Leslie Kelly

Judging by the seasonal menus coming out of Spokane's creative kitchens, autumn tastes like polenta paired with apples, curried pumpkin soup, braised lamb shank and brandy apple pork. Fresh new offerings showcase some of the best savory ingredients of fall - squash, sage, fresh chanterelle mushrooms and exotic potatoes. At Paprika, several new starters sound sumptuous. Papadzules - corn tortillas dipped in a pumpkin seed sauce and filled with hard-cooked eggs - are a traditional Mexican dish that originated in Oaxaca. The sauteed Sonoma foie gras is now garnished with a carmelized fruit compote. And a rustic polenta appetizer is grilled and topped with apples, ham and onions.

Visiting a bed and breakfast usually means an overnight stay, but this Sunday, potential guests are invited to drop by Spokane's half-a-dozen B&Bs; and peek inside. The Bed and Breakfast Tour - a benefit for The Spokane Food Bank - features complementary refreshments and door prize drawings for accommodations from the participating hosts. It runs from 1 until 5 p.m., so you'll have to be swift to hit them all.

Trains occupy a special place in American history, having helped shape the way the country developed by moving people from one end to the other. These days, relatively few people travel by train. But you can still experience a sort of vicarious thrill of riding the rails by eating in Spokane's two restaurant railroad cars - Knight's and Frank's - both diners with a capital "D."

When Gina Lanza sold the Anaconda Grille a few months ago, her fans wondered where she would end up. After chilling out this summer, Lanza has landed on the South Hill at Cafe Roma. And things are already looking up there. The longtime Lincoln Heights fixture, Cafe Roma was recently sold to Geoffery and Lauren Powers, who had the good sense to hire Lanza. She has already revamped the menu. Dishes, of course, will still be Italian. But the offerings have been expanded to include more contemporary creations. Pastas range from tried-and-true spaghetti bologese and cheesy lasagna to orcheitto-shaped noodles with roasted Italian sausage, peppers and gorgonzola cheese and a vegetarian penne with grilled artichoke hearts, spinach and goat cheese. Entrees include polenta with local veggies in an eggplant-tomato sauce, grilled chicken breast with garlic mashed potatoes and lamb chops with a rich gorgonzola creme fraiche. Northwest influences can be spotted with the citrus-braised salmon and the grilled ahi tuna served over a shellfish cioppino. There will be a list of different specials each week. On the new, improved menu I even spotted a few favorites from the Anaconda, including the roasted duck (this time around served with those tiny tasty French lentils), punttanesca and the sauteed shellfish salad. "I'm really excited about Cafe Roma. I think this is a cool spot," Lanza enthused. "The new owners have been great to work with." Prices range from $9.50 to $22 for the tuna. Most dinners run around $12 to $14. Meals include salad or soup and bread. Appetizers start at $6 for a portobello crostini (mushrooms on croutons) and top out at $7 for pan-fried calamari. The lunch menu will be changed, too, starting next week. A welcome change, lunch is now a sit-down affair, full service instead of ordering at the counter. For reservations - and you're going to need them once word gets out that Lanza is cooking at Cafe Roma - call 534-5540. Life is a beach If you're looking to extend your summer just a smidge, check out Clink's Hawaiiana specials, running through Oct. 22. I only wish the hostess would greet diners by saying "aloha," but the cool Hawaiian shirts the servers are wearing are your first hint that something exotic is cooking here. This interesting fresh sheet was developed with the help of chefs in the Hawaiian islands and showcases some of that state's best ingredients. Start with pupus (appetizers), such as the greasy, but oh-so-good taro root and sweet potato chips. These colorful, crunchy morsels are served with an Asian guacamole (it's got coconut milk in it) and a sweet-tart mango salsa. I recently enjoyed a seared poke salad at lunch. Poke is small pieces of raw fish cured in salt and various seasonings. You go into a grocery store over there and see at least a dozen varieties. Kind of like a Hawaiian version of lox. I also sampled the hibachi chicken with lychee relish and thought the bird could have used a bit more time on the grill. Other "onolicious" entrees include grilled marlin topped with a fresh pineapple and macadamia nut relish and a seared ahi caesar salad. (Ono, by the way, means "the best" in the islands.) There's also a slew of tempting tropical drinks being mixed in the bar for Clink's version of Hawaiian days. Along with the mai tai and coladatype cocktails, there's exotic mangoginger martini (hold the olive!) and a "krazie kazi" made with pretty pink guava puree. (What! No Blue Hawaii?) For reservations, call 328-5965 and say "Book 'em, Dan-O." College chow changes Food on campus once generated as many lame jokes as hospital grub, but no more. At least not at The Regency Room on the Washington State University campus. This pleasant little lunchroom has an ambitious menu, affordable prices and attracts a growing number of regulars. The surprisingly sophisticated menu includes appetizers such as a brushetta - toasted slices of bread smeared with a walnut pesto and kalamata olives - and Moroccan chicken served with spicy peanut sauce. Lunch offerings include cold and hot sandwiches and entree-size salads such as an Italian bread and tomato mixture and roasted beet salad. Full meals, served with soup or salad and your choice of side dishes, include Jamaican jerk-seasoned salmon, Asian stir-fry with sticky rice and a Mediterranean-style cod with a citrus salsa. Prices are incredibly affordable, starting at $3.95 for a half sandwich and maxing out at $6.95 for the salmon. Appetizers are all under $3. This fall, The Regency Room has started offering a gourmet buffet every Friday night before home football games. The price is $9.50 and that includes at least three entrees, a variety of salads and dessert. Seating is limited, so reservations are suggested. Call (509) 335-8566 to save a spot for the Friday feeds. The Regency Room is located on the second floor of the Compton Union Building. For parking, check in with parking services for a guest pass. There is a metered parking lot near the CUB also. Get a clue, pal OK, so I'm eating my healthy lunch at Huckleberry's, trying to enjoy the last warm weather of the year outside, and a guy comes around spraying the tabletops with Windex. Hellllll-O. The smell of ammonia is a real appetite killer, especially at an establishment that focuses on healthier ways to be in the world. For restaurants that have glass-top tables, do you think you could possibly spray the cleaner discreetly onto the cloth instead of spritzing it in the air? Please. It's officially fall Can't keep living in denial. Summer is over. Kaput. It's time to re-stock the pantry and lay in a supply of batteries in case there's any month-long power outages in the coming months. One thing we can look forward to, however, is the change in menus at area restaurants who showcase seasonal ingredients. If your eatery would like its fall menu included in the upcoming column on seasonal cuisine, send them to Leslie Kelly, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210, or fax them to (509) 459-5098. The deadline is Oct. 13. Miss it, and you'll be left out in the cold.

I am really excited about the inventive food coming out of the kitchen at Cafe 5-Ten, a terrific new restaurant in a surprising venue. Michael Waliser, who has bounced around a lot of kitchens in Spokane, finally has his own place and his passion for food shows up on each and every plate.

The WSU Suite features the university's logo and mascot image everywhere. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

1. At top, chef Jan Birnbaum presides over the kitchen at Sazerac. Photo by John Anthony Rizzo 2. Bottom, the plush elegance of El Gaucho's interior is a throwback to another era.

Everett Fees is finding happiness in the kitchen at the Clark House. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Osso buco - veal shanks cooked in red wine and spices - is one of the more popular braised dishes. It can be made ahead of time and reheated. Photo by Knith-Ridder/Tribune

At the Four Seasons Resort, children are treated to swings, tiny picnic tables and a sand-bottom pool. Photo by Kyle Rothenborg

A couple of popular ethnic restaurants in the area have snazzy new looks. At Niko's II, veteran designer John Rovtar transformed the rather plain surroundings into a lovely dining room that's Mediterranean eclectic. The talented Rovtar also did Fugazzi and the downtown Great Harvest makeovers. Niko's new, striking entryway features a wooden wine rack sporting oversized bottles and an eye-catching pastry case. The bright white stucco walls surround booths and tables with comfy new mahogany chairs. Sleek lights dangle over the tables. Huge urns punctuate various points around the room.

It's a bold experiment. A Washington State University chemistry professor hires a chef from the New England Culinary Institute and opens a sophisticated, upscale restaurant in tiny Pullman.

The September issue of Bon Appetit rates Spokane's Mizuna right up there with vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles and New York.

Oink, oink. Starting today, it's time to belly up to the trough at Riverfront Park for the annual Pig Out in the Park. This four-day gorge-fest - now in its 16th year - features an eclectic mix of area eateries. This year's menu is a vast melting pot of ethnic cuisines and All-American favorites like strawberry shortcake. It's world food heaped on a paper plate.

With the recent return of martinis, swinging cocktail music and big, juicy steaks, can a luau revival really be far behind? The luau was the darling of the '60s party set, at least in my neighborhood. Grown-ups would fill up our kiddie pools and tint the water with blue food coloring. They would don garish Hawaiian shirts and do the limbo against the glimmer of tiki torches. The menu usually consisted of crushed pineapple poured over baked ham, green Jello with mini marshmallows and tropical drinks adorned with little paper umbrellas. As a kid, I had never seen anything so wonderfully exotic. It wasn't until years later when I traveled to Hawaii that I learned luaus were nothing more than expensive tourist traps - an all-you-can-eat buffet for the video-toting, Bermuda shorts crowd. Here's the routine at most resorts: In the morning a huge bonfire is started in a special underground pit called an imu. The flames heat stones in the oven until they eventually become red-coal hot.

Pullman is the lentil capital of the universe and this weekend folks will strut their peas and beans during the National Lentil Festival. The fun starts at 8 a.m. Saturday with a lentil pancake breakfast ($4, $3 children) at the Cougar Plaza on the corner of Grand and Olson in downtown Pullman. A grand parade will march down Main at 11 a.m.

I've got a crush on Coeur d'Alene. The spiffy downtown shops, the shimmering lake, that buoyant boardwalk are especially enticing this time of year. Sometimes, I dream of moving there. Right after I win the lottery and buy that pickup that's taller than my garage.

Regina Sampieri brought a diverse background to Luna. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Smack in the middle of wheat country, Davenport seems a world away from Southeast Asia. That's probably what makes a new Thai restaurant there such a novelty. In the six months it's been open, Sa-La Thai has been like a culinary magnet, drawing diners from Grand Coulee, Ritzville and other outlying areas. They come based on word-of-mouth raves for chef Tippy Cantrell's curries, satay and pad Thai. She and her husband, Joseph, have decorated the dining room with farming implements from Tippy's native country. (She grew up near Bangkok.)

Vacationer Darron Treude, who is visiting from Northern California, shows good form as he takes some snapshots of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

What's that pungent aroma? It's the smell of a few Italian restaurants in Spokane getting caught up in the excitement of a garlic festival in California. Local restaurants will be showcasing garlic-studded specials this weekend to coincide with the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Saturday, August 2, 1997): Correction Restaurant open: Corky's Drive-In restaurant at the corner of Garland and Monroe has re-opened. A story in Friday's Weekend section reported otherwise. 1. On Classic Car Night Monday, owners and gawkers gather around each old car that pulls in to the Topper Too drive-in, above, in Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Left, Frank Martire, owner of Frank's Dairy Freeze, has been flipping patties since he was 12. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 3. At top, a customer places his order at Mike's Burger Royal, 6115 E. Trant, where the decor classic hamburger-stand style. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

I had a dream the other night that I was trying to outrun a wave of molten lava. The swell of bubbling red stuff was gaining on me when I woke up in a sweat. This nightmare could have had something to do with a recent trip to Hawaii, where I tried in vain to see the volcano spewing liquid rock. Or, more likely, it was caused by the fiery dish of lamb vindaloo I had eaten for dinner at Taste of India. But then heartburn is something you come to expect after eating this exotically spiced cuisine. And I really did enjoy the tender chunks of lamb and potatoes bathed in that hot lava-like sauce.

That cute little bistro in my 'hood has undergone a dramatic makeover. Cafe 5-Ten is now open in the space that was The Anaconda Grille (and before that, so many other things including a down-home barbecue joint and a Mexican restaurant). Walking in the front door, Anaconda regulars will be floored at the the difference. (The bar's gone, for one thing, and the place is bathed in soothing neutral tones.) Chef-owner Michael Waliser did all the renovation himself and at the same time dreamed up his menu that is Italian by Northwest. The offerings at lunch and dinner will be ever-evolving affairs, but for starters expect a lineup of innovative salads (roasted beets with feta and baby greens, anyone?), a Tuscan-inspired white-bean soup flavored with fresh rosemary along with one of my favorite appetizers of all time. (With a gracious nod to its original creator, the dish is called Calamari Lanza, after Anaconda's chef Gina.) Entrees include a couple of pasta plates: a penne with grilled portobello mushrooms, roasted red pepper and goat cheese or a spicy puntanesca. After a brief stint with Huckleberry's, Waliser remains committed to "natural" meats, so the menu also includes roasted free-range chicken and a tenderloin of beef raised without growth hormones. The grilled yellowfin tuna is rubbed with black pepper and coriander and then served with poached roma tomatoes and a lemon-caper butter. Prices start at $9.95 for an a la carte pasta to $21.95 for the tenderloin dinner. Salads and starters range from $2.50 to $8.95. Dinner is served Monday through Saturday. Expect Cafe 5-Ten to be open for lunch weekdays beginning next week. For reservations, call 533-0064. The restaurant is located at 510 S. Freya. Patsy's new moves Patsy Clark's has a new general manager, new chefs and a new enticing menu. This venerable restaurant has gone through a lot of changes the past few years, in the kitchen and the front office. The new manager promises things are back on track, food-wise and service-wise. The new menu reflects the Southwestern training of chefs Mark Wilson and David Goldman, who both graduated from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. These days, you'll find lime-infused margarita duck and smoked chicken with the creamy seafood pasta or a bean burger at lunch alongside the classic steaks and ever-present escargot. Other new entrees on the dinner menu include the three-mushroom moussaka, an Asian-inspired ahi tuna salad and a steak stir-fry with pasta. Global influences on the starter side includes Thai chicken skewers and a classic Italian pairing of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. As far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on Patsy's latest revival. When I walked in for a recent lunch without reservations, I was told I would have to wait, even though it was early and the dining room was practically empty. After I was finally seated, my black bean burger was fine, but bland and the texture a bit mealy. I also sampled the smoked chicken in a creamy ultra-rich fettucine. The smoky pieces of meat gave the dish a bold, exotic flavor, but tucked amidst the noodles was a piece of wrapper from a stick of butter. Details, details. I'll get back to you after checking out the intriguing dinner menu at Patsy's. To scope it out yourself, call 838-8300 for reservations. Smoke on the water Track-coach-turned-chef Dave Klyzek has been smoking diners out with some flavorful treatments of meats at McDonald's Hudson Bay Resort in Bayview, Idaho. The season's menu includes a house-smoked chicken breast and smoky ribeye steak, which is served with horseradish-spiked mashed potatoes. Klyzek, 40, once coached track at Spokane Community College and at the University of Oregon before leaping into the kitchen. He graduated from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America about 18 months ago and worked for restaurants in New York and Arizona before arriving back on home turf. (He's an EWU alum.) He draws on his classical training to create stocks, sauces and desserts from scratch and to come up with a grilled halibut with a creamy shrimp sauce or a pork chop served with maple butter. In addition to the regular offerings, Klyzek makes nightly dinner specials when he works Wednesday through Sunday nights at this waterfront eatery about 40 minutes north of Coeur d'Alene. For reservations at Hudson Bay, call (208) 683-2211. That's a wrap It seems everyone is jumping on the "wrap" wagon. KFC is now offering "The Twister." Can the Big Mac in a tortilla be far behind? Some places really do it up right, though. Sonic Burritos has beefed up its lineup with several new stuffings including a Ragin' Cajun with a spicy sauce and a Mediterranean with spinach and a Greek relish. My favorite of the new bunch was the Screaming Lentil Veggie. These humble legumes were paired with brown rice, cucumbers and tomatoes, sprouts, mushrooms and the Sonic's jalapesto sauce. It was wrapped up in a garlic-herb tortilla. This burrito had a great flavor and I felt so darned healthy eating it. The meaty burritos run $4.75, while the veggie is $4.25. Sonic Burrito is located on the South Hill at 2622 E. 29th (phone: 536-1170) and at 1209 N. Hamilton (phone: 484-4158). These places offer free delivery with a minimum $10 order. More rap on wraps Casey's Pub and Grill in Post Falls has added a wrap of the day to its summer menu, which could include fillings such as Oriental chicken, hot chicken caesar and pork chili verde. Other new dishes include a Southwestern chicken sandwich, a curried chicken salad with crunchy veggies and fresh fruit along with a hand-cut New York steak. Casey's, which brews its own hand-crafted suds that come with charming names such as Squirrel Spit, is a little tricky to find, so call for directions. The phone number is (208) 777-7047. Take the whole famdamily Bayou Brewing Company is reviving the fine old tradition of Sunday family supper. Between noon and 8 p.m. every Sunday, you and your kin can feast on salad, corn muffins, vegetables, garlic mashed potatoes, jambalaya and then a choice of barbecued baby back ribs or oven roasted chicken or both. By all means, save room for the sour cream peach pie. All these viddles are served on platters and bowls so you can help yourself. And, it's all-you-can-eat or, as the menu says: "Just like Grandma, we'll keep it coming." No doggie bags, though. The tab is extremely reasonable at $10.95 for adults, $6.95 for kids ages 6-10 and $8.95 for seniors. Children 5 and under are free. The Bayou Brewing Company is located at 1003 E. Trent. Call 484-4818 for reservations.