Business focus: Ambrosia a cozy, family-run neighborhood bistro

Spokane Valley restaurateur Scott Cook wouldn’t mind if his new venture, Ambrosia Bistro and Wine Bar, gained a worldly reputation for its carefully selected wines and delicious menu items.

But he’d be equally happy if the restaurant he and his wife, Kara, opened in December simply was considered the best neighborhood bistro in the Inland Northwest.

“I want it to be a typical bistro … a neighborhood restaurant, a cozy restaurant that is family operated, where people can come in and have a good meal and not be rushed,” said Cook, 42, a longtime Spokane restaurant manager.

Cook says he’s pleased with customer response to Ambrosia – a Greek mythological term that translates to food of the gods. He says many customers comment about the restaurant’s warm and colorful atmosphere and several people come in regularly for lunch and dinner a couple of times a week.

“Having worked at chain restaurants for a long time, I was amazed to find there are a lot of people who don’t go to chain restaurants. They go to locally owned ones,” said Cook, who previously served as managing partner in the Inland Northwest’s Chili’s Bar and Grill restaurants.

“We looked downtown and decided downtown is going to be saturated pretty quickly,” Cook said of the search for the ideal bistro location. “Then we looked at South Hill. Then we decided there really wasn’t anything in the Valley similar to this.”

The inside of Ambrosia Bistro and Wine Bar has a Pottery Barn-meets-a-fine-merlot feel. It’s at the west end of the Argonne Village Shopping Center at the corner of Argonne Road and Montgomery Avenue. The restaurant accommodates 109 guests, and Cook hopes to feature outdoor dining during warmer months.

Lunch and dinner menus are available and include panini, salad, pasta, steak and seafood dishes, including a salmon and Brie wrapped in phyllo served with a port wine reduction. A children’s menu includes pasta, pizza and a peanut butter and jelly panini. Also featured are Spokane’s Cravens Coffee special Ambrosia Bistro Blend and a lemon Riesling cake made exclusively for the bistro by Desserts by Sara in the Spokane Valley.

While the restaurant is typically closed Sundays, Cook says he’s planning to open for a Mother’s Day brunch and special-event dinners.

The wine list includes 55 varieties of wine at one time from wineries across the globe and closer to home. Twenty-six of those are available by the glass. Cook says he tries many styles of wines before he selects those to sell.

“I don’t want there to be a lot of mystique about the wine,” Cook says. “I want it to be approachable. I try to carry things on my list that are not readily available in grocery stores … wines people can read about in Wine Spectator.”