Hay J's Bistro

In an unlikely spot....(this would be a little gas station mini-mall,) you will find this little bistro called Hay J's. It is one place people have often mentioned to us as a "good place to eat." Of course, we just had to try it for ourselves, but it took us a while to make it out to Liberty Lake.  Finally, however,  that day came, and off we went.  It was "lunch."

 

 

It's a rather charming little place, decorated with, what I would call, a bit of sophisticated subtlety,.  I guess in a way it is not too subtle, as it is accentuated with grapes, wine bottles, and wine glasses... and sayings about wine, but it's a comfortable, almost casual atmosphere with earthy colors... low lighting.  It's a little romantic, and a bit sophisticated, in a subtle sort of way.  It is also a favorite of the locals of Liberty Lake..

 We began our lunch with crabcakes.

They were delicious.  I had not had crab cakes this good since Baltimore Maryland.  These are made with king crab meat, fresh herbs, pepper, and bread crumbs, that are pan fried with cilantro and sour cream.

Then we had to decide what to order.  You can view their menu here.  Geo likes to ask the servers about popular items... and the things they like to eat if he has a hard time choosing.  It was a tough pick, but we did it.

Geo went for the Asian flavors of a Red Coconut Curry with Rice which was created with lots of great veggies and spice.  I went for the Pacific Northwest fare of a Huckleberry Chicken Wrap which came with soup.... of which I had to choose between Clam Chowder and Curry Beef.  I went with the curry. which yummy.  Being as I really am not a big -on-beef person, I remember at one point wondering why I ordered it, and then I remembered.... "because I love curry." 

Geo said he would have gone for the chowder.

My wrap was superb.  It consisted of grilled chicken, spinach, red grapes, pecans, red onion & goat cheese in a spinach flavored wrap.  The highlight really was my wrap.  I liked it a lot.

The Red Coconut Curry

Geo loved his curry.

Huckleberry Chicken Wrap

Well, this is another great little place to dine in the local area.  Though not in Spokane, it's just a hop and a skip and a jump away, in nearby Liberty Lake, WA.

Madeleine's Cafe & Patisserie

Today, it was especially fun .  I went with two friends who, along with me, set out on an urban excursion.  We actually walked from a downtown apartment through the streets of Spokane, marveling at the architectural creations, statues, bus stops and pretty gardens planted in from of big high rise business buildings along our way.  We felt the wind in our faces, the sunshine on our hair and heard the pitter-patter of our bustling feet, as we made our way to our destination, 707 W. Main Ave...  Madeliene's Cafe. 

The first time I ate at this busy little downtown "patisserie," was this summer.  I ate the Ruben, which was a great sandwich if I may say so.  In fact, it was so great that  I think I now have a new sandwich addiction!  I have had it several times now in different places around town and I can only say, I love the Ruben!

I didn't order a Ruben today, I was in for trying something else on their menu.



It's not just the food that I like here at Madeline's, it's the lovely decor.  I also like the experience of sitting outside in the pleasant summer weather, watching the busy world go by.







I like the sound of brakes on buses, looking through the crowds to see if I know anyone passing by, and I usually do!  I enjoy watching the little little birds that sit on the fence hoping for a morsel to eat. There is just something I like about being downtown in the middle of the city environment, relaxing as the rest of the busy, moving, world goes by, doing all the things there is to do.  It's a moment to stop and reflect on life, to feel the movement of  life in the city all around you, and eat some good food..

This is one of those restaurant management methodologies that  I don't like too well.  It's a method whereby the customer stands in line for a while, ogling at the menu on the wall and the items in the cooler case, trying to decide what they like before their turn comes up and the time is over.  Finally, you step up to the register and place your order.

You pay, and take a number to your table and then the server comes and finds you when your order is ready.  Meanwhile, you self-serve your own water and utensils, even find your own place to sit.

It's not my favorite way to dine in a restaurant by far.  In fat, I wonder if the servers like it.  Do they make more or less tips working this way?  Do they really serve more people?  I do not know, but I wonder if it is something cultural; something I missed learning to accept?  It seems to be an increasingly popular way of doing business serving food.  I think it to be worse when there is a crowd, but since "variety is the spice of life!" and dining is often more than about food, it's about experience, sometimes, it's an acceptable way to dine out..  Today it was not too long a wait in the line.. there were tables available and my friends helped pick the food.

Even when busy, Madeline's is a terrific place to enjoy French food, particularly sweets.  They have  éclairs, crepes, tartlets, brioche and napoleons, as well as cookies, some of which are quite large and.croissants.  There are some seriously nice food options as well.  They serve salads, paninis and French dishes like coq au vin, beouf en daube, honey rosemary butter salmon, quiche and vol-au-vents.  Here are some of the colorful things they offer in their cold case.

  We were smitten by the welcome sign, inviting us to try the Sliders...

There were three of us, and three of sliders on a plate, so the special worked quite nicely for us.
We could also choose three salads with that... so we did.  In fact, the The Caprese Salad looked so good we ordered two of those and the Antipasta Salad too.


Then we ordered some desserts!

 The server brought out our desserts first... saying that the reason he did it was because the food might take a while... 

Farthest in this photo, is our Lemon Meringue Pie, to the right of that the Napoleon, and the chocolate treasure in the forefront is the Cigle...  my personal favorite by far.  It is a thin, crunchy, curled-a round cookie filled with chocolate mousse. We tasted them all!  And just so you know, we didn't eat our desserts first... we waited until we finished eating our food. 

It did take a while for our food to come, and it was also quite a wait for the people at the table next to us, which we a bit of an opportunity to make friends... waiting.  ( This is obviously not a place to go if you are in a hurry.)  It's a place a lot of people like to go, I understand that sometimes the line, waiting to come in.  Sometimes it even circles out along the street.. 

I am glad a little bird told me about this place. 

Taste And See

Taste and See on the Northside is now open on Holland Street!


OLD REVIEW:
Taste and See is a Tea House on the South Hill in Spokane.
(NOTE: As of January 2011 they have closed this location with plans to reopen on the North-side of the city in the spring.  Check their website for more information.)

)Having never been to such a place before I was delighted when a friend of mine asked me to join her for a Christmas tea.  This is something I would definitely enjoy doing again, and I most certainly recommend it as the kind of thing to do when you want to dine with someone and spend time talking and enjoying one-another's company.  The experience of enjoying tea with a friend was fun, relaxing, elegant, a bit whimsical and most definitely a delightful way to spend an afternoon in anticipation of the Christmas Holiday. Taste and See is the brainchild of Thada Ziegler.

This place is quite elegant and it's run as a "ministry," a not for profit business organized around the intent of helping women who are transitioning from shelters, they say that they "provide a paid internship program for these women, in the venue of the tea room, to help them get ready to transition back into the work place."  It's a cool concept to help others, and the "Taste and See" name comes from the book of Psalms in the Bible, (Psalm 34:8.)

The shelters I saw listed that they are associated with were Anna Ogden Hall and the Union Gospel Mission, Christian ministries, so one might assume it is a Christian oriented ministry organization, but whatever it was specifically, was not particularly obvious to me, except for the reference to the Psalm in the name, and most certainty the kindness and respect they showed all the customers there, including us.  There is definitely a spirit of serving here. As for cost to the customer, each reservation was $20.00, which I thought was reasonable, especially as we were there two hours.  Tips and donation all go directly to the ministry.

Having made prior reservations, our table was ready for us and  we were seated to a beautiful salad and invited to "tea."  Our waitress also graciously explained the process of eating at a tea house to us, telling us what we could expect throughout our visit, as well as about their little gift shop.Our first tea was Cinnamon Stick.  It was sweet and cinnamony, a lot like my favorite Good Earth blend.  Each subsequent tea was brought out in another teapot and all were unique and quite ornate.

We were greeted and made to feel right at home immediately.  There were quite a few other people there, and not just women only, there were men. In our room there was a couple at another small table and a large group of about ten dining in our room while we were there.  On the other side of the house there were people also.  We were told that people there were "walk-ins", people who did not make reservations who had just walked in, like they were going to a restaurant, and ordered a lunch.  Our server told us that they were discontinuing that after January and would only be taking reservations after that.

After our tea and salad, we were brought two more pots of tea that we selected from a tea menu.  Shortly thereafter we were served Lemon Scones, severed with Devon-shire Cream as well as Lemon Curds.  (above)

After these were were offered more tea and  then we were brought fancy little lunch treats.



There were stuffed potatoes, Chicken Salad Croissants, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato English muffins and Turkey and Cheese wreath-shaped white and wheat  sandwiches.  (pictured to the right)

Next there was more tea and then dessert

The desserts were assorted samplings of several tasty morsels.  I do not remember exactly what all we were served but I do remember that in the center were balls of peppermint ice cream that had been rolled in coconut.  It sounded a little odd to me, not something I would have chosen for myself, but it was delicious.(below)

It was really nice to spend time with my friend, talking laughing, and not having to think about what to order except for tea.  (The meal was preplanned by the kitchen staff.)  We were there for two hours.  They told us to expect that when we made our reservations, and that is exactly what occurred. 

We tried numerous teas, mostly Roobios types.  I think may very favorite was the Cinnamon, although  the others were delightful to experience.  I understand that Roobios (pronounced like "roy-bos") also known as Red Tea is a very healthy drink.  Tea in general is supposed to be good for you, so, drink more tea.  And, if you can, get together with a friend, someone special to you, and make reservation for a tea party of your own at the tea room,; it's fun.

Here is a photo of the house.  Upstairs, I  understand, is a Bed and Breakfast!

Huckleberry's "Ninth Street Bistro"

Ninth Street Bistro is located at Huckleberry's Natural Market on Lincoln.

On Friday Geo and I got a bit of a late start to the evening so we didn't have the usual amount of time. We have different methods of picking where we go and tonight it was both, "Find somewhere that is not too far." and "Someplace quick would be nice." We wrestled with a few ideas, before making up our minds... and this too took a while. You see, one place we always seem to see and never want go was where we were near, and Geo suggested it again. I said no. Then I suggested Huckleberry's, and off we went!

Now, Huckleberry's, in case you did not know, is a food store that caters to folks who like nutritional supplements, organically grown produce and meat, and ecologically produced products. I was a little afraid Geo might worry about sunflower seeds in spaghetti sauce and the like because it also caters to the vegan/vegetarian crowd. But Geo, liked the idea. He had never been there before and he wasn't very hungry either. Besides that it sounded like someplace "quick!" So we trekked off to the South Hill to check out their Deli.

What a spread! They certainly have a lot of delicious looking things to select from. They claim to have 10-15 entrees, 15 different salads and 8 soup varieties daily. Our first stop was the soup bar.

We sampled a few soups and they were all delicious. Geo chose to have a chicken and noodle soup and I had the cream of mushroom. I. was hard to choose. We probably would have went with the Jalepeno chicken, but there was not enough left in the pot.

Every sandwich looked intriguing, as did the lasagna. One thing I noticed is that the people who work throughout the whole store are prepared to serve the customer and our first encounter with this was in the deli at the soup bar. It was such a hard choice that I decided to ask some questions of the attendant there. He told us about several of the items in the showcase when I asked him what things he liked to eat there. We selected the Gouda Chicken, which was then grilled like a pannini and cut in half for us.

It was great food and we ate every bite. After dinner we looked around the store a bit. At the bakery section we bought a marzipan hedgehog as a gift for a friend in town from England. After taking a peek at the bulk foods, groceries both organic and conventional and posting some flyers for an upcoming concert in the park that I had been carrying in my purse, we went on our way.

Huckleberry's is a fun place to visit. The little restaurant also has made to order items and you can take out or dine in. You can order waffles or pancakes, omelets, scrambles, burritos, burgers, or a little something from their hot pasta bar. There is espresso, Italian sodas and fresh juiced produce too. The grocery has a wine section, bakery, meat department, and uniquely diverse cheeses. They can make gift baskets and party trays too. They offer canning classes, (August 20th, 2009) have musicians come in an play on Saturdays, and sell flowers. For their sales see their website, or click here.

Huckleberry's on Lincoln has a lot of stuff for a little store, and they have good tasting, "quick" food at this great little bistro!

In April, I visited there again with Cherry and she liked it a lot.  We even had dessert!