(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

"You're here to eat?!" This is not the most promising of an opening line for any restaurant and should probably have been a warning of things to come. "It's just that a lot of people stop by only to look at the menu." Then, I assume, they leave? This is probably not the optimal chit chat you'd expect from a maître d'.

Showing us our table she promptly informed that we had arrived between the lunch and dinner shift, and that we only could order from the lounge menu. This, to me, is a bit ridiculous. 2:30pm might not be the height of the lunch rush, but you should expect to order from the regular menu at least. Particularly on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Savory, of course, has had problems from the get-go. Chef/co-owner Steve Hermann left less than a month before opening, leaving a sous chef to get the restaurant up and running. This is not a good position for anyone to be in, and does in all likelihood explain the rocky start.

The food, frankly, was not very good. From the limited options on the lounge menu, I went with the pork taquitos. Here we had dry as sand pork packed in a crumbling tortilla with a chipotle crema reminiscent of sour cream mixed with pre-packaged taco seasoning. The guacamole, while bland, was at least fairly fresh tasting, though the cole slaw felt a bit stale.

The Mason Jar didn't fare much better. The bread was burnt, and didn't show much promise as far as flavors go. On the upside the olives were pretty good as was the goat cheese. 

To cap it off we tried the butternut squash soup, which lacked any flavor whatsoever.

There were things to like about Savory. The interiors were nice in a PF Chang's meets Twigs type of style. Plus the men's room had a nice outlook onto the street through a one-way window. That was kinda fun.

But really, I question if the place should have opened without a chef in place. I'm sure the interim choice could do just fine, but he needs more than a month to properly take over the kitchen. Should management have waited then? In terms of quality of the food, yes, probably, but I assume they needed revenue to pay the bills.

And even wit sub-Twigs standard food there seems to be some excitement around Savory. The question is if people will come back for a second meal. We will, in the hopes that things will improve over the next few months.

As it stands right now, though, I don't care all that much about Savory's claims of a farm-to-table business model. The food just doesn't hold up, and as long as you're paying good money to eat there, it doesn't matter if the restaurant has been open for a week or a year. You should expect good food, and Savory, in its current form, just doesn't deliver on that.

Yes, it's Thanksgiving, and it's great because it means we have the next few days off. And apparently there's some other stuff involving turkeys and indians and something, I don't know, I'm not American.

Anyway!

Here are a couple of random notes on how to make Thanksgiving more worthwhile:

Wine is boring, drink beer with the turkey. I mean, come on, it's time to flip off tradition. There are plenty of beers that go well with the bird. Try a few saisons or grand crus for example, and you should be able to find something pretty easily. That's a bit Belgian (you know, old Europe), though, and my choice would be a dark lager. Session Black is a perfect choice. It is light enough to go with any type of poultry, yet has enough backbone to stand up against the gravy. A perfect middle-man.

Not related to your Thanksgiving... but we're in the middle of setting up a site intended as a replacement for another site some have said they miss. And in the next few weeks we'll need a couple of testers that possess two things: 1) a Facebook account, and 2) opinions about restaurants and markets and what have you. E-mail us if you're interested.

You might not have noticed, but it's snowing outside. No, really, just turn on any local news station and they will probably mention it as a short aside or something.

This, of course, means it's a good time to stay inside and sample the seasonals. Like Widmer's Brrr, which is incredibly cleverly named. Say it with me: Brrr. Beer. Get it? Good stuff!

The beer, like last year's entry, is good too. This is a balanced winter warmer, though balanced in a way where everything is quite strong, something the 7.5% ABV is a good indicator of.

It pours a nice deep dark color which soothes the soul and says, "Hey, it's all going to be OK -- I'm here to warm you up during these cold months." The head is thick-ish and sits at about two fingers with a slightly brown-ish hue. Good lacing too.

The nose hits you like a Christmas carol: Here you find caramels, malts, spices, and hops. This carries over in the flavor, though if anything dominates, it's the hops. The sweet and spicy flavors do play good harmonies however. It's all pretty flavorful, and a far cry from the kind of beers Widmer has become famous for.

The medium mouthfeel and slightly creaminess makes this very drinkable, despite the strong flavors and ABV. It might not be a life-altering ale, but it's definitely above average. Good one, Widmer.

We love us some DOMA coffee and, evidently, so do you. Recently we made the trek to the tundras of Post Falls to see if the quality of the coffee really is a result of the magic happening behind the scenes.

In short, it is. This is a roaster that actually will trade you coffee for vinyl records, so of course it is. When you see the passion the boys and girls at DOMA have for their products, everything just adds up perfectly.

Everybody is into the "free trade" and "organic" these days, though those words are becoming more and more hollow. You can easily circumvent the system and stamp the labels on on your products to make good business if you know how to play the game.

DOMA, meanwhile, really does make longterm commitment to their farmers, and strive to work with them on a very personal level. To me, it seems that the quality of DOMA's coffee is tied to the personal care, all the way from making good and fair business with the farmers, to the way of the roasting. As a consumer it is a care you probably should expect, or at least want, but it's a rarity to see it executed as well as it is at DOMA. This all while their brains are churning for the future.

Talking about the superbly tasty Olde Bongwater Hemp Porter, it sounds like DOMA might have some further plans on marrying beer and coffee yet again, something we at Team SpoCOOL strongly support. (In fact, if in Missoula, make sure to check out the brewery behind that aforementioned get, Kettle House Brewing Company.)

There are other plans, many plans, still being formed, all that can be summed up this way: They all show an almost kidlike enthusiasm DOMA has for its coffee. Their product is a labor of love, and it is obvious that the company will keep evolving by improving their current processes while traveling down new avenues.

Let's just sum this up by a little meditation:

When we stepped into their offices, we arrived in the middle of a barrista training session. Here the up and coming coffee shop workers were trained how to properly make espresso based drinks, while getting a good overview of DOMA as a company. It's a fairly intense training and it's what our little area needs more of.

Coffee culture here consists largely of drive through coffee where milk and syrup is used to hide the flavor of the coffee. DOMA is doing its share to change that. That's why we like them, and that is likely why you picked them as the area's best roaster. There are other good local roasters, sure, but none as unique and, frankly, as good as DOMA.