Arena helping area restaurants

Eating three meals a day at Spokane Arena might get old by the end of skating week.

That is, unless a skating fan can live on little more than German sausage, stuffed pretzels and minidoughnuts.

“We’re really built for a market where our customers come here for about two, two and a half hours and want a beverage or a snack,” said Scott Middleton of Centerplate concessions, which handles food for Arena and Convention Center events.

Aside from a handful of hearty daytime additions, such as lasagna and hot turkey sandwiches, skating fans this week will be eating the same Arena fare offered at Spokane Chiefs hockey games and at next month’s Nickelback concert.

Of course, Centerplate will do what it can to provide for the fans, but Middleton said the existing facilities don’t allow for much wiggle room.

“I’m not built to feed every person, all day long, every meal,” he said. “I encourage them to try all the local restaurants. If I can get one meal out of each customer a day, I’m gonna be doing great.”

Close-by options such as Clinkerdagger Restaurant and Polo’s Café are banking on the overflow. Both extended their hours for the event, and Clinkerdagger created lunch and dinner menus that feature items that the kitchen can prepare in 12 minutes or less, manager Debi Moon said.

But inside the Arena, fans like Spokane resident Kristi Sciuchetti seem happy with the limited offerings.

“I think a lot of people are excited that they have beer,” Sciuchetti said Sunday, adding that the salads and grilled chicken sandwiches are a nice touch.

Of course, folks with all-event passes may still want to plan ahead.

“We’re going to the whole thing, so we’ll be eating at restaurants along the way,” Sciuchetti said. “We’ve got reservations galore.”

Sciuchetti’s reservations list so far: P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Clinkerdagger, lunch at Anthony’s HomePort Spokane Falls on Wednesday and, during a three-hour skating break on Saturday, a jaunt to Downriver Grill in northwest Spokane.

“I’m a planner,” she said.

But on Sunday, with a full week of figure skating and fine dining ahead of them, Sciuchetti and her husband, Jay, were happy enough to eat grilled chicken sandwiches as their daughters, Julia, 8, and Sophie, 6, ate cream-cheese-stuffed pretzels and watched the ice resurfacing machines traverse the rink.