Spokane isn’t often listed as an epicurean hot spot, but according Adriana Janovich, it really should be.
The former food editor for the Spokesman Review has a new book, “Unique Eats and Eateries of Spokane,” in which she dives into what she considers to be 84 of the city’s most interesting and iconic restaurants.
SPR’s Owen Henderson spoke with Janovich about her work.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
OWEN HENDERSON: So tell me about the process of putting together this book. How did you narrow down the restaurants?
ADRIANA JANOVICH: Writing this book was a lot of fun. Spokane has so many interesting restaurants, and it was very difficult to narrow down the book to just 84 entries.
I wish I could have included 125 or even 100 places, but the book is part of a series and the publisher set the limit. I think it's a good problem to have, though: too many versus not enough. But narrowing down the establishments was probably the most difficult part of the entire process.
I brainstormed a list of places that I might want to include, and that initial list was about 200 spots. Early on, I realized I couldn't include Idaho and outlying Spokane areas. There just wasn't enough space in the book.
So that initially helped me narrow down that big list, drawing sort of a circle around Spokane. And then in addition to location, I considered other factors. I considered longevity.
How long had a place been around? There aren't a lot of super new spots in the book. I also thought about what makes a restaurant unique or what makes a restaurant or bar interesting or iconic. What makes an establishment stand out? So I considered signature dishes, menus, consistency, chefs, owners, even architecture and decor, and hospitality.
I spent months in the pre-writing stage working on that list, and it continued to evolve throughout the process. I was able to sneak in a few additional establishments, and a few of the entries also feature breakout boxes with additional recommendations. So I sort of snuck in a few extras that way too.
OH: I noticed a lot of the entries included historical information about the restaurants and about the owners and the chefs. How much of your process was historical research, and how much was actually going to try the food?
AJ: I went to every single restaurant that is in the book. My husband and I visited almost 90 spots, and we did the bulk of those visits last summer.
The first restaurant we visited for the book was Indigenous Eats, and the last one we visited for the restaurant was Churchill's Steakhouse. And so every one of those 84 entries had a site visit.
Part of that is because we did the photography for the book. I did almost all of the photos myself. My husband helped with a few of those, so I couldn't have done it without him.
He also split dishes with me because that was a lot of restaurants to go to in a fairly short period of time.
We spent almost every weekend last summer up in Spokane visiting restaurants for the book. And I think our busiest day, we went to seven places in one day. And it was fun, but I wouldn't recommend doing that.
So the in-person visit was the bulk of the research. Another thing that was really helpful was looking at some of the stories I had written in the past for background information.
I had been to a lot of these places in the past already because of my role as a food editor at The Spokesman. I was there from 2013 to 2019.
And the historical information, a lot of that came from historical documents that the Historical Preservation Group in Spokane has a lot of public records online. And that was really, really helpful information.
If a place was listed on the National Historical Register, those documents, all that research is online, and it's public. That was a wealth of information.
OH: So I know sometimes beloved restaurants – they don't last forever. Are there any places that you would have loved to include if they were still open? Any sort of posthumous honorable mentions?
AJ: The place that immediately comes to mind is Clover. Clover was a small restaurant located in a craftsman's house near the Gonzaga University campus. That was a really special spot.
Every time I went there, I had this feeling of – I wanted to move into that house. They had great cocktails, great hospitality. The food was fantastic. And so that's a place that has just a special place in my heart.
OH: Taking a step back, how have you seen the food scene in Spokane evolve? Where do you think it's heading as it continues to grow?
AJ: That's a great question too. I was in the role at the Spokesman from 2013 to 2019. And I think during that time, it changed a lot. And I think it is still growing and changing.
Historically, Spokane was kind of a ‘meat and potatoes’ town. But that's changing. It's becoming more diverse with more depth and breadth and more options. So more and more restaurants are focusing on farm to table, sourcing local ingredients, paying a lot of attention to where their produce comes from and how they plate it.
There are more vegetarian and vegan offerings. There are more gluten-free options. And there are more specialized restaurants, places, for example, that maybe only serve brunch or even narrowing it down more, maybe only serve one type of dish such as waffles.
But I really consider Spokane the capital of arts and culture in the Inland Northwest. And along those same lines, I think of Spokane as the region's culinary capital. Another thing I can say about Spokane is I think the city is very giving and forgiving.
And I think it is a supportive place where chefs, including and maybe especially young chefs, can be creative, experiment, try new things. And people show up for that. And that's really exciting. And I think that's how it's changed and evolved in the last maybe 10, 15 years.
