Kelly and Adam Rynd purchased the Fitterer’s building in hopes to bring new life into the downtown Ellensburg community. On Oct. 24, the reopening of Fitterer’s took place. With shops open to the public, including a candy and ice cream shop for kids and families to get together, and a men’s shop with a barber, and a whiskey bar, and a new restaurant to bring some new menus to Ellensburg, and more to come as the Rynds continue renovating the second and third floor to bring even more establishments that the town needs.
“[The] Ellensburg Downtown Association”… had done a survey and asked the locals ‘What would you like to see in the valley?’” Kelly Rynd said. “And so, one of the things was toy stores, and one of the things was a men’s shop, and then restaurants.” Kelly shares their later plans for continuing to build space upstairs into event rooms that will be hosting game nights, birthday parties, story time, and other gatherings.
When purchasing Fitterer’s, the Rynds not only respected the history of the store, and the legacy of the Fitterer family, but considered what the community wanted and needed.
“We looked at the space and just thought how could we develop this to where it almost became like a one stop shopping place,” Kelly Rynd said. “[We] wanted to create something that was fun for the locals and obviously tourists too, but the locals to have a place to hang out.”
The Rynds are not new at renovating spaces. “We have a store in Chelan as well, a toy store, and that’s been super successful,” Kelly Rynd said. “I just love creating a space where people of all ages can enjoy themselves.”
Kelly Rynd considered activities for the locals in town while deciding what the stores would sell. “Obviously the toy store was one of the things people were excited about, and a place for families to, you know, just enjoy being indoors.”
She continued, hoping they could “Host events like, lets just do a moms night out, and moms can just come and chat.”
Adam Rynd is the owner of multiple Woody’s men’s shops all over the central Washington area, along with a couple of other businesses. All Woody’s man shops have similar aesthetics
“The blue and brass or gold for the accent color,” Adam Rynd said. “We have the consistent in all our stores. We have a lot of dark woods. All our stores feature a bar of some size, and all of our stores have a barber and cigars and men’s clothing and gifts and personal care products.”
Adam Rynd decided to make the one in Ellensburg a little different however.
“This is our first location with a full whiskey bar,” Adam Rynd said. “And we’ll be adding that to our Chelan and Wenatchee stores in 2025… We have on the menu in Ellensburg now we have 60 different whiskeys, including American bourbons, American rise, Irish whiskeys, some scotch, some Japanese whiskeys and even a few hybrids.”
Another difference in the Woody’s men shop in Ellensburg than in the other Woody’s shops is that Adam Rynd partnered with Mark Pickerel to sell some of Pickerel’s branded Levi’s from his clothing collection.
“[We] connected with Mark [Pickerel] early on in our process for acquiring and renovating the building,” Adam Rynd said. He continued, sharing how the collaboration came about. “Mark [Pickerel] has a great line for pre-owned clothing,” Adam Rynd said. “So he has a variety of different products that we thought were great compliments to the store.”
Adam Rynd shared some backstory on why Pickerel’s Levi’s were such a perfect fit for this shop.
“One thing that is interesting about [the] Fitterer’s building is that we found a ghost sight,” Adam Rynd said. “It is from around pre-1905 with the original Levi Strauss brothers and company right here. So, there is a three-story tall billboard that is painted on this brick wall, and you can see the original Levi’s logo down at the end here. And that is the area where Mark [Pickerel] has his vintage Levi’s for sale.” Adam Rynd continues on the history. “[We] were excited to celebrate the heritage of the Levi’s brand,” Adam Rynd said. “And [we’re] partnering with Mark [Pickerel] to provide some great, interesting new products.”
The Rynds were very considerate in their choices of renovation. While making this building new and different, they kept the history of what it once was.
“We were very conscious of honoring the Fitterer family legacy,” Adam Rynd said. “[The] Fitterer family was among the first and earliest white settlers in the Kittitas valley and the furniture store began in 1896. As I recall, this building was constructed between 1906-1908 and it served as the Fitterer’s furniture building and the primary store locations for I guess 115 years, until they closed the furniture business in December of 2022. We were excited about the opportunity to reinvigorate the building. [To] reinvest in the downtown community and try to breathe some life back into downtown with a diversity of businesses. And we were excited about honoring the Fitterer’s family legacy. They have been very, very, supportive… John and Brad [Fitterer] and their wives have been fantastic supporters throughout this whole process.”
