Picnic Company

Fun, fresh food!

Needing a Northside location to meet a friend for lunch, this place came to mind. I have eaten, I mean, "picnicked" here before but so long ago that I wasn't even sure if they still existed at this location. It was not objectionable when I suggested it as a meeting spot to my friend, so we planned our outing and met here for lunch.

One things about this restaurant that intrigues me is the names of some of the items on the menu. I love the references to cities I know and love, like Sedona, Tempe, Mesa, and Phoenix, my hometown. Spokane is on there too. Their selection of salads and soups is amazing and the food is good too. The price is much comparable to that of a Subway sandwich shop, but the atmosphere is different. While Subway sandwiches are good, (We like them) like Subway the sandwiches here are made to your specifications, you tell them what kind of bread and cheese and items you prefer. What I like is that unlike subway you do not have to babysit your sandwich as it is made and you can even order spouts.

We ordered a tuna salad sandwich and we shared that, then we each ordered our own salad.
I ordered the "Italian,"salad, she ordered the "Northwest."

The server cut our sandwich in two for us and put it on separate plates and trays too, without us even having to as. We really appreciated this special touch. They call you from the counter when your order is ready and then you go and pick it up.

This might be a fun place to call and order food "to go" from, if you were really wanting a impromptu picnic sometime. (It's a switch, a change from the usual , routine, well known, fast food options!) I mean you could even drop by and order and take your food with you, it's just not drive through, so it's not so convenient. But you could even surprise a friend and bring them lunch, a home-madeish lunch, a cup of soup and a sandwich, at work, in the middle of the day... after all, everybody needs a picnic sometimes.

In case you are wondering, here is the ingredients of our salads:

Italian Salad
This consists of Romaine lettuce, fresh mozzarella, garlic, chopped pepperoni, chopped hard salami, Roma tomato, pepperoncini, red onion, seasoned croutons, and Italian dressing

Northwest Salad
This consists of butter lettuce topped with bleu cheese crumbles, chopped tomato, dried cranberries, toasted pecans, red onion, and seasoned croutons, served with choice of dressing,

Italian Kitchen

We had passed by Italian Kitchen on our way the other day when we were on our way to dine at the Sukiyaki Inn. It is next door.) The sign outside Italian Kitchen read, "family owned and operated." It smelled lovely, a little like and Italian kitchen, I might add, but since we had another destination in mind that day, yet we did consider the possibility of a return; and return we did, to Italian Kitchen 113 S. Bernard St, Spokane.

We had no idea what it would be like at all, never heard of the place before. Geo usually does the finding. I usually look up later to see if there is information on the internet of the places we have been and to see what others have to say about it, or if there is a menu I can post here in my blog.
It was a great dining atmosphere and very aromatic. Being as there are apartments (the Metropolitan Apartments) upstairs of the restaurant, I couldn't help imagine what it would be like to always have your house smelling so very good!

(I was having flashback childhood memories of great Italian spaghetti sauce and meatballs.Yum.)
We were greeted by being asked if we had made reservations.
"No"
(We didn't make reservation. oops)
We didn't need them apparently, even though the place was a little crowded, filled with happy people, eating and conversing. We were given a lovely table right away.
Whew!


I was a little shocked at the high prices on the menu. An average dish was $20.00-$25.00. It was a little more than our usual fare. And of course, being as I am, of heritage, 1/2 Italiano, going out to dine on pasta just seems "unnatural." It was a great menu though and we were hungry, so we ordered. I order Gnocchi and Geo, Lasagna. They have a different menu for lunch, one with lower prices, more the usual price for the likes of us.

Our waiter, a really nice guy and fun to chat with throughout the meal, brought us basket of bread. Geo asked me, Should I ask him for butter? Then we remembered we were eating Italian, and used the oil/vinegar dipping sauce instead. (I have to say they have the most interesting oil and vinegar dispensers I have ever seen myself!)

This restaurant is a beautifully decorated place, (in my humble, little, part-Italian opinion.) One thing I like to note about restaurants is the cleanliness of the bathrooms and this one was very clean and I loved the decorating touch in here as well. The doors inside were like portals at a marina or on a boat. Maybe that is the motif for Venice or something. Having never been I do not know, but I thought it was a special touch.

Our meals, in addition to the bread, came with our choice of salad or soup. I have salad and George had the soup, which was Minestrone. Small bowls and plates and very good, I loved the peppercini, a salad pepper, (I call them mousies,) which was quite spicy. Though I cannot help to mention nor to notice that he lettuce looked just like the blend of gourmet lettuce I usually buy and use, hey, what can I say, it felt just like home!

It only felt a little like home actually as the ceiling here was really high and quite ornate. Besides I do not have little servants who offer to pepper my salad or grate my cheese as our waiter did for me there. I suppose one could grow accustom to being waited on hand and foot, but I live on a farm myself, I mean, serve my animals their dinners. Treatment like this is just a little awkward if you know what I mean. as our host for the evening was peppering my salad I asked him about the building.

He said that it used to be the Spokane Hotel, the Regis, he called it. He said it was not the original building because it had to be rebuilt after the fire in 1889, (a fire that burned down 32 buildings on 27 blocks of Spokane.) I love older buildings. I always wonder how they did it, and like the ceiling here, I love the artistry and elegance.

Our food arrived, and it was delicious! As I said, we ordered gnocchi (with sausage) and lasagna. The servings were quite large.

I asked if they made the gnocchi there, and the waiter said no, it comes from somewhere else, he told me where from but if you really want to know you will have to ask them yourself. I excuse them for not making it themselves there because it was good. (Good gnocchi, you know, homemade gnocchi, is hard to find.)

My grandmother made gnocchi! : )

We were quite stuffed and even had leftovers which allowed our son to try the gnocchi.

He is quite brave. He ate it in the dark on the way home in the car, not really knowing exactly what it was either, just that it was called, gnocchi.

He hated it.
(I guess he is not quite as Italiano as I.)

Sukiyaki Inn

Last night we went to Sukiyaki Inn on Bernard Street downtown Spokane. I walked past several times, usually because we have parked downtown for an event at the Convention Center or Riverfront Park, but never ventured inside before. From the outside it kinda looks more like a bar than a restaurant, but the Sukiyaki Inn is very much a restaurant and I was excited to eat Japanese food, as I personally have a bit of a love for all things Japanese.

We entered and were asked where we would like to sit, which I thought was a little strange. (You know, usually a hostess will say, "Right this way," and then they lead you to a table?) I was confused at this and so the hostess asked if we would like a table, to sit at the counter or in our own room where we take off our shoes and sit on the floor. I picked the room, meanwhile, as we were walking to our "room." Geo was wondering what was wrong with a table.

(This was feeling very Japanese.)

We removed our shoes in the little hallway outside of our door and entered the Ayame room.

One thing I like about eating Japanese style is the little cubical concept. It is nice to have your own little space and not eat with the whole crowd around you. Unlike the Moroccan restaurant, where you really DO eat sitting on the floor, here the table is low and you do ppear to be sitting"on the floor" but there is a well beneath the table where your feet can go. It is nice because it is very much like sitting on the floor and yet you are comfortable as in a chair.

Many things about this restaurant seemed run-down and in some ways it looked like it could use updating. The table in our room was even a bit wobbly. Even though it was this way, everything seemed clean and tidy and there was certainly no lack of Japanese hospitality, as we felt very welcomed and honored as guests, even paying guests. I was very surprised to hear that this restaurant had been here in Spokane, at this location, for over 60 years and in that regard I felt we were eating at some kind of Spokane landmark!

We ordered the Dinner for Two- with Teriyaki and Sukiyaki. It came with Osumashi soup, Japanese style salad, rice & tea.

The first thing our waitress brought was the soup and salad. It was a simple soup with mostly broth and a few noodles and it was very nice. The Japanese salad was three separate small bowls for each of us, one containing a pickled cucumber medley, one with seasoned bean sprouts and one with a couple of pieces of raw vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and carrot) in a bit of some kind of salad dressing.

When we ordered the Sukiyaki, Geo asked Nori, (our waitress) for some specifics of what "sukiyaki" is like. She pointed to another area of the dinner menu that gave a better explanation. She also told us it is a very traditional Japanese dish and that sometimes non-Japanese people who order it, do not really like it. We were pretty sure that we would, (since we like oriental food in general and because our Japanese student who visited with us made it for us before) so we ordered it.

I would describe the sukiyaki as a roast-like beef dish, this one came with unique noodles, (actually rice noodles,) lots of onions, cabages and tofu and lots of sauce. The teriyaki was also very good, and garnished with edible pretties. Our tea, a green tea, was served after the meal.

This restaurant also cooks things at your table and serves a veriety of seafood items as well as has a sushi bar which can be ordered from a separate type of menu.

Walking downtown, I realized there are a lot of retaurants in this city and happily a lot of flavors of the world. I am so glad that tonight we got to eat not only Japanese food, but Japanese food, japanese style.