Still looking with only a week before Christmas? Here are 11 local business to find a perfect gift

Christmas is a week away.

Luckily, Spokane is home to many great locally owned stores and many talented artists and artisans with many items left to be found, wrapped and oohed about come Christmas morning.

Here are 11 ideas for grabbing that special gift that will bring a smile – and help the local economy – before time runs out next week.

Fabulous vintage, plants, and ecofriendly finds for all

7413 E. Trent Ave., Spokane Valley

The Plant Project in Spokane Valley houses more than its name suggests. The store on Trent Avenue is home to 14 vendors who sell a wide variety of goods, including soil and sundresses.

Crystal Priel started the Plant Project in her garage with unique soil blends specific to certain plants. Her business blew up, and she opened a storefront on Northwest Boulevard across the street from Fofolles, a vintage and secondhand clothing store owned by Selene L’Heureux.

The pair became friends, supporting each other through the often lonely prospect of owning a small business.

Two years ago Priel moved her store to Trent in Spokane Valley and earlier this month L’Heureux joined her.

For plant lovers, Priel has everything imaginable from soil to planters to the plants themselves and is eager to share her expertise with shoppers.

L’Heureux’s specialty is the connection she cultivates with her customers, helping them venture out of their comfort zone with a sparkly jacket or funky frock.

“I really like helping my customers see the beauty in themselves,” L’Heureux said.

She carries a wide size range of women’s clothing, 2 to 26, in a mixture of secondhand and vintage items. She focuses on cut and quality rather than brand names, keeping her offerings largely affordable.

She also mends and adapts pieces, sometimes simply adding a button but other times she covers a stain with an applique of a flower or a bug.

Earlier this week she had just placed a tan trench coat covered in bugs and clever sayings. L‘Heureux had yet to solidly price the item but was thinking about $40.

So for your funky friend, daughter, sister or partner, stop at Fofolles and be guided by L’Heureux to the perfect present.

Nervous about buying clothes? The 12 other vendors at the shop have you covered with funky earrings from Lemon Salvage, candles, bracelets, and more.

The Spokane Refillery also has a large space in the store for the sustainability-minded. From shampoo bars to household cleaners, the Refillery sells products in bulk by weight.

And if you just can’t make up your mind on what your loved one needs most, gift them a shopping spree. Gift cards can be used to purchase any vendor’s items.

The Plant Project is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

– Emma Epperly

Casey Booey’s gourmet sauces and rubs have stolen the hearts of sauce and food lovers alike in the Spokane area

Available at many Spokane stores

Casey Booey, the mastermind behind Spokane’s Booey’s gourmet sauces, got into the sauce business after being inspired to make a better version of traditional buffalo sauce.

“We define our sauce as pepper sauces versus hot sauce,” Booey said. “We don’t see ourselves as a hot sauce. We try to balance heat and flavor so that you can enjoy the entire experience.”

Booey has four gluten- and MSG-free gourmet sauces, and two gourmet rubs available. Booey’s original pepper sauce, a creamy buffalo sauce with chunks of garlic and onion, adds the right twist of flavor on eggs, potatoes, bloody marys, and just about anything else. The Sweet Jamaican Jerk sauce, a perfect balance between sweetness and spiciness, is recommended on poultry, pork and beef. The Smokehouse Barbecue sauce, a sweet, thin, tangy northeastern Carolina-style barbecue sauce, pairs perfectly with ribs, chicken, and pulled pork. The Sweet Chile Lime sauce is a jalapeno-based sauce with hints of brown sugar and is ideally used as a taco dressing when combined with sour cream. Booey’s two rubs, the Vaquero Rub, featuring Roast House dark espresso, and Booey’s Backyard BBQ rub, a combination of heat and sweetness, are just as versatile as his sauces and can be paired with just about anything your mind can imagine.

Sauce lovers and food lovers alike can find Booey’s gourmet sauces and rubs in Yoke’s Fresh Market’s meat department, the Kitchen Engine, Main Market co-op, My Fresh Basket, and a variety of other local stores that are located on the “Where to Find Us” tab of Booey’s official website. Booey’s sauces can also be found in many of Spokane’s kitchens, such as Bark Rescue Pub, Elliot’s Urban Kitchen (try the Booey Mary made with Booey’s original sauce!), Yards, The Gilded Unicorn, and many more are listed on Booey’s official website “Where to Find Us” tab.

– Carly Dykes

Elk River Knives creator Chris Bradley offers a personable touch to all his homemade, artisan knives

Available at Pottery Place Plus, 203 N. Washington St., Suite 200A, Spokane

Chris Bradley, the owner of Elk River Knives, prides his culinary, hunting and pocket knives on being 100% homemade.

“I make my own blades. I make my own handles. I make my own shields. I do everything. I have 100% control of all my processes,” Bradley said.

Bradley has lived in the Spokane area for just about a year and a half. He has been in the knife-making business for six years.

Bradley specializes in kitchen, hunter and skinner, bushcraft, pocket and wood carving knives that each take many hours to craft, ensuring a uniqueness to each blade, handle and shield.

While his knives can be purchased on ElkRiverKnives.com, Bradley and a variety of his homemade blades can also be found at Pottery Place Plus located next to Auntie’s Bookstore in downtown Spokane.

Elk River Knives can be purchased on the official website, elkriverknives.com or next tat Pottery Place Plus, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays and Mondays; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

– Carly Dykes

Shop local with Dry Fly’s specialty releases and collaborations

1021 W. Riverside Ave., downtown Spokane

For the connoisseur of hard spirits, nothing compliments local gift-giving like Dry Fly Distilling’s frequent collaborations with other regional producers.

The downtown Spokane distillery offers specialty releases each year that make great presents packaged in elegant 375 milliliter bottles, vice president and co-owner Terry Nichols said.

Dry Fly currently has three options:

• A 100-proof single malt whiskey aged nine years and made with Washington-grown malted barley.
• Cabernet

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• -finished triticale – ages Dry Fly’s signature triticale whiskey for four years in an oak barrel, then five more years finished in a freshly emptied cabernet barrel from Cote Bonneville Winery in Sunnyside, Washington.
• “Cask & Release,” a gin aged four years in a used triticale barrel Dry Fly lent to Iron Goat Brewing to age its Buzzsaw McThunder IPA.

If you want to go all in, a gift box of all three releases sells for $150.

The specialty releases are in addition to Dry Fly’s lineup of other collaborations, like with Colfax farmer Tim Danaher, who makes several O’Danagher whiskeys from an Irish recipe and uses grains from his farm. Dry Fly bottles and sells it.

And with Doma Coffee in Post Falls, Dry Fly makes both coffee-bean-infused whiskey and whiskey barrel aged coffee.

“We have all kinds of fun stuff for the holidays,” Nichols said.

Bar, restaurant and gift shop are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Sundays, when it closes at 7 p.m.

– James Hanlon

Have a wannabe midcentury bureaucrat on your list? FinnBoy is the place for you

620 N Monroe St., just north of the Monroe Street Bridge in Spokane

In its third year of operation, FinnBoy Records, Books & Curio offers a wide selection of all things vintage. Its distinctive dog logo is hard to miss coming off of the busy Monroe Street Bridge.

Like several other businesses on Monroe, FinnBoy sells vintage, but with its emphasis on books, records and media, barware and clothes, it offers something for most shoppers. Bobb Drake, part-owner with Darcy Caputo, curates the selection with very specific intentions.

“I kind of like to say it’s a mid-1950s bureaucrat, what you’d find in his den,” Drake said. “The good music to listen to some of the clothes like they might wear.”

In the spacious shop, items are separated into rooms: There’s a room of vinyl, a wall of bookshelves and a side room with racks and racks of vintage clothes. The miniature staged areas – a bar, fireplace, kitchen and the owners’ favorite records spinning on the speaker – are sure to provide a relaxing shopping excursion.

“We don’t sell things people need, we just sell something people want,” Drake said.

Born in Spokane Valley, Drake also curates a selection of historical vintage. Peruse a selection of local vintage cookbooks with recipes like Annie Van Marter’s cabbage, pineapple and Jell-O salad.

“My kind of inspiration is more like Anthropologie or Urban Outfitters or kind of even to a little degree Atticus on the local level,” Drake said. “It’s kind of a gift shop because everything is giftable.”

FinnBoy Records, Books & Curio is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

– Elena Perry

Step into a world of wine, cheese and charcuterie at Wanderlust Delicato

421 W. Main Ave., Suite 103, downtown Spokane

Give a wine lover’s taste buds an international experience with wine from around the world or satisfy their hunger with cut-to-order cheese and meats at Wanderlust Delicato in downtown Spokane.

While people can enjoy a glass of wine, charcuterie plate or baguette sandwich at the cheese and wine shop, owner Amber Park is promoting gift baskets and gift certificates for holiday gift ideas.

“Those are both huge for the holiday season because they’re just nice and easy and ready to gift for people,” Park said.

She said premade baskets feature wine, cheese, jellies and other treats. People also can order custom baskets with their choice of goods.

Baskets range from roughly $50 to $100.

Gift certificates can be used for anything in the shop, including cooking classes, Park said. The classes are taught by local chefs and held at the shop.

“You can shop, eat and learn at Wanderlust Delicato,” Park said.

She said the cheese and wine shop boasts a huge selection of wine from the Northwest and from around the globe.

Cheese, like Cougar Gold from Pullman, and charcuterie are cut to order.

Breads, jams, jellies and crackers are also available and come from all corners of the world. For example, Park said she has pepper jellies from Bonners Ferry and peach jam from Spain.

Park said she started the business a little over four years ago to fill Spokane’s need for cut-to-order cheese and international wines.

The shop is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays. Visit wanderlustdelicato.com for details.

– Garrett Cabeza

Want local queer fashion? Go to dom+bomb

59 E. Queen Ave., Suite 106, near NorthTown Mall in Spokane

Spokane-based fashion brand dom+bomb provides a local option for fashionable clothing suitable to all body types and expressions of gender.

In addition to their custom products, dom+bomb provides personal styling alterations and tailoring by queer people and for queer people.

If you want to know where to take your style next for 2024, you can make a free 30 -minute personal styling consultation to figure out the looks you want that you might not be able to get in the big box stores.

Last month dom+bom received a “Queer to Stay” small business grant from the Human Rights Campaign focused promoting businesses that tailor themselves queer community.

“We like to say we’re a soft place to land in a world that’s incredibly hard. We want people to be able to exhale when they come in because there are precious few places where we can do that,” said Kim Blessing, co-founder of dom+bomb in a statement. “And let’s face it, businesses hold a lot of power in our society, so if we can build a foundation that we can use for real change – and inspire others to do the same – it will have been worth it.”

The organization also provides free clothing and tailoring services through the Spectrum Center, an nonprofit serving Spokane’s queer community. Their Gender Affirming Products Program provides $500 micro-grants to transgender or gender-expansive individuals so they can purchase clothing and other products associated with their gender.

Dom+bomb is a great place to find stylish clothes also inclusive to body types and diverse gender expression.

Though much of their business is online, dom+bomb is located 59 E. Queen Ave., Suite 106, and is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

– Amanda Sullender

Find that special, hard-to-find read in the Garland District

607 W. Garland Ave., in the heart of Garland in north Spokane

Priding itself in specializing in new, rare and used books other stores shy away from, Giant Nerd Books is a haven for curious minds and book lovers alike.

Comprised of 80% used and 20% new books, Nathan Huston the founder of Giant Nerd Books, is confident that the books he sells can suit just about anybody.

“ Everything that’s in here is here because I thought ‘Oh, that looks nice,’ ” Huston said. “So, there’s something to recommend to anyone.”

Books include classics, literature, science fiction, metaphysical, Northwest history, collectibles and comics and graphic novels.

The Giant Nerd Books showroom can be found in the Garland District; however, some of Huston’s unique book finds can also be purchased at Boulevard Mercantile, Atticus Coffee and Gifts and Boo Radleys.

Giant Nerd Books is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

– Carly Dykes

Make the everyday extraordinary with Takako’s Pottery

Available at From Here, in River Park Square in downtown Spokane

For the person who wants their household objects to be aesthetically pleasing, or for that 20-something who is slowly replacing their hodgepodge of mismatched thrift store dishes with something a bit more mature, Takako Oberst’s bowls, mugs, tea pots and sake sets are understated works of art for everyday use.

Unlike many handmade dishes, Oberst’s work is dishwasher and microwave safe. Outside of the occasional craft fair like Terrain’s summer and winter bazaars, Oberst’s work can also be regularly found at From Here, located inside River Park Square, nearby at Atticus Coffee and Gifts, or on the TakakosPottery Etsy page online.

– Emry Dinman

Downtown shop specializes in the strange, rare, weird and vintage

101 N. Stevens St., downtown Spokane

Entropy, an eclectic record store tucked away in the heart of downtown Spokane, is a store that does it all.

Since opening last March, Entropy in a circular ground floor space of the iconic Parkade, has brought a variety of records to Spokane music fanatics. But it’s not just music you can find at Entropy; the store that prides itself in “seeking out the things that are too strange to live, and too rare to die” also acts as a hub for vintage goods and an art gallery for local artists each month.

“Fundamentally, we’re a record store, but we still got a bunch of weird stuff, even vintage instruments filter in,” Garrett Bekemeyer, an employee at Entropy, said. “Another big thing we do is use half of our space as an art gallery featuring different local and regional artists every month.”

Entropy has a rotating vinyl and a collaborative show featuring five local artists this month.

“Collecting things can either go one or two ways, chaotic or complete order,” Bekemeyer said.

“Who can say which it’s gonna go?”

Entropy is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

– Carly Dykes

Hold back the winter blues with greenery from the Modern Plantsman

110 S. Madison St. Suite A, downtown Spokane, and satellite shop in Boulevard Mercantile at 1012 N. Washington St., Spokane

Also, in Pullman at 247 S. Grand Ave.

The world outside may be turning gray as winter approaches, but you can still usher in spring inside your home.

“It’s about nurturing something,” said owner Dominic Villareal. “There’s a sense of making something grow and knowing I did that.”

The Modern Plantsman’s downtown Spokane location, with its plant wall and one of the best selections of indoor plants in the city, has a friendly and knowledgeable staff happy to help prevent you from killing said plants. It has a variety of standard and stylish pots, crazily affordable soil amendments and more.

There are plenty of affordable starter plants and pricier rarities, as well as several flourishing specimens to aspire to, including a gorgeous jade plant believed to be more than 100 years old. The store’s hours are relatively limited, currently open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The downtown Spokane store is currently undergoing a makeover while Villareal works to open one side of the shop for events, but it’s still a cozy place to browse and talk about your plant projects. The Modern Plantsman also has a location in downtown Pullman and a satellite shop inside Boulevard Mercantile, located near the Spokane Arena.

– Emry Dinman