At 3300 Spenard Road, one business after another has tried to make a home and then moved on. The latest chapter is part of a pattern that has lasted more than 75 years at the Alaska property, where the past six years have brought events, temporary tenants and a steady turnover of uses.
The building has hosted artist gatherings, car washes and trunk-or-treating in recent years, and several churches have looked for a more permanent foothold there. Set Free Church, Response Church and Clear Water Church have each sought space at the address, a sign that the building has become less a fixed storefront than a flexible stop on Spenard’s changing commercial strip.
That churn matters because the property is tied to a long local memory of businesses trying, and often failing, to stick. Charlou opened there in May 2019, serving coastal-inspired cuisine with an emphasis on Alaska seafood, then closed on May 30, 2020. Its name came from the grandmothers of co-founders Nikole Moore and Pamela Hatzis, Charlotte and Louise. Before Charlou, La Potato held its grand opening weekend on Nov. 2 and 3, 2018, then closed in April 2019. Route 33 opened in June 2017 and was gone by November 2017.
The address has been part of a broader Spenard story for years. Tap Root Café opened on Huffman Road in 2006, closed there on May 30, 2010 and reopened at 3300 Spenard Road on June 7, 2010. Earlier, The Paragon nightclub operated at 3103 Spenard Road from Dec. 30, 1991 to Jan. 23, 1992, never had its own sign and shut with the marquee still reading The Roxy. The nearby building later became the Alano Club. In November 2017, Hans Nowka said of the Spenard site, “It’s done. It’s changed and revamped and will hopefully make Spenard a better place.” Rebecca Mohlman said in 2010, “If there is one word we stand on, it’s community.”
For now, the question around 3300 Spenard Road is not whether it can attract attention. It already does that. The question is whether anyone can make the address hold still long enough to become permanent, and the building’s record says that has been the hard part.
