The line at Spudnut Shop moves the way it always has: past the glass case, past the smell of hot oil and potato dough, up to a counter that has occupied the same corner of the Uptown Shopping Center for nearly eight decades. What changed in 2026 wasn't the donuts. It was who's standing behind that counter deciding how to run the place.
Mike Bishop and Ryan Pearson took over Spudnut Shop this year from a business that had, for a long stretch of its history, been kept by one family. Val Driver, the founder's daughter, started working there at 15 and spent her career keeping the recipe and the routine intact. Bishop and Pearson are Richland natives who grew up eating these donuts, and by every account of the handoff, their plan isn't to modernize the shop. It's to keep it exactly what it's been. That's a small piece of business news on its own. Looked at against the rest of Uptown Richland, it's the clearest evidence of how this stretch of George Washington Way and Jadwin Avenue actually works. Businesses here don't get replaced. They get handed off.
A shopping center that never became a strip mall
Uptown Richland opened for business in 1949, making it one of the earliest car-oriented shopping centers built in the United States. Most retail from that era followed a predictable arc: it aged, it got demolished, and a newer big-box format took its place. Uptown didn't follow that arc. The layout is still the low, walkable strip it was when it opened, and a lot of what fills it today is the same kind of small, independently run business that filled it decades ago.
Spudnut Shop is the clearest example, but it's not the only one. The Emerald of Siam, a Thai restaurant and live music venue at 1314 Jadwin Ave, has been run by the same family since 1983. Octopus Garden, the gift shop that's been a fixture across years of reviews and write-ups of the plaza, is still there too. None of these are legacy names propped up for nostalgia. They're active, currently operating businesses that happen to have been open for a long time in the same spot.
The pattern isn't preservation, it's succession
What makes Uptown interesting isn't that old things survive here. Old things survive lots of places by sitting still. What's happening at Uptown is that ownership keeps moving to the next generation of locals instead of moving out to a regional or national operator.
The Emerald of Siam is a good case study for how that plays out at scale. It's not just a restaurant. Its own site describes it as a live music venue and a Tri-Cities cultural hub, and it's picked up People's Choice recognition in categories that include Best Live Music Venue, Best Asian Cuisine, and Best Nightlife. A restaurant that's been run by one family for over four decades doesn't usually also become the region's go-to concert venue. Doing both at once, for this long, takes a level of local investment that a franchise operator wouldn't have a reason to make.
Spudnut Shop is the same story compressed into 2026. The business didn't get bought by a donut chain looking to add a Tri-Cities location. It got bought by two people who grew up standing in that same line, and who are on record wanting to preserve what made the place work rather than update it.
This matters for anyone trying to read Uptown correctly. A shopping center from 1949 that's still standing could mean stagnation. This one isn't stagnant. Its businesses keep passing to owners with deep Richland roots, from the family behind the Emerald of Siam to the two Richland natives now running Spudnut Shop.
That local-to-local handoff also leaves room for new businesses to join in, not just legacy ones to hang on. Black Cypress, a newer addition to the plaza serving Southern-style breakfast with dishes like shrimp and grits and a crawfish omelet, is proof the corridor isn't a closed loop. It's a place where new local operators can still find an opening next to a donut shop that's been there since 1948.
A short list of what else is worth the stop, if you're making a loop through the plaza:
- Octopus Garden, the gift shop that's shown up in write-ups of Uptown going back over a decade
- Uptown Comics & Books and Adventures Underground, two separate stops if you're browsing comics, tabletop games, or used vinyl
- Kagen Crepes, for coffee and a crepe if you're passing through rather than sitting down for a full meal
- The Uptown Theater, recently renovated and now used for local theater productions instead of sitting empty
What's actually on the calendar this fall
None of this is history for its own sake. The Emerald of Siam has live bookings running into 2027, with touring acts like Cascadel, The Alex Lucero Band, and Snacks at Midnight on the schedule, and a Next Stop Comedy showcase set for October 9, 2026. That's not a venue coasting on its reputation. That's an active booking calendar for a room that's been operating in the same building since 1983.
The Uptown Business Improvement District also keeps a standing Art Walk on the calendar, free to attend, with vendor booths open to local artists for a small registration fee. It's the kind of low-key, recurring event that doesn't make headlines but keeps foot traffic moving through the plaza on a regular basis, which is exactly the kind of quiet reinvestment that keeps a 75-year-old shopping center from turning into a redevelopment target.
None of this required Uptown to look new. The parking lot is still the parking lot. The building footprint is still the 1949 footprint. What's changed is who's running the businesses inside it, and that turnover has consistently gone to people who already had a stake in Richland before they had a stake in the plaza.
If you're figuring out where to grab donuts before a Saturday errand run, or which room in town still books live comedy on a weeknight, Uptown Richland is still answering both of those questions the way it has for decades. It's just doing it under a couple of new names behind the counter.
If Uptown Richland is part of what you'd miss about this stretch of town, or part of what's pulling you toward it, the team at Desert Edge Realty Group knows this corner of Richland well enough to talk through it in more detail whenever you're ready.
