Chester's Main Street Grew From Both Ends This Summer. Here's Its Fall Calendar.

"This is where Waganupa beer actually starts, and we can't think of a better way to open our doors for good than shoulder to shoulder with the rest of downtown Chester." That was how Waganupa Brewing announced its Chester taproom at 401 Main St., which opened on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, during the Lake Almanor Area Chamber of Commerce's Main Street Mingle. The phrase that matters is "for good." Gather Home opened its design studio at 131 Main St. the same afternoon. The next day, Lassen Laundromat held a ribbon cutting at 690 Main St., where you first enter town.

Three openings in two days could pass for a busy summer weekend. What the fall calendar shows is that these places were set up for regular weeks well past summer. Chester's community planners are working toward the same goal for the whole downtown.

The 400 block now pours from where the beer is made

Waganupa dates to 2015 and lists Scotty Outland as its new owner. Its About page says the small-batch beer is made entirely in Chester. Until this summer, most people knew the brand from its Lake Almanor taproom at 401 Peninsula Drive. With the Main Street taproom, the in-town address now matches the brewing.

The brewery's event listings back this up. For the Oct. 30 event, Waganupa says it is "turning the brewery into a murder scene" at the Chester taproom, with "a killer hiding among the tanks."

The two taprooms keep different hours, which makes it easy to show up at the wrong one:

The Chester taproom is the daytime stop. The August opening notice listed Chester hours as Friday and Saturday only, and the site now includes Sunday, so check before you plan a Sunday afternoon around it. The signature beers are Crazy Blonde, Alice's Amber, ISHI's IPA and Coppervale Light. The beer page calls Fog Hat a Citra-forward hazy IPA. Alice's Amber began as Scotty's first try at a rye IPA, and the brewery lists it as a rye IPA with a rich amber color.

Thursday nights belong to the Peninsula taproom. Trivia runs every Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. For $10 you get a beer token and a slice of pizza, and the theme changes every week. The Chamber calendar lists the Oct. 8 session at 401 Peninsula Drive.

The 100 block: a design studio next to a standing breakfast

Gather Home now has two addresses close together on Main Street, the new design studio at 131 Main and its furniture store at 149 Main. Splitting design from furniture gives the block a second storefront where it used to have one.

A few doors up, the Lake Almanor Elks Lodge at 164 Main St. runs the most reliable schedule downtown. Second Sunday Breakfast is $14 per person, served 9 a.m. to noon. The October menu is bacon, scrambled eggs and French toast, with a fruit cup, juice and coffee. The lodge also holds Taco Nights from 5 to 7 p.m. once a month through December.

The new studio and the long-running lodge breakfast share the same short stretch of Main. That stretch is now busy on more days of the month than it was a year ago.

690 Main, where town begins

Almanor Junction sits at 690 Main St. Mountain Ventures LLC, its owner, describes the spot as "right as you enter Chester." Mark and Mary Lilley own Mountain Ventures. They moved to Chester in January 2024 and also own the Antlers Inn, the U-Haul dealership at the Junction, and Chester Sheds.

Lassen Laundromat is the Junction's first tenant. It has high-capacity washers and dryers, card and mobile pay, and free high-speed internet. It also offers pay-per-use showers, which the owners say are aimed at Pacific Crest Trail hikers as well as locals, travelers and campers. The laundromat's website lists hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Of this summer's three new Main Street businesses, it keeps the longest hours.

Sources disagree on the opening date. Plumas Sun reported an Aug. 8 grand opening with a Chamber ribbon cutting at 11 a.m. The owners' site says it opened Sept. 8, 2026. Either way, it is open now.

Getting the Junction ready took real work. The owners list replacing the building's damaged back wall and roof structure, putting a new roof on the rear three-quarters of the building in August 2025, and finishing new stucco on Aug. 29, 2025. Next is The Fun Depot, a planned family entertainment center with indoor mini golf, an arcade and duckpin bowling. A co-working space is also under consideration. The Lilleys have partnered with The Almanor Foundation on The Conductors Club, a nonprofit that will offer scholarships and program access to local kids and teens once the center opens. No opening date has been posted.

The downtown calendar from now to mid-December

Taken together, these dates show downtown with something scheduled most weeks between now and the holidays:

A few notes on the table. Proceeds from the Oct. 24 soup supper go to the Christmas Angels Committee. At the Vampire Ball, every guest is assigned a character in advance, so seats are limited. Waganupa says ticket details are coming soon. The Chamber has not posted its 2026 list of businesses on the Holiday Shopping Tour yet. Waganupa's events page gives different dates for the tour, Nov. 6–8, and says the brewery will take part at both taprooms, so confirm the weekend before you plan around it.

The Chamber's Main Street Market moved from weekly Thursdays at Chester Park to second-Friday vendor nights at Main and Willow. Its published schedule covers June 13 through Oct. 10, 2025. We haven't found a 2026 schedule, so it isn't in the table.

Planning for the rest of the year

The Almanor Foundation published plans for a Chester Town Center on Jan. 30, 2026. The project was earlier called the Town Plaza or Town Square. The concept is a downtown hub for shopping and community life, with information stations, public restrooms, gathering space, beautification work, fewer empty storefronts, a merchants' association, and programming up to 250 days a year. It would link activity on Main Street with Chester Park. The plan also names possible funding sources, including USDA Rural Development and Community Development Block Grants.

The Town Center grew out of a Plumas County effort run with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation. The Almanor Foundation, the Seneca Healthcare Foundation and the Lake Almanor Area Chamber helped with outreach, and county Community Coordinator Brianna Swofford was assigned to the work. The Chamber collected public input on Aug. 7, the same day as the Main Street openings. Ideas on the list included markets, art shows, concerts, theater, festivals, public art, a playground and restrooms. The most recent update, published Sept. 28, says the team held a quarterly meeting on the Town Center and two other projects. A March report described Chester Park as an anchor and said nearby parcels might be expanded or connected, but it named no specific parcel. None of the updates we found name a site or a construction start, so the Town Center is still a concept.

Two hundred fifty programmed days is an ambitious target. The businesses that opened along Main Street this summer already keep weekly schedules: a brewery taproom three afternoons a week, a laundromat open daily, a lodge with monthly breakfasts and taco nights, and a design studio across from a furniture store. Those regular weeks are what a Town Center would build on.

If you're watching how these openings change the feel of the blocks around you, or wondering what a Main Street address is worth while Chester plans its Town Center, the team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Lake Almanor Real Estate follows these changes block by block and is glad to talk them through with you.