Owner of several government-themed restaurants opening new location in Spokane Valley

Capitol Bar & Grill is the latest addition to a growing family of politically themed restaurants, but owner Raci Erdem says the decision to open another restaurant was never part of his grand plan.

Instead, it began the way many of his ventures have. He walked into a building, looked past what it was and imagined what it could become.

“We started looking for the location and different places available,” Erdem said. “It was destiny. We walked in here, and it wasn’t in the best shape as a restaurant, but we like to see things as what we can do, not what it is. We saw a lot of potential here for what we can turn it into.”

That vision will become reality Monday when Capitol Bar & Grill opens its doors in Spokane Valley, marking Erdem’s fourth restaurant and the latest chapter in a restaurant career that began with a seven-table eatery nearly three decades ago.

Located at the corner of Appleway Avenue and Barker Road, Capitol joins White House Grill and Oval Office Bistro in Post Falls and the Pentagon in Liberty Lake. It also represents a new partnership for Erdem, who has brought his nephew and longtime employee Emre Basar into ownership after working alongside him for 15 years.

For Erdem, opening another restaurant was never about adding another pin to the map.

“Zero,” he said, when asked how long he had planned to open another restaurant. “We weren’t even decided that we needed to open a restaurant. We were just looking at spots. We just wanted the game to come to us.”

Once they stepped inside the building, both owners saw an opportunity.

“He found this, and then we came together and we walked inside,” Basar said. “We said this is the place where we want to open the restaurant because this is close to Liberty Lake, there aren’t a lot of restaurants our style in the area, and it’s a good neighborhood.”

The restaurant has undergone a complete transformation since Erdem took ownership on Jan. 1.

Everything reflects the vision he and Basar developed after spending days inside the building imagining what the finished product could become.

“This is the fifth restaurant that we are designing,” Erdem said. “We buy or find the property first, and we pretty much put our sleeping bags in the restaurant for like a week. We wake up in the middle of the night and see what we’re going to do. That’s how we design the restaurants. No architect, no designer, nobody.”

That hands-on approach has become part of Erdem’s philosophy. Whether he is opening a restaurant or buying a house, he said he starts with the same question.

“Every restaurant that I open, it’s always what’s in my heart that matters,” he said. “I always think about what it would be if I owned it. With this one, we were like, ‘Well, this is what we can do when we own it.’ ”

The result is a restaurant designed to be approachable while still offering an elevated experience.

“We want people to come here just to have a cocktail, just have a beer or come here with the whole family to have incredible food with an incredible environment and unbelievable prices so they don’t have to break the bank,” Erdem said.

He describes the atmosphere with two words.

“Quality, casual,” he said. “You can wear your mother’s jammies and be casual and comfortable, or you can have really nice sweats and walk around. It’s the high end of casual.”

Sports will play across televisions throughout the dining room, while guests can also enjoy a jukebox, pool table, outdoor seating and cornhole. The goal, Erdem said, is to create a place where customers can stop in for a drink after work, gather with friends to watch a game or bring the entire family for dinner.

The menu follows a similar philosophy by mixing familiar favorites with dishes that venture beyond traditional bar fare.

Among the items Erdem is most excited about are Mexican potato croquettes and a flat iron steak served over mashed potatoes with a mushroom bourbon whiskey sauce.

“It’s going to be freakishly good,” he said. “We want to think outside of the borders that every chef has. We want to be adventurous with our cocktails and with our food.”

Some longtime customer favorites will make the trip to the Capitol for classics like White House Grill’s French onion soup.

“I get phone calls and text messages,” Erdem said. “People say, ‘Man, we were in Paris and their soup sucks.’ Or they go somewhere else and say, ‘I had this soup just because of you guys and it wasn’t even close.’ ”

Outside of a handful of signature dishes, however, Erdem said the menu has been built specifically for Capitol Bar & Grill.

The same creativity extends behind the bar, where Basar has taken the lead in developing the cocktail program.

Every specialty drink will be named after a first lady, with each cocktail drawing inspiration from a personality trait associated with its namesake.

For Basar, the opportunity to oversee the restaurant as both partner and general manager represents the culmination of a journey that began shortly after arriving in the United States in 2010.

“I began with the restaurant business with Raci,” Basar said. “I started on the very bottom, learning more and more every day.”

Basar spent years working his way through Erdem’s restaurants before becoming his business partner.

After moving to the United States in 2010, he joined Erdem’s team, learning every aspect of the business from the ground up. Over the next 15 years, he developed into a manager before eventually earning an ownership stake in Capitol Bar & Grill.

“Emre worked with me on and off for the last 15 years,” Erdem said. “Finally, I was like, Emre’s ready to be a part owner and take it to the next level because he’s been in the business long enough to accomplish it on his own.”

Before taking on the new role, Basar managed the Pentagon in Liberty Lake and also worked as a bartender at the Peacock Lounge inside the Davenport Hotel.

Now, he’ll oversee Capitol’s day-to-day operations while continuing to learn as he steps into ownership.

“I’m hoping to learn more and not make mistakes,” Basar said. “Hire a friendly, awesome team. It’s a bit more responsibility than my other job, but I can handle it.”

His goal for the restaurant is ambitious.

“I want to make this restaurant the best restaurant in Washington state,” he said.

Erdem joked that his own role will be much simpler.

“Emre will be not only the partner, he’ll be the general manager,” Erdem said. “I have a chef, Bruce Alderton, that’s worked with me for 10 or 12 years. He’s going to run the kitchen and I will come and count the money for them.”

While Capitol represents a new chapter, Erdem’s own restaurant story began thousands of miles away.

After moving to the United States from Turkey, he found work as a “coffee boy” in a Turkish restaurant in New York. It didn’t take long for him to realize he had found the career he wanted.

“I promised myself that I would never do anything but the restaurant business,” Erdem said. “I was in love with just being a coffee boy, and then later on busboy. I was in love with the business.”

Thirty-five years later, he said that passion has never faded.

“It’s that adrenaline rush,” he said. “It’s always a new day. It doesn’t matter how good or bad your last day was. New days bring new challenges. There’s always room to grow. It’s always action-packed, getting to know new people.”

That mindset helped grow what started as a seven-table White House Grill in Post Falls in 1996 into a restaurant group that now employs nearly 200 people.

After outgrowing its original space, White House Grill moved into the former Wells Fargo building on Spokane Street in 2004, allowing the restaurant to nearly triple in size. The original location later became the Oval Office, which was demolished and rebuilt before reopening in December 2024. The Pentagon followed in Liberty Lake about seven years ago.

Erdem previously operated the West Wing on Spokane’s South Hill before closing it in 2014.

Today, he estimates that about 40% to 45% of White House Grill’s customers come from Washington state, giving him confidence that the region could support additional restaurants.

For all of the restaurants’ political names, the inspiration came from a personal experience shortly after Erdem arrived in America.

“When we first opened, I didn’t have a green card, so I tried to get my green card as fast as possible,” he said, with a laugh. “I said, if I name the restaurants White House, Oval Office, Pentagon, ICE cannot kick me out.”

Beyond the names, Erdem believes the people inside the restaurants have always mattered more than the buildings themselves. The company has grown from no employees to nearly 200, something he considers one of his greatest accomplishments.

“Lots of business owners will say that they hate the restaurant business because of the employees,” Erdem said. “To me, it’s the best part of it. It’s been an unbelievable experience for me to get to know not just our employees, but meeting lots of people. It’s been priceless.”

The fast pace is another reason he has never lost his enthusiasm.

“I love the restaurant business because it’s a challenge,” he said. “Every day is a challenge. Every day is fun. Every day is hectic. Some of my chefs call me Captain Hectic because I do love that environment. I like the craziness.”

The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner seven days a week. During football season, the doors will open at 10 a.m. on weekends for NFL games.