Nothing says summer like enjoying good food, good music and good friends in the great outdoors. Crave! Spokane’s premier foodie event of the summer, offers just that and more! The largest culinary event in the Spokane area returns July 14-16, 2022 at the Centerplace Regional Event Center in Spokane Valley, gathering the best from the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene regions. Hosted under outdoor tents, attendees get to watch each chef and their team as they prepare tapas-style dishes inspired by each night’s theme.

BBQ is the flavor of the moment, the air filled with delicious scents of grilled meats, smoked fish, and even charred veggies. Meghan Fitzgerald tells us how to pair our favorite grilled dishes with the perfect glass of wine. Whether you feel like burgers or oysters, or just want to throw a couple pizzas on the grill, you’ll find a crisp white wine or a bold red variety to compliment your meal.

The mimosa, blending sparkling wine, such as Champagne or Prosecco, with juice, like orange or grapefruit, is a bright and refreshing way to start off breakfast or brunch but can be enjoyed any time you might need to fight off a case of the “scaries” or scurvy.

It is customary if not mandatory to indulge in a libation or two on St. Patrick’s Day, whether your blood runs green or not. St Patty’s Day signature beverages are often concoctions crafted around either beer or whiskey, possibly dyed green and/or mixed with a splash or more of Irish cream. But the big bold flavors associated with traditional Irish fare can certainly stand up to a good red or white wine if beer and whiskey aren’t your lucky charms!

Adding flowers to dishes adds incredible beauty to your plate while enhancing the flavors from the rest of the food. Whether you grow or buy these specialty garnishes, here is a flower guide to fancy up your next recipe or drink.

With an innovative model type, Spokane’s very own SquareKeg maximizes space and makes it easy to store specialty beverages. Storing specialty craft drinks right to your refrigerator and transporting them has never been easier.

As the drink scene grows in Spokane, vintage-style drinking vinegars are finding their way back into the mix. Drinking vinegars serve as a versatile addition to any beverage with tart, fruity and sour flavors.

Despite its global influence and larger-than-life reputation, Diedrich remains headquartered in Sandpoint, Idaho, its home home since the early 1990s. Specialty coffee roasters are utilizing the company’s machinery not only in the Inland Northwest but across the world. They’re trusting Diedrich with their beans for some very good reasons.

What started online in 2015 as an inspiration for better health for her family has quickly become more than just another packaged food company. Idaho’s Snacktivist Foods is a Gluten Free and Vegan, Woman Owned, B-Corp company that actually works towards the true goal of making a better product for everyone, including the earth.

After honing their coffee craft in Portland, Jamie Kay Christianson and Hope Hines return to Spokane with Espuma Coffee. Now the pair plan to build a brand that can make an impact on both a local and global level.

Gardening in Spokane and the Inland Northwest can be exciting and rewarding. Our spring weather is ideal for vegetables like lettuce, beets and broccoli to grow and thrive. During summer we have plenty of cloud free days and heat to help ripen warm weather crops like tomatoes and peppers. By fall the slow growing vegetables like pumpkins will be ready to harvest.

With an emphasis on sustainable agriculture, Hierophant Meadery offers the Inland Northwest with a variety of mead, an alcoholic and honey-based beverage. Its tasting room is located in Green Bluff, where visitors can purchase flights of mead and sit outside by the fire.

In 2009, Will and Jackie Jordan moved to Green Bluff to help out on her parent’s farm before starting their cider operation. Now Twilight Cider uses local produce from Green Bluff to create a range of ciders including seasonal releases and experimental one-offs you’ll want to snap up while they last like spiced apple, peach, hopped apricot and black cherry rhubarb.

In 2000, teachers Craig and Jane Deitz moved their family to Green Bluff to farm raspberries as a summer project, quickly becoming Bodacious Berries farm. Several years later, Craig started fermenting beer in their shower and began pulling pints for Green Bluff visitors looking for a drink after a day of picking pumpkins and fruits. Turns out people liked a little beer along with their berries!

Stacie Kearney never expect her bread-making hobby to go any further than the confines of her home kitchen. But when COVID-19 shut down businesses and yeast flew off store shelves, Kearney sprung into action selling loaves of her Lucky Lady Bread and sharing her beloved sourdough starter “Carl" with those in the community in need of a little lift.

Free Little Pantries (LFPs) is a grassroots effort to fill the gap in our food system, ensuring that there is access to food 365 days a year. LFPs are popping up all around the country, and the Inland Northwest has taken this mission to heart. Spokane has 20 locations and counting.

With a mission to provide access to good, clean food, volunteers with the Spokane Community Garden Alliance use public spaces to grow healthy, fresh produce to the under-served and local families in need.

Emily and Luke Black of Lone Mountain Farms moved to Athol, Idaho to get away from the hustle and bustle, but their farm and brewery operation are now bringing new crowds looking to enjoy old-style beers straight to their door.

Townshend Cellar develops and serves wines for every occasion, mood and meal. From whites to reds, the variety of locally made wines boosts the specialty drink presence in Green Bluff and the Spokane area. Venturing out to Green Bluff is the perfect opportunity to check this winery out and go wine tasting.

Within Washington State there is already a beautiful diversity of wine in terms of style and varietals. Add some international, old-world-techniques and you have the potential for a blend that is much more than the sum of its parts.

Andy LaBolle has always been interested in coffee, and his passion is on display at West Plains Roasters in Cheney.

Since launching Revival Tea at local farmers markets in 2019, Drew and Cerina Henry have opened a Downtown tasting room, a second production facility, and can be found on retail shelves and menus around town, fueling Spokane’s tea scene.

Tucked into a prime spot in downtown Spokane’s historic Liberty Building, Gander & Ryegrass offers refined, unhurried, multi-coursed dinners, which chef-owner Peter Froese describes as “Italian-inspired long-course meals.”

Creating New England-style ales and with local ingredients from the Inland Northwest, co-owners Chris and Jason Gass of YaYa Brewing in Spokane Valley have a hit brewery on their hands, but success doesn’t come without a few arguments. Of course, that perhaps should be expected when brothers start a business together.

With 30 years of ranching under their belts, the Wieselers aren’t always tending calves in their bathroom. During a typical winter they have a straw-filled cattle trailer in the field and a hospital barn set up to handle bad weather, but as Washington faces more and more extreme temperatures, farmers like the Wieselers are having to improvise in order to protect their livelihoods.

The process of making tamales can be labor intensive. Many Hispanic families make it tradition to craft and enjoy tamales around the holidays, allowing for family members to learn the process and help along the way.