Five New Businesses Have Opened in Historic Downtown Colfax. Here’s Who They Are.
Some wins are quiet. A grant approved. A meeting that finally goes the right way. A building owner who says yes.
And then there are the wins you can see from the street.
Five new businesses have opened in Historic Downtown Colfax. A woman who spent sixteen years at flea markets all over California opening her first real shop. A 65-year resident finally launching her passion project in the town that raised her. A couple who took a birthday drive up the hill, fell in love with a quiet historic main street, and decided to build their dream here. A historian who moved to Colfax and built a craft school because she believed this community deserved one. And a man who has owned one of this town’s most storied buildings for years — and decided the best way to bring it back to life was to open his own shop inside it.
None of them were recruited. None of them were incentivized. They looked at Historic Downtown Colfax and saw something worth betting on. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a town starts to feel alive again — when there are events on the calendar, foot traffic on the street, and a growing sense that something is being built here worth being part of.
That’s the work. And this is what it looks like when it starts to pay off.
Nail Salon
Chromie Nails
9 S. Main St · Historic Downtown Colfax CA 95713
Leo and Phoebe came from Atlanta. They worked their way through salons across Georgia and California — building skills, building clientele, building a shared philosophy about what nail care is actually supposed to be. Not just beautiful nails. Healthy ones. Work that lasts because it’s done right from the start.
Then on Phoebe’s birthday in 2024, they visited Colfax. Just a day trip. And something clicked. The quiet. The historic main street. The feeling that this was a town becoming something. They drove home knowing — this is where they wanted to build their dream. With family already here at the Colfax Bistro, opening on South Main Street felt less like a leap and more like coming home.
Leo is the artist. Clients who’ve sat in his chair call him a magician — describe your vision and he’ll bring it back better than you imagined. Custom nail art is his language; music and design are his instincts. Phoebe is the anchor — meticulous, detail-oriented, the one making sure every set is built to last and every client feels taken care of from booking to the moment they walk out.
The full menu runs from classic manicures and pedicures to acrylics, dipping powder, builder gel, and Gel X extensions. Their spa pedicure menu — including a Luxury Herbal Candle Spa Pedicure with mineral soaks, botanical exfoliation, collagen masks, and hot stone therapy — is the kind of service Colfax has never had before. Kid services available for children under 10.
Small salon. Big heart. Open seven days a week.
📍 9 S. Main St, Historic Downtown Colfax
📞 916-398-5439
🕐 Mon–Sat 10:00 AM–6:00 PM · Sun 10:00 AM–4:00 PM
🌐 chromienailscolfax.com · Book online at chromienailscolfax.com
📸 @chromienailscolfax
Vintage Clothing & Accessories
The Wildlands Vintage
Serra has been doing this for sixteen years. Flea markets across California. Festivals up and down the state. Every piece sourced, selected, or made by her own hands. She knows vintage the way you only learn it by living it — by showing up before dawn at swap meets, by developing an eye that can spot something worth saving in a pile of noise.
The Wildlands Vintage is her first brick and mortar shop. And she chose Colfax.
The inventory spans the 1930s through the 2000s — clothing and accessories for women and men, all sizes from XS to 4X, with price points that run from thrift ($5–$10) all the way up. Alongside the vintage pieces you’ll find modern vintage-inspired brands, custom reworked and upcycled items Serra has made herself, and accessories — hats, shoes, scarves, belts — the finishing pieces that pull a look together.
This is not a shop stocked by algorithm. Every item in it was found, made, or reimagined by one person who has spent the better part of two decades doing exactly this. Open Friday through Sunday to start, with more days coming as the town gets to know her.
📍 229 Railroad St, Historic Fruit Exchange Building · Open Friday–Sunday · Grand Opening June 6th, 11am–7pm
📸 Instagram: @thewildlandsvintage
Antiques & Curiosities
Ms P’s Oddities
Patrice Goulet has lived in Colfax for 65 years. She was the school secretary who knew every kid’s name. She opened Buzz Thru Drive Through in 2000 and ran it for nearly a decade before selling it. She spent fourteen years running a vehicle licensing consulting company before retiring. Three successful businesses built in this town over the course of a lifetime spent here.
Ms P’s Oddities is the fourth chapter — and by her own description, the most personal one. This is a passion project, not a pivot. Patrice has always loved the art of collecting — the hunt, the find, the moment a piece that was overlooked somewhere gets a second life in the right hands. Her favorite part isn’t the acquisition. It’s watching a customer’s face when they discover the exact thing they didn’t know they were looking for.
That’s the shop she built. Antiques, curiosities, and one-of-a-kind finds for your home and garden — sourced by someone who has been a part of this community longer than most of its current residents have been alive, and who knows the difference between something worth keeping and something worth passing on.
Colfax raised Patrice. Now she’s giving something back to it… Again!
📍 225 Railroad Ave, Space 219 · Historic Fruit Exchange Building · Colfax CA 95713
📘 facebook.com/mspoddities
✉️ [email protected]
🎉 Grand Opening June 6th · 11am–7pm
Craft School & Community Studio
Craftfolk Collective
Gretchen Hilyard Boyce is a historian, multidisciplinary craftsperson, musician, and community builder who has spent her career studying something most people take for granted — the way communities are shaped by the skills they practice, the stories they share, and the spaces where people learn together.
She has been making things her whole life. Knitting. Natural dyeing. Herbal medicine. Soap making. Not as hobbies but as a way of moving through the world slowly and with intention. When she moved to Colfax, she saw something this town was missing — a place where that kind of learning could happen in community, free from the noise of social media, rooted in local relationships and the quiet satisfaction of working with your hands.
Craftfolk Collective is the realization of that vision. A craft school and gathering place at 38 N. Main Street — sharing space with Snapdragon Provisions, tucked into Depot Alley — where regional artists, craftspeople, and tradition bearers teach what they know to people who want to learn it. Block printing. Visible mending. Gel printing. Wet felting. Fermentation. Cheesemaking. The kind of knowledge that used to pass between generations at kitchen tables and is in danger of being lost.
Workshops are intentionally small — 10 to 12 people — so everyone gets real guidance, not just a demonstration. Free Community Craft Club sessions run throughout the month for anyone who wants to show up and make something alongside their neighbors. No experience required. Just a willingness to slow down and try.
Gretchen didn’t open a business. She built a gathering place. And she built it here.
📍 38 N. Main St, enter through Depot Alley · Colfax CA 95713
🌐 craftfolkcollective.com
📋 Workshop registration available online
Vintage & Found Objects
Liberator’s Emporium
Todd Saylor owns the Historic Fruit Exchange Building. He also runs Colfax Automotive. He has been part of this town for decades — the kind of person who knows everyone, remembers everything, and genuinely wants to see Colfax come back to its fullest potential. When he partnered with HCDA to activate his building, he wasn’t just being a good landlord. He was betting on his town.
Liberator’s Emporium is Todd and his partner Jenine’s own shop — and it is exactly what you’d expect from a man who loves a good story. Not quite antique. Not quite thrift. Somewhere gloriously in between. Every single item was sourced from somewhere in the Sierra Foothills, and Todd can tell you where. Which barn it came out of. Whose property it sat on. What it was used for and why it matters. That’s not a sales pitch — that’s just how he experiences the world. Everything has a history. Everything deserves to be found by the right person.
Walk in with no plan. Ask Todd about something on the shelf. You’ll leave an hour later with a story you didn’t have when you arrived — and probably something you didn’t know you needed.
The building owner opened his own shop in his own building. That’s not something you see every day. It tells you everything about how seriously Todd takes this town’s comeback.
📍 229 Railroad St · Historic Fruit Exchange Building · Colfax CA 95713
🎉 Grand Opening June 6th · 11am–7pm
Come celebrate with us — Saturday, June 6th
Three shops. One historic building that has been standing on Railroad Street since 1910. And a grand opening celebration that is free for everyone.
The Historic Fruit Exchange at 229 Railroad Street opens its doors Saturday, June 6th from 11am to 7pm. Shop The Wildlands Vintage, Ms P’s Oddities, and Liberator’s Emporium — three completely different stores under one roof, each one worth a visit on its own. Rowdy’s Bad Idea brings live music starting at 4pm. Food and drinks on site all day.
Come early to shop. Stay for the music. Bring someone who hasn’t been downtown in a while and show them what’s happening here.
📍 229 Railroad St, Historic Fruit Exchange Building, Colfax CA 📅 Saturday, June 6th · 11am–7pm 🎶 Live music at 4:00 PM · Free admission
This is what we came here to do.
The Historic Colfax Downtown Association exists for moments like this one. Not just events on a calendar — but entrepreneurs choosing this town, buildings coming back to life, and a historic main street that is becoming the kind of place people drive to on purpose instead of through by accident.
Five new businesses in the historic district. A summer concert series filling South Main Street. A quarterly market that has been quietly proving for two years that Colfax is worth stopping for. The momentum is real and it is building.
We are proud of what this community is becoming. And we are just getting started.
Follow along at historiccolfax.com and find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you believe in what we’re building here — support the work.