There’s a familiar face behind the deli counter at the ROCKET MARKET on the South Hill these days: Chef Shilo Pierce, formerly of Luna, is now making quiches, soups, salads, sandwiches and more in the back of the market. The new JUPITER BISTRO is the final stage of the market’s expansion that began a couple of years ago. Now, in addition to shopping for organic produce, frozen goods and an incredible selection of wines and beers, customers can grab a meal and hang out in the glassed-in café space.
“Everything starts from the shelves,” Pierce says, waving a hand toward the nearby displays of colorful vegetables and fruits. “I’m just playing with it.”
Inside the display case, you’ll find a dazzling array of salads — one with arugula, two bleu cheeses, apples and toasted pecans; another with red cabbage and kale; yet another combining butternut squash with red onions and bowtie pasta. Two or three types of quiche and a variety of panini sandwiches join familiar mainstays like mac-and-cheese and lasagna (all made from scratch).
It’s a challenge coming up with items that will hold well in a deli case, he says, “But I have every ingredient in the store at my disposal.”
And he approaches combining those ingredients with a chef’s eye and palate. For instance, he serves the white cheddar and pesto panini sandwich with a couple of lemon wedges on the side, and they’re not just there for decoration: “Squeeze a little bit of that [lemon juice] on the cut edge,” he says. “That’s the way to have that sandwich.” Indeed, the lemon’s acidity cuts through the richness of the cheese and adds a fresh sparkle that pulls all the flavors together.
After leaving Luna, Pierce left the restaurant world behind; he started his own residential remodeling company. Things were going very well — until jittery homeowners began curtailing their remodeling activities. When a big job fell through this fall, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do next. And that’s when Rocket Market owner Alan Shepherd called.
Pierce has jumped into another side of the food biz as well: Mushroom Resource, a wholesale supplier of wild-gathered Northwest mushrooms. Pierce took over the business this year from Kelly Chadwick, and he sells to the area chefs who used to be his colleagues and competitors.
His life now is far different than that of an executive chef, but Pierce says he’s enjoying the lower-key side of the food business. He walks to work and cooks in the tiny kitchen during the day. Then, when his workday is done, he gets to spend time with his family. Plus he has direct contact with the customers: When you choose your food from the display, chances are good you’ll be talking directly with the chef.
“Walk up to the counter and ring the bell,” he says. “Don’t be shy. I’ll be in back, cooking.”
— ANN M. COLFORD
Rocket Market, 726 E. 43rd Ave., is open daily 6 am-11 pm. Visit rocketmarket.com or call 343-2253.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
A stirring meal
Melissa — who was tending bar, waiting tables and seating patrons — began by handing me the drink list as we settled in at STIR. “This is our drink bible,” she said. But there’s more than martinis and other libations at Stir, which sits tucked into an unassuming strip mall on North Division. Co-owner Kirsten Nell opened the restaurant/lounge because, she says, “I like good food, I like good drinks and we need a little more of that on the north side.”
The menu is “always in flux,” says Nell. The culinary brainchild of Nell and Chef David Lee, it originally included high-end dishes made with duck and quail. Given the current state of the economy, “We’ve now got lower-priced things on there,” assures Nell.
Small plates range from $6 for the Buttermilk Bleu Fries (pomme frites drizzled with buttermilk crème sauce, basil and balsamic reduction) to $13 for the chef’s selection cheese platter, served with fruit, candied nuts and toasted crostini. Half-price “social hour” appetizers ($6-$8) are served from 3-6 pm.
In its simple elegance, the pan-roasted chicken breast ($15) looked and tasted like something I might cook at home — if I cooked at home. The skinless breast was sliced thin, browned on both sides and had the deliciously pungent-spicy aroma of cracked peppercorns. It rested on a framework of perfectly tender-crisp asparagus spears atop a stack of grilled baby red potato quarters, their skins brown and crisp, their flesh meltingly soft and sweet. A full-bodied cream sauce, dotted with bits of fresh chives, finished the dish just shy of a religious experience.
For dessert, I opted for the Chocolate Mudslide ($7): 16 alternating layers of coffee and chocolate ice creams, a mid-layer and crust of crushed Oreos, all dripping with caramel and chocolate sauces. A cup of Craven’s decaf Stir Blend coffee ($2.25) capped the evening.
Can I get an “Amen”?
— M.C. PAUL
Stir Restaurant and Lounge, 7115 N. Division, is open Sun-Thu 3-11 pm, Fri-Sat 3 pm-midnight (or later). Call 466-5999.
The menu is “always in flux,” says Nell. The culinary brainchild of Nell and Chef David Lee, it originally included high-end dishes made with duck and quail. Given the current state of the economy, “We’ve now got lower-priced things on there,” assures Nell.
Small plates range from $6 for the Buttermilk Bleu Fries (pomme frites drizzled with buttermilk crème sauce, basil and balsamic reduction) to $13 for the chef’s selection cheese platter, served with fruit, candied nuts and toasted crostini. Half-price “social hour” appetizers ($6-$8) are served from 3-6 pm.
In its simple elegance, the pan-roasted chicken breast ($15) looked and tasted like something I might cook at home — if I cooked at home. The skinless breast was sliced thin, browned on both sides and had the deliciously pungent-spicy aroma of cracked peppercorns. It rested on a framework of perfectly tender-crisp asparagus spears atop a stack of grilled baby red potato quarters, their skins brown and crisp, their flesh meltingly soft and sweet. A full-bodied cream sauce, dotted with bits of fresh chives, finished the dish just shy of a religious experience.
For dessert, I opted for the Chocolate Mudslide ($7): 16 alternating layers of coffee and chocolate ice creams, a mid-layer and crust of crushed Oreos, all dripping with caramel and chocolate sauces. A cup of Craven’s decaf Stir Blend coffee ($2.25) capped the evening.
Can I get an “Amen”?
— M.C. PAUL
Stir Restaurant and Lounge, 7115 N. Division, is open Sun-Thu 3-11 pm, Fri-Sat 3 pm-midnight (or later). Call 466-5999.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sip and sigh
If you’ve never been to a BREWERS DINNER at Hills’ Restaurant, you owe it to yourself to check this out. On Tuesday, Deschutes Brewery comes to town from Bend, Oregon, and Chef Dave Hill is planning a five-course extravaganza pairing the brewery’s beers and ales with his culinary creations. Each course is made with (and served with) one of Deschutes’ brews — like the shrimp and crab bisque (with Green Lakes Amber), the seafood terrine (with the seasonal Buzzsaw Brown ale), and even the cheesecake dessert (with “The Dissident,” a Flanders-style brown ale, teamed with cranberries for a distinctive sauce).
— ANN M. COLFORD
Hills’ Restaurant, 401 W. Main Ave., hosts a brewers dinner with Deschutes Brewery on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7 pm. Cost: $48.50, including tax and tip. For reservations, call 747-3946.
— ANN M. COLFORD
Hills’ Restaurant, 401 W. Main Ave., hosts a brewers dinner with Deschutes Brewery on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7 pm. Cost: $48.50, including tax and tip. For reservations, call 747-3946.
Arcade heaven
Let the kids go wild at JUNGLE PIZZA: play videogames, run around the cavernous and brightly lit space, and stuff their little pie-holes full of fresh, hot pizza. It’s sort of a homegrown Chuck E. Cheese’s — without the annoying theme song in the background — geared toward families, especially large ones. With 10,000 square feet of space, including a separate room for parties of 25 or more, this place seats more than 100 big people (and even more little ones).
If you can get them to sit down, that is. There are two full walls of fun stuff to while away your hard-earned quarters, ranging from retro videogames like Pac-Man — Why should the kids have all the fun? — to Skee-Ball to the Manx TT Super Bike. There’s also a mini-carousel, air hockey and just enough noise to justify ordering another pitcher of beer while you watch the kids cavort.
The food is standard pizza-joint fare, heavy on the bread, sauce and cheese — just the way it’s supposed to be. For about twenty bucks you can get a large, 16-inch two-topping pizza. Or order one of the standard specials like the veggie (mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, onions, olives) for $13.75 to $19.50. Other options include the stromboli or calzone ($6), two variations of the dough/sauce/cheese thing going on elsewhere on the menu. And there’s even a salad bar — all you can eat ($7 lunch special includes bread sticks, too) — with your garden variety of offerings.
— CARRIE SCOZZARO
Jungle Pizza, 503 Seltice Way, Post Falls, is open Sun-Thu 11 am-9 pm. Fri-Sat 11 am-11 pm. Call (208) 773-1500.
If you can get them to sit down, that is. There are two full walls of fun stuff to while away your hard-earned quarters, ranging from retro videogames like Pac-Man — Why should the kids have all the fun? — to Skee-Ball to the Manx TT Super Bike. There’s also a mini-carousel, air hockey and just enough noise to justify ordering another pitcher of beer while you watch the kids cavort.
The food is standard pizza-joint fare, heavy on the bread, sauce and cheese — just the way it’s supposed to be. For about twenty bucks you can get a large, 16-inch two-topping pizza. Or order one of the standard specials like the veggie (mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, onions, olives) for $13.75 to $19.50. Other options include the stromboli or calzone ($6), two variations of the dough/sauce/cheese thing going on elsewhere on the menu. And there’s even a salad bar — all you can eat ($7 lunch special includes bread sticks, too) — with your garden variety of offerings.
— CARRIE SCOZZARO
Jungle Pizza, 503 Seltice Way, Post Falls, is open Sun-Thu 11 am-9 pm. Fri-Sat 11 am-11 pm. Call (208) 773-1500.
Feel the love
A love letter, slightly faded with age, a bit wrinkled, creased from being folded and refolded… are those water spots… or tears? It’s dated April 1, 1998, and addressed “to the best customers any business could ever ask for.” Given the date, the reader is assured “… this is no joke.” After 23 years, the SANDWICH GARDENS was closing temporarily “to make way for a bigger and better River Park Square.” The letter, handed out to 1,000-plus regular customers, ended with a note of thanks signed by the staff, plus a coupon for one free lunch, “only good at our new location” — which they anticipated would open a few months later.
But funny things happen in the restaurant biz.
The business remained open at their Heart Institute location and continued to do catering over the years. Finally, this month — more than a decade after closing the downtown location — Sandwich Gardens has indeed reopened in the new, bigger and better River Park Square. So far two customers have received their free lunch, but many more have stopped in to say hello and reminisce.
As a first-time visitor, I had a lot of catching up to do. Faced with 16 specialty sandwiches plus wraps, salads and more, I chose the Turkey Supreme ($7 as a combo with soup and a drink). Starting with soft French bread from Alpine Bakery, generously covered in cream cheese, tomato slices, lettuce shreds, perfectly thin deli-style turkey and sliced avocado then topped with a second slice of bread, my half sandwich was so big I thought I’d received the whole one by mistake.
My clam chowder was rightly thick and creamy with clams throughout and diced potato adding to the texture, seasoned with celery, parsley and salt.
“The recipe is one we’re continually refining,” says manager Peter Parker, who started working as the manager of Sandwich Gardens in 1975, “five days after they opened.” Ten years after the closure of the downtown shop, he’s happy to be back.
“We make all our own soups, cheesecakes, brownies … as much as we can from scratch, with our own recipes, so it’s always perfect — the way I like it,” he says with a characteristic smile.
Without the coupon, lunch isn’t free. But it is reasonably priced, and flavored with years of good memories.
— M.C. PAUL
The Sandwich Gardens, on the second (Skywalk) level of River Park Square, on Main Ave. in downtown Spokane, is open Mon-Sat 7 am-9 pm, Sun 9 am-6 pm. Fax 838-3399, or call 838-3376.
But funny things happen in the restaurant biz.
The business remained open at their Heart Institute location and continued to do catering over the years. Finally, this month — more than a decade after closing the downtown location — Sandwich Gardens has indeed reopened in the new, bigger and better River Park Square. So far two customers have received their free lunch, but many more have stopped in to say hello and reminisce.
As a first-time visitor, I had a lot of catching up to do. Faced with 16 specialty sandwiches plus wraps, salads and more, I chose the Turkey Supreme ($7 as a combo with soup and a drink). Starting with soft French bread from Alpine Bakery, generously covered in cream cheese, tomato slices, lettuce shreds, perfectly thin deli-style turkey and sliced avocado then topped with a second slice of bread, my half sandwich was so big I thought I’d received the whole one by mistake.
My clam chowder was rightly thick and creamy with clams throughout and diced potato adding to the texture, seasoned with celery, parsley and salt.
“The recipe is one we’re continually refining,” says manager Peter Parker, who started working as the manager of Sandwich Gardens in 1975, “five days after they opened.” Ten years after the closure of the downtown shop, he’s happy to be back.
“We make all our own soups, cheesecakes, brownies … as much as we can from scratch, with our own recipes, so it’s always perfect — the way I like it,” he says with a characteristic smile.
Without the coupon, lunch isn’t free. But it is reasonably priced, and flavored with years of good memories.
— M.C. PAUL
The Sandwich Gardens, on the second (Skywalk) level of River Park Square, on Main Ave. in downtown Spokane, is open Mon-Sat 7 am-9 pm, Sun 9 am-6 pm. Fax 838-3399, or call 838-3376.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Taste of home
Author Michael Pollan famously advised, “Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food,” but he’d be really comfortable with the whole ingredients used at TASTE CAFÉ.
My late-afternoon lunch of quiche and salad ($8) was a lovely, warm, light and earthy-tasting compilation of eggs, butter, goat cheese and sliced leeks baked into a savory crust. The side of fresh greens had spinach tossed into the mix, and bits of Gorgonzola added surprising bursts of sharpness that went nicely with the roasted spicy walnut halves and the raspberry champagne-merlot vinaigrette.
“We use all my mother’s recipes — my mother [Jane] is my partner,” explains co-owner and pastry chef Hannah Heber. “My whole family’s English, and I’m the only one without the accent.”
She describes the menu as “old English comfort foods” that have been in her family for years. (You can even get crumpets.) The quiche I enjoyed so much? “I remember going to my grandmother’s house and eating that quiche,” Heber says with a smile, adding, “My mother would have had it with a cup of tea.”
There are plenty of other savory treats (including moussaka, shepherd’s pie and the surprising South African bobotie), plus tea and Doma espresso drinks to go with pastries such as the almond breakfast cake ($2.25). Described as “scratch-baked daily with raspberries baked in the middle,” it is an appealing paradox of butter and almond aromas with mellow flavors — at once rather densely textured and crumby, yet moist and light, with the fresh raspberries offering a tart line of scarlet in contrast to the delicately sweet yellow of the cake.
“I feel that if you bake with quality ingredients and you make [everything] fresh every day, it speaks for itself,” says Heber. I suspect her grandmother would agree.
— M.C. PAUL
Taste Café, at 108 S. Howard St., is open Mon-Fri 7 am-6 pm, Sat 8:30 am-2 pm. (They’re closed on Sunday — for now.) Visit www.tastecafespokane.com, e-mail info@tastecafespokane.com, fax 315-5300, or call 468-2929.
My late-afternoon lunch of quiche and salad ($8) was a lovely, warm, light and earthy-tasting compilation of eggs, butter, goat cheese and sliced leeks baked into a savory crust. The side of fresh greens had spinach tossed into the mix, and bits of Gorgonzola added surprising bursts of sharpness that went nicely with the roasted spicy walnut halves and the raspberry champagne-merlot vinaigrette.
“We use all my mother’s recipes — my mother [Jane] is my partner,” explains co-owner and pastry chef Hannah Heber. “My whole family’s English, and I’m the only one without the accent.”
She describes the menu as “old English comfort foods” that have been in her family for years. (You can even get crumpets.) The quiche I enjoyed so much? “I remember going to my grandmother’s house and eating that quiche,” Heber says with a smile, adding, “My mother would have had it with a cup of tea.”
There are plenty of other savory treats (including moussaka, shepherd’s pie and the surprising South African bobotie), plus tea and Doma espresso drinks to go with pastries such as the almond breakfast cake ($2.25). Described as “scratch-baked daily with raspberries baked in the middle,” it is an appealing paradox of butter and almond aromas with mellow flavors — at once rather densely textured and crumby, yet moist and light, with the fresh raspberries offering a tart line of scarlet in contrast to the delicately sweet yellow of the cake.
“I feel that if you bake with quality ingredients and you make [everything] fresh every day, it speaks for itself,” says Heber. I suspect her grandmother would agree.
— M.C. PAUL
Taste Café, at 108 S. Howard St., is open Mon-Fri 7 am-6 pm, Sat 8:30 am-2 pm. (They’re closed on Sunday — for now.) Visit www.tastecafespokane.com, e-mail info@tastecafespokane.com, fax 315-5300, or call 468-2929.
Chef-cam live
Coeur d’Alene chef Anthony Hall is an innovator. He brought the first tapas bar to Coeur d’Alene when he opened Anthony’s Midtown Bistro six years ago, and now tapas is available in several locations throughout the Lake City. In a matter of weeks, Hall will launch his latest endeavor: “KITCHEN VOYEUR,” an online cooking experience.
“There are no guidelines,” says Hall. “This is not syndicated television — it’s live Web. If I cut myself or cuss in the kitchen, you’re going to hear it.”
He’s not just selling recipes; rather, he will be teaching cooking techniques and methods, and acting as an online reference. You should pay attention. Hall was voted “Best Chef” in 2008 by a North Idaho Business Journal readers’ poll, and he is a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
This is not to say he doesn’t like to keep it simple, because he does. Yet he consistently turns out savory fare from the kitchen of his 42-seat restaurant, where he is the only chef. The plan is to help you, the cook at home, save money with tricks and techniques that help simplify the cooking process.
Hall says that being a chef is the best job in the world, because there is nowhere in the world that you can go and not get a job.
The kitchen at Anthony’s is set up with three cameras, with an additional camera in the baking station. Live cooking instructions and a live Q-and-A chat with Hall will be online five afternoons a week (Tue-Sat from 1-5 pm). From 5 pm until closing, you can watch, listen and learn. Hall expects all English-speaking countries worldwide will be his audience. He can only talk to one student at a time, so “like in class, you raise your hand,” Hall says.
For viewers without microphones, he will be able to read your questions and answer them.
Hall points out that most cooking classes by other chefs run $45 to $50 for three hours without much hands-on activity. With “Kitchen Voyeur,” you can watch for a month for $40, and you get 168 hours of live video and chat — plus you can archive or download techniques of special interest. That, Hall says, is the value.
— LINDA BALL
“There are no guidelines,” says Hall. “This is not syndicated television — it’s live Web. If I cut myself or cuss in the kitchen, you’re going to hear it.”
He’s not just selling recipes; rather, he will be teaching cooking techniques and methods, and acting as an online reference. You should pay attention. Hall was voted “Best Chef” in 2008 by a North Idaho Business Journal readers’ poll, and he is a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
This is not to say he doesn’t like to keep it simple, because he does. Yet he consistently turns out savory fare from the kitchen of his 42-seat restaurant, where he is the only chef. The plan is to help you, the cook at home, save money with tricks and techniques that help simplify the cooking process.
Hall says that being a chef is the best job in the world, because there is nowhere in the world that you can go and not get a job.
The kitchen at Anthony’s is set up with three cameras, with an additional camera in the baking station. Live cooking instructions and a live Q-and-A chat with Hall will be online five afternoons a week (Tue-Sat from 1-5 pm). From 5 pm until closing, you can watch, listen and learn. Hall expects all English-speaking countries worldwide will be his audience. He can only talk to one student at a time, so “like in class, you raise your hand,” Hall says.
For viewers without microphones, he will be able to read your questions and answer them.
Hall points out that most cooking classes by other chefs run $45 to $50 for three hours without much hands-on activity. With “Kitchen Voyeur,” you can watch for a month for $40, and you get 168 hours of live video and chat — plus you can archive or download techniques of special interest. That, Hall says, is the value.
— LINDA BALL
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Rogue squadron
For proof of Rogue’s charms, we turn to an unimpeachable source: Mom.
One day, unprovoked, my mother jubilantly announced that, at long last, the north side had a bakery. And, she reported, it was delicious.
ROGUE COFFEE, CRAVINGS AND CABERNET owner Daneille Dickson had also noticed a dearth of pastry-pushers in north Spokane. And she thought she knew the perfect spot: a mini-shopping center between Whitworth University and the North Spokane Library.
Dickson already had a reputation as a brilliant baker — friends offered to pay good money for her lemon cheesecake — so when Leonardo’s Coffee went under, Dickson bit. She teamed with her sister, Sophia Rosenbaum, and her best friend and tennis partner, Tracy Christensen, and they have turned their long-running dream to start a bakery into tangible — edible — reality.
Walk into Rogue, and you’ll see a warm European aesthetic similar to the Service Station or Gelato Joe’s. You can drink coffee from local brewer Café Avion, sip Hedges CMS wine ($7), or slurp tomato-basil soup ($3, cup; $5.50, bowl) made thick and creamy with milk, Gorgonzola and parmesan. You’ll find their popular Morning Glory Muffins ($2) waiting in the front.
And then we come to the cheesecake. A single bite of the Lemon Curd Cheesecake ($3.80) contains three distinct sensations. First, fittingly, you’ll taste lemon — serene, consistent and unflappable. Then you notice the cool, soft texture, almost more like thick whipped cream than cheesecake. Suddenly — bam — a second wave of lemon hits, this one strong, bold and in-your-face.
“Have you tried that cheesecake? Holy Moses!” Dickson says. That’s what she’s going for.
You’ll also find a few samplings from other bakeries. Dickson says Europa, Rocket Bakery and Bittersweet Bakery helped Rogue learn the ropes of the food business. Rogue — and the community that supports it — is a far cry from the stereotypical cutthroat corporate restaurant world, says Dickson. That’s why it’s called Rogue: They’re the opposite of corporate coffeehouses. They’re rebels.
Of course, their rebellion comes in the form of free wireless Internet and spur-of-the-moment muffin giveaways. It’s an uprising that says, “Hey, try the cheesecake.” That’s an insurrection worth fighting for.
— DANIEL WALTERS
Rogue Coffee, 10208 N. Division, is open Mon-Fri 6 am-7 pm, Sat 7 am-7 pm and Sun 7 am-3 pm. Call 465-5100.
One day, unprovoked, my mother jubilantly announced that, at long last, the north side had a bakery. And, she reported, it was delicious.
ROGUE COFFEE, CRAVINGS AND CABERNET owner Daneille Dickson had also noticed a dearth of pastry-pushers in north Spokane. And she thought she knew the perfect spot: a mini-shopping center between Whitworth University and the North Spokane Library.
Dickson already had a reputation as a brilliant baker — friends offered to pay good money for her lemon cheesecake — so when Leonardo’s Coffee went under, Dickson bit. She teamed with her sister, Sophia Rosenbaum, and her best friend and tennis partner, Tracy Christensen, and they have turned their long-running dream to start a bakery into tangible — edible — reality.
Walk into Rogue, and you’ll see a warm European aesthetic similar to the Service Station or Gelato Joe’s. You can drink coffee from local brewer Café Avion, sip Hedges CMS wine ($7), or slurp tomato-basil soup ($3, cup; $5.50, bowl) made thick and creamy with milk, Gorgonzola and parmesan. You’ll find their popular Morning Glory Muffins ($2) waiting in the front.
And then we come to the cheesecake. A single bite of the Lemon Curd Cheesecake ($3.80) contains three distinct sensations. First, fittingly, you’ll taste lemon — serene, consistent and unflappable. Then you notice the cool, soft texture, almost more like thick whipped cream than cheesecake. Suddenly — bam — a second wave of lemon hits, this one strong, bold and in-your-face.
“Have you tried that cheesecake? Holy Moses!” Dickson says. That’s what she’s going for.
You’ll also find a few samplings from other bakeries. Dickson says Europa, Rocket Bakery and Bittersweet Bakery helped Rogue learn the ropes of the food business. Rogue — and the community that supports it — is a far cry from the stereotypical cutthroat corporate restaurant world, says Dickson. That’s why it’s called Rogue: They’re the opposite of corporate coffeehouses. They’re rebels.
Of course, their rebellion comes in the form of free wireless Internet and spur-of-the-moment muffin giveaways. It’s an uprising that says, “Hey, try the cheesecake.” That’s an insurrection worth fighting for.
— DANIEL WALTERS
Rogue Coffee, 10208 N. Division, is open Mon-Fri 6 am-7 pm, Sat 7 am-7 pm and Sun 7 am-3 pm. Call 465-5100.
Aloha, pork!
It’s 10 degrees below freezing. Our six feet of pristine snow has shrunk to three feet of rock-solid grunge, and all my friends and neighbors are in Hawaii.
So I head north to ALOHA ISLAND GRILL, and in minutes, I’m sitting beside palm trees and beneath a radiant sun, soaking up the sun-drenched yellow of the wall, and swaying to the Beach Boys’ “Surfing Safari.” Ah. Life is better already.
Aloha’s location on Monroe has been a Spokane staple for a few years now, but the one further north just opened in the fall. Both locations use the same recipes to create Hawaiian plate lunches featuring huge servings of meat, macaroni salad and short-grain rice. For my money, the teriyaki chicken lunch plate ($7.30 for the half plate) is not only filling — it’s truly comfort food. A three-section tray holds a generous serving of moist, tender, slightly sweet, charbroiled chicken, a mound of plain short-grain white rice, and a rich mayo-based Hawaiian macaroni salad.
“Have you ever had the macaroni salad with Lava Sauce? It’s the best,” says Eric Apelskog, part-owner with Pat and Lori Keegan. So I have to try it. Lava Sauce is a bright-orange/red-hot sauce reminiscent of molten rock, with bits of garlic, oregano and pepper, that’s at once spicy and sharp with vinegar. Lava Bites ($5.25 for the rice bowl) are chunks of deep-fried chicken breast dunked in Lava Sauce. Wahoo! This could solve the ongoing national Buffalo-wing supply crisis.
And while all that is tasty, I was there on a Saturday, and that means one thing: kalua pork, served Wednesdays and Saturdays only. The pork is seasoned and cooked in the oven overnight, about 13 hours. The slow roasting makes for moist, smoky, exceptionally tender pork, which, when served over rice ($5.20 for a rice bowl) or on a bun with mayo and a grilled pineapple ring ($6.60 with chips and a drink), would qualify as some of the best barbecue west of Tennessee.
Toss in a full espresso bar serving the Grill’s own Aloha Grindz by Cravens, wi-fi in the dining area, and a brand-new breakfast menu, and who needs the hassle of a flight to the islands?
— M.C. PAUL
So I head north to ALOHA ISLAND GRILL, and in minutes, I’m sitting beside palm trees and beneath a radiant sun, soaking up the sun-drenched yellow of the wall, and swaying to the Beach Boys’ “Surfing Safari.” Ah. Life is better already.
Aloha’s location on Monroe has been a Spokane staple for a few years now, but the one further north just opened in the fall. Both locations use the same recipes to create Hawaiian plate lunches featuring huge servings of meat, macaroni salad and short-grain rice. For my money, the teriyaki chicken lunch plate ($7.30 for the half plate) is not only filling — it’s truly comfort food. A three-section tray holds a generous serving of moist, tender, slightly sweet, charbroiled chicken, a mound of plain short-grain white rice, and a rich mayo-based Hawaiian macaroni salad.
“Have you ever had the macaroni salad with Lava Sauce? It’s the best,” says Eric Apelskog, part-owner with Pat and Lori Keegan. So I have to try it. Lava Sauce is a bright-orange/red-hot sauce reminiscent of molten rock, with bits of garlic, oregano and pepper, that’s at once spicy and sharp with vinegar. Lava Bites ($5.25 for the rice bowl) are chunks of deep-fried chicken breast dunked in Lava Sauce. Wahoo! This could solve the ongoing national Buffalo-wing supply crisis.
And while all that is tasty, I was there on a Saturday, and that means one thing: kalua pork, served Wednesdays and Saturdays only. The pork is seasoned and cooked in the oven overnight, about 13 hours. The slow roasting makes for moist, smoky, exceptionally tender pork, which, when served over rice ($5.20 for a rice bowl) or on a bun with mayo and a grilled pineapple ring ($6.60 with chips and a drink), would qualify as some of the best barbecue west of Tennessee.
Toss in a full espresso bar serving the Grill’s own Aloha Grindz by Cravens, wi-fi in the dining area, and a brand-new breakfast menu, and who needs the hassle of a flight to the islands?
— M.C. PAUL
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