BBQ, bricks and breakfast, what more do you need?

Some days you feel like a beer, a smoke and a rock show.

Others, you feel like some barbecue.

And then there are the times when you can’t live without all four at the same time. For those days, there’s Boulder BBQ.

Slow-smoked beef brisket, pulled pork and ribs started pumping out of the kitchen of The Blvd., a new nightlife spot in downtown Spokane, about a month ago.

Here’s the setup: Ray Wilson and Matt Goodwin own the club. Tom Crouch and partner Frank Owens founded the restaurant portion along with Wilson and Goodwin, according to Crouch.

“It’s basically just a business within a business,” he said.

Crouch and Owens discovered a love for barbecue while attending Gonzaga University.

“We just barbecued in the back yard all the time,” Crouch said. “We went to Texas a couple of times. A friend of ours had a girlfriend down there, so we picked up some things while we were there.”

Can true barbecue be learned, or is it in the blood? I guess the proof is in the pulled pork.

Boulder BBQ is located inside The Blvd., at 333 Spokane Falls Blvd. For more info, call 455-7826.

Red Brick Café reincarnated

The words “happening nightlife” don’t exactly come to mind when one thinks of Rosalia, Wash.

In fact, the town boasts only a handful of restaurants and eateries.

So that’s why it was big news around town when the Red Brick Café reopened on Nov. 1 under new ownership at 530 S. Whitman Ave., after being closed for nine months.

The look of the traditional family restaurant is the same, according to new owner and baker Nancy Schu.

“It’s got two red brick walls, right across from each other,” she said. “And it’s light, and bright and clean.”

But the menu took a turn for the fresher.

“Everything we make here is homemade,” she said.

That includes the fresh-made soups, breads, hand-pattied hamburgers and fresh-cut fries.

Oh yeah, and the orange rolls, dubbed “Naughty Orange Knots.”

“The guy who was printing our menu named them,” Schu said. “We called them orange knots, and he said ‘I bet they’re naughty orange knots,’ so that’s what we called them.”

Schu and crew offer plenty of options for those avoiding the expanded waistline that accompanies grubbing on pastries and French fries.

“We have no-carb lunches and low calorie ones, for when you think you might want to do that,” she said.

Call (509) 523-4020 for help finding the spot, though Schu said directions aren’t necessary – Rosalia’s a one-street town.

The Shack is back – kind of

Linnie’s Thai now serves Shack breakfasts.

You read right. Linnie’s Thai Restaurant, located in the building formerly known as The Shack (1301 W. Third Ave.), started a new tradition on Nov. 9.

It now serves the same revered large breakfasts that made its predecessor a legend among Spokanites.

Blasphemy, you say. It’ll never be the same.

Well, hold on a minute. It’s not like Linnie’s is serving “Mussamun scrambled eggs” or “Phad Thai Benedict.”

According to owners E and Phonesy Muongkhoth, the only person behind the morning grill is none other than seasoned ex-Shack spatula-slinger Kurt Shear, so you can expect the same tasty vittles.

But there’s one difference.

“If you liked breakfast when it was The Shack, you’d like it here better because it’s cleaner,” E Muongkhoth said.

Hey, cleanliness is never a bad thing.

Breakfast is served Tuesdays - Saturdays, 6-11 a.m., and Sundays, 7 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thai food is served Mondays - Fridays, 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m., and Saturdays, noon - 9 p.m.