(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

After a good year without too much movement, your top twenty sees some action for the second month running…

1. Manito Tap House (-)
2. Casper Fry (-)
2. Santé Restaurant & Charcuterie (3)
4. South Perry Pizza (-)
5. The Flying Goat (6)
6. Saranac Public House (5)
7. Central Food (-)
8. Main Market Co-op (11)
9. De Leon Foods (10)
10. Jones Radiator (8)
11. Veraci Pizza (9)
12. Bon Bon Lounge (14)
13. Coeur Coffee (-)
14. Atticus Coffee & Gifts (12)
15. Bennidito's Pizza (20)
16. Wild Sage Bistro (15)
17. Mizuna (19)
18. Huckleberry's (17)
19. Italia Trattoria (18)
20. Atilano's (16)

… albeit less dramatically this time around.

The top three is, once again, incredibly close, with Casper Fry and Santé now sharing the runner-up position. Meanwhile, the pizza war between Flying Goat and South Perry is intensifying; we expect Veraci to join them after their brick and mortar location opens.

As always, you can affect the list by voting! Stay tuned for the June list, which will be a very special anniversary one.

It's an interesting little world, the world of burger makers. Some try hard to achieve greatness; others don't try at all. And then there's EPIC, the Northern Quest sports restaurant (take note: not a bar). They do try. They try hard. Very hard. Too hard.

EPIC's big claim to fame in the burger world is their Surf & Turf Burger. Subjectively, I find this to be a less than stellar name, mostly because it reminds me of the «surf and turd» scene in Meet the Parents, but that is probably just me…

Anyway, the burger!

There is a lot going on here, and I can't help but think the surf part is sorta pointless. The shrimp aren't on the burger, they're skewered through it. What the point of them is, I don't know. Are we supposed to eat them alongside the burger? Or are we supposed to put them on it?

I tried it both ways, and can't say I would recommend either. A shrimp is pretty hopeless to work with if it's not fresh, and these were anything but. That flavorless stringy feeling? It was here, every bit as bad as one would fear.

Worse still was the patty's doneness. I can gladly live with being served a medium burger, even when ordered medium-rare. Really, how picky can one be? I can not gladly live with it being well-done, however, and that was how EPIC served it.

Too bad, as there were hints in there of something quite tasty.

The ciabatta bun fared better -- more bread-like than a typical bun -- and baby greens are in general a lot easier to eat than one big leaf of lettuce. Good points for both of those.

Yet, just when things were improving, the white truffle aioli came trampling in, almost overpowering the patty itself. There might have been more of a balance there, had the burger come properly to order, but…

Maybe it's just me, but I expect more than this from a $15 burger. Yes. That's fifteen dollars, which makes it the most expensive burger in this great chase so far.

I would have been a lot more forgiving had it clocked in closer to $10.

Flaws aside, this was overall a smidgen better than Post St's offering. EPIC was not a horrible experience, just an expensive average one.

1. Manito Tap House
2. Wisconsinburger
3. Saranac
4. Waddell’s
5. Churchill’s
6. Northern Quest EPIC
7. Post St Ale House

Photo courtesy of the Great Burger Chase’s official photography studio, Erick Doxey Photography.

So, what do we got here…

First, NUDO is opening tomorrow. This is, of course, the ramen place opening next door to Fire, downtown. I's being headed up by HDG Design Group.

Among the menu items is a ramen burger, so hey! We're all about something a little different.

The Avenue has a liquor license pending for its 13 W Main Ave location. Fun fact: that address doesn't really exist yet, at least not according to Google or Bing, but it should be right by the Saranac/Main Market/etc. (And apparently not in the Saranac Commons, which is on 19 W Main.)

The owners of Pacific Avenue Pizza are listed as applicants.

Finally, the Lantern will have a firkin (a small cask) of River City's Heritage English Pale Ale tapped at 6:30pm. A good reminder that it's American Craft Beer Week, so go drink!

Did you know that next week is American Craft Beer Week? Neither did we, and it's hard to keep track of all of these special days/weeks/whatever when we celebrate various forms of beer.

Anyway! Things are happening in celebration of it:

First, No-Li is truly hitting it hard, putting up a pairing menu, which you can read right at CraftBeer.com. Some highlights include Silent Treatment mac & cheese, and a Jet Star shrimp cocktail. (We don't see many shrimp cocktails anymore, do we? It's time for it to make a comeback!)

Wednesday they have homebrew night at 5pm, and… Well, just read their site for the whole week's schedule. It's pretty big.

12 String will start revealing their special Craft Beer Week offerings today. Their Facebook page will have it all.

Saranac will feature ten breweries from the Inland Northwest Ale Trail on Tuesday.

Inlander brings word that Manito will be debuting the launch of Ramblin' Road's Belgian quad on May 15th, 6pm. Perry St's double IPA will be on tap on the 14th, same time.

And that's all we got. Send us a tweet if you know of anything else!

Oh, and the Perry Street Thursday Market starts up today. Go check them out.