Twin Peaks Location – Unused Keri’s Handi-Mart in Fall City, WA

Fall City in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington is home to several Twin Peaks film locations including Hap’s Diner, the Bookhouse, Big Ed’s Gas Farm and more. There is one more business in the area that almost became a film location for Twin Peaks: The Return. In Part 12, Sarah Palmer has a moment while shopping for groceries at Keri’s Handi-Mart. The actual location used in the show’s third season is Handy Market found in Burbank, California. But Mrs. Palmer almost was seen running away from the Farmhouse Market located down the street from The Roadhouse Restaurant and Inn.

WHERE IS FARMHOUSE MARKET IN FALL CITY, WASHINGTON LOCATED?

The Farmhouse Market is located at 33521 Redmond-Fall City Rd SE in Fall City. It’s about a five minute walk from The Roadhouse Restaurant and Inn which served as the exterior of The Roadhouse in Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Twin Peaks: The Return.

The Farmhouse Market is the latest in a long line of grocery businesses that have occupied this space in Fall City since 1922. I love that the Fall City Historical Society posted history plaques on various buildings throughout town. Each one has a QR code that redirects to the society’s webpage for a deeper dive. This one titled, “The Grocery Corner, since 1922” reads:

The southwest corner of James and River Streets in Fall City has been home to a series of grocery stores since 1922, when George and Sarah Chapman built on the corner, current site of the parking lot. Theirs was the first store in town with a refrigerated meat case. An interesting photo of the interior c1925 is shown above.

William “Reg” Johnson bought the Chapman Store in 1928, beginning a series of many owners and operators over the years (see link below for more details on the various businesses). The original store was purchased by Don Bluher in 1963 and operated as Bluher’s Market until it burned in 1972. Don cleared the ruins of the building for a parking lot and rebuilt in the present location to the west. Gene and Carol Stevens operated the new store as Stevens’ Family Market from 1972 through 2006, to date the longest continuous operation. In 2007, Jay Bluher [son of Don Bluher], remodeled the building and opened as the Farmhouse Market. 

The QR code webpage has even more details and photos from the long line of businesses that occupied Grocery Corner. I won’t list them on this page but invite you to visit this link.

Jay Bluher began working at the Stevens’ Family Market when he was 13 years old. Gene and Carol Stevens operated the business from 1972 to 2006. After working in a number of other retail businesses, Jay returned to the Market and worked there from 1997 to 2001.

At the time, he told the owners he wanted to purchase the business after they retired in 2001. But the Gene and Carol extended their lease for another five years. Jay then left the market and became a Firefighter / EMT for Fall City until the owners retired in 2006.

On November 17, 2006, the Stevens’ closed their store and Jay began a six-week remodel of the store. It reopened as the Farmhouse Market on February 9, 2007. According to a Snoqualmie Valley Record article from 2007, the remodeled consisted of “new and refurbished equipment, fresh paint and new flooring that gives the store a new look.”

Today, the Farmhouse Market is the Valley’s best place to find fresh, local produce and meat.

“We have established relationships with farmers in the region, so we can offer fresh produce delivered in our own truck, direct from the farm the same day it was harvested,” wrote Bluher on their website. “In our fresh meat department you will find northwest grown Painted Hills Natural Beef, with no added hormones or antibiotics, raised the way nature intended, on grass.”

WHY WASN’T FALL CITY’S FARMHOUSE MARKET USED AS KERI’S HANDI-MART IN PART 12?

The Keri’s Handi-Mart scenes in Part 12 of Twin Peaks: The Return were filmed on November 10, 2015 at Handy Market located near the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Buena Vista Street in Burbank, California (just down the road a little from the Walt Disney Studios lot).

For this scene, Zoey McLane was the “Check-out girl” Victoria and Johnny Ochsner was Oscar the Bag-boy. They only appear in this episode of Frost and Lynch’s third season and were originally cast for Twin Peaks while they were both living in Washington state.

During the Real Twin Peaks 2026 event, Washington State Casting Director Heidi Walker played a game with attendees at Vinnie Guidera’s “Local Color: Washington State on Screen” panel held in Volition Brewing Co. on February 20. She held up several local actors’ headshots and asked the audience who the individual played in Frost and Lynch’s show.

Both Johnny and Zoe’s headshots were in the mix meaning she cast them in Washington. This also means the grocery store scene was planned to be filmed while the crew was in Snoqualmie Valley in September and October 2015.

So what happened? Why weren’t the Grocery Store scenes shot in Fall City?

Filming for the the grocery store scene in Fall City was planned for October 12, 2015, the last day of filming in Washington state. On October 13, the crew would relocate to Southern California and production would continue on October 22.

On October 12, production at Olallie State Park for scenes between Special Agent Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer ran longer than anticipated. The crew also needed to capture nighttime footage at the Mount Si Motel used in Part 15. Local Valley residents who were tracking the crew’s whereabouts reported the Farmhouse Market had been blocked off for filming around that time.

At some point, it was clear that the shoot wasn’t going to happen. This must have prompted the Farmhouse Market to make the following Facebook post on October 12: “Open regular hours today from 7:00 am to 10 pm.”

This was the only time in 2015 when the grocery store made a Facebook post about their hours of operation. Clearly, they needed to inform customers about the change since they had planned on being closed for some or all of the day.

I visited the Farmhouse Market in August 2023 to take photos of the store. It’s difficult to say where exactly the crew would have shot scenes with Sarah Palmer but the entire space was well lit and quite colorful.

One assumes they would have found the alcohol aisle as the scene shows Sarah loading up on Bloody Mary Mix and Vodka.

One can also assume the registers would be used for the interaction between Sarah, Victoria and Oscar.

How I wish the scenes would have been captured here as it would have added one more location to the Real Twin Peaks of Washington state. For now, we only have dreams of what may have been.