(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

An awful lot of recently opened places have more or less gotten it right over the past half year or so here in Spokane. This is good, as I'm sure we all can remember a time -- November-ish of last year, say -- when most spots aspired to take on Chili's.

Manito Tap House's claim to fame is fifty beers on tap. That's fifty as in 50, and an impressive number it is. Granted, one of them is a PBR, so that really makes it forty-nine, but that's neither here nor there.

Out of those, the selection is broad and highly decent. Many ales we rarely see on tap in this region are represented, and the beer menu is divided by type of ale, not brewery. That can be both a blessing and a curse, I suppose, and the extremely spoiled side of me wishes they had a mobile website where we could view the beers sorted by brewery and style.

One thing I do miss is that one beer you'd travel miles to try, but that's a minor complaint. A host of great breweries are represented here, from Lagunitas to Grand Teton, and it's hard to complain about the selection.

There are currently only a few bottles to pick from, but our hope is Manito will have a selection similar to Bitter Creek in the future.

Food, too, is quite excellent, though the menu was limited during our visit. Their take on bruschetta is definitely interesting -- think mozzarella croquettes with a tomato and basil salad. It's certainly worth trying, as is the chicken sandwich, which had a nice fresh flavor to it.

It took a while for us to get the food, but the waiter did come up to us to talk a bit about their fresh ingredients and preparation from scratch and what not. It's those little things we are looking for in service; not empty excuses, just some quick information about what actually is going on. We're sure food will come out faster soon, as the establishment is getting its feet wet.

So our first impressions are positive for yet another place. This is good. Spokane needs places to be optimistic about. We'll be back to Manito Tap House soon. This is the type of place we can get behind.

Located in Spokane's equivalent to the Louvre, the Northtown Mall, is Mustard Seed, another Montana franchise, one that make Ciao Mambo and MacKenzie River Pizza Company proud.

Mustard Seed is all about Asian food. It's anybody's guess if Asian means everything from the Middle East to Japan, but that's neither here nor there. Asian it is, and who are we to argue?

Tastefully decorated like a PF Chang's, with view of the mall interiors, we have to give credit where credit is due: There are worse looking restaurants in town.

There probably are worse menues around too, but not nearly as many. Never have the words "deep" and "fried" been thrown around quite as much on a menu. It's almost impressive.

We started off with spring rolls that tasted like something fried and not a whole lot more. Do not get the spring rolls, even though they sum the menu up pretty neatly.

Next were the Asian tacos, because my Asia is all about tacos. Here we had fluffy flour tortillas in the style of Mission Foods, with curry chicken, no doubt courtesy of Uncle Ben's. Iceberg lettuce on the side? You bet!

So what's the saving grace here then? The service was friendly. And the green beans in a garlic soy sauce weren't horrible. The rest was somewhere on the southside of "eh".

The only real reason to visit this spot is if you have an outing with your less than exciting co-workers who want to go to Chili's across the hall. Mustard Seed is better than Chili's -- that's something you can quote me on.

As mentioned many (many) times before, we don't quite see why we need to sustain September and make it longer than thirty days. We're more into the tradition of celebrating October. One way of doing that is to attend Spokane's Oktoberfest -- yes, the beer festival has made it into its second year, and this year it sounds promising.

Set for Friday and Saturday, September 23 and 24, in Riverfront Park, tickets are $15 online or at various outlets, including Brews on Washington, Northern Lights, The Elk, and Swinging Doors. ($20 at the door.) Ticket includes five 5.5 oz samples. 

So what can you look forward to this year? Well, there are definitely a good turn-out of local and semi-local breweries, including Northern Lights, Palouse Falls, and Golden Hills.

Perhaps more interesting to some are giants like Redhook, which we hope will bring some of its special ales. (All respect to the ESB of course, but it's not something you really want at an Oktoberfest.) Two Beers Brewing, the relatively new and rather excellent brewery from Seattle, will also be showing up, as will perennial favorites like Iron Horse and Pike. 

Twenty-two breweries will be there for you to enjoy, and seeing they'll all have multiple beers with them, then, yeah, how can this not work out?

So here we have another small coffee shop that we quite, quite enjoy. Apparently J-Walk was financed by the owners' slot machine winnings -- who doesn't like a good rags to coffee shop gambling story? -- and it might very well be the best little coffee spot north of the river.

Any place that serves DOMA coffee is worth at least checking out, and the espresso shots pulled at J-Walk aren't half-bad. We haven't had anything to complain about during our visits at any rate, and the Americanos have been quite tasty.

The baked goods, meanwhile, hold an even better standard. They have a great scone here, one with an excellent texture -- dense, but not too dense. The flavors, ever changing, are creative, and we particularly like the apple-spice scone.

Finally, the space is well thought out. The garage door opening reveals a small counter area for ordering, while you can walk through to a separate room for seating. This split works well for studying or whatever, and you don't have to be bothered by people ordering.

The only real issue with J-Walk is that it might not be the #1 choice in the morning if you're in a hurry. With only one lady manning the store -- the proprietor, who is both professional and friendly -- you might have to wait a while before being served.

Still, that's more an inconvenience, and we quite enjoy the joyous mix of DOMA, pastries, and seating space. We highly recommend J-Walk.