Deli, Coffee Shop Breathe New Life Into Ex-Coeur D’Alene Pharmacy

‘What this town needs is a good deli.”

I’ve heard people whine this statement so many times it makes me cringe. Maybe if we had a few million people, and thank God we don’t, we’d have a deli with such ethnic savorings as matso ball soup.

But, again, we don’t. So we must enjoy and take advantage of the delies we do have. They offer all they can, considering the size of their customer base, without risking the leftovers to spoil.

So, folks, grab a chair or stool and try out a few of the local delies. Most have fine sandwiches, soups of the day and daily specials.

Here’s a new twist:

Not every deli has the Moen Special, a meatball sandwich with mozzarella cheese on sourdough bread and topped with optional roasted red pepper and red onion. Yvette Rucker, owner of the Fourth Street Deli in Coeur d’Alene, named this delight after her landlord, Tony Moen.

It is one of the items that makes this new place at 842 N. Fourth St. different from other area eateries.

Yvette, a Spokane native back in the Inland Northwest after sampling at least four other states, proudly listed these other features: on-site roasted turkey “not pressed and rolled like the other stuff,” she said), home-made soups, custom-built sandwiches, baked beans and cornbread, turkey and gravy, fresh salads and dressings and home-made desserts.

A feature for kids is the Bear Cub Menu, with five children’s meals. Each purchase will include a stamp on a Bear Paw Card; 12 will give the holder a North Idaho-made teddy bear.

The store includes take-out and eat-in for 18 customers. The remodeled 1,350 square feet for many years was Woodcock Pharmacy and later a gas heat store.

The space includes a second business, Kilimanjaro Coffee. International coffees and teas are the specialties of owners Chris and Jenny von Zastrow, who bring their international expertise to the business.

Born and raised in Kenya, Chris came to the United States in 1973 for 16 years before returning to Africa as a coffee broker and quality-control expert for Goldman-Sachs. He and Jenny, a Twin Falls native, toured the states looking for the ideal place, finding Coeur d’Alene while having lunch.

They feature coffee beans “that aren’t roasted until they’re black,” Chris said. Their process includes roasting, blending, grinding, packaging and selling retail and wholesale. Included are African coffees, English teas, Indian spice teas and chocolate-covered coffee beans.

When served in the store, the coffee is made with filtered water to allow the true taste of the coffee. Hours for the two stores are 10 to 5 weekdays and 10 to 2 Saturdays.

Moving from six blocks south, Cope’s Appliance Club has a new home at 6960 Government Way. The 6,000-square-foot building formerly housed Carlson’s Floor Covering, now in a new building at Highway 95 and Honeysuckle, Hayden.

Although one of downtown Coeur d’Alene’s oldest businesses, there for 66 years, Cope’s utilizes nearly three times the space and ample parking at its new location.

“We had outgrown the space, and the business had nearly doubled since we bought it four years ago,” said owner Jeff Hogan. “This enables us to expand our product lines.”

Cope’s sells most major appliance brands by wholesale purchasing through a buying club, Hogan explained.

“This allows us to compete with the large companies, giving us club pricing, club sales and a large selection,” he said. Hogan is originally from Spokane where he managed an appliance store.

A few notes:

Area supermarkets and kitchen specialty stores now offer the video “Pie Making,” a 30-minute show with Athol’s Pat Rogers making her famous Creekside pastry crust and classic apple pie. Rogers’ business is the project of Don Fris’ marketing class at North Idaho College.

I must lament about the renewed pitch for hydroplane racing on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Evidently the Coeur d’Alene vote several years ago wouldn’t matter as the promoters hope to use the old Highway 10 roadbed east of town as the prime viewing area. I can’t see how this would solve drinking-crowd problems.

One of the children’s educational products I surveyed while visiting the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., last week was one of the international-emphasis Wee Sing video-books. The business is co-founded and co-owned by Susan Nipp of Coeur d’Alene.

I wanted to show the book to customers and exclaim, “I know her!” But I knew I’d just get polite smiles. So I just smirked to myself.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Nils Rosdahl The Spokesman-Review