Club Has Glorious Past, Uncertain Future

The table where a few heavy hitters plotted and pulled off Expo ‘74 now hosts friendly games of gin rummy.

Oil paintings of curvaceous naked women still adorn a dark-paneled wall, though the sprawling private restaurant and bar at the top floor of the Lincoln Building, 818 W Riverside, is no longer a males-only sanctuary.

With its membership dying and dwindling, Spokane’s once elite Empire Club is attempting to strike back.

The general public has long forgotten this throwback to the era when political arm-twisting and big business deals were made over three-martini lunches.

About the only way the Empire Club makes the newspaper these days is sadly in obituaries that read: “he was a member of….”

But once upon time, just about anybody who was anybody in this burg was an Empire Clubber or wanted to be one.

And being one wasn’t so easy.

A feature of the spanking new Lincoln Building in 1964, the Empire Club was strictly invitation only.

The social club for dining and drinking kept its roster at a maximum 175. Occasional vacancies were filled from a long waiting list of eager up-and-comers.

“It was an exclusive situation because you had to be involved,” says retired Col. Bob Smith, one of the club’s old guard.

Translation: Men without money and influence need not apply.

Today, having a pulse, $63 a month for dues and no felony convictions will put you in contention.

Empire Club ranks have sagged to about 130, with many of those now aged and rarely involved.

Fifty fresh, active members are needed to keep the doors open and the booze flowing. Members hope the recent cigar and red meat renaissance will give their club a rebirth.

“There’s just not a good reason for this to fail,” says member Bruce Bixler, a certified public accountant.

As a sure sign of the Empire Club’s lowered standards, I was allowed to munch lunch there the other day.

Stepping through the big wood door on the eighth floor is like walking into a time warp. The decor - red carpeting, heavy drapes and curved, padded black leather furniture - hasn’t changed a lick in 33 years.

It’s not difficult to imagine tuxedo-clad Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack hipsters chain smoking L&M cigarettes, guzzling high balls and bragging about their latest score with some fabulous “chick.”

Ah, those 1960s dinosaur values haven’t been completely exorcised.

“That was the demise of this club,” laments 83-year-old John H. “Sam” Leuthold, one of the charter members, “when we let in women.”

The controversial decision to break the sex barrier happened in 1979 and caused one board member to quit in a huff. But it wasn’t until six years later that a woman even wanted to join. Today, there are a half dozen women members including one on the board.

But a lot hasn’t changed at the Empire Club:

Drinks like the Belfast Spider or the Kamikaze are still poured strong and mean. Cigar and cigarette smoking never became politically incorrect here. The food has always been positively exquisite.

One of the perks of belonging to such a club is being able to eat and drink exactly what you want. If you’ve got a hankerin’ for, say, grilled lamb shanks and peach pie next Tuesday, master Chef Gary Brown is only too happy to oblige.

Private clubs once played a huge role in the way business got done.

When Spokane’s chance to host a world’s fair looked dead in the water, Lincoln Savings & Loan chairman Rod Lindsay sat down one day with a few cronies. They hatched a scheme to raise the necessary loot.

It happened at the northeast corner table in the Empire Club. From that spot, members say, Lindsay and the others not only funded Expo ‘74, but practically ran its day-to-day operations.

During baseball seasons, back when the Dodger organization ran the Spokane Indians, manager Tommy Lasorda and owner Peter O’Malley practically camped out at the Empire Club.

Then times began to change.

Liquor lunches were no longer a total business write-off. Club dues stopped being a tax deduction. People started worrying about silly things like fat intake and lung cancer.

“The era of people who got off work and slopped down a bunch of drinks has changed,” says member Chuck Van Marter, an attorney.

At Spokane’s Empire Club, the beat still goes on. The tempo, like Sinatra, just moves a little slower.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo