When you’re done reading this, look up. You might spot one of the No-Li billboards that are all over town. Their message consists of just two words: “We Believe.”
It’s a simple declaration of No-Li’s faith in the resilience, ingenuity and compassion of the human spirit.
That spirit was embodied by Samuel “Sammy” Grashio.
In 1917, the year before he was born, Sammy’s family emigrated to the United States from Naples, Italy. They came through Ellis Island and made their way westward to Spokane, home of their citizenship sponsor, Gonzaga University’s St. Aloysius Catholic Church. The Grashio family grew along with the bustling young city, working for the railroad, making wine, becoming barbers and starting a fresh produce cart that would become Sil’s Produce.
More than a year before the declaration of World War II, Sammy chose to serve his country and enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a pilot. He became a war hero who survived the infamous Bataan Death March and led a daring prisoner escape from a Japanese POW camp through the jungles of the Philippines — the only successful mass escape from Japanese captivity during the war. After months of fighting alongside Filipino guerrillas, he escaped to Australia by submarine. It’s the stuff of legend, all detailed in his acclaimed 1982 memoir, Return to Freedom.
Sammy’s sense of duty and honor did not end with the war. He continued his military service until 1965, rising to the rank of colonel. Once he returned to his beloved hometown, he went on to become assistant to the president of Gonzaga University — the same institution that had been so pivotal to his family’s history and success.
That’s the legacy that No-Li cofounder Cindy Bryant (whose grandfather Sil was Sammy’s cousin) aims to honor through the brewery. The fact that the No-Li Brewhouse is now an anchor of the Gonzaga neighborhood has only made that connection stronger.
“Our whole goal from the very beginning was to build community, to be a place of gathering,” she says. “It might sound a little cliché, but when you come together with other people in our Bier Hall and get to know them, you find that you have more in common than not.”
Those bonds — forged over beer and conversation, strengthened by outreach and engagement — are what No-Li wants to remind us of with that simple phrase, “We Believe.”
“It’s about believing in each other and the greatness that we have as a community,” she adds. “And it’s about maintaining that belief in ourselves no matter what. Whether we’re doing great or we’re momentarily down, we always need to lift each other up.”
