(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

Last night the Spokane Food Blog Editorial Board undertook a fact-finding mission in the jungles of Airway Heights. Our journey took us to the Village Tavern where we sampled two of the local brewery’s finest: Golden Hills’ Lizzy’s Lager and Ben’s Brown. More about those later in the week.

As for now…

Aaaaaand she’s out!

Rachel: Sorry, Rachel, but it was the rice that got you. That’s a no-no, unless it’s local. However! It only means that you—and anyone else that breaks the holy rules—are out from winning the lovely DOMA-donated prize. As the point of the contest really is to promote local eats, we fully encourage you to play the game to the finish, and thus get the coveted Honorable Mention.

As for the rest…

Andrew is still in it, and focuses his post on my past as a professional model.

Bart and Paul had a man-date at the Main Market Co-op, but, alas, Paul was stood up. Apparently Bart couldn’t hold his wine or something and fell asleep.

Becky attempted to burn down the house to bring attention to the locavore cause. Bless.

Gaeyia continues to write the shortest posts ever. But I assume she’s still in it.

Geneva takes local ingredients and makes them international with boulani. (It’s very good and tasty.)

Mark is kind of phoning it in now that he’s the Only Mark.

Monique, meanwhile, is not phoning it in and is making the rest of us look lazy.

... and me? I’m cruising through. Seriously.

I’m of the opinion that food and beer pairing is extremely subjective, despite there being many rules of thumb. And granted, these rules of thumb might be good starting points (BeerAdvocate, not surprisingly, has a great article), but experimenting is definitely the way to go.

With that said, and in spirit of our little contest, here are some simple local pairings I enjoy. And so should you!

Cured meats from Sante and Laughing Dog’s Dogfather Stout: The big flavors of Sante’s meats goes nicely with the creamy bold flavors and sweet chocolaty goodness of the Dogfather.

Steak from Rocky Ridge and Northern Lights Amber: A steak, like say a beef tenderloin, often goes well with a good porter, but I personally prefer something just a bit lighter. Northern Lights Amber has enough flavor to pair with beef without overwhelming it.

AC LaRocca Garlic Chicken Parmesan Pizza and Golden Hills’ Clem’s Gold: Granted, you might have to get a growler of Golden Hills, as I’ve yet to see it on bottle, but Clem’s Gold is a nice session lager to swallow down a thin crust pizza with.

Mizuna’s flourless chocolate cake and Coeur d’Alene Brewing Co.’s Vanilla Bourbon Stout: Get the cake to go, and indulge in what will definitely put you into an oh so nice and sweet coma. This is definitely what dessert should be.

I’m out there and I’m loving it. However, this isn’t the case for everybody as…

One person is definitely out!

Crystal conceded and bowed out of the contest. But was she the only one? By the looks of it…

Another person is highly likely out!

Apparently Mark G. didn’t even start and thus relegated his status to the “Other Mark.” Meaning…

Ten players are still in it!

And they are…

Andrew! He points out that he doesn’t “advocate an all-local diet at the expense of variety and staying within a budget.” Nor do we. An all locavore diet would, somewhat ironically, hurt many local businesses like International Food Store. And that’s not good. Very civic minded here, Andrew. Our own little miniature Buddha.

Bart and Paul! They’re connected at the hip—if one goes down the other will follow, as evident by the wing challenge. I mean, really? Bart, the man who previously went out on a Miller Light, can’t handle the Dogzilla IPA. And he will pull Paul down with him, in a binge of bad beer.

Becky! Well, not much in terms of blog updates, but Twitter would reveal she’s still in it.

Gaeyia! And we thought she had forgotten about the contest too.

Geneva! Reminds us all of the greatness known as Petite Chat. And vodka. Vodka is pretty great too. With Dry Fly and 44 Degrees one can always stumble through the week in a happy daze.

Mark S! Or, as we like to call him, The Real Mark. There can only be one Mark. Anything else is too confusing.

Monique! Nobody can accuse her of playing this game half-heartedly.

Rachel! She writes about why Coffee Social and DOMA is awesome. Which is true. Ink, however, as her post points out, isn’t.

Remi! That’s me. I’m writing this. And I’m being pretty cocky, so obviously I’m in.

As I sit here sipping a DOMA Americano in an extremely diabolic manner, plotting how I will sabotage the other players of this little competition. And apparently it’s going to be simple enough, as Gaeyia still hasn’t let us know where she’ll be posting her progress. In other words, if we haven’t heard anything by tomorrow she is out!

Speaking of tomorrow… We’ll be setting up a page where you can follow the progress of the competitors. Or you can just read their blogs individually:

• Andrew: Andrew Zahler Eats. The fallen champion—our Mike Tyson—has something to prove this time around. Will this be his Hangover?


• Bart and Paul: Down to Earth. Bart in particular has been the puppet master behind this leg of 7vs7, so he really has something to prove.


• Becky: The Me in Awesome.


• Crystal: spovegan.


• Gaeyia: ?!


• Geneva: Finally a Blog and SFB.


• Mark G: Librarian Lateralus. The 7vs7 #2 champion is making a comeback.


• Mark S: Sounds like Almonds. Hungry for revenge after 7vs7 #2. There can be only one Mark.


• Monique: Home Economics 2.0.


• Rachel: One Facet of the Human Experience


• Remi: Remi Andre and SFB.

And that’s it. We’re hoping to be a bit more creative this time around about what we blog about, meaning you’ll hopefully see some cool local suggestions as opposed to a list of things we eat every day.

Because really, when I’m done with the competitors, they will be eating dirt.