Washington State Magazine associate editor Adriana Janovich has written a book about Spokane restaurants. Unique Eats and Eateries of Spokane, published in spring 2024 by Reedy Press, is part bucket list and part travel guide. The book spotlights the people and stories behind restaurants, bars, and other food-related businesses in Spokane—from A to Zip’s Drive-In.
How did you find your way into food writing and the restaurant world?
I worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers throughout Washington state for two decades. In those roles, I often sought out stories that centered around food traditions, such as making tamales for the holidays or prepping for Sunday soul food dinners in the church basement. It wasn’t until I became the food editor at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane that I got the chance to delve into the culinary world full-time. From 2013 to 2019, I covered restaurant openings and closings, spotlighted chefs and signature dishes, and cooked with a lot of different people. I still love writing about food and all things restaurant related. At Washington State Magazine, I produce the “In Season” feature, spotlighting a different seasonal ingredient each issue.
Talk about the Spokane food scene.
Spokane is the arts, culture, and culinary capital of the Inland Northwest. One of the things that makes its food-and-drink scene so special is the city itself. About half of Spokane’s downtown buildings are historical, and many of them house restaurants, bars, or other food-related businesses. Their architecture, exposed brick, and other historical characteristics add to the ambiance of those establishments. Durkin’s Liquor Bar and the Steam Plant Restaurant and Brew Pub come to mind. Some offer spectacular views of the downtown skyline or Spokane River Gorge. Where else in Washington state can you enjoy dinner or drinks on the back deck or patio of a restaurant while watching waterfalls run right through downtown? Consider Anthony’s at Spokane Falls or Clinkerdagger, which opened 50 years ago for the 1974 World’s Fair. Besides its natural beauty, Spokane enjoys a strong sense of pride and place. It’s a giving and forgiving, approachable and supportive city, where chefs can be creative, try new things, and present their personalities and passions on their plates. Several Spokane chefs are James Beard Foundation Award semifinalists, which is really exciting. Also exciting is the fact that the Spokane food scene continues to grow and evolve—and get noticed by media outlets such as Sunset magazine; the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and New York Times; and now Reedy Press, which has included it—along with Seattle and Portland, Oregon, as well as Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and more—in its Unique Eats series.
How did the book come about?
I was approached with the idea in 2022, and it seemed like a perfect fit. I felt uniquely positioned to write this book after spending nearly six years as the food editor at Spokane’s daily newspaper and getting to know Spokane’s food scene from the inside out. There are some 500 restaurants in Spokane. Unique Eats and Eateries of Spokane highlights 84 establishments, or not quite 20 percent, of the city’s most interesting and iconic eateries, watering holes, and food-related businesses. The first restaurant I visited for the book was Indigenous Eats, which was named the No. 4 best new restaurant in the country to try in 2024 by USA Today. The final one was Churchill’s, Spokane’s Chicago-style steakhouse. I completed most of the research during the summer of 2023, and I wrote most of the book at my dining room table. I also did some of the writing at Quillisascut Farm in Rice, north of Spokane. The book is for anyone with an interest in Spokane’s food-and-drink scene—from longtime residents to those who are new to the region as well as tourists passing through the area. Fun fact: I moved to Spokane during Pig Out in the Park weekend in 2013 and revisited the food-and-music festival in 2023 for research for the book, which was kind of a cool bookend to that decade for me.
What are some unique Spokane dining experience spotlighted in the book?
Here are just a few of them: Sitting at the lunch counter at Ferguson’s Fountain Cafe and reenacting the scene from 1993’s Benny & Joon, in which Johnny Depp reenacts Charlie Chaplin’s “Dance of the (Dinner) Rolls” from the 1925 film The Gold Rush; celebrating a Zags’ win at the Bulldog watering hole Jack and Dan’s Bar and Grill, once owned by the father of NBA player John Stockton and dubbed one of the top sports bars in the country by Sports Illustrated; watching planes land and take off at the aviation-themed Skyway Café at Felts Field; hanging with locals from all walks of life at the Park Inn Bar & Grill, which opened in 1932; and enjoying a hearty breakfast or lunch at Frank’s Diner, located inside of a vintage railcar.
What are your favorite Spokane eateries?
I enjoy and recommend lots of Spokane restaurants, many of which are in the book. They range from Gander and Ryegrass, with its house-made pasta and multi-coursed, marathon dinners, to Neato Burrito and its cheap eats and tiny, windowless, Twin Peaks-themed Baby Bar—and everything in between. There’s Zona Blanca with its mouth-watering ceviche, Ruins with its ever-changing menu, contemporary Italian cuisine at Italia in Browne’s Addition, French bistro-inspired fare at Française in the South Perry District, the lovely Luna on the South Hill, Wild Sage with its to-die-for coconut cake, contemporary Latin-inspired dishes at the mom-and-pop Kismet in Hillyard, the charming Chaps on the outskirts of town, pastries and breads made from house-milled and largely local grain at the Grain Shed in the South Perry District, and the nonprofit Feast World Kitchen, which uplifts local immigrants and refugees while spotlighting dishes from their home countries—just to name a few. It’s too difficult to try to name just one.
Where do you like to go out for dinner or drinks in Moscow and Pullman?
Some of the places I enjoy in Pullman include Black Cypress, Etsi Bravo, O-Ramen, Foundry Kitchen and Cocktails, Merry Cellars, and Rico’s, which celebrates 115 years this year. In Moscow, some of the places I like include Lodgepole, Nectar, Maialina, Humble Burger, and Hunga Dunga.
What are your hopes for the book?
Of course, I hope people buy, read, and enjoy Unique Eats and Eateries of Spokane. I hope they visit all of the locations featured in the book. And I hope they continue to support Spokane’s food-and-drink scene by frequenting lots of local restaurants and lounges, wineries, and other food-related businesses.