Colfax's Main Street Has a Ceramics Shop Again

"We can see Grandma anytime. I've got to go to the ceramic store."

Laura Lyle said that to her mother as a child, during a visit to her grandparents in Colfax, after she spotted a ceramics store on Main Street. She told the story to the Whitman County Gazette for its piece on the opening of her own shop, Ceramics by Laura, at 210 South Main Street. The ribbon-cutting was Friday, Oct. 16, and the grand opening followed on Saturday, Oct. 17.

So Main Street once more has the kind of store that once pulled a kid away from a visit with her grandmother. It also changes downtown's weekday evenings. Two nights a week, the shop is open until 8 p.m. On those nights you can paint a piece after work, then walk a few blocks up Main to eat.

From craft-show table to a storefront on South Main

Lyle is 52 and has worked in ceramics since she was 10. She found the craft at a shop in her hometown of Pasco, where her mother had gone looking for supplies for a Junior Grange project. Her sister picked out pieces to paint that day too and moved on. Lyle didn't.

By 14 she was selling her work at craft shows and bazaars. As the Gazette tells it, her mother suggested she either stop painting or start selling, since she had already given handmade pieces to everyone they knew.

She formally founded the business around 2001 and ran it from her homes for years. In August she took over the building at 210 South Main, which used to hold the Council on Aging offices. She has lived in the Colfax-Pullman area for 24 years and moved into Colfax itself about two years ago.

After more than two decades of home studios and bazaar tables, the business now has a storefront with regular hours on Colfax's main street.

How the shop works right now

The setup is simple, and that's what makes it easy to drop into an ordinary week. Here's what the Gazette reported about the shop as it opened:

• Drop-in painting. No appointments and no scheduled classes. You walk in, choose a piece and paint it.
• Bisque pieces for now. These are already fired once and ready for paint. Lyle plans to add greenware later for people who want to start at an earlier stage.
• Mostly made in-house. Lyle pours about 95% of her own ceramic pieces.
• Finished work for sale. If you'd rather buy than paint, she sells completed pieces too.
• A party room is coming. She plans a separate room for birthday parties, baby showers and team-building events.

The hours are what set it apart from most of downtown's daytime retail.

The shop is closed Sundays and Mondays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays it stays open after the workday ends.

Thursday is the evening when the blocks line up

Today is Thursday, which happens to be the best night to try this. Ceramics by Laura is open until 8. So is Palouse Brewing Co. Taphouse at 102 N. Main, at least going by the hours it announced in March: Wednesday and Thursday noon to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday noon to 7 p.m. Those hours date from its grand opening in late March, so check them before you plan around a late pint.

Westside Pizza at 208 1/2 N. Main serves pizza, wings, salads and desserts, and its posted hours run into the evening. Its location page shows hours by date, so check the night you're going.

Fridays work differently. The ceramics shop closes at 4, which suits an afternoon of painting. That evening, Fraternal Order of Eagles #2317 at 217 N. Main holds its weekly Dinner @ The Eagles from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The menu rotates, and the Colfax Chamber of Commerce says everyone is welcome. The Chamber directs people to the Eagles' Facebook page for each week's menu.

Here's how the two evenings play out on the map:

1. Start at 210 South Main. Paint at Ceramics by Laura, up to 8 p.m. on a Thursday or by 4 on a Friday.
2. Walk north to 102 N. Main. Palouse Brewing Co. Taphouse is at the north end of the downtown core.
3. Keep going to the 200 block of North Main. Westside Pizza is at 208 1/2, and the Eagles are a few doors up at 217.
4. Thursday or Friday decides the order. On Thursday you can paint first and eat after. On Friday, paint in the afternoon and get to the Eagles by 6:30.

All of it sits on one street, within a few blocks.

Both ends of the walk used to be something else

Before Ceramics by Laura, 210 South Main held the Council on Aging offices. The taphouse at the other end of the walk also took over a space with history. 102 N. Main was home to Wild Ember, which Pullman Radio reported closed at the end of 2025.

The Colfax Downtown Association signed Palouse Brewing Co. to that space. Executive Director Whitney Bond told the City Council in February that the lease began March 1. As the Whitman County Gazette reported, she also said, "They did retain some Wild Ember staff. That's nice because a lot of their bartenders will be back." The Colfax location is Palouse Brewing's second. The brewery is still operating on Main Street in the town of Palouse.

The taphouse has started booking live music too. Pullman Radio announced a Jon and Rand Band set there from 6 to 9 p.m. on a Friday in mid-October.

In both buildings, the newcomer kept something from what came before. The taphouse kept Wild Ember's bartenders. The ceramics shop brought back a kind of store Lyle remembers from Main Street when she was a child.

Between now and Winterfest

Handmade gifts take lead time. That matters more at a paint-your-own shop than at a store with finished goods on the shelf, because painted pieces generally need to be fired before you can take them home. Ask at the counter how long that takes before you count on a piece for a specific date. If time runs short, the finished pieces Lyle sells are the fallback.

Winterfest is the next fixed date on downtown's calendar, and it isn't posted yet. The Colfax Chamber's events calendar lists Colfax Winterfest as an upcoming Chamber event but gives no 2026 date. As a guide to what the day can include, the 2025 version was on Saturday, Dec. 6, according to the Whitman County Gazette. It had an indoor vendor market at the Eagles Club, Santa and crafts at the library, a 5:30 p.m. tree lighting at the Codger Pole, a 6:30 p.m. parade and fireworks. That was last year's schedule. Watch the Chamber calendar for this year's.

Until then, Ceramics by Laura is open until 8 tonight, and the bisque shelves don't need a reservation.

Krista Gross follows openings like Ceramics by Laura and the taphouse across Colfax as they happen. If you'd like to know what your own home a few blocks from Main Street is worth right now, request a personalized home valuation and we'll go through the numbers together.