For one winery and restaurant owner, launching a new endeavor in Pasco is a kind of homecoming. 

John Bookwalter, owner of the company which runs J. Bookwalter Winery and Fiction and Fable restaurants, is opening a new venture this fall: Non-Fiction.

The original winery, established by his father in 1983, was in the King City area of Pasco before it moved to Richland 10 years later. Fiction and Fable also took root in Richland. 

Bookwalter will have a Pasco presence again with the opening of Non-Fiction, which will serve up craft sandwiches, coffee, and beer and wine.

The sandwich shop will be positioned across from Columbia Basin College at 2713 N. 20th Ave., making it easy for students to swing by, and just down the street from the Tri-Cities Airport, an easy stop for those about to hop on a plane. It’s a location with good traffic, Bookwalter said.

The building is owned by an investor in Bookwalter Winery, who was able to offer him a good deal on the space.

For Bookwalter, it’s important to fill more spaces with independent businesses around the Tri-Cities, especially with a lot of fast food and hotels in that part of Pasco, he said.

“There’s really no independent effort right in this area,” Bookwalter said. “…I just think it was a space that there’s plenty of growth for local business.”

New style of shop

Non-Fiction’s style will be different from Bookwalter’s other restaurants, with an interior furnished similarly to Fable. While Fiction is a higher-end restaurant and Fable is more casual, Non-Fiction will come in under Fable in terms of price point.

Non-Fiction may sound familiar – Bookwalter once ran a food truck of the same name, but he sold it two years ago, keeping the name. 

The new endeavor will offer sandwiches, paninis and breakfast sandwiches made with bread baked fresh on site, as well as soup. Coffee will be available, and beer and wine are available, both for retail and for drinking on-site, including all of Bookwalter’s wines. 

The chefs at Fiction and Fable are both working on developing the new menu, and Bookwalter collected ideas for sandwiches as he’s traveled across the country for work. 

The sandwich shop won’t have the means to fry food or cook anything under a hood, but some foods will be brought over from Fable.

With counter service rather than wait service, Bookwalter anticipates needing only about 10 employees, with hiring starting in late summer. The new location will have a roll-up door and outdoor seating for customers. 

Non-Fiction’s hours will start early and won’t go too late in the evening, Bookwalter said.

George Booth is the general contractor for the project, and Bookwalter is working with Bargreen Ellingson on the coolers, freezers, fridges and ovens. 

Local spotlight

Bookwalter also plans to partner with other local businesses in the endeavor. “We’ll feature as much local as we can, as we’ve always done with our other two, with Fable and with Fiction,” he said.

Non-Fiction will feature prepackaged meats from Heritage, a west-side butcher shop based in Rochester and owned by one of Bookwalter’s partners, and Gleason Ranch, based in Touchet. Their meats will be sold to-go in cases and also will be used in some of the sandwiches. 

To bring coffee to Non-Fiction, plus Fiction and Fable, Bookwalter is partnering with Ahava Coffee, a growing coffee roaster that recently bought Richland’s Barracuda Coffee Co. A coffee cart was recently put in at Fiction, and the same is planned for Fable, expected to launch in June. 

The coffee shop is working on developing a unique roast based on profiles of Bookwalter wines. “The idea is just to really elevate our coffee game, bring it local,” Bookwalter said. “We think, like at Fiction, you know we do a lot of events there, you know not everybody drinks, so when you’re done with a meal, you want to just have a coffee or an espresso, so we’ll be able to deliver that.”

There have been other recent changes at the restaurants as well. In February, Fable began incorporating breakfasts, and that location is now open seven days a week.

And after a successful test run of hosting a concert at Fiction last year, there is now a five-concert lineup on the restaurant’s lawn this summer.