearby for the purpose of relocating and expanding. So far, fundraising has brought in $2.7 million of the $3.2 million needed to complete renovation.

These cultural projects are intended to inject some life into a downtown that has been reeling from a common urban problem: the exodus of chain department stores and small businesses. But with Western Washington University about two miles south of downtown, many community leaders believe they have the audience for their cultural offerings.

"I think downtown is developing into the cultural center for Whatcom County. Western (Washington University) is a great audience for that — the students, professors, visiting professors, alumni. We have a great community," said Kirsten Walker, executive director of the Downtown Bellingham Partnership.

Bellingham also believes it has inherent geographical advantages as a major Interstate 5 population center about equal 90-minute drives from Vancouver and Seattle. The city and Whatcom County have kicked up promotional campaigns to get Olympic spectators to visit.

Beyond Fairhaven

Bellingham certainly isn't unknown as a tourist destination. But out-of-towners usually know the city for its trendy, historic Fairhaven District, the grand Victorian homes nearby and the scenic Chuckanut Drive on the south side of town.

Community and business leaders hope Lightcatcher and other downtown developments can lure those same tourists to drive the 10 minutes to downtown.

Lightcatcher, which will borrow artwork from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for some exhibits, allows the city to reshuffle its museum lineup. The Old City Hall, formerly the city's art and history museum, will now be strictly dedicated to the past. Next door, the Syre Education Center will focus on natural history and Native American culture, and house classrooms for student projects and field trips. Those two museums will reopen in mid-January after renovations.

The town's popular children's museum has moved into a wing of the Lightcatcher, called Family Interactive Gallery (FIG), with animation dioramas, 3-D images and art games.

Geek factor, too

Nearby sit two of the region's geekiest museums: the American Museum of Radio and Electricity (AMRE) and a science museum, Mindport.

As if there was any doubt, AMRE staffer Tana Granack jumped, giggled and hugged the museum's historian recently upon hearing that his museum made the book, "The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive."

AMRE owns one of the first light bulbs Thomas Edison made in 1879 and thousands of old radios, rare music boxes, antique phonographs and telephones. To the untrained eye, the room looks like your grandfather's basement.

The museum only comes alive when Granack or one of the radio geeks lead a tour or tell stories behind those antiques.

Around the corner is the little science museum Mindport, similar in theme to Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland or Exploratorium in San Francisco, only much more modest. The two-room museum, more like an art-gallery space, features science projects and games that showcase theories such as how ecosystems or laws of physics work.

For a break in between, stop by Mallard Ice Cream and Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro, two must-stops for downtown first timers. Mallard makes the ambitious and exotic gourmet ice cream (pinot noir flavor, for example) you usually find in major metropolises. Even during the dead of winter, the shop draws lots of customers. During summer, the line can get long, especially when all the weekend warriors come to town.

Boundary Bay is one of the region's best breweries, and its IPA, a light hop with nice floral notes, is arguably the most popular beer in town.

Good eats

A fancier sit-down is Nimbus, a Northwest-cuisine restaurant located on the 14th floor of a downtown building overlooking Bellingham Bay and the city. It offers sophisticated cocktails and multicourse dinners.

But Bellingham is known more for cheap eats and beer, the familiar trappings of a college town.

Two summers ago, Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen opened, snatching up a few brewery awards. It's located near a Bellingham institution, the hipster Old Town Café, where your eggs Benedict over homemade biscuits comes with live music, usually a guitar player in the morning.

There's the popular Super Mario's Salvadoran taco truck and Pel' Meni, a Russian dumpling joint that stays open until 2:30 a.m. for the bar-hopping crowd. The best of the cheap grub is probably Casa Que Pasa's potato burrito, stuffed with mounds of deep-fried potato skin and seasoned potato bits and slathered with a garlicky sauce. It's practically impossible to chat with locals and students and not hear them wax poetic about this "legendary potato burrito." It tastes like the Spanish tapas, patatas bravas, wrapped in a flour tortilla.

The taco truck, the dumpling joint and Casa Que Pasa may all be more in tune with Bellingham's college kids, mountain bikers and snowboarders than with high-spending, Olympics-bound tourists. But anybody can appreciate a good potato burrito.

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com