Pals Now Sidewok Partners

When Doug Peterson sat down to eat in one of Spokane’s Chinese restaurants six years ago, little did he know he was getting a taste of his future fortune.

In the kitchen, Terry Knight was firing up woks and serving up some of Peterson’s favorite food.

Peterson became a regular and the two became quick friends, skiing buddies and later roommates.

Today they’re still roommates, but have little time for any fun now that they’ve become business partners.

Peterson, the self-described “business” end of the business, and Knight, who has been cooking up Egg Foos and Moo Goos, for 17 years, thought they’d be the perfect team for an express Chinese food business.

Two years ago, the two incorporated as Sidewok Oriental Cafe Express, bought a trailer, a few woks and then landed a gig catering concerts and other events at the Gorge Amphitheter.

It was open-air and face-to-face customer interaction.

The business went so well they decided to open a restaurant in Liberty Lake. In February they set up shop just north of Interstate 90 and west of Harvard Road.

“I wanted to get out of the kitchen and now look where I’m at,” jokes Knight, 34.

So Knight, who began as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant and turned cook to get away from the boredom, drafted a menu of everything from potstickers to shrimp with lobster sauce.

Peterson, 29, who works 40 hours a week in Group Health’s computer systems department, had to learn to cook.

He admits that on the first day they opened it was hard shuffling food to a standing-room-only crowd. Orders were mixed up. Knight was in the kitchen and he was juggling combinations of orders.

But the crowds kept coming back. They originally thought they would tap into the Liberty Lake lunch crowd, but have discovered a huge market in the Otis Orchards dinner crowd. Dinner is busier than their lunch rush.

They’ve doubled their staff and still cater events throughout the summer.

Now they’re planning on adding a second restaurant this winter. The location is hush-hush, because of competition, the two say.

Knight stays in the kitchen from opening at 11 a.m. to closing at 10 p.m. Peterson has been manning tents at events like Pig Out in the Park and the North Idaho Fair.

The two say they get anywhere from two to three hours of sleep a night.

It’s the price of being an entrepreneur, Peterson said.

“You’ve got to put in your time now in order to know how to do it right.”