Comfy and Casual Eats This Holiday Season
Looking for the best laid-back, casual dining options in Spokane this 2022 holiday season? Luckily our city is filled with amazing breweries, taphouses, burger joints and more, offering up delectable dining options this winter.
Located in the West End of downtown in Kendall Yards, UPRISE BREWING is an excellent post-shop stop as well as a top casual choice when you’re entertaining out-of-town guests. With a dozen craft beers on tap and a menu that includes appetizer-size small plates as well as trendy dishes like a spicy jerk bowl and a jackfruit bahn mi, Uprise has a selection that can please any palette.
But what if you’re in the mood for a unique spin on comfort food? The Logan neighborhood’s INDIGENOUS EATS is one of the few Native restaurants of its kind in the entire country. The kitchen specializes in the versatility of frybread, a deep-fried flatbread that lends itself to both sweet and savory foods, making it the centerpiece of entrees as well as desserts.
“For the winter season, we’re rolling out a Three Sisters Soup, which is corn, beans and squash. That will be a gluten-free, meatless type of soup,” says Indigenous Eats owner Jenny Slagle, a member of the Yakama Nation who uses a family recipe to make her frybread.
“We may also transition our frybread with huckleberry sauce to a more seasonal cranberry sauce. And we’ll continue to offer what we’re becoming best known for, which is our Indian tacos. That’s a frybread base with different types of protein — either bison, beef, chicken or beans — layered with traditional taco toppings.”
As both a coffee and cocktail bar, THE WET WHISTLE is the place to go for both a pick-me-up and a mellow-me-out. You can choose from the standard menu of coffee variants — all available with a 21+ splash of something extra — or sip on, say, The Hemingway (rum, grapefruit, lime) or The Beehive (gin, honey, lavender, lemon, Prosecco).
Just north of downtown Spokane is SHAWN O’DONNELL’S, a family-owned and -operated grill and pub that adds a bit o’ Irish flair to American fare. There’s a large list of gourmet burgers and salads, but you’ll also see fish and chips, bangers and mash, Guinness beef stew and shepherd’s pie on the menu. And, naturally, the tap Guinness flows freely.
Taking its cues from TexMex cuisine, THE BAD SEED has recently introduced a revamped menu that expands their taco selection to include shrimp, skirt steak and vegetarian chorizo options.
Bad Seed owner J.J. Wandler says that they’ll be augmenting their usual favorites with holiday-themed options.
“Between Thanksgiving through New Years, we’ll be offering house-smoked turkey with house-made cranberry compote and Texas toast stuffing as tacos, enchiladas or tortas. For our vegetarian guests, they can enjoy the same offering but with Tofurkey. As one of our cocktail specials, we’re featuring spiked eggnog throughout the holiday season. And as a backdrop, you’ll have lots of festive decorations, like our vintage aluminum Christmas tree.”
If you’re the type of person who thinks “Christmas spirit” should be about the supernatural, be sure to ask the staff about Veronica, the ghost who supposedly haunts the restaurant’s former Hillyard Library building.
UNO MÁS TACO SHOP and VICTORY BURGER, both of which are conveniently located in the Wonder Building near the Spokane Arena, take classic fast food to a new artisanal level. Uno Más serves up big, quarter-pound tacos with smoked beef, grilled sweet potato and other fillings, while Victory prides itself on equally hearty burgers made with fresh, regionally sourced ingredients.
