Traveling Feast

Earlier this fall I  called 7 of my 10 Spokane restaurants that I feel simply must survive the economic rollercoaster.  Not in any logical order they are:

Moxie, Chicken N More, Tacos Tumbras, China Garden, Luna, Mizuna, and the Donut Parade.

I only have three spots left and there are a number of worthy contenders.  I am ready to call one more definitively.

Latah Bistro.

Latah should easily have made my original list, but it has been several years since I first reviewed it for Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living.  Several recent visits and some online time spent on Chef David Blaine’s blog From The Back Kitchen recomfirmed my original impression of Latah’s quality and added a new appreciation for the creativity of the current kitchen crew.  Not only do they know how to cook, they actually appear to be having fun while they are doing it.  Add in warm and typically competent front-of-the-house folks and Latah moves to the top of the ranks of the Spokane spots that deserve your more limited dining dollars.

Latah's Smoked Salmon Wrapped Salmon with small red onions in a port and cherry sauce... brilliant.

Recession Blues

I’m expanding my ‘recession restaurant’ list for Spokane while waiting to hear yours for the Inland Northwest or wherever you call home.  Post on your list the five or ten places you absolutely DO NOT want to go out of business if the economy settles at the bottom of the pickle barrel for an extended time.

I was talking with one friend and restaurant owner yesterday who said that they felt very fortunate that their business was only down 5% thus far.  Already he has heard of so many others that have taken much deeper hits.

To my first four (China Garden, Moxie, Luna, and Tacos Tumbras), let me now add three more:

• Donut Parade up on Hamilton.  Though the Parade building has looked like it has been ground zero for a recession for years, Darryl’s maple bars are beyond words.  Try one hot and just frosted with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and you can see why they don’t need a sign on the building to stay in business (literally there is no sign on the building and hasn’t been for years).
• Chicken-N-More downtown.  Several bites of a chicken dinner at Bob Hemphill’s BBQ spot at “you begin to feel right as rain” (bonus points if you can identify the quote).  The more at Bob’s includes among other things: ribs, catfish, pulled pork, greens, and red beans & rice.
• Mizuna on Howard near Riverfront Park.  Mizuna was the first place I ate in Spokane nine years ago and it has remained near the top of my list of favorites through both ownership changes and a shift from an exclusively vegetarian spot to a bistro with great vegetarian and sustainable carnivore options. Angela Parris puts Mizuna on her list and I agree.

The Wall Street rollercoaster and bleak job numbers have me worrying about how well my favorite restaurants will fare over the coming months.  In the best of times, even good restaurants can struggle for a number of reasons; and in a season when the economy in constricting, I’m starting to triage my dining budget.

Rather than spend increasingly precious dining dollars exploring new spots, I think I may need to focus on the places I am certain I want to see in business ten years from now.  I call this my ‘recession restaurant list’ and for the sake of simplicity I’m going to say that such a list can’t include more than ten places.

Here are the first four in my completely subjective list for Spokane (not in any specific order):

• China Garden on the South Hill across from Shopko on Regal.  Chef Raymond consistently serves up quality Chinese with a Hong Kong twist, house-made sauces with no MSG, and crisp vegetables. Cashew Chicken.  Braised Tofu.  Honey Walnut Prawns.  Chow Mein with Hong Kong Style Noodles.
• Moxie in the heart of downtown on the north side of the Davenport.  Ian Wingate is one of my favorite chefs in town and Moxie’s Asian/European menu is solid from top to bottom.  My favorite Hot Turkey Sandwich on the planet is on the lunch menu.  The Poké is wonderful and a full list of my favorite would basically be listing most of the menu.
• Luna on the back of the South Hill at the top of Hatch Road.  Chef Anna Vogel loves her ingredients and that delight has brought the spark back to this 15-year pioneer in the upscale bistro market.  The space is also a gift – warm and inviting.  Lunch.  Brunch.  Weekday coffee and savory pastries.  Dinner.  And a massive cellar that show William Bond’s passion for vino.
• Tacos Tumbras Taco Trucks.  The sit-down location on Sprague is just fine, but for a real taco that promised to transport your tastebuds south of the border, find one of the trucks around town.  Order several tacos or the wonderful Mexican answer to the hamburger: the torta.  Maybe I’ll suggest all my favorite restaurants buy mobile kitchens in the hopes that this will lower their overhead and make them recession-proof.

While I decide on my other six in Spokane and start a second list for Coeur d’Alene, I’d like you to weigh in with your recession restaurant list for the Inland Northwest or your neck of the woods.

A Taco Tumbras Chicken Torta straight from the truck