DINING Hedge Your Bets

A lot of dining fads have come and gone in the 60 years or so since THE HEDGE HOUSE first opened in Spokane, and now the landmark yellow clapboard house with the hedge out front has reopened under new guidance. While the outside hasn't changed — the front door still opens directly onto busy Monroe Street rather than the parking lot — there's a redesigned menu and a spiffed-up interior, right down to the white tablecloths and cherry-red cloth napkins. The place is updated, but it's still aiming to be a classic steaks-and-seafood dinner club, says chef/owner Larry Breedlove. Full Story

The Inlander Staff

OLIVE OILZ

The décor at Olive Oilz doesn't scream Italian — it's more Americana — but the menu is all Mediterranean, from Spanish paella ($25) to pasta and a dozen enticing antipasti (appetizers). The soups are outstanding — the creamy tomato vegetable soup with Gorgonzola and the rich creamy curried lentil alone are worth a visit. Among entrées, the orzo pasta with chicken featured tender chunks of chicken in a lemon-basil cream sauce ($18). The New York strip steak with wild-mushroom Gorgonzola sauce ($22) arrived in bite-size pieces, and it was almost melt-in-your-mouth tender. The pasta with large prawns ($18) — angel hair pasta in a tomato-saffron sauce with Italian sausage and prawns — was amazing and popular. The homestyle crab cakes shared a plate with a small lettuce salad ($15), both topped with a subtle sun-dried tomato pesto. Two breads, baked in-house, accompanied the meal. We finished with a hopped-up, piece-of-pie-shaped brownie ($6.50), moist, with a crumbly top layer, drizzled chocolate frosting and chocolate shavings. From bread to dessert, Olive Oilz is friendly, cozy and comfortable. 2812 E. 30th Ave., 535-3104 (DN) Full Story

by ARI LEVAUX

The United Nations is calling the recent increase in world hunger a "silent tsunami," as if it were triggered by an event at the bottom of the ocean. I'd call the crisis a storm, brewed by several converging forces, all of which, it turns out, are man-made. It's a storm that some have been predicting for a long time, and now, finally, the U.N. is taking notice. Full Story