Azteca’s back with Taco Tuesday

Taco and Tuesday were just remarried in downtown Spokane.

Yep, that’s right – Azteca opened on Sept. 3 in its new location at

245 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.

“Everywhere we go, people have been asking us when we’re going to open,” said Mateo Ramos, director of operations at Azteca Mexican Restaurants. “They want to know when Taco Tuesday is coming back.”

Worry not, fans of the weekly glut fest. Along with Tuesday’s all-you-can-eat tacos for $5, Azteca’s large menu, happy hour specials and familiar flavors have stayed the same. You’ll get the same people serving the same fajitas, rellenos, margaritas and combination platters.

The restaurant’s look is the only thing that has changed significantly since its old locale was razed to make way for the convention center expansion.

“It’s got a lot of masonry, a lot of stonework,” Ramos said. “The traditional architecture, the archways, it’s beautiful. It’s something you’ve got to see to believe.”

And after you see it, you still might not believe it. The speediness of the building project seemed a little like Sim City: Spokane Edition.

But hey, it’s a good bet they won’t be serving Sim tacos.

Call in an order or make reservations at 456-0350.

Ella’s ready for its close-up

The Upstage Supper Club at CenterStage closed its doors at the beginning of summer and entered the pupal stage of its life cycle, going through menu changes and remodels until something new emerged – Ella’s Supper Club.

“We’ve changed it from the type of place where you’d make a reservation and come specifically for dinner, to a place where you can just come in and have a progressive meal and relax,” said chef Kile Tansy.

The first thing the folks at Ella’s did was change the floor plan.

“The seating is such that it’s much more comfortable,” said Tim Behrens, managing artistic director for CenterStage. “It’s much less like a formal dining room and more like a casual place, like a lounge, like a club.”

Increased intimacy was the main goal for the restaurant remodel, Behrens said, and that’s complemented by the revamping of the Library Lounge on the second floor, as well as the addition of two bars on the CenterStage premises.

Ella’s team also has changed the focus of the menu.

Tansy says the restaurant might have as many as 40 appetizers on the intimidating menu, which already includes Portobello Steak Torta, Ella’s Cheese Fries, Toscano Salami and Peppers, Escargot in Pastry and Baked Clams Casino. That’s a big change from Upstage’s 10 apps.

The extreme role reversal is part of the casual nature of Ella’s, which Behrens says will offer at least 15 wines along with suggestions for appetizer pairings.

“We want it to be the place to hang out for the after work crowd,” he said. “It’s kind of an informal thing where we want people to come and sample this, sample that.”

The late night appetizer-

munching crowd will find a home at Ella’s, which will stay open until 10:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11 p.m. on Thursdays, and midnight or later on Fridays and Saturdays.

Ella’s also serves dinner, open Tuesdays – Saturdays at 4:30 p.m., offering light entrees such as Spicy Garlic Linguine and Lemon Caper Chicken Scallopine along with Upstage jazz-inspired favorites, including Beef Ellington with Lush Life Lobster and Sarah Vaughn Steak Diane Reeves.

Ella’s is in the CenterStage building, 1017 W. First Ave. Call 747-8243 for reservations.

Welcome back, Bob

Chicken-n-More owner Bob Hemphill finally has reopened his baby at 414 1/2 W. Sprague Ave. – a month and a half after it was originally scheduled to do so.

Is it time to name a curse after the former resident restaurants of Rookery Block?

“Construction things didn’t work out right,” Hemphill said. “We had to work at it really hard to get it halfway suitable to get it open again.”

Die-hards left over from the original location might have been skeptical whether the restaurant would change too much for their tastes.

But the menu’s the same, and the spot is the spitting image of its former self, only larger.

“We wanted that old country look inside, so we kept it. We wanted to keep that southern air in there,” Hemphill said. “We have 400 square feet more than what we had before. Oh man, it’s like I died and gone to heaven.”