Downtown Bellingham bar announces temporary closure to add new equipment and menu offerings
Bellingham’s Starla’s Tavern, which opened inside Bellingham’s historic Herald Building in August and is now temporarily closed to update its space.
The unique business is a natural wine bar, bottle shop and restaurant. It was launched by Bellingham native Jordan Koplowitz and his fiancee, Christy Wyble. They previously operated the pizza restaurant Blotto in Seattle.
“The reason we went for a natural wine spot is because that is our favorite thing to drink,” Koplowitz said in an interview with The Herald in August. “We are obsessed with it. It’s just what we love, and it’s what we know the most about, so this was definitely within our expertise, and we also felt like it was something that we could focus on, that not really many other people are focusing on Bellingham.”
“We wanted to and go for a type of atmosphere that feels kind of nostalgic, like feels like it could really exist In any like part of the mid-century. And like, kind of ‘80s, ‘70s, loungy, kind of divey, a little fancy,” Koplowitz said.
Now, the nostalgic 21-and-up bar is temporarily closed throughout the month of January for new additions, according to an Instagram post.
“Starla’s will be closed all of January for construction. Reopen date is tbd in early February. More details soon,” a Dec. 17, 2024 Instagram post states.
Since the duo started Starla’s Tavern, they began to host pizza nights, bringing their pizza expertise to Bellingham.
“When we reopen in Feb we will have pizza EVERY DAY (5 days a week). Returning to the pizza game and making you all pies once a week has been so fun and inspired us to expand our food program full-time. In order to make this happen we had to install HVAC and get a bigger pizza oven … thus the month closure. We’ll also need a few extra hands in the kitchen.”
With the new menu and kitchen additions, the bar is also looking to fill two part-time job positions for bakers and prep cooks. The jobs will pay $25 an hour and will require about 18 hours a week, according to the Instagram post.
No official opening date has been announced, but Starla’s Tavern is regularly open from 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 4 to 11 p.m. Friday at 1149 N State St. in Bellingham.
This story was originally published January 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM.
