Marrakesh

Travel to North Africa for $17.50

Reviewed January 2008 -  Spokane Coeur d'Alene Living
Cuisine: Moroccan / North African

Great food almost magically can take you on a trip. One bite of the right pie transports you for just a moment back to Nana's house, a sliver of perfect pizza puts you in a dive bar in Chicago or a store front in New York, and just the smell of a true taco can slip you through the border checkpoint into Tijuana.

Given this power, let me humbly suggest you book a ticket for Morocco immediately simply by calling Marrakesh for a dinner reservation any night this week. No passport is required, but plan to eat with your right hand and sit on the floor on a cushion or along a low padded couch that circles the main room used for dining.

Mamdouh will welcome you with warmth and a sparkle in his eyes. Omar might not show his face, but you'll meet him in every dish that comes out of Marrakesh's kitchen. And between the two of them, you may well forget not only that you are in a cinderblock building on Northwest Boulevard in Spokane, but what continent you are on entirely.

For much of Marrakesh's fifteen years I simply drove by the building and wondered vaguely if the restaurant was still open. From the outside, it has always looked a little worse for wear and about ready to close. Now I'm willing to pray fervently in either English or Arabic (help would be required here) that that day never comes.

Marrakesh transcends the normal dish-by-dish approach most of us use to evaluate a restaurant, and becomes a something of a journey accompanied by Mamdouh, a steaming glass of mint tea, and a bath-sized towel in your lap. And for the price of what you might pay for an appetizer alone at a high-end concept restaurant, Mamdouh and Omar set out a feast in five courses.

The meal begins when you invited to wash your all-important dining utensils (your hands) over a basin that arrives at the table with a pitcher of warm water. Then the tea and a simple saffron lentil soup laced with cumin that subtly suggest you aren't in Kansas anymore.

On the heels of the soup comes a salad of chopped and marinated tomatoes, cucumber, celery, carrots, and red cabbage that you pick up by pinching together pieces of bread that arrive with the salad.

Mamdouh arrives next with the house's Bastela Royale. Imagine a cross between a pot pie and a puff pastry, stuff it with chicken, almonds, and egg and top it with a dusting of powdered sugar and cinnamon: unexpected, surprising, and a delight.

After the Bastela come your entrées-one per person but meant to be shared (again with your hands). Choose from eleven possibilities, but allow me to suggest the Lamb M'Rouzia; Omar pares tender pieces of lamb with rice, onions, raisins, and a honey sauce. Equally wonderful and more savory is the Chicken Lemon and Olives. The meat is actually Cornish game hen, the lemons in the sauce are preserved, the olives green, and it works beautifully.

Truthfully, everything works including the baklava included for dessert. I plan to book another trip as soon as possible, and I'm tempted to spring for the special, order-ahead Mechoui dinner for 8 or more that features a whole sheep roasted on spit over charcoal.

Marrakesh
2008 W Northwest Blvd
Spokane, WA 99205
(509) 328-9733

Open 5 - 10 pm, 7 days a week.

Moxie

Upscale Comfort Food with Pacific Zing

Reviewed July 2008 -Spokane Coeur d'Alene Living
Cuisine: Euro-Asian / Bistro

Before Ian Wingate opened Moxie across the street from the Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane, he operated it for a stint in a Liberty Lake strip mall. I heard joyous whispers about Chef Ian Wingate's moist grilled meatloaf back in 2000, and made several trips to the strip mall: first to try the fabled meatloaf and then to work my way through the menu. Sad was the day-midway through this task-that I drove out to find a closed sign hanging in the window.

Thankfully Wingate resurfaced as executive chef for the Davenport, and his meatloaf made an appearance at the Palm Court. Then in 2004 Wingate returned to the smaller bistro model in downtown Spokane-combining the benefits of a central location with the attitude and freedom of a smaller restaurant.

You can still find the Charbroiled Chipotle Glazed Meatloaf on the menu paired with Sour Cream Whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes ($12 at lunch, $18 at dinner). But the best news is that the entrée is by no means the only reason to spend your dining dollars on Wingate's ‘Euro-Asian' cuisine.

What exactly is ‘Euro-Asian' food? "Think Asian flavors and French techniques," Wingate explains, and whether you typically like fusion fare or not, consider this: I've never had even a ho-hum meal at Moxie. Since it reopened, Moxie has easily been one of my top three spots locally and it has done this with a menu that has remained much the same this whole time.

Actually I'm deeply grateful for the continuity. If the Hot Turkey Sandwich ($10) ever leaves the lunch menu, I've informed the staff I will not hesitate to start a riot. With its grilled bread, house-made sage infused gravy, fresh cranberries, tempura onions and sour cream mashed potatoes, it is hands-down my favorite lunch entrée east of the Cascades.

Equally popular and justifiably so is the Sesame Seed Seared Rare Yellow Fin Tuna ($18/$24). Wingate serves it with Coconut Jasmine Rice and a Red Curry Sauce; I've ordered it repeatedly as well and only once was it anything short of stellar. Even then my complaint wasn't with the preparation but only with a mushy piece of tuna.

Show up either for lunch or dinner and chewy bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar will arrive at your table not long after you do. Once it does, order the unpretentious Up Country Greens ($6 full / $4.50 half). This is the minimalist house salad-Zen-like in simplicity-with fresh greens and a creamy Parmesan vinaigrette.

Among the small plates, try the tender Tempura Asparagus ($10) or the sweet Hawaiian Style Ahi Poke ($9) that tosses small pieces of raw Ahi, green onion, and Macadamia nuts in a chili sauce. Equally memorable from a recent special sheet was the Tempura Calamari drizzled in szcehuan sauce and served with peppers, onions, baby bok choy and ribbons of fresh basil ($10). A brilliant dinner-only option that will only get better as local produce begins to arrive in Inland Northwest kitchens is the Seared Prosciutto Wrapped Fresh Mozzarella ($9) with a tomato carpccio, white truffle vinaigrette, and fresh basil.

Feel free to simply order a number of the small plates and skip to one of the house-made desserts such as the Crepe filled with lemon curd and drizzled with chambored liquor ($7). The only serious drawback to this approach is that it means skipping a full page of entrées-contenders across the board.

Then there is the service. Given my consistently delight in the food (thanks is also due Danni Brecino for her longtime role as #2 in the kitchen), I'm tempted to invent some service mishap to give my glowing review more credibility. But the truth is that time and time again the service has matched the food. I suspect Tia Clacy, who has managed the front end since Moxie reopened, deserves credit here.

So thanks Ian for reopening and staying open with consistently high standards and a great team. I now look back on my first trip out to Liberty Lake for meatloaf as something of a pilgrimage, and I'm deeply grateful I can come in regularly for a fix of poke or MY hot turkey sandwich.

Moxie
West 816 Sprague Avenue
Spokane, WA 99201
(509) 456-3594
www.moxiemoxie.com

Mizuna

Restaurant Love

Mizuna Continues To Steal Hearts After Twelve Years

Reviewed September 2008 - Spokane Coeur d'Alene Living
Cuisine: Upscale Bistro / Vegetarian

My infatuation with Mizuna spans almost a decade now.  Your acquaintance may be even longer.  Or if you have yet to be introduced, allow me.

Mizuna opened in 1996 as the somewhat impulsive initiative of Sylvia Wilson and Tonia Buckmiller.  The two had met in California in a boarding school that served only sketchy vegetarian fare.  Wilson and Buckmiller decided they could do better and did, running a small catering business together for a while in California.  Mizuna was born when they reconnected years later up here.

I fell in love three years later: on one of my first meals in town.   Even as a committed carnivore I was immediately captivated.  Here was vegetarian food served with such flair that the absence of meat was utterly inconsequential.  Great food is great food, period.

Over the years much has changed at 214 North Howard.  Now there is sustainably-raised meat on the menu, sharing space with the organic vegetarian and vegan options.  Several different chefs have taken a spin in the kitchen.  And now neither Wilson or Buckmiller will greet you when you walk in the door.  Buckmiller sold her share of the business in 2003.  Three years later Wilson in turn passed along the keys to a long-time employee, Michael Jones.

Yet what has remained constant is the truly creative food served in one of the best restaurant spaces in the whole city.  Personally I'm a sucker for exposed brick, stained glass, and scuffed wooden floors; and Mizuna pulls these all together in a way that feels warm as well as sophisticated.  Think Seattle on the Palouse.

This goes for the service as well.  I appreciate its consistent, relaxed, but still attentive feel.  This may be due in part to Jones' own experience not as owner but as a waiter himself.  His first job at Mizuna in 1996 was out front waiting tables.

Over time the menu has evolved: gathering inspiration as different talents have spent time in the kitchen.   But the current incarnation under Michael Jones and his chef Tom Paul Nichols manages to be a brilliant blend of both Mizuna classics and their own dishes.

The salad on the menu in 1999 that played a part in me accepting a job in town (the white cheddar and apple salad) can still be ordered both at lunch and dinner.  I would order it without fail except for the disturbing fact that the roasted beet and lentil salad is equally brilliant with its chevre, candied walnuts, and red wine-maple vinaigrette.  A well-traveled friend agrees completely, pronouncing the beet salad ‘life changing.'

Yet if you stop by for dinner tonight, you'll be as tempted by recent additions as classic dishes. At the top of the list of the newcomers is easily the smoked jalapeño and honey glazed Berkshire pork chops ($28) served with a sweet potato tamale, grilled zucchini and a sweet corn salsa.  Only a whisper behind  would be the tender potato gnocchi served either with a roasted organic free-range chicken breast ($22) or more simply set on a vegetarian plate ($18).  Go either way since the star of the dish really is the gnocchi.

Jones changes the dinner menu significantly with each season, but has found that the lunch crowd appreciates more consistency.  You won't hear any complaints from me with the likes of a sesame crusted seared ahi sandwich on the lunch menu ($11) along with the Thai coconut and kaffir lime stew with scallops and shrimp (also $11).  The ahi sandwich in particular offers a bright blend of flavors and textures on chewy La Brea ciabatta.

Not surprisingly, given the attention paid to the other details, dessert is worth careful consideration.  The celebrated vegan carrot cake is back on the dessert menu ($7.5) along with a flourless dark chocolate hazelnut pave ($6) and a cashew crusted key lime tart ($6), but for my money the sun-dried cherry, amaretto and pistachio bread pudding ($6) is the way to go.

Start to finish I see no sign that my delight in dining at Mizuna will end anytime soon.  I'm hooked on the food, the mood of the place, and the gracious service.  And I suspect I'm not alone.

Mizuna Restaurant and Wine Bar
214 North Howard Street
Spokane, WA 99201
(509) 747-2004
www.mizuna.com