Spokane, WA Compliant Restaurants

[Anna W]

Over the weekend, I travelled from Seattle WA to Spokane WA to see my cousin in concert.  Unfortunately I was on Days 5-7 of my 2nd Whole30 round, which as you all know, makes travel + dining out a little bit complicated.  However I was able to plan ahead of time by researching restaurant menus, and e-mailing chefs to ask questions.  I think this is DEFINITELY the way to go.  If you have enough time to plan ahead for dining out, e-mail the restaurant with an outline of the Whole30 rules and ask specific questions about which entrees you'll be able to enjoy.  Just make sure to apologize for seeming high-maintenance and say lots of THANK YOUS!

Anyway - we wound up at Bruncheonette for brunch and at Clover for dinner.  I received such sweet, accommodating e-mail responses from both chefs.  At Bruncheonette I was able to have the Verde Hash, sans cheese, with added guacamole.  Bruncheonette makes all of their meats, and sauces, in-house from scratch.  They use canola oil for the potatoes and eggs, and there are no sugars / sweeteners in the carnitas or in the potato seasoning!  My hash included the potato medley, carnitas, peppers & onions, basted eggs, and verde sauce.  Totally filling and delish - plus I got veggies, protein, and plated fat with my guacamole.

Chef Cody at Clover sent me the following e-mail response: 

"Hi Anna, Thank you for contacting me directly. We regularly make accommodations for our guests’ dietary needs, so this will be no problem. Having a heads up makes it even easier. Most of our dishes are cooked in an olive/canola blend or clarified butter. We would be happy to use straight olive oil, Lard, Duck Fat or none of the above. Our cured dry chorizo is an item we source, and does have sugar. Our house made chorizo is a great substitute for both the octopus and the Piri Chicken, as my linguica also has sugar. All of our veggies are roasted with salt, pepper and our oil blend. We can always roast fresh veggies for an order as well. Honestly, we can make most of our menu work for you, or I can create something just for you, if you like. We enjoy the challenge and love to test our creative side, with such limitations. It usually ends up the prettiest plate at the table, so I hope we don’t let you down.  This weekend, we will be featuring Oregon Rockfish. Our scallops are always top notch. Let me know what direction you would like to go. Have a safe trip to Spokane and we’ll see you on Saturday night!"

Again - SUCH customer service!  I wound up having a simple dish of the Oregon Rockfish, with a medley of broccolini, mushrooms, and fingerling potatoes garnished with pine nuts.

As for travel snacks - I brought with me a baggie of baby carrots w/ a guacamole cup, sliced Fuji apple with almond butter, and RX Bar & Epic Bar, almonds, and olives (no - I did NOT eat all of the above but it was nice to have options).