Bloom closes after 10 years in Moscow

Bloom, located on the southwest corner of Friendship Square, has served breakfast and brunch in Moscow since 2011 and closed its doors Dec. 5.  

New Saint Andrews College, a private Christian college, owns the building in which Bloom currently resides. NSA resides in the same building and had been renting out a portion of it to Bloom but is now refusing to renew Bloom’s lease. 

Before closing, a farewell ceremony occurred out front of Bloom with a crowd of about 30. In attendance were about 10 fellow business owners, members of the community, friends of the owners and Bloom employees.  

A trombone, accordion and drums were played, giving a solemn goodbye to the restaurant with the audience demanding an encore, and a tearful goodbye from owners Nara and Brandon Woodland.  

Sandra Kelly, a councilor of Moscow City Council, spoke about how she felt about the closure.  

“I’m sad Bloom is (closing), I really like the heartbeat of our downtown community. They do such amazing things,” Kelly said. “They do nonprofit work, they donate to nonprofits all over town and they have been just such an integral part of that inclusive, diverse Moscow community that it breaks my heart to see this happen.” 

Bloom had been a part of and launched various programs helping the community with food insecurity over many years, such as they had launched in November 2020, “Healthy Home: Feed a Family” where Bloom sought out families through local schools with food insecurity and cooked and delivered fresh meals to them.  

The closure first became public with a large sign outside Bloom and a Facebook post on Nov. 16 addressing the closure, “New Saint Andrews College wants our restaurant space for their own purposes. We are sorry to inform you that December 5th will be our final day of service. We truly regret the loss to our community this decision will have.” 

The statement continued to thank the community for its support of the restaurant’s charitable programs. This statement resulted in an outpouring of grief and sadness over the closure on the business’s Facebook page.  

“Right now, with the impending closure of our restaurant, we are feeling so sad and disappointed,” Nara Woodland said. “With the outpouring of love and support people have shared on our social media pages and through conversations, we understand how important Bloom is to our community. Bloom embodies mutual respect and inclusivity, which added to the vibrancy of our downtown.” 

As for reopening at a new location, there are no current plans. 

“To retain what we all love about a vibrant Moscow, it is essential that downtown businesses serve the greater population of our community and not just a few,” she continued. “Right now, we are just taking it one step at a time. We have been invited by individuals in both Moscow and other communities to relocate our business. We are so grateful that our communities have provided so much support, kind words and memories.” 

NSA, responded to Bloom’s public statement with their own post the next day.  

“The college is experiencing unprecedented growth and is scrapping for every square foot of space to accommodate this growth. Our current plan is to move the NSA bookstore into the space that we rented to Bloom, allowing us to expand the bookstore and add study space in the library where the bookstore currently exists,” NSA stated. 

New Saint Andrews has experienced a 13.9% increase in enrollment from the 2019-2020 to 2020-2021 school years, greatly exceeding the previous average 2% annual increase in enrollment from 2011 to 2020. 

In 2019, Moscow City Council approved an ordinance that barred further expansion of any schools within the Central Business District of Moscow. This district encloses much of the buildings within the core of downtown Moscow, including the Skattaboe Building which contains both New Saint Andrews and Bloom. 

Brandy Sullivan, co-owner of One World Café and a Moscow City Council Member, spoke about the ordinance.  

“The zoning code doesn’t prevent UI or NSA or any other educational institution from purchasing a building in the central business district. The code does, however, limit the use of those buildings to permitted uses,” Sullivan said. “Since changes were made to the zoning code in 2019, the expansion of existing or addition of new educational services in the central business district is no longer permitted under any condition.” 

Sullivan states that one of the conditions of the conditional use permit was that NSA must maintain 160 feet of frontage for commercial usage or public usage. A bookstore, to her knowledge, would fit that requirement even if the space would not be used by as wide of a segment of the public as Bloom had been. 

Some locals hold concerns of NSA being affiliated with Christ Church and ‘taking over downtown through expansion.’ Previously, The Guardian has investigated the church’s financial and political interests.  

“There is concern from some that the welcoming, diverse makeup of downtown may be threatened as more and more downtown buildings are being bought by a single organized entity, and in this case, one in which its leader’s stated goal is a strategic takeover to ‘make Moscow a Christian town,’” Sullivan said. 

Sullivan explained that fears surrounded the idea that landlords could selectively choose tenants, limiting downtown’s growth. 

“Bloom had been an exception to this. I hope to see non-discriminatory rental practices regardless of who owns a building, and a diversity of business owner backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures, so that our treasured downtown remains a welcoming space for all, rather than providing opportunities to only those of a particular religious affiliation to the exclusion of those with differing beliefs,” Sullivan said. 

Photos from Bloom’s farewell ceremony can be seen here.

President of NSA Ben Merkle declined to comment on Bloom’s closure. 

Cory Summers can be reached at [email protected]