Until recently, the only thing I knew about Huckleberries was that there was one with a last name of Finn, that he had a friend named Tom Sawyer, and they lived famously along the Mississippi River in Mark Twain's novels. However, on a recent trek through the mountains north of Spokane I had the pleasure of being introduced to a new kind of huckleberry.... the edible kind.
Huckleberries grow rather plentifully among the mountains north of Spokane and east of Colville. During the course of my 5 day trek along rugged ridges, valleys, and peaks, I was lucky enough to supplement my meager allotment of food with wild huckleberries. They taste a lot like blueberries, only sweeter perhaps (and much better than the Oregon grape, which looks like a blueberry but tastes like crap).
Much as wild huckleberries helped to sate my wild hunger in the woods, the city of Spokane has refreshingly provided a bounty of good eating after a period of extended malnourishment in Northwest Florida. For being a city of only 200,000 people, Spokane's residents are eating well above their weight (not saying they're fat; they just eat well). Food options in Northwest Florida are essentially this: McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, Church's Chicken, Applebee's, Waffle House, etc. Want locally owned? Coram's is a quaint breakfast diner, but really only a small step above the Waffle House. There's an assortment of "#1 Chinese Food" kind of places, as well as the stereotypical Americanized Mexican restaurants where the burritos taste like they just came out of the freezer. Want a nice place for a special dinner date? You've got "Captain's Spend Your Whole Paycheck on Standard Bland Seafood"-type places, each more boring than the last. If there's one thing I miss about my Southern California/West Coast upbringing, it's the bedrock principal that people should be able to eat well at all price ranges. For being such a small city, Spokane adheres to this principle better than most places I've seen. It's abundance of independent eateries and bars give it a character that celebrates food and nourishment, rather than treating it like an necessary inconvenience.
I suppose food isn't the only thing happening here. Most modern American cities will try to sell visitors on their tourist attractions, overplaying the importance and appeal of what are really just mindless wastes of time and money. Spokane is no exception. The downtown has a classy modern mall. There are several historic buildings in the area. At one point along the river, there's a "bowl and pitcher" rock formation. The Riverfront Park hosted the 1974 World's Fair and features a huge Red Wagon. Travel brochures try to sell visitors on the abundance of golf courses and local outdoor opportunities. All very cool, but not very compelling.
None of these "attractions" really stand out in a way that defines Spokane or provides its appeal. The essence of Spokane is found in its hole in the wall dive bars serving unheard of microbrews on tap. It's found in its natural foods markets that put Whole Foods to shame (and they sell Huckleberries!). It's found at the mini-donut tent in the park where a guy sells freshly made mini-donuts to drunkards and families alike. Spokane is the urban center of the agricultural "inland Northwest," and it shows. It is a mostly "red state" kind of area, but still places the kind of emphasis on "independently owned" and "locally grown" that we only expect from blue states. Other cities (*coughPanamaCity*cough) should look to Spokane as a model of good, cheap, local, and independent nourishment. As I discovered while picking huckleberries to quell my rumbling hunger, what we eat is one of the biggest factors in how we live, work, sleep, play, interact, and function. If everyone in a city eats nothing but Burger King and KFC, they probably shouldn't be surprised when the whole town is fat and miserable. Not so in Spokane... the city feeds you well and charms you with it's turn of the century industrial style (twentieth century, that is).
Some of the places to eat and drink at:
O'Doherty's: A cool Irish pub near Riverfront park. It has the typical Irish atmosphere of dollar bills on the walls and ceilings and a decent selection of beers. Their sandwiches are great!
Mini-Donuts: It's next to the fountain in Riverfront park. A guy basically makes mini-donuts on a mini assembly line right in his tent. Then you get the option of, I think, cinnamon or sugar. You can buy them in a variety of quantities for a few bucks.
Dick's Burgers: Okay, so Dick's isn't exactly good nourishment. But if you're hung over or just plain broke, they deliver really plain hamburgers and fries, along with pizza and some other stuff, for REALLY REALLY CHEAP. It sure beats the McDonald's value menu.
Frank's Diner: A cool place housed in an old railway car downtown. I got huckleberries on my award-winning French Toast breakfast.
The Viking Tavern: A great dive bar just north of downtown. I had Huckleberry Cream Ale and Irish Death, just two of their many beers on tap (and they have like a hundred bottled beers to choose from). They also had a great steak dinner special for only $6.95.
The Rocket Bakery: An independent bakery downtown, serving typical hippie cafe type stuff. Very good, reasonably priced, and great atmosphere. Sure beats Starbucks.
Pig Out in the Park Festival: As if to prove my point, during my last few days in town there's a festival devoted to stuffing people's faces with everything from Texas BBQ to Indian to Soba noodles.
