Durkin’s Liquor Bar: A Century-Old Legacy of Great Food and Drinks

BY JEFF FIJOLEK

At the turn of the 20th century, Jimmie Durkin, originally born in England, settled in Spokane, opening a handful of liquor stores. Over the next few decades, Durkin’s larger-than-life personality cemented his place in the history of Downtown Spokane. His liquor houses were adorned with cages filled with canaries to serenade patrons and he allowed supporters of the era’s booming temperance movement to decorate the street-facing windows about the horrors of drinking—a publicity stunt that likely helped contribute to his local notoriety, advertising that he hosted “the only liquor store in America whose windows were decorated by a Baptist Minister.”

Durkin’s Number 3 House at 415 W Main Avenue closed its doors in 1915 when Washington put in place its own laws prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, five years prior to the Eighteenth Amendment becoming national law.

Close to a century later, local restaurateur Deb Green along with her adult children, Ben Poffenroth and Megan VanStone, owned Casper Fry, a southern-inspired restaurant in Spokane’s South Perry District, and their bakery, Madeleine’s Café & Patisserie, was looking for a new space. Green says the family had to be talked into opening a restaurant in Downtown Spokane, but with a concept in mind, they opened Durkin’s Liquor Bar at 415 W Main in 2014, moving Madeleine’s next door.

In the years since, Durkin’s has become a downtown staple, serving great food and tipples to locals and travelers alike. The downstairs bar–where locals in the know could still stealthily enjoy a drink during the days of prohibition–now welcomes a new generation of guests to enjoy a cocktail menu programmed by Poffenroth, featuring house-aged whiskey more, surrounded by smile-inducing wallpaper and oil paintings in ornate frames curated by Green and VanStone. Casper Fry closed in 2022, so the family spends more time together at their de facto headquarters on Main these days.

“We work as a family because we want to work together as a family,” says Green.

On Friday nights, the upstairs restaurant fills up early and stays busy until long after the sun sets, the galley kitchen and bar serving as a crowded ballet delivering up drinks, oysters, french fries and more on vintage plates to guests all evening long.

From the tin ceiling just as Jimmie Durkin left it to the Edison bulbs lighting their basement and Spokane’s favorite burger in between, Durkin’s Liquor Bar has proved itself as an establishment both committed to supporting the local culinary scene as well as setting the standard for others.

We spent the day with Green, Poffenroth and Executive Chef Jarrott Moonitz as they worked their way through some Durkin’s staples and tested out items that might find their way onto the restaurant’s Spring menu or at a later date. They shared stories of the past, their family and what they see for the future of the restaurant and Spokane.

“When I first left, I said I would never come back,” Jarrott Moonitz recounts.

A native of Spokane, Moonitz worked various kitchen jobs like washing dishes at Manito Country Club and Rock City Grill before graduating from Lewis & Clark High School and moving to Seattle to study photography. It was there that he met some culinary students and started to get serious about cooking.

Moonitz moved to Portland to pursue the dream of living in a “culinary city” but after 12 years away, he says it was tiring to be in such a competitive place, especially in the age of social media. He and his wife, Susana, returned to Spokane in 2022, embarking on a new adventure, buying a house that dates back to 1898 and settling into the job at Durkin’s. 

“When I left Spokane the first time, food wasn’t necessarily the highlight of the city. I think a lot of people stayed here and worked hard to make it better. I came back and just wanted to join that renaissance of restaurants in Spokane,” says Moonitz.

After interviewing for the job with Deb and Ben, Moonitz sifted through cookbooks and returned with three handwritten pages of notes full of menu ideas that he felt would fit in well at Durkin’s. He has been the executive chef here going on a year now; Deb says she still has those menu notes saved down in her office.

“I came into a perfectly good restaurant,” says Moonitz. “I didn’t have to fix anything, I just got to add to it.”

Much has been written about the hamburger at Durkin’s, with it often being cited as one of Spokane’s best–and it is. 

The beef is ground in house. They make the cheese, too.

The dill mayonnaise and pickles? You guessed it. Buns are baked special next door at Madeleine’s. The only element of the dish Durkin’s can’t take credit for is the onion.

“That burger is now built into the fiber of what we do here. Was it our intention to sell so many burgers? No. It can be a bit of a thorn in our side when we have a great chicken dish and only sell eight of them in one night–meanwhile we’ll sell 118 burgers. So it’s a trade-off,” Green muses. “Having Jarrott here bodes so well for us because he’s able to bring in new things and evolve the menu in a way that still suits the restaurant. That burger is always going to be here and it doesn’t change, but this dish might not be here in three months so you should try that.”

On the day of our visit, Moonitz works his way through a variety of dishes that he has been planning out as the seasons change.

Boudin blanc with grilled endive, bleu cheese, radishes, candied pecans and a dijon tarragon vinegar.

Roasted Pacific oysters with bacon, shallot and a sherry cream sauce, topped with fried cracker crumbs and fresh herbs.

Sous vide leeks with a tarragon and dijon vinaigrette, topped with pistachio and leek ash.

Grilled rosemary and thyme-crusted pork chop with spring vegetables and potatoes in a white wine and cream sauce.

“I think all my menus are just kind of based on a sense of place and whatever I feel about it. Whether it’s at a lodge I worked at in Oregon where we were literally in the Cascade Mountains and served a lot of Alpine-style food or here,” says Moonitz.“I’m approaching the menu now with food that just feels like it was meant to be here. When Deb and Ben decorated the restaurant, it was based on the history of what the space had been before and what it could be again, so that’s where the food is taking me. It’s supposed to represent the place, a little bit of me, a little bit of them, and a little bit of Jimmie Durkin.”

Moonitz recognizes that this location has always been a meeting place for people in Spokane and strives to deliver food that the city can be proud of and enjoy, whether that is boudin blanc or a bologna sandwich. 

With its proximity to many of the downtown hotels, Durkin’s welcomes in its fair share of out-of-towners as well, and Moonitz hopes to send them home with something to talk about. Maybe just for the season, maybe for the next century.

For more information visit durkinsliquorbar.com

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