Two Bell Street Landmarks Changed Hands, and Both Kept What Los Alamos Already Had

"Meeting in person is going to become more and more important in building community," Kyle McCarthy told the Santa Barbara Independent in March. He is creative director of Voyj Travel, the hospitality company that took over the 1880 Union Hotel last fall. It's the sort of line any new owner says. What makes it more than talk is the saloon's bar menu, where the toasts come on Bob's Well Bread sourdough and rye.

Two of Bell Street's best-known addresses changed ownership in the past year. In both cases the new owners tied the business to people already working in Los Alamos. The Union serves bread from the town bakery, and Plenty on Bell kept its founding chef.

The Union, open to the public after a decade

The Independent reported that the 1880 Union Hotel at 362 Bell Street had been closed to the public for the past decade. The building was first put up in 1880, rebuilt in 1915 after a fire, and restored to its wooden finish in 1972. Over that history it has been a stagecoach stop and a telegraph station, and it was the set for the Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney video "Say Say Say."

Voyj had owned and run properties in Joshua Tree and Paso Robles. McCarthy called the Union "our first big acquisition as a group." Weddings carry most of the business model. The Independent reported that the nine-room hotel was already mostly booked with weddings through summer and fall, and the hotel's website leads with full-property buyouts and receptions that run until 2 a.m.

For people who live here, the saloon is what changed. The spring reopening was built around winery partners from around the region. Lo-Fi Wines, McKinney Family, Koehler, and Demetria each hosted a weekend between April 10 and May 3, with a winemaker dinner capped at 40 seats. Even before that, the Independent noted, the saloon had hosted locals' nights and a few holiday parties.

The saloon's own October 2026 calendar lists these hours:

• Thursday and Friday: 4 to 9 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: brunch, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Monday through Wednesday: closed
• Live music: Thursdays

The hotel's homepage still shows an older schedule of Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 9 p.m. The monthly calendar is more specific. The saloon posts updates on Instagram at @saloon1880union.

The menu is short and built for an evening at the bar. It runs to buttermilk-brined fried chicken sliders, barbacoa sliders, a torta ahogada, a calamari po'boy, dukkah cauliflower, and the two Bob's toasts. One is the Chef's Toast with olive tapenade and pomegranate glaze. The other is a PB&J toast on rye topped with a chili garlic fried egg. Putting the town bakery's bread on a landmark's menu is a quiet choice, and it shows how Voyj has fit in so far.

Plenty on Bell, same kitchen and a new owner

A few blocks east, at 508 Bell Street, Rowles Holdings bought the building in March 2025. Noozhawk reported in April 2026 that a lease matter had been resolved and that Noah Rowles and Rowles Holdings would take over ownership of the restaurant through an orderly transition.

The new owners' public statement mostly promised to keep things as they were. In it, Rowles said the family planned to run the restaurant as it had been run, add personal touches to the menu, and buy more ingredients from local ranchers and farmers, including from the family's own home in Los Alamos. On the kitchen, the statement said the owners "intend to allow (Johansson) to continue on as Plenty's chef." Jesper Johansson helped found Plenty when it opened in January 2016.

So far the restaurant's own site matches that statement. It lists breakfast from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Dinner runs Fridays only, 5:30 to 8 p.m., and is described as "Chef Jesper's ever-changing Central Coast bistro dinner menu." No dated announcement since the settlement has confirmed Johansson's long-term role. The Friday menu still carries his name.

The two handovers came about in different ways. Both new owners have tied the business to people already in Los Alamos, with the town bakery's bread at the Union and the founding chef and more local sourcing at Plenty.

A street where businesses share customers

Those choices fit the rest of Bell Street, where several established businesses already share customers, space, or ingredients.

• Bodega, at 273 Bell Street, sells wine, beer, and goods Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It promotes a wine club that covers Bodega, Bell's, and Bar Le Côte.
• Clementine Carter Wines, at 388 Bell Street, shares its patio with its sister business, Babi's Beer Emporium, and serves cheese, charcuterie, and panini alongside the wine. Sonja Magdevski renamed the winery from Casa Dumetz in April 2024.
• Pico Los Alamos, at 458 Bell Street, pours Lumen wines in its historic dining room and grows produce in an edible garden. Its dinner menu page reads "UPDATED 10/01/2026." In May, Pico hosted the 14th original production by the Los Alamos Theatre Group, a volunteer company that gives all ticket proceeds to local nonprofits. The show was a comedy about staging a talent show inside a Bell Street restaurant.
• Bell's, at 406 Bell Street, is still listed by Michelin with a star, under chef Daisy Ryan. It serves lunch and dinner Thursday through Monday. Dinner is a weekly-changing prix fixe at $125 per guest.
• Bob's Well Bread runs bakeries in Los Alamos and Ballard and cites a 2025 Sunset Best Bakery award. Its loaves now show up on the Union's bar menu too.

Bodega's club, Clementine Carter's shared patio, and Pico's stage each link one Bell Street business or group to another. Bob's bread at the Union and Plenty's plan to buy from local ranchers are links of the same kind.

Late October on Bell Street

Bell's, Bodega, and the Union saloon all open on Thursdays, and the busiest dates of the coming weeks reflect that. The 80th Los Alamos Old Days ran September 25 through 27, with a car show, a 5K, live music, and the Sunday parade. Here is what is on the calendar between now and Halloween:

The Grenache tasting on October 17 is the most unusual date on the list. Guests taste the 2016 through 2024 vintages from bottle, the 2025 vintage from barrel, and 2026 fruit still on the vine. That is one grape traced through vine, barrel, and bottle at a single address.

Boo on Bell is in its second year. The 2026 listing says only that more details will come from the Los Alamos Merchant Association. Noozhawk described the first one in October 2025: participating shops and restaurants offered trick-or-treating, seasonal specials, and activities on a Thursday afternoon. This year the Union's saloon calendar lists its Halloween Party on the same evening, from 4 to 9 p.m.

Historic main-street buildings like the Union and 508 Bell carry their own stewardship questions, from preservation to the neighbors and partners that depend on them. If you own a property in Los Alamos with that kind of history and want to talk through what it means for its future, Murphy Atkinson Country Estates + Vineyards is glad to schedule a confidential consultation.