October 13, 2026

Connell,WA / 2026 / October / 13

Phoenix & Folly to open Oct. 31 in former Salud space on Richland riverfront

Phoenix & Folly, a new all-day restaurant and bar with ties to Kennewick's recently closed The Peacock, plans to open at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, in the former Salud Bar & Kitchen space at the Richland Riverfront Hotel, 50 Comstock St.

The restaurant is from Thomas Kalmbach, master roaster at The Peacock, and Justin and India Bazinet, the Tri-City Herald reported. The Peacock announced its closure on social media Oct. 9, and the new restaurant was announced Oct. 10, according to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.

The owners have said the new place is not a relocation. "The Peacock isn't relocating, reopening, or changing its name. That chapter has closed. Phoenix & Folly is an entirely new restaurant, with a new concept and a new space, but some familiar faces behind it," they wrote in a social media post quoted by the Journal.

The Peacock began as Peacock Coffee Roasting Co. at Richland's The Parkway before moving to 910 S. Columbia Center Blvd. in Kennewick in 2024, where it added pizza, cocktails and events, the Journal reported. The Richland space has a fully equipped kitchen, allowing food that wasn't possible at The Peacock, and coffee will remain part of the business.

Phoenix & Folly bills itself as an "all-day neighborhood restaurant and bar" with elevated comfort food and cocktails. The Herald reported the kitchen is teasing a menu of artisan pizzas, smash burgers and more. The restaurant's website is revealing a new piece of the concept each Saturday at 7 p.m. ahead of opening, with "Test Kitchen Tuesdays" next up on Oct. 17. The site also takes sign-ups for reservation and soft-opening news and says the restaurant is hiring.

Salud Bar & Kitchen closed earlier this year. The Journal's May 2026 liquor license report listed Salud's license at 50 Comstock St. as discontinued. The hotel's dining page, which still lists Salud, describes the space as having an outdoor deck overlooking the Columbia River.

Hours have not been announced.

Sources

TriTown.info - 10/13/2026

Avalanche Energy picks Tri-Cities for first fusion-machine factory

Avalanche Energy has selected the Tri-Cities for its first global manufacturing facility for compact fusion energy machines, a project the Seattle-based company and the Tri-City Development Council say could eventually create hundreds of long-term jobs. The plans were announced Oct. 8 at a press conference in Kennewick, where Avalanche and TRIDEC signed a strategic engagement letter to work together on the project.

Avalanche chose the region after a nationwide site evaluation that considered multiple industrial and technology hubs across the United States, according to the company's announcement. Under the letter, Avalanche and TRIDEC will work together on site selection, permitting, infrastructure readiness, regional supply chain development and specialized workforce development.

No site has been chosen. TRIDEC will coordinate with its jurisdictional partners and intends to issue a request for information to its economic development partners to evaluate potential sites based on the project's infrastructure, workforce, transportation, utility and development requirements. The plant would operate near FusionWERX, Avalanche's research and development facility in Port of Benton-owned space at 2345 Stevens Drive in Richland. Avalanche could start with a plant that requires about 20 acres, but expansion could eventually require hundreds of acres, the Tri-City Herald reported.

The facility would begin as a prototype production plant and is expected to expand into a fully vertically integrated commercial manufacturing operation capable of producing hundreds of fusion machines a year. TRIDEC and Avalanche officials told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business that means handling raw materials, making the necessary alloys, machining parts and assembling the machines on site. Avalanche is developing modular fusion machines with target capacities of 100 kilowatts and 5 megawatts, and the Herald reported possible uses include data centers, disaster relief and defense.

"We envision a world-class manufacturing center that can produce hundreds of fusion machines each year, create hundreds of long-term jobs and generate significant economic activity while positioning the Tri-Cities and Washington state at the forefront of the global fusion industry," Avalanche co-founder and CEO Robin Langtry said in the announcement.

Gov. Bob Ferguson and U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., spoke at the event. Ferguson called the planned manufacturing center a "big deal," saying it would be significant for the state's clean energy future, its climate goals, its manufacturing economy and jobs, the Herald reported. Newhouse said the project would bring construction jobs first, then hundreds of skilled and unskilled jobs.

Alex Campbell, Avalanche's head of commercial markets, told the Journal the company picked the Tri-Cities for its experienced nuclear workforce, institutions such as Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington State University Tri-Cities, and its rail and waterway transportation networks. "The ability to have rail and port access to ship these machines to not only domestic markets but international markets is a unique attribute that not many places have," Campbell said.

The technology still has a way to go. There is no commercial fusion energy production industry yet, the Herald noted, as fusion companies work to produce more energy from a fusion reaction than it takes to create the reaction. Avalanche says it remains on track to demonstrate net fusion energy gain before 2030.