The Dish: Permanent home for Little Noodle? Plus Honey Pig, Daley’s Cheap Shots, Red Room, Mole and Travis Tveit
During COVID-19, chef Kadra Evans took her longtime dream of owning a small Asian-inspired noodle shop in the Garland District and put it into action with Little Noodle. At the height of its popularity, the owners, who were leasing the space to her during the off season of their restaurant Honey Pig, needed the space back, forcing Evans to take her delicious ramen on the road.
I was recently told that this will be the last season for Honey Pig, and Little Noodle will be back in its home for the long haul. This is great news for all slurping Spokanites, the Garland District and one of our area’s best up-and-coming ambitious chefs.
Jab, jab, hook
Longtime Spokane Valley dive bar Daley’s Cheap Shots decided to close up shop during COVID-19 shutdowns. However, the GM of Remedy told me this week that the Goodwin Group, which has been making a habit lately of buying up old bars, has plans to give the popular Trent Avenue drinkery a facelift and reopen it under the name Haymaker.
If Goodwin’s recent revitalization of Checkerboard Tavern is any glimpse of what Daley’s will become, it should be an absolute knockout for the Spokane Valley.
Red Rover
Longtime Red Room owner Craig Larsen has been booking and organizing some of Spokane’s top music performances. Everyone knows Larsen is the guy to talk to about music, but a better kept secret is his penchant for great sandwiches.
Larsen recently revealed that he is finalizing everything to open up his own little eatery right next door. He hasn’t decided on a name, but he can call it whatever he wants as long as I can get my hands on one of those Italian subs.
Holy mole
In the Dish two weeks ago, I wrote that the empty Central Food building was recently leased by the owners of Umi Kitchen and Sushi Bar for a new project. A few readers wrote in saying that the building has been updated with a coming soon banner for Mole, which after a bit of digging looks to be an upscale Mexican restaurant.
Mole is my favorite Mexican food not called nachos, so I’ll probably be there opening week with the rest of Kendall Yards.
From Goat to McRuins
Chef Travis Tveit, who has built a loyal local following as the longtime lead chef at Iron Goat Brewing, has departed Iron Goat and taken the reins at the newly retooled McRuins in Saranac Commons. With chef Tony Brown pulled between his many projects, having a young, ambitious chef to help craft the five-star fast-food concept should be a game-changer.
McRuins, which started as a Monday night fad inside Ruins, has become so popular that it needed its own space. Who would have thought that we would ever live in a time where you use a $400 chef knife to cut a Crunchwrap Supreme?
The Dish is Spokane’s new whisperings about the happenings in the Inland Northwest’s food and beverage scene. Its author, Kris Kilduff, can be reached at kris.kilduff56@gmail.com.