Bloglander

Happy IPA Day! There’s almost nowhere better to celebrate than right here near world-famous hops country.

If you missed it, Ciao Mambo in downtown Spokane closed its doors at the beginning of this week to reopen as a MacKenzie River Pizza, Grill & Pub this fall.

The new August-September issue of InHealth features some delicious veggies on the cover, along with a story about shopping local food at farmers markets with Chef Jeremy Hansen of Sante. There’s also Chef Eric Johnsen’s recipe for Saranac’s excellent vegan black bean burger. So pick up a copy when you see it around town.

OK, moving on to the alcohol and junk food: Dawn of the Donut, Spokane’s own zombie-themed shop, opened to much media fanfare.

If chocolate chip cookies go with milk, then what goes with wine? Kelly Cooper, author of Cookies for Grown-Ups, is in town promoting her book with two events that pair her cookie recipes — think flavors like habanero and orange, or pretzel-and-mustard — with wine and beer. Tonight the event is at Hills’ Restaurant and Lounge, and tomorrow there is another at Rocket Market on the South Hill.

Regardless of whether you’re more of a wine person or a beer person, there’s an event suited to your tastes this weekend: Silver Mountain Resort hosts Brews Fest on Saturday with 18 breweries, and then about 50 wineries come together for Vintage Spokane on Sunday. This week’s Entree newsletter has the details, along with news of the Froyo Earth empire expanding to Cheney in mid-August.

Riverfront Park’s annual fall beer festival is signing up breweries now, and it will no longer be called Oktoberfest — now it’s the Inland NW Craft Beer Festival. Participating breweries are still asked to offer a fall seasonal or pumpkin beer.

If you’re looking for a career change, River City has a rare opening for a new brewer.

One more beer note: The Daily Meal polled readers on the 25 best U.S. craft breweries. It’s a solid list but — spoiler alert — no Washington or Idaho breweries are the on it. But a national poll on craft breweries is kind of like holding a national poll on favorite baseball teams — most craft breweries aren’t big enough or widely distributed enough to have a national following. And that’s part of the fun.

Read previous food news here.