Spokanes Vino! A Wine Shop
Does your wine shop provide a unique wine of the month club, special membership discount, quality guarantee, unique stock, and weekly tasting and educational events? No? You must be shopping somewhere other than Spokane’s Vino! A Wine Shop. Running away from the bureaucratic world in the 80’s John Allen ventured into the wine business joining Lindaman’s Café as a wine steward and barista in 1988. The journey to Vino travelled through a failed wine shop (Grape & Grain / Award Winning Wine) and the Four Seasons Café prior to opening in 1995 at their current location 222 S. Washington. For […]
Spokanes Lindamans Restaurant
Before there was a Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, or Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner, there was Lindaman’s Café in Spokane. For 26 years Lindaman’s has been providing homemade goodness for dine in or to go from their 12th and Grand location in the St. Johns district of the lower South Hill. The magic of Lindaman’s is the community. The food is home cooked. The desserts are divine. The bottom line is that the people care about you and your experience. When Lindaman’s began, in 1984, there were only two espresso machines in Spokane. My, how times have changed. Merrilee Lindaman […]
Episode #23 Phoenix Wine Tweetup
This weekend I left the bleak grey confines of Spokane, WA for the land of eternal sun, Phoenix. While my itinerary consisted mostly of pounding my 37 year old body into the pavement for the PF Changs Rock-n-Roll Marathon, I also enjoyed visiting with my sister, her husband and my mom and dad. In addition to the body torture, new twitter friend, Tim Hilcove @wklywinejournal organized a wine / adult beverage tweetup. The first stop was FnB Restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale. This fantastic part of town is thriving with activity; restaurants, bars, wine bars, art galleries, and live music. […]
Episode #19 Nikos Wine Bar Spokane
When wine in Spokane meant a handful of wineries and a small selection at the local grocery store, Niko’s owner Laith Elaimy anticipated a trend and took a chance by hiring Pauline Riley, his wine representative from a local distributor, to run his wine menu. The seemingly odd pairing of Niko’s Greek Restaurant and its mediterranean menu and the Niko’s Wine Bar has resulted in one of Spokane’s finest places to enjoy not only a great dinner but a huge variety of wine. “Wine is food for the soul,” says Pauline, “we want to provide a place to bring people to good conversation and […]
Episode #8 Portland's Wine Down
My apologies on the front end for the video quality. The place was dark and I don’t use a light when I film. :0) When my sister and brother in-law invited us to a Portland, OR wine bar during our Thanksgiving visit, I jumped at the opportunity! Three days of the in-law scenery warranted a trip to drink up with the cool kids! Wine Down, in NE Portland’s revitalized 28th Ave district (map here) is a quaint place where wine snobs can enjoy their high-end wine and blue-collar wine drinkers can experience new tastes side by side. This unpretentious and comfortable […]