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Pocket Bar offers atypical fast-food option on First Avenue

A curry hand pie from Pocket Bar, which opened for business Friday in downtown Spokane. (Don Chareunsy / The Spokesman-Review)
By Don Chareunsy donc@spokesman.com(509) 459-5446

Spokane restaurateur and chef Adam Hegsted and Emily Crawford of Doughlicious celebrated the grand opening of Pocket Bar on Friday afternoon in downtown Spokane. Pocket Bar is a local beer and wine bar featuring Doughlicious’ savory and sweet hand pies, a selection of local beer (Iron Goat, Iron Horse, River City), cider and more.

Good Foods salads and handmade pretzels also are on the menu, with items made from scratch using as many local ingredients as possible. The cozy Pocket Bar, at 1017 First Ave., is on the same block as the Montvale, First Avenue Coffee and Scratch and across the street from the Fox.

Pocket Bar isn’t a full restaurant, a deviation for Hegsted’s Eat Good Group, as it is a satellite retail outlet for Crawford’s Eat Good Café in Liberty Lake.

“Pocket Bar is more of a fast-food option, but not in your typical way,” she said. “It’s a full meal in a pie, and you can walk to work with it or microwave it at home.”

Pocket Bar opens for business Friday, July 19, 2019, in Spokane. (Don Chareunsy / The Spokesman-Review)
Pocket Bar opens for business Friday, July 19, 2019, in Spokane. (Don Chareunsy / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo

The five featured pocket flavors during a stop Friday, with singular-named Tyll on the till: pepperoni, cheeseburger, ham and cheese, steak and potatoes and curry, which is the vegetarian option. The adults, who ordered grapefruit cider, enjoyed the curry and steak and potato flavors, while the kids in the group devoured the pepperoni and cheeseburger pockets, as well as a dessert flavor.

Gluten-free options will be added to the menu, said Hegsted, whose favorite pocket flavor is cheeseburger and works with Crawford as part of Eat Good Group. Eat Good Group’s Chef de Cuisine Aaron Fish also was onsite for the grand opening.

Crawford also favors the cheeseburger hand pie: “I really like it. It has Incrediburger’s beef blend and sauce, except that it’s a handheld pie.” She’s excited about the new venture and focused on it:

“I’m Mama Chef. I want to set up Pocket Bar for success. Some of our local beers are made right down the street – they’re our neighbors. Pocket Bar is about community and celebrating everyone doing awesome things.”