If you’ve driven up Northwest Avenue in the past six years, you’ve probably noticed Good’s: a produce stand in the Columbia neighborhood. It’s marked by white signs with red, handwritten lettering sitting out front, boasting “Peaches,” “Tomatoes,” “Watermelon”—whatever’s in season that week. And you may have noticed a newer, more enticing sign: “Cold Beer.” But, wait: who’s ever heard of a produce stand that sells beer?
“It’s crazy, you know, people love beer. They love fruit and produce, too, but they don’t love fruit and produce near like they love beer.”
I’m sitting at the hand-crafted bar of Good’s taproom, laughing with Cory Bakker, part owner with Tim Miller, and Cory’s wife, Molly Fay. Cory is here every day, running daily operations, selling produce from the stand out front, pouring customers beer from the tap. He’s setting up for the day, taking chairs off tables and throwing hot dogs on the turner. Our conversation halts each time a customer—or the mailman—walks in. It’s actually quite difficult for him to stand still.
Cory is a fifth-generation Bellinghamster, who has fond memories of growing up here. “You see it right there,” he says pointing to two kids playing at an umbrella-laden picnic table out front. “It was a simpler time. As a 12-year-old kid, we could ride our bikes all the way down to Boulevard Park, down to the harbor to fill a five-gallon bucket full of fish heads…without our parents, no way of them communicating with us. They were just trusting in the greater good of people, that everybody’s gonna look out for each other. I think that’s something we’ve lost in society today.”
Cory talks a lot about this internal drive to preserve Bellingham’s small-town feel. For Cory, a big part of that means knowing where your goods come from. “I don’t use a large distributor,” he explains. “I drive back and forth across the mountains and I shake the farmers’ hands. I eat lunch with them.”
Cory’s interest in produce sprouted from watching his family run one of Bellingham’s oldest, local farms, Joe’s Gardens. He later followed that passion, working for Youngstock’s Country Farms. Then his career path took a unique turn. He poured concrete for 17 years, owned a hot dog cart and sold Christmas trees in Fairhaven.
Six years ago, two old friends, Kelly and Aaron Booker, approached Cory. They knew he’d always wanted to open his own produce stand and they had a piece of property available.
“None of this would have happened without them,” Cory says. “They live in this neighborhood, own property in this neighborhood, raise their kids here – so it’s important their property be an influential part of it. And for me, it’s important that local business owners strive to keep it a small town.”
The produce stand did well—at least, as well as could be expected. But selling produce is seasonal, Cory explains, and the stand alone just wasn’t cutting it.
“We were thinking about shutting down,” he says, “but I kept listening to my customers, the vibe from the neighborhood, and they wanted a taproom. So, I said, ‘Let’s open a taproom.’”
As with the produce, all the beer at Good’s is local. They constantly rotate their offerings, keeping the selection fresh for regulars who give business to taproom and produce stand alike.
“I didn’t realize how many customers I really had at the produce stand until I opened the taproom,” Cory says. “The people that interact with each other, I would have never thought these people were friends. But they must have something in common, and that thing is that they like beer.”
Cory gives off a seriously down-to-earth vibe. His clothing—navy blue t-shirt, green shorts, salt-and-pepper hair sticking out from an old baseball cap—is unassuming. He’s someone you could laugh with for hours but is simultaneously not someone you’d want to mess with. I wonder how opening this place has changed him.
“It’s definitely changed how I handle situations. I handle them in a more diplomatic way. I don’t go off on people. You can’t do that,” Cory says with a laugh. “You have to be way more reserved in what you say and the way you say it. I’m learning how to become a better person every day by listening to people, you know? Especially my wife. She was a huge…” Cory smiles and pauses. “I can honestly say we never would have opened without her. She was nothing but supportive, mentally and financially.”
“I see all different walks of life in here,” Cory relates. “That’s important to me. There are no preconditions in this setting and the atmosphere here – it’s all customers. They’re the ones who’ve made it that way.”
