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via Spokesman Review By Julien A. Luebbers Spokane’s food scene is on the come up, and Crave! NW is where it shows. The foodie-oriented event, which takes place Thursday through Saturday in Spokane Valley, is not only an opportunity for local chefs to display their work in a positive, experimental and festive environment, it’s also a space for them to meet and cook alongside widely recognized chefs from around the country and even beyond. Crave! NW was co-founded by local chef Adam Hegsted over a decade ago. He and other local chefs sought to “progress the food movement in Spokane,” Hegsted said. “I thought that we needed some sort of catalyst to … keep the community engaged, keep the chefs collaborating and talking with each other, and to show off people that are doing some cool stuff.” Crave! serves that role, an opportunity for local chefs, breweries, winemakers and more to connect with one another over a public-facing culinary celebration. It’s also a great opportunity to discover more local chefs and eateries to support and enjoy. “I look forward to it every year,” said Travis Dickinson, chef and co-owner of Cochinito. “It’s a good chance for local chefs to put their best foot forward, show their creativity.” Dickinson will be preparing a poached Spanish octopus tostado with aji amarillo, citrus marinade and “some other fun stuff.” This year’s Crave! NW lineup includes more than 45 chefs, 20 local producers, 12 breweries and cider houses, 12 wineries, music and entertainment. Entry is all-inclusive and restricted to those 21 and older. The chefs include a number of out-of-towners, including a group of star, or celebrity chefs. This year’s roster includes chefs Alvin Cailan, Brian Duffy, Mark Singson and Mattias Merges, who will be cooking, judging and socializing throughout the weekend. Duffy will be making his fifth appearance at the event. “I really had know idea what to expect,” Duffy said, recalling his first appearance at the event. “As soon as I landed, I just completely fell in love with the area.” Between the local scenery and the culinary community that greeted him, Crave! has become an annual event for Duffy. “It’s such a great group of people to be able to get out there, hang out, have fun and eat some great food,” Duffy said. “I’m super honored to be able to even be invited out to these events.” Chef Duffy will be cooking mulitas with mojo roasted pork, a sort of street quesadilla dipped in broth, grilled and then filled with meat and cheese. “Sometimes when you do these sorts of events, you basically come in and they use you, in a way, for your food,” Hegsted said. “We do things a little bit differently, we pay the chefs to be there.” “It’s not competitive,” he said, “it’s more bringing each other up.” The event’s primary goal is to “create this community through food.” Crave! NW is operated by the JAKT foundation, a local nonprofit organization supporting the culinary community. “Our idea,” said Hegsted, “is when this (event) gets to profitability, to give that back to the hospitality community.” While the chefs take center stage, Crave! NW is of course a public, ticketed event. Hegsted expects about 2,000 attendees throughout the weekend, about 650 per day. It’s a return to full attendance following last year’s smaller, one-day event and the 2020 cancellation due to the pandemic. “It’s great to see the community come out and support us,” Hegsted said. In addition to leading the event’s organization, Hegsted is cooking a salmon chorizo, with patas bravas, rouille, sherry vinegar reduction, micro cilantro and smoked paprika. Each of the event’s nights has a theme for that evening’s chefs to contribute to, so no night will be quite like the others. Thursday night, the beginning of the celebration, is the Burger Smack Down. Local and celebrity chefs will enter into a judged contest testing their best burgers. Attendees will also have a say, resulting a People’s Choice award when the night is over. The evening will be accompanied by Relentless Wrestlers, an entertainment wrestling group, and live music from Kosta la Vista and Okay Honey at the after-party. Friday night will bring a culinary pivot, away from American staples and toward global cuisines. A team of chefs will take on the theme of “Foods from Around the World” for the enjoyment of attendees, in a carnival-inspired environment with more live entertainment, Beer, wine, desserts and more will be available each night. Erin Parkes is performing at the after-party. Saturday brings a preparation theme: Fire and Smoke. Chefs will be given the opportunity to show off their aptitude for flames and smoky flavors; food will be cooked over live fire, charcoal or smoke. Performances from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe will accompany. A performance by Logee will bring the weekend to a close.

https://www.inlander.com/spokane/music-to-celebrate/Content?oid=23938415 The Spokane Symphony wants to party. And you’re invited to check out what they do in a series of free concerts. First, celebrate those dear dads right here in the hometown of Father’s Day with a free family concert conducted by Alexandra Arrieche at the Fox Theater. Arrive early to participate in preconcert activities including an Instrument Petting Zoo. Then join the Symphony on July 4 to celebrate America’s birthday. Patriotic tunes and some light classics conducted by James Lowe are on the playlist, with the music accompanied by a dazzling light show at the Pavilion at Riverfront. The evening will of course be capped off with the city’s fireworks display. Father’s Day Concert, Sun, June 19. Doors open at 1:30 pm; concert at 3. Free, but seating is limited so reserve tickets in advance, Fox Theater 1001 W. Sprague Ave. • July Fourth Concert, Mon, July 4 at 9 pm. Free, 574 N, Howard St., spokanesymphony.org (509-624-1200) Manito Park Art Festival The Manito Park Art Festival returns for its second year this June after a successful inaugural festival in 2021. The festival provides opportunity for local artists to sell their work and gives the community a chance to view and buy art, all while spending a day enjoying the beauty of Manito Park. Along with the more than 35 artists in attendance, the event also features numerous local food and beverage vendors, live music, and art activities for children. Sat, June 11 from 10 am-8 pm. Free. Manito Park, 1800 S. Grand Blvd. thefriendsofmanito.org (509-456-8038) “Weird Al” Yankovic: The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour After almost four years since first dipping his toes into the unfamiliar territory of concerts, Weird Al pushes his luck once more in his return to the stage. Pulling from his extensive catalog of 14 studio albums, Weird Al performs a different, hilarious set list every night of his tour. No costumes, no props, no video screens. Just Weird Al, his band and a night of music filled with comedy and laughs. Fri, June 24 at 8 pm. $40-$322. All ages. NOTE: Proof of COVID-19 vaccine or negative COVID-19 test taken 72 hours prior required; face masks also required. Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org (509-624-1200) Downtown Coeur d’Alene Brewfest Quench your thirst this summer with fine craft brews at Downtown Coeur d’Alene’s Brewfest. Enjoy tasting various brews, ciders and libations from breweries near and far at the 5th annual iteration of the festival. Along with the wide variety of over 30 beers and ciders, the festival also features a selection of food from local vendors, yard games and live music for attendees to enjoy all day long. Sat, July 9 from 1-7 pm. $25. McEuen Park, 420 E. Front Ave., Coeur d’Alene, ID. cdadowntown.com/brewfest (208-667-5986) Crave! Northwest This three-day food festival is one of the largest culinary events in the Spokane area and is dedicated to uplifting the culinary scene in the Northwest by highlighting local chefs and their dishes. From baked goods to vegetarian dishes, no one leaves the event hungry. Along with the wide array of food available, each night features a selection of beer, wine, spirits and cider from regional tastemakers. July 14-16, Thu-Sat . $49-$179. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place Dr., cravenw.com (509-621-0125) Solstice Suds and Sounds Hang out on the West End Plaza at Brick West Brewing Co. with friends and a beer while an ensemble of Spokane Symphony musicians plays on the longest day of the year. If all that music and daylight makes you hungry, grab a bite from Brick West’s kitchen. Tue, June 21 at 7:30 pm. Brick West Brewing Co., 1318 W. First Ave., spokanesymphony.org (509-624-1200) By Madison PearsonThe Inlander

Out There Magazine, page 22

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via Spokane Journal By Adam Hegsted Imagine getting to a restaurant without knowing the time of year, the location, or really anything about that restaurant. Just show up, be present and observe as food and drink are served. Now imagine you can tell by the items that you are served what time of year it is and approximately where the restaurant is located. Let’s say, it’s smoked fresh Idaho trout with sauteed morel mushrooms, fresh peas, local potatoes, radishes, and sweet onions. Perhaps the drink is a local beer, cider, or wine, like a cider made from Washington apples or with Idaho huckleberries. With an incredibly discernable palate, you could tell where the wine, beer, or cider was from, and from the food description, you might know you’re somewhere in the Northwest. If you’re knowledgeable about the seasonality of foods, you might know these items are from late spring. Now that we can virtually have any food, any time of year depending on how much you’re willing to pay, it is hard for some people to recognize the seasonality of foods. Most people have longtime associations with stewed or braised items, root vegetables, and apples when it comes to winter. Or tomatoes, melons, basil, and corn in the summer.  But it is not common knowledge to approximate weeks of the season to know when these products are available locally. That is something that takes a conscious effort to track. Those with past farming and gardening experience, or someone who visits farmers markets or co-ops, may have a better sense of seasonality. Understanding seasonality and the food cycle is one thing that chefs or restaurants can do to stand out from the crowd. When you visit a restaurant during a certain time of year, and the chef buys locally, the menu will reflect the time and place of that restaurant. While it’s nearly impossible to shop only locally and have things come only from our distinct region, the menu can still reflect ingredients that are available. Maybe you’re an Italian restaurant that uses olive oil, or you need tomatoes year-round. There is a way to incorporate local items into that cuisine to keep it true to your idea and vision. You could use local lettuces, veggies that are in season, wild mushrooms, and fish. This is not a new idea. In most traditional ethnic dishes, those dishes are either presented with what is locally available or what has been preserved. That is where the history of that cuisine comes into play and how it became a traditional dish. We have that here in the U.S. as well with southern cuisine, native cuisines, Tex-Mex, and others. Although our cuisines are muddled from different ethnicities, they are built from an abundance of what can be grown locally and ideas that were fostered over time. As time has gone on, this abundance has grown in variety. You can get bananas anywhere, anytime of year. You can get oranges, or apples, or avocados anytime, almost anywhere in the U.S. The abundance of food has grown, and some of the regionality has been lost because of this. I understand that restaurants need to listen to their guests, and sometimes, the guests request items that are not available locally or are not in season. This is a business of serving, and the industry has been built around being in service to our guests. While all restaurants over time develop those special items that run out of the normal seasonality of the item, there is no reason that much of your menu couldn’t change seasonally. The idea must be introduced to your guests though, and they must get used to those changes. This builds loyalty and excitement from the guests. When winter rolls around, it’s time for braised dishes and apple tarts. Guests will get excited because those favorite items were gone for a few months. When it’s time for strawberries or tomatoes, guests will expect to see those. When you stick to this seasonal rotation, it also says something about what you serve. It says that I am serving the best products of that season and am serving you best by not serving you those items out of season because they just are not as good. Serving seasonal foods helps restaurants stand out from the others. One of the things that people like about Red Robin or Applebee’s is that no matter the time of year, the location of the restaurant, the food will be the same. It is probably not the best meal you will be hoping for, but it won’t be the worst either. It will be exactly what you expect.  When you go to Denny’s, you are not expecting the best service, the best coffee, or even the best pancakes. You have a set expectation of what you will get and 99% of your expectation is what is served. Now when you visit a new town and are looking for a reflection of that community and a regional experience, you don’t go to a chain restaurant. You are looking for a place that serves a little higher quality of foods and that has something that stands out. Maybe it’s the special huckleberry jam they offer with their toast or their mom’s fried chicken recipe. You are looking for something that unlocks the secret code to that area. The secret restaurant with the seasonal food becomes novel. That is how we build regional identity and a better food system. It takes chefs and restaurants taking that risk and changing their menus to reflect what is available locally and in season. It doesn’t have to be huge changes, just things that are more subtle. Maybe it’s your chef’s salad that has items change with the season. Maybe it’s the side items you offer to your guests. It’s a combination of everyone’s efforts to showcase and show off what our region is all about. We live in a huge hotbed of great foods, and it’s time

via Spokesman Review By Don Chareunsydonc@spokesman.com(509) 459-5446 In honor of the soon-to-open Kennewick-based Boiada Brazilian Grill debuting downtown in the former Maracas Mexican Restaurant – Boiada is a churrascaria, an all-you-can-eat selection of meats, and I am so excited – today’s Running Tab offers a smorgasbord, or AYCE buffet, of culinary news and some recent stops in town: 2022 Crave My first experience with Crave Northwest in 2019 set the bar really high because The Spokesman-Review was a sponsor, and we celebrated the success of female chefs with programming that allowed me to interview trailblazers including Anito Lo and Mareya Ibrahim. The three days of 2019 Crave are one of my all-time favorite culinary experiences in Spokane. Then COVID-19 struck, and Crave was canceled in 2020. It returned last September and sold out, but it was only one event in one evening. I’m happy to report that Crave is returning to three nights in 2022, and tickets for the food-and-wine dine-arounds and more July 14-16 at CenterPlace Regional Event Center in Spokane Valley are on sale now at cravenw.com. The three theme nights for 2022 Crave are, on July 14, Burger Smackdown, with local and celebrity chefs showing off their burger-making skills in a judged contest; on July 15, Foods From Around the World, culinary options with a global flair; and on July 16, Fire & Smoke – if it can be smoked or cooked over a fire, it will be served, Crave says. I took part in a Zoom meeting about Crave a few weeks ago, and the plans and lineup of chefs are stellar. I’m very excited about 2022 Crave, and you should be, too. Last summer’s Crave was solid, in light of COVID-19, and July’s event will be next level – tripled! Bowl of Sol On Sunday, March 13, from noon to 4 p.m., Travis Dickinson’s Cochinito Taqueria is partnering again with Fred Schumaker of Schumaker’s Pottery and the Spokane Potters Guild in the fundraiser Bowl of Sol to benefit Second Harvest food bank. Schumaker has crafted 100 custom and unique stoneware soup bowls for Cochinito’s excellent posole. For $25, choose one bowl to take home along with the pork posole rojo or vegetarian posole verde with all the toppings. All sales from the bowls and Mexican soup go directly to Second Harvest. Cochinito’s bar will be open for to-go cocktails, beer and wine, as well as extra posole for additional orders. Preorders to help pace out the day and maintain social distancing while guests pick up their food are available now by calling Cochinito at (509) 474-9618. More than $4,000 was raised in last year’s Bowl of Sol, which sold out, with Schumaker making additional bowls for the fundraiser. I had dinner with Dickinson and his wife, Karina, at David Adlard’s Candle in the Woods on Saturday night and was blown away by his knowledge of food and wine, but I shouldn’t have been surprised since he was the former executive chef at Clover before opening Cochinito. Zona Blanca I Was Baked When I Made This (mezcal, creme de cacao, mole bitters, orange and cherries) and Mayan Pineapple Kush (Zaya rum, house-made tepache, egg white and lemon) were the two featured cocktails by Josh Neumeier. Oyster Remix on the Half Shell (fennel-apple mignonette, sea grass, herb oil and pickled mustard seed) and Roasted Oysters (smoked andouille and shrimp, corn bread, sage oil, pickled red onion and Fresno aioli) by guest chef C.J. Callahan of Hogwash Whiskey Den were the two featured oysters. https://ddfa4787d9231a089f5af00d1eb0c2eb.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html Also on the menu for my dinner, two new favorites: carne en su jugo (skirt steak, frijoles pintos, onions, cilantro, limes, radishes and tortillas) and a Cazuela Voladora cocktail (grapefruit, orange, lime, tequila, Squirt and a Fannie’s Ice Pops). This was my fourth weekly Wednesday Chefs Shuck With Us Stand Up to Cancer fundraiser at Chad White’s Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar on Feb. 16. I’m bummed that I missed Chefs Shuck With Us with Dickinson and Scoop Spokane and Hidden Bagel’s Jennifer Davis in two separate Wednesdays, but there are fundraisers set through March. Post-Zona Blanca, it was Aaron Hein and Alyssa Agee’s new Emma Rue’s for cocktails and bites. Taste Spokane By all accounts, the Wishing Star Foundation’s cocktail-attire fundraiser “Taste Spokane: Evening Under the Stars” at Northern Quest Resort and Casino on Feb. 12 was a rousing success. It was 3½ hours of wonderful small bites and libations (so much cider) for a worthy cause, and guests and food and beverage vendors alike were in good spirits. Taste Spokane was also an opportunity to catch up with Julie Holland of Northern Quest, Davis, Gary Silver and Scott Siff of Tavolata and Ethan Stowell Restaurants, Korri McElfresh and Jeana Pecha of Vieux Carre NOLA Kitchen (the audience winner for favorite restaurant), Trent Maier of Trailbreaker Cider and Sandpoint’s Laughing Dog Brewing. O’Doherty’s Irish Grille Since moving back to Spokane in April 2019, I’ve taken it upon myself to revisit restaurants that I frequented during my college days at Gonzaga decades ago. China Dragon across from NorthTown mall and Kim’s Korean Restaurant on Division near Gonzaga have already been checked off the list, as have Luna, many times, and the Onion. On Feb. 2, it was dinner at O’Doherty’s Irish Grille, where I ordered a Reuben, fries and a cider. Yum! I posted a photo, courtesy of classmate Erin (Ryan) Enger, from 1995, quite possibly the last time I was at O’Doherty’s, on my Facebook and Instagram accounts. It was great to see chef Jessica Ponti Pruett, and I won’t wait another 27 years to return. Next up: the Viking. Sushi.com And in the category of Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover, dinner on Uncle Don and Niece Anya, 14, Night on Feb. 11 before opening night of “Jersey Boys” at First Interstate Center for the Arts was Sushi.com. Upon Anya and I leaving dinner, a man in a group of four in the parking lot said, disparagingly, to his friends, “Oh, let’s eat at Sushi.com. Ha!” Such snobbery. My

After a year of pandemic restrictions on big events, dining out and just hanging out with friends, we now declare 2021 as “foodie summer.” All our favorite regional food festivals are back to sate our pandemic-repressed appetites for everything from fair-style concessions food to world-class barbecue and much, much more. A celebration of the Inland Empire’s chefs and tastemakers, Crave! is a three-day culinary event located at the Spokane Valley CenterPlace Regional Event Center, showcasing the creative talents of Northwest chefs utilizing fresh seafood, ranch-raised meats, and farm-to-table produce. Liquid refreshments and innovative social experiences round out the culinary festival, featuring a Grand Tasting, Seafood Bash, Fire and Smoke, and Foods from Around the World. Crave! is partnering with 2nd Harvest Foods and Wishing Star as beneficiaries of the event. For tickets and information, visit cravenw.com. By Chey ScottThe Inlander