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Young Kwak

Grilled Pork Chop from Clover.

Like last year, the Inlander and Visit Spokane invited a handful of local public figures to dine out for Inlander Restaurant Week and tell us about the experience. Read more responses and stories here.

Author Jess Walter recently pointed out how much the Spokane dining scene has changed in the past few years in his update to Statistical Abstract for My Home of Spokane, Washington. For Restaurant Week, Walter dined at Clover and offered this description of the experience:

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The service was great, as usual — beginning with Cameron the bartender, who makes a terrific Manhattan and an even better Bobby Burns, the hostess, who indulged us wanting to swap tables, and the courteous, efficient wait staff.

After the shitake mushroom soup and the Clover salad, we had the wild Alaskan halibut (the mango salsa was especially good) and the grilled pork chop, which was perfectly prepared and was paired with a wonderful red-pepper gastrique. (I once drove a '78 Gastrique, which got terrible mileage.) For dessert we had the orangesicle cake and the salted caramel and chocolate tartlet. (I once drove a '81 Tartlet. It had bucket seats.)

All in all it was a great meal, a great night out and a reminder that while downtown still has great restaurants, the exciting thing about Spokane these days is the way the neighborhoods have become such great destinations for dinner (South Perry, West Central, Gonzaga, Garland, etc …)