Those who know me know that when I attend conventions, I pay as much attention to the dining options outside the event as I do to the programming within. So it was with Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention.

So I scoped out Spokane’s culinary highlights, and then managed to hit almost all of what I’d planned. (Though I’m sorry to have missed out on Frank’s Diner. Sorry, but my stomach can only do so much. Breakfast there will have to wait until some future trip to Spokane.)

I wish I could have shared my eating adventures while the con was still going on, because one friend admitted to me that if he wanted to know where to eat on any given day, he could simply look at where I’d eaten the day before. In any case, here’s some of what what crossed my lips last week during Worldcon.

Satellite Diner

I arrived in Spokane late Sunday night, and ended up starting off in that city at the restaurant where I thought I’d end my visit more than a week later Monday morning before my pre-dawn flight to Dulles. The Satellite Diner is open every night until 4:00 a.m., and so is the perfect place to get sober before heading home … or in my case, to grab a late-night dinner after tumbling off a cross-country flight. My bacon Swiss burger with lettuce, tomatoes, and red onion was exactly what it was supposed to be, prepared by a master short order cook whom it was a delight to watch as I ate.

Wild Dawgs

I spent 16 hours Monday engaged in a secret mission the details of which I probably won’t be able to share with you for another three months, which meant that once I finally stopped running around and was ready to eat, options were limited, especially for a weeknight. So I ended up at one of Spokane’s few other late-night restaurants, Wild Dawgs, the kind of joint where the dogs themselves are barely visible under a mound of ingredients which don’t always sound at first as if they should go together, but do. I opted for an offering called Dogs Gone Wild, which was piled with mozzarella, ham, bacon, grilled onions, ketchup, dip sauce, spicy sauce, and pineapple sauce. And it couldn’t have been better. (Which will surprise those of you who think I only eat tweezer food.)

Sweet Frostings Blissful Bakery

I was planning to spend Tuesday visiting Couer d’Alene plus the amazing Robot Hut, so I arrived at Sweet Frostings Blissful Bakeshop just as it opened for a quick bite before I hit the road. They specialized in cupcakes, which I learned by bumping into two representatives of the D.C. in ’17 Worldcon bid who were there the same time I was, arranging for the 18 dozen cupcakes they’d be feeding fans Wednesday night. But some things shouldn’t be ingested before noon, cupcakes and alcohol being two of them (I know, I’m funny that way), and so I had four macarons: lemon, orange, strawberry, and lavender. Their texture was delicate and their flavor was true. What more can one ask for?

Famous Willie’s Barbecue

While exploring where to eat while on Tuesday’s peregrinations, it seemed to me that (at least according to Yelp) Idaho promised better BBQ options than Washington. And so I ended up at Famous Willie’s in Post Falls, Idaho, which based on the sign outside, promised the “Best Ribs in America.” I ordered the Rancher’s Deluxe, which came with my choice of three meats, so I picked Cajun spareribs, sliced brisket, and Cajun smoked sausage.

When explaining the meal to a fellow BBQ fiend later that night, I described it in terms to which I’m sure the pit master would have objected, but which coming from me was a compliment. That is: It was perfectly adequate BBQ. Look, once you’ve eaten at Franklin BBQ, the bar is set rather high, plus I’ve eaten a ton of bad BBQ in my life. If I don’t push it away, grimace while eating it, or bury it in sauce in order to be able to swallow it, that’s a recommendation. And if passing through Post Falls, I would go back for seconds.

Sante Restaurant and Charcuterie
breakfast

I knew I’d be having dinner at Sante Restaurant and Charcuterie deeper into Sasquan, but breakfast is a whole different animal. Which is probably the wrong metaphor, since I think I ate parts of the same animal both at that dinner and at Wednesday’s breakfast. Off a very tempting menu, I chose the maple pancakes with caramelized peaches plus peppercorn cured and applewood smoked bacon plus farm fresh sunny side up eggs. Everything on my plate was superior. One of my few culinary regrets about my trip to Spokane is that I was not able to squeeze in additional breakfasts at Sante.

Common Crumb Artisan Bakery

I only got to Sante twice, but I ended up at their bakery a few blocks away, Common Crumb, four times. Not only for breakfasts and light snacks (such as the maple pecan scone above), but also for treats to distribute at the Future of Food panel in which I participated at Sasquan. (I passed around an excellent challah plus rewarded audience members who asked questions I deemed excellent with macaroons.) Common Crumb never disappointed me, and I know in my heart that if I lived in Spokane, I’d be in danger of dropping by daily.

Shutters Café

I hate, hate, hate eating in hotel restaurants. (Well, I did make an exception during one World Fantasy Convention for Daniel Boulud.) When I eat out, I want to go to a place that gives me the sense of its city, and hotel restaurants generally have that “there is no there there” feel of airport food courts. There’s only one person once a year for whom I’m willing to make an exception. And so I ended up Thursday morning having huckleberry pancakes at the Doubletree Hotel‘s restaurant with Bob Silverberg. They were inoffensive, but would I go back again? Only if Bob Silverberg required it.

The Wandering Table

The Wandering Table provided some of my favorite dishes of the weekend, especially the Bacon-Wrapped Bacon above. (Could you have resisted a dish with that name? Well, the vegetarians among you, yes. But not the rest of you.) Every course was a winner, from the Buffalo-style chicharones to the olive oil gelato. May I go back to eat my way through the rest of the menu, please?

Queen of Sheba

After our Future of Food panel, I took off with co-panelist Fran Wilde for Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant, where I did something that those who know me will recognize as unsual—I ate vegetarian. Their vegetarian combination Plate included Yatakilt Alicha (potatoes, carrots, and cabbage sautéed with onions, garlic, ginger, and turmeric), Yemishir Kik W’et (Split red lentils cooked in berbere sauce), Shiro (ground chickpeas mildly spiced and cooked with chopped onions and tomatoes), and Yaterkik Alicha (yellow split-peas cooked with turmeric, onions and garlic). It was good, with enough spice to clear my smoke-clogged sinuses, but because to me, a meal without meat seems to be missing an important component, I also ordered an appetizer of beef sambussa. Nice job all around.

Sante Restaurant and Charcuterie
dinner

I returned to Sante Restaurant and Charcuterie for dinner Friday night with a group of friends, where I my main course was salmon with couscous, carrots, celery, onion, apple, basil, and an apricot butter sauce. The fish was perfectly cooked, the foie gras was tasty, and the bread pudding, made from Common Crumb’s scraps, was excellent. But—and this was surprising for a restaurant with the word charcuterie in its name—the charcuterie board failed to impress. I do wish I could have returned to work my way through more of the menu, though.

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit

I tried—and failed—to get locals to commit to which Spokane BBQ joint was the best. Longhorn had its partisans, as did Dickey’s, with lovers of one dissing the other, and a few even recommended Chicken-N-More as having the best BBQ in town. But with a limited number of Sasquan meal slots, I had to choose one. And I went with Dickey’s, where I ordered a three-meat platter of ribs, brisket, sausage, with beans and potato salad. The ribs were the star here, with the brisket and sausage not faring well against my memory of Wednesday’s lunch at Famous Willie’s. Would I return? Maybe. But if so, I’d stick to the ribs.

Mizuna

My final meal at Spokane, after Sasquan had wound down and only the dead dog parties remained, was at Mizuna, where I was lucky enough to dine with four fellow foodies, which meant we shared everything, including the spinach arancini (crispy risotto balls with parmesan and pecorino, basil-tomato sauce, walnut pesto) you see above. I was pleased with pretty much every dish, but especially the house-smoked trout bruschetta, the duck leg confit, and the cashew-crusted key lime tart. While we had no vegetarians present, their vegetarian menu looked equally as intriguing.

Bottom line: I ate better in Spokane than I’d thought I would, which says more about my inaccurate advance reading of Spokane foodie options than it says about the city itself. I now know that if a future trip were to bring me back, I would not be disappointed.