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