OK, so Spokane might not be a haven for Italian restaurants, but there are a few bright spots. Mission Bistro, for example, delivers pasta cooked to perfection with an excellent marinera sauce. The former, especially, is important to me. Way too many places in town, be it upscale restaurants or quick-fix Olive Garden clones, steers clear of al dente noodles and instead go for mushy goopy messes. Why that is, I don't know. But the fact that Mission Bistro actually cooks their pasta perfectly is enough reason to recommend it for me.
Luckily there's more to the spot than that. Their stromboli -- a dish some claim was created in Spokane (I won't go in to it here, but I doubt what we now call "stromboli" actually was from here) -- is excellent. The crust is piping hot and has a wonderful texture. Dip it in the aforementioned marinera, and you got something good going.
What pushes Mission Bistro into the "excellent" territory, though, is the bread pudding dessert. Many places in town serve good ones, heck both Latah Bistro and Sante do them excellently, but this is probably the best in town. This is the stuff you'd expect a homemade Italian bread pudding to taste like. And that is good, in all its sweet gooeyness.
I don't know if Mission Bistro will transport you straight to the Mediterranean or not, but on the strength of the doneness of the pasta -- which you can also buy in bulk -- and the bread pudding, I'd have a hard time finding a reason not to recommend this spot.
When the summer hits -- and I think it has, but I'm not about to let my guard down -- you can't go far wrong with an IPA, at least if you're a hop kind of guy/gal.
With a name like Hop Czar I definitely had certain expectations of Bridgeport's ale. And it is certainly is a good beer, just not quite as hoppy as the name suggests.
It pours a nice copper color with about a finger of semi-creamy head. The glass is laced fairly well. Give it a whiff and it smells extremely florally. The hops are definitely there.
Sip it, and the floral impression carries over with a mild citric hoppy flavor. It's definitely good and refreshing, but nowhere as hoppy as I had expected from a beer called the Hop Czar. Imperial IPAs tend to have a bit more kick than this.
Still. It is what it is, and it tastes good. It's a good ale for the summertime. Recommended for your rotation.
Yumsugar has a small post about about Bi-Rite's odd but great ice cream flavors. Strawberry balsamic in particular sounds good.
This is a good reminder that you should probably run over to Sante and try their rose water based ice cream, particularly paired with their baklava. It makes for some good Middle Eastern-ish type dessert. And you probably want to try their risotto too.
Steer Inn on Market is changing. Sorta. They still have their burgers, and I suppose they've had Italian fare for a while, but now they have a new name on a large sign. And the Italian portion of the menu has been expanded.
The Ferraros claim to have the best spaghetti and meatballs in town. I can't vouch for the spaghetti, but the meatballs are very good. Not sure if they're best in town or not, but good all the same.
I tried the meatball sandwich with cheese. The bread was better than many sandwich shops around town -- I'm looking disapprovingly in Sparky's direction -- and the marinera sauce had a nice tangy sweetness to it. In a sense I suppose the cheese was superflous, as the flavor of the gently spiced meatballs and sauce overpowered it, but what can you do... Save the 50 cents next time, go without, and you have a sandwich under $5. Not too bad.
There's a drivethrough still, and the interiors are fast-food style, just with roses on the table, which, frankly, is kind of like trying to plant petunias around Tchernobyl.
Regardless.
I'm not sure if Tony Ferraro's is what legends are made of, but it's certainly good enough for a quick lunch stop. You're probably not going to be taken back to your days in Brooklyn or Napoli or whatever, but approach the spot with an open mind and it's decidedly a good quick stop for a sandwich.
And who knows, maybe the spaghetti really is the best in town? We might have to find out at some other time.
