Year in Review: Food

The Local-is-Global Department
We sensed the direction that 2008 would take in the food world back in November 2007 when the New Oxford American Dictionary chose “locavore” — one dedicated to eating only foods grown within a limited distance of home — as its word of the year. Any lingering doubt vanished on Jan. 1, 2008, with the release of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, his follow-up book to The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In the book, Pollan recommends shopping at farmers markets, buying through community-supported agriculture programs and generally becoming more aware of where food comes from. His message resonated across the country — so much so that a grassroots movement formed late in the year to draft Pollan as secretary of agriculture in the new administration. (It didn’t work; President-elect Obama selected former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.) Pollan continues to lobby Obama to rename the Department of Agriculture as the Department of Food.

The national trend toward local, organic and sustainable food certainly took hold in the Inland Northwest. Spokane got its own chapter of the international Slow Food movement during 2007, but the Slow Food Spokane River group really picked up steam during 2008. In January, the group helped bring King Corn (a) to Spokane for a showing at the (late, lamented) Magic Lantern Theater, followed by a discussion of the issues raised by the documentary film — like what it takes to grow an acre of corn the usual way, and what happens to all that corn once it’s harvested. (Hint: You are what you eat.)

Slow Food also joined with Save Our Wild Salmon and Get Lit! in April to host a luncheon — featuring a menu of, yes, wild salmon, along with other locally sourced foods — at the Spokane Club with author (and fly fisherman and environmental advocate) David James Duncan (d). In June, the group hosted the second annual Urban Chicken Coop Tour, demonstrating how urban dwellers may now join the experiment to determine whether the chicken or the egg actually came first. And later in the summer, the group helped launch the planning, recruiting and fundraising efforts for the Main Market, a soon-to-come (we hope) nonprofit year-round food co-op in downtown Spokane.

This year also saw the growth of neighborhood farmers markets in places like Liberty Lake, Millwood, Cheney and the Perry neighborhood to complement the established markets in Coeur d’Alene (and Hayden), Moscow, Sandpoint and downtown Spokane. With more markets in the area, local producers now have market opportunities nearly every day of the week throughout the summer. That still doesn’t solve the problem of who’s going to farm while the farmer is selling at the market (or who runs the booth while the farmer farms), but at least more markets mean more chances for eaters and producers to come face to face. Indoor winter markets are beginning to take hold as well, in Coeur d’Alene, Moscow, Millwood and downtown Spokane (in the Community Building), and Fresh Abundance expanded into an additional space on North Division.

The national trend toward local eating hit home when Millwood pastor Craig Goodwin and his family decided to spend the year eating more locally, living more simply and generally becoming more aware of where their household purchases came from. Goodwin blogged about the experience, from the joys of walking more to the challenges of finding used shoes that meet the fashion sensibilities of an 8-year-old girl. He shared several “dark night of the soul” kinds of experiences, and wrestled with whether or not a single family’s efforts could really have any meaning. Back in April, he posted this entry under the heading, “Why Bother?”: “I like the way the preacher from the book of Hebrews puts it: ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’ It’s a tenacious orientation of hopefulness in the midst of the everyday. It’s a conviction that the primary plot line I find myself a part of is redemption, and that my daily actions are somehow part of that grand story. That’s why I bother.”

As the year wore on, “local” became such a buzzword that it began moving from novelty to commodity — and in the process, a backlash emerged. As more and more restaurants jump on the “local” bandwagon, some of the original pioneers are now fine-tuning the focus toward sustainability. (We can hear the cry now: “Local is so 2007.”) As Pollan and other voices point out, sustainable food production is about more than where your lettuce came from; the equation really is more complicated than “local is best.” Local is good, no doubt; but local is not the only factor to consider.

The best thing about the national trend toward local and sustainable food is that more and more people are now paying attention to where their food comes from, how it’s grown, how it gets to the plate — and who gets it there. Building a web of relationships between farmers, restaurants and eaters means food isn’t anonymous anymore.

The Dining-Out Department
Spokane’s restaurant scene continued its arc of growth in the first half of 2008, after a couple of early bumps. In January, a series of snowstorms hindered transportation in the region (sound familiar?) and restaurants felt the pinch. The month saw a couple of notable closures: Meritage shut down operations just a little more than a year after it opened on the plaza behind Howard and Riverside, and the Cielo Bakery on Northwest Boulevard closed its retail shop (causing much mourning over the loss of peanut butter and jelly bars and dirt bombs). But once the weather cleared, the dining scene continued to expand — at least through the summer. The Melting Pot came to the Skywalk, and Ambrosia’s owners vaulted to the north side with Café Neo. Empty spaces were quickly filled: Santorini’s Greek restaurant moved into Meritage’s space, and a new Slick Rock Burrito set up shop where the Cielo Bakery was. The Liberty Café next to Auntie’s closed, and the space was taken over by Jeremy and Kate Hansen, who opened Santé Restaurant and Charcuterie in late October.

As the national and international economic news turned dire in the second half of the year, though, our spate of openings began to slow. We haven’t seen any major restructuring of the dining biz here — at least not yet — but it’s been a slower-than-usual fall for many area restaurants. Stilo’s in Liberty Lake quietly closed its doors in the summer; downtown, ella’s (f) sputtered and shut down in August. On Grand, 1228 Tapas went away, leaving vacant a space that seems like it should work — but hasn’t for a long time. Churchill’s (b) stopped grilling their prize steaks after fire heavily damaged their building in July; rumor has it they will reopen, but we’ve heard nothing definite.

Two North Idaho restaurants made phoenix-like returns during this year: Arlo’s in Sandpoint reopened after being damaged by fire last year, and the Post Falls edition of Capone’s returned in May, following the arson fire of the previous July. (The former owner of competitor Paddy’s faces felony arson charges for the crime.)

Among newcomers — and tied to the grand theme of local/sustainable eating — Natural Start Bakery (c) opened in a little red house on Hamilton near Gonzaga. The bakery’s owners are committed to sourcing as much of their food locally as they can, and they’re happy to talk about the benefits of sustainable agriculture. In keeping with the emphasis on relationships, they’ve posted photos of local farmers who are among their suppliers. And their treats aren’t just ethically pure — they’re pretty dang tasty. (In fact, a fruit-and-oat bar would go really well with my coffee right about now.)

Restaurateur and chef William Webster kept busy this year as well, opening Zola across from Isabella’s early in the year and then taking on Fugazzi and Cavallino’s lounge in the Hotel Lusso. Fugazzi now operates under the name 360 — signifying a return to the restaurant’s original Italian-influenced raison d’etre, according to partner Michael Ravens.