When owners Aaron Hein and Alyssa Agee officially opened Emma Rue’s in downtown Spokane the first week in January, they brought coffee (Emma Rue’s soft opened as a café in November), craft cocktails, food and desserts served late into the night to the culinary scene.
To say that Wanderlust Delicato owner Amber Park loves cheese would be an understatement. As the proprietor of the award-winning cheese, wine and charcuterie business on Main Avenue downtown, which is about to celebrate its third anniversary, the divine dairy food is her way of living and life.
It’s time to queue up your playlists as New Kids on the Block’s Mixtape tour brings the boyband to Spokane Arena on Monday night with Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley and En Vogue. Sure, Astley was 21 years old when “Never Gonna Give You Up” was released in 1987, so the British singer-songwriter is 56 now.
Mead by definition is “fermented honey in water,” but the confounding alcoholic beverage is widely known, incorrectly, as honey wine. I had never heard of mead until attending a mead-pairing pop-up dinner at Remedy in January – meaderies are far outnumbered by breweries – but immediately loved the alluring concoction.
Breakfast and lunch takeout is served at Ricky Webster’s new Morsel by Rind and Wheat, the second location of Rind and Wheat that is focused on sustenance beyond baked goods, wine and cheese the original location has become known for in Browne’s Addition.
The Seattle Mariners is hosting a watch party Friday at Flatstick Pub, a member of the Mariners Bar League, downtown for the baseball game against the Boston Red Sox. During the watch party, a pair of tickets will be given away each inning to a game this season. Also at the watch party: Mariner Moose.
The Electric Daisy Carnival is at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend (Friday through Sunday) – I covered it as a journalist in its first year in Sin City in 2011 and then the next six consecutive years. It’s one of my favorite music events on Earth, and one of the reasons is the opportunity for discovery.
Have you “Been Caught Stealing”? Well, it’s time to break out your CDs of “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” and “Siamese Dream” … or, you know, stream the albums again. It was announced this morning that the Smashing Pumpkins’ Spirits on Fire Tour is coming to Spokane Arena on Nov. 9.
To meet husband-and-wife Tim O’Doherty and Sandra “Sam” O’Doherty, owners of O’Doherty’s Irish Grille, is to feel immediately at home with their warmth, Irish comfort food classics – Reuben sandwiches, fish and chips, corned beef and cabbage, stew and shepherd’s pie – and Tim’s infectious social gregariousness.
Here they are, rock you like a hurricane! Legendary rockers the Scorpions are bringing their Rock Believer tour to Spokane Arena on Oct. 13 with guests and fellow legendary rockers Whitesnake. Tickets, from $49.50 to $89.50, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketswest.com.
Singer-songwriter and storyteller Ryan Hurd has written hits for some of country music’s biggest stars, including Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton and Lady A. Hurd, however, takes center stage in his new Tour de Pelago that stops at Knitting Factory on Friday night.
Sir Paul McCartney kicked off his 2022 Got Back tour, which is stopping in 13 cities for 15 dates, at Spokane Arena on Thursday night, and the Beatles legend performed some 36 songs in a concert that clocked in at 2 hours and 42 minutes. The classic "Can't Buy Me Love" kicked off the evening.
It’s an ending and a beginning, as Fery’s Catering & Takeout has closed, with owner Fery Haghighi retiring after living and working in Spokane for more than 40 years and leasing her building to Ricky Webster for his new Morsel by Rind and Wheat. Morsel, at 421 S. Cowley St. on the corner with Fifth Avenue, opened April 19.
“If there’s drinking and a fight, it must be a country music concert,” country music star Eric Church quipped before singing his hit “These Boots” about one-third into his Gathering Again tour stop at Spokane Arena on April 16. I was standing nearby the kerfuffle, which Church playfully admonished from the stage.
From a sneak peek last Thursday, chef Brandon Pham, formerly of nearby D’bali Asian Bistro in Airway Heights, leads the kitchen, and the fantastic menu preview included house-made dan dan noodles, sweet and sour spare pork ribs, pork bao buns, mochiko fried chicken, pepper beef lumpia, macha-yuzu cake and more.
The answer is blowin’ toward Spokane this morning. Music legend Bob Dylan is returning to town for the first time in more than 20 years and launching his Rough and Rowdy Ways world tour leg at First Interstate Center on May 28. “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” Dylan’s 39th studio album, was a bestselling album in 2020.
Despite the erratic weather as of late – when I departed Walla Walla to return to Spokane on Sunday, I experienced sunshine, rain, hail and snow in less than an hour – spring is in the air post-pandemic-ish life with lovely outdoor weather and people venturing outside and indoors without face masks to dine out again.
I’ve had lunch at Chowderhead twice and highly recommend all the chowders – the original clam chowder, steelhead trout clam clowder and the specials of the day (the two I’ve tried have been excellent). One chef told me, “I’ve been dethroned as the chowder king,” much to Chowderhead owner and chef Travis Tveit’s delight.
Rapper, singer, musician and actor Machine Gun Kelly has announced his Mainstream Sellout tour with Avril Lavigne and Willow, and a date has been scheduled for July 25 at Spokane Arena. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at TicketsWest.com the same day his new album, “Mainstream Sellout,” is set for release.
In a review last Sunday of “Wicked,” at First Interstate Center for the Arts through March 27, Carolyn Lamberson said the following of actor Jordan Litz, who portrays the dashing Fiyero: “As Fiyero, Jordan Litz is completely charming. ... His duet with (Talia) Suskauer in ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ is sublime.”
Las Vegas is widely known as the entertainment capital of the world, but it is the dining capital of the world, as well – and no doubt Gonzaga, Washington State, West Coast Conference and Pac-12 basketball fans have overrun the Las Vegas Strip this week. I lived in Las Vegas from 2008-19 before moving back to Spokane in 2019.
The Gonzaga men’s basketball team, in partnership with Rick Clark’s Spokane Quaranteam and Giving Back Packs and No-Li Brewhouse owners John and Cindy Bryant, raised $1,000 in 120 minutes at the new No-Li Bier Hall on Friday afternoon and collected enough donations to fill 200 backpacks.
I consider Spokane and Las Vegas home. I moved back to Spokane in April 2019 for a job at The Spokesman-Review, and I am a graduate of Gonzaga University. My sister, niece and nephew live in the Lilac City (my sister also is a Gonzaga alumnus), and I love Spokane. I lived in Las Vegas from 2008-2019.
Ben Poffenroth, his mother Deb Green and his sister Megan VanStone own and operate Durkin’s Liquor Bar downtown, Madeleine’s Café & Patisserie next door and Casper Fry in the South Perry District. Working with family has been smooth sailing, but the pandemic obviously has not been as easy.
Country singer-songwriter Cole Swindell brings his Down to the Bar tour to First Interstate Center for the Arts on Saturday night, and Travis Denning and Ashley Cooke are the opening acts. Swindell’s new album, “Stereotype,” is set for release in April. The album’s first single, “Single Saturday Night,” was released in 2020.