(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

McDonald's Egg McMuffin is, in all its simplicity, pretty genius. I mean you get some egg and bacon, you get some cheese, all sandwiched in an English muffin. It doesn't taste good, of course, but the basic concept is sound.

Lately we have undertaken a search for the best Egg McMuffin replacement, which is harder than one might think. The simplicity of the sandwich makes it difficult to create a truly special replacement -- making something more basic at home with quality ingredients is easier -- but certain creative takes have impressed. Others have disappointed.

To get to the point, how did 9th Street Bistro's "fried egg sandwich" fare? Not well, but not downright horribly either. Kind of below average, I suppose.

The actual idea behind it is sound: Adding basil pesto and gouda to the palette should spice things up a bit, but the execution sort of fell flat.

One of the main issues was the bread itself. The sourdough was just a bit dull felt a little stale during our visit. Toasted, as it was, didn't really mask the latter either.

The assembly of the sandwich didn't help. The problem -- and this was probably related to the quality of the bread -- was putting all the stash on the bottom slice. Biting into the sandwich, and we couldn't really pick up on the pesto and cheese, both overpowered by the bread. We did, in fact, have to make it an open faced sandwich to really start finding the flavors.

And at that point things improved. The pesto mayo wasn't bad at all and went well with the eggs. The bread even received somewhat of a resurrection, what with the moisture pulling into it and all.

The fact we had to disassemble the sandwich kind of makes the sandwich a failure though. There wasn't enough here to make it particularly memorable at any rate, and, again, having to remove a slice of bread to make the sandwich acceptable? Yeah, no.

A bad start to our Great Egg McMuffin Chase, then, but that's all it is too. A start. More to come, but for now we'd pass on 9th Street Bistro's "fried egg sandwich".

The most important day since... Well, pretty much the most important day ever is upon us. A day so important the federal government has declared the following day a national holiday. May 26th is when Arrested Development returns to Netflix, and what better way to watch it than partaking in a drinking game at the same time?

Take a drink when...

... someone utters a catchphrase. ("Come on!", "I've made a huge mistake", etc.) Take an additional drink if it's a variation. ("I've made a huge tiny mistake", etc.)

... Tobias makes an unintentional double entendre.

... there is a reference to Peanuts.

... Lucille drinks.

... anyone winks.

... "The Final Countdown" plays. Take a second drink if it's the church organ version.

... someone blows the rape horn.

... there is a reference to the Cornballer.

... Lucille says something about Lindsay's weight or nose.

... someone dances the chicken dance.

... a measurement of time is off the standard 5- and 10-minute increments. (Hey, it happens surprisingly often.)

... anyone acts selflessly.

Make this weekend an Arrested Development weekend!

We were less than impressed with Stone's brewpub, but that's not to say Stone's actual products aren't great. I am personally a fan of their odd-year imperial Russian stouts (IRS for short), which basically are their regular releases with an added flavor. This year Stone has gone with coffee beans, and the result is something special.

And when I say special, I really do mean special. Short bus kind of special even.

It pours jet black with one of the darker heads I have ever seen. Really, the tan is so dark it approaches black. 

Give it a good whiff, and you'll pick up strong scents, stronger than most IRSs. The espresso hits you right on the nose, accompanied by a more standard molasses you often get from a regular IRS. Put your nose way into the beer, and you'll find chocolate and just a hint of vanilla.

There are no surprises in the flavor; the nose has given it all away. Like the Speedway Stout, the coffee comes off as something you'd get from a good espresso drink; not a burned note to be found. The chocolate might jump just slightly ahead of the expected sweetness, and the flavors of vanilla makes itself better known as the beer warms up. (I'd recommend drinking this at a temperature just a bit warmer than the standard IRS-suggested 55°.)

Flavor-wise there is a lot of depth here, with a good, full body to boot. It's not velvet-y, but certainly smooth.

There might be some who won't love the Espresso Imperial Russian Stout. Terrorists, mostly, but also those who are more into more pure IRSs. Either way, give this beer a shot. It is special, and ranks highly on my list of what I've tried in '13.

You've seen it all before, be it on Urbanspoon, Yelp, or those dumb VS things on... some sort of site. They all list them, charts of the best restaurants in the area, and each and every list is, of course, horribly flawed. You might get a general idea what site-visitors frequent and like, but finding which place in town is best? Nah.

Our list, based on your votes, is no different (particularly as we don't use categories), but sometimes it can be fun-ish to see what people think.

So here we go, your top 20, based on some somewhat decent calculations...

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

And let me ephasize again how flawed lists like these are when it comes to finding which places are the best. Our list merely gives you a general overview over what our visitors think, based on a few thousand votes.

Oh, and should you want to affect the list, you can always go vote yourself. Just click the your opinion in the right column, and your vote will be recorded.