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Huckleberries: Coeur d’Alene woman searches for perfect ‘mocktail’

Eden Irgens, a Coeur d’Alene fan and communications specialist, has launched a blog for those who prefer nonalcohol options at restaurants and bars: Miss Mocktail (missmocktail.blog.com).

Irgens opted for blogging after eliminating alcohol from her diet and lifestyle. She discovered quickly that many of her regular haunts don’t offer any nonalcoholic drinks beyond soda, juice, coffee or water.

Quoth Irgens: “Just because I don’t want alcohol doesn’t mean that I don’t want a yummy, fun ‘mocktail,’ for which I am happy to pay a nice price.”

In her quest for the perfect mocktail, Irgens gives thumbs up to Fedora at Kathleen Avenue and Ramsey Road, for “the most delicious Thyme lemonade and a refreshing Cucumber mocktail.” And to Seasons at Lakeside Avenue and Second Street, for the “perfect midday refreshment” companion for pork sliders: a virgin mojito. At popular Crafted Taphouse in downtown Coeur d’Alene, Audrey’s Adoration salad won props from Irgens but not the nonalcohol options: root beer, cream soda, Pepsi products and water. “I loved root beer as a kid,” Irgens said, “but my more mature palette has a severe aversion to it.”

Mocktails, anyone?

From hot tub to church

Michael Ferguson’s 15 minutes of fame are still running. Ferguson? He’s the captain of the Cheney High wrestling team who’s challenging the yearbook decision not to run his senior photo, wearing pink sunglasses. In a hot tub. Ferguson’s celebrity status didn’t go unnoticed last week at Bethany Presbyterian Church on Spokane’s South Hill last Sunday. Ryan Brodwater, an associate engineer for the city of Spokane, and wife, Mandy, asked Ferguson if he’d mind taking a photo with their starstruck 3-year-old son, Harper. Sure, he said. Which prompted Ferguson’s mother to whip out a small pair of pink sunglasses from her purse for Harper to wear for his pose. Sounds like mother and son have been through this drill before.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: We have kidnapped your birds/and we won’t give them back/till you meet our demands,/plus you send us a snack – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Ransom Note from Malheur Wildlife Refuge”) … And: Though winter rain/and snow still soak us,/beneath the mud/stirs spring’s first crocus – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Coming Soon”) Taryn Thompson, of Rathdrum, didn’t have time to see which activity occurs in the Coeur d’Alene Kmart “harmacy” last week – or to stop her car to look for the missing P from the outside wall lettering. But she sent a photograph of the surviving letters to Huckleberries Online (spokesman.com/ blog/hbo) … Poll: 76.5 percent of my blog readers said authorities who arrested the renegade Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupiers did the best they could … John Austin, the former Coeur d’Alene finance director, credits regular colorectal screenings for saving his life. Or at least his lower colon. Deadpans Austin: “That would have left me with a semicolon.”

Parting Shot

Coeur d’Alene businessman Mike Kennedy has no illusions about his homemaking ability. A short absence by his wife, Kathleen, brought the point home. After six days of supervising the house and six remaining kids at home, Kennedy Facebooked: “The Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon will look better after a month long occupation than our house will when she arrives home.”

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