What's Opening, and What's Still Waiting, on Lafayette's North Public Road This Fall
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"They've been our favorite tenant we've ever had," Kurt Munding told the Lafayette City Council in August. He owns the building at 129 N. Harrison Ave. where The Read Queen Bookstore & Cafe operates. He was at the meeting to support the bookstore's plan to move out.
That moment shows how Old Town is changing right now. For most of 2026, the important changes on North Public Road have been decisions, not ribbon cuttings. The city owns a vacant bank building. A taphouse has a conditional liquor license and is waiting on inspection. A food hall was approved two years ago and is still in permitting. One new restaurant has opened. The rest of the block depends on paperwork, and the biggest piece belongs to City Hall.
Listed by street number, here is where each property stands as of October 4, 2026:
Of those five addresses, only Remi's is a new business you can visit today. The other four are worth following because the outcomes will shape what this end of Old Town feels like on a Friday night a year from now.
Remi's Cajun Creole Cafe opened at 211 N. Public Road this summer. Owner Dara Sanchez-Mack has 15 years in hospitality, and Colorado native Napoleon Lewis runs the kitchen. The restaurant has 60 seats. The menu stays in Louisiana territory: gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, shrimp and grits, po'boys, and muffulettas. Other dishes include New Orleans BBQ shrimp, fried green tomato BLTs, Creole loaded fries, and "Voodoo Wings" in a sticky, sweet-and-spicy Cajun sauce. When Axios Boulder reviewed it in late September, the reviewer ordered the catfish Pontchartrain and called it moist and flaky, in a sauce that didn't overpower the fish.
Plan around the hours. Remi's is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday through Monday and closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The restaurant also calls itself a community gathering place with music and events, which puts it in the same category as the projects planned nearby. Every pending proposal on this stretch, from the bookstore's event space to the food hall's outdoor seating, describes itself the same way.
The most important address on the block is 200 N. Public Road. The future of most storefronts depends on a landlord and a lease. This one has a city-owned building, a public survey, and a council vote behind it.
The former Chase Bank is nearly 9,000 square feet, and the city priced it at $1.6 million. Three groups bid to buy it.
Residents weighed in through Lafayette Listens. Each applicant posted a short video, and the survey was open through early July. It drew about 1,800 responses, according to Economic Development Director Brigid Keating. The Read Queen received the most support. On August 4, the council voted 6–0 to authorize the city manager to negotiate a sale with the bookstore.
Keating told the council the proposal was a chance to reuse an existing building while helping a local business grow. "Small business support and retention is key," she said. Barbra Huntting and Deirdre Appelhans opened the shop during the COVID pandemic, and they explained why they want to move:
"This amazing community has supported us for six years, and we just keep growing and growing, and we've outgrown our space. We try to hold these events, these gatherings, these book clubs and programming, but we just don't have the space for it right now. We're bursting at the seams, basically."
In March, the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce gave the bookstore its Community Impact Award for 2026.
As of early October, the sale has not been finalized. The council authorized negotiations, not a sale. If the talks succeed, and Keating said the city expects they will, a purchase and sale agreement goes back to the council at a future meeting. That agreement did not appear on the public agendas for the August 18, September 1, or September 15 council meetings. In June, the city said it was aiming for a sale contract sometime this fall. No closing date, renovation schedule, or move-in date has been published. In August, the bookstore's address was 129 N. Harrison, and its October 2 social post was about a staff pumpkin-carving contest, not a move.
The vote also affects 129 N. Harrison. Munding said the bookstore's departure would leave "big shoes to fill," and he was glad it would stay in Lafayette. If the sale goes through, that space becomes the next storefront to watch.
At the south end of the block, Triple One Public House shows how long the last step can take. Cathy and Jeff Brown own the building at 111 N. Public Road and are turning it into a craft-beer taphouse. On December 11, 2025, the city conditionally approved a new tavern license for Triple One Public House LLC, pending fingerprint checks and a licensing inspection.
The latest caption in the progress gallery on the taphouse's website reads "Getting ready for inspection." The homepage still says "Opening Summer 2026." Summer is over, and no revised date has been posted. Triple One is close to opening but not confirmed open. The owners' own channels are the best place to watch for an announcement.
North Public Market has been on the books the longest. The city council approved it on September 17, 2024. BV Builders is the applicant for a one-story, 6,155-square-foot commercial building on the former Sinclair gas station site, with outdoor gathering space and a food-truck area. The project architect, Intentional Architecture, describes several food concepts under one roof but hasn't named any vendors.
The city's project page, last updated August 20, 2026, lists the project in the building-permit process. The architect also says it is "in permitting," with construction expected in fall 2026. That puts any construction start in the next few weeks or months, and no opening date has been announced. If you see fencing and equipment on the old Sinclair lot, that would be the first public sign the project is moving forward.
The same pattern shows up at the other end of the street. Daily Grains, a planned artisan bakery at 707 S. Public Road, would replace the existing building with a new one-story structure and patio. In a September 20 update, the owner wrote that the building-permit application went in back in July, that initial city comments arrived the week before, and that the team was working through them. The update gave no opening date.
Daily Grains is following the same steps as the North Public Market and Triple One, and it is a few months into a process the food hall has been in for much longer.
All three North Public Road projects have public checkpoints, so you can track them without guessing:
Until then, Remi's is the newest place on the block you can visit, from Thursday through Monday.
If you own a home near Old Town and want to know how changes on North Public Road might affect what your property is worth, Natalie Mock and our team follow these projects as closely as the comps. Request a Home Valuation and we'll go through it with you, address by address.
Stay up to date on the latest real estate trends.
Whether you're selling or buying a home, relocating, or considering an investment property, The Mock Group welcomes the opportunity to make every step enjoyable and hassle-free for you.
GAIL MOCK
NATALIE MOCK
825 S BROADWAY ST BOULDER CO 80305