Luna's Restaurant, Spokane

A month or so ago I had the opportunity to visit my friend in Spokane for a couple days.  When a relative heard I was going there she suggested we have lunch at Luna's.  When that particular relative says go to this place or that place to eat I listen up.  She is a gourmet cook herself and knows about good food.  About Luna's Restaurant she said..."Gourmet food made from scratch and interesting decor."  Words I like to hear indeed.

So we did go and we were amazed. The outside appearance when you drive up is nothing special but I didn't let that bother me.  After all, I'd come here by recommendation. Once inside we enjoyed the atmosphere very much.

Here are a few photos I shot while waiting.

Not so busy on a Wednesday at 3:30 P.M. so it was good for taking a few photos.  The staff were relaxed and did a great job of answering our questions and waiting on us.  Nicely done.  I recommend going to nice places like this between meal times so you don't have the noisy din and rushed staff.

Patio seating is nice but it was a little too warm on this particular late afternoon.

Each table had a small potted herbal looking plant.  Loved this.

We already had a dessert plan so just took photos of the tempting made from scratch cookies.

Even the salt and pepper were well presented.

My daughter was a little uncertain about what she would eat at this place.  She likes simpler food than I do. She liked the fruit bowl.

My friend and I split a cup of soup.  Lemongrass, curry, vegetable.  OH MY!  I savored every bite.  Then we split a pizza from their wood fired Italian oven and was it ever good.  Forgot to take a photo of that.

Took this photo for the unique feet on the dessert display case.  White case with gold painted feet.  Like this.

We were amazed by the ciabatta bread and butter they brought to our table while waiting for the rest of the meal.  Unbelievable!  We ate that up and asked for more.  This was NOT going to be a dieting day.  She said they get the bread from the bakery behind them but this did not sink in until later...you will read all about it.

This gorgeous cupboard caught my attention because of my interest in painted furniture.  See my other blog for more details on that.  I inquired about this and was told the marble came from the Paulson Building in Spokane and the upper and lower cupboards were not meant to go together but were salvaged and stacked.

Moved in close to look at the details.  I think I might see some brighter blues peeking through.  Greek blue perhaps?  That might be interesting.

Can't tell if it is a light and shadow thing or if there is a brighter blue on the edge of these doors?

Just cute details everywhere you looked.  Liked how they displayed the bowls and used chalk boards.

Nicely done chalk board wall

Love the shade of green in the hydrangeas; also the aqua lamps.

Like the chandelier and the rough wood ceiling.

The waitress said they have a garden in back.  Rather than ask permission and be told no, we decided to ask forgiveness if we got in trouble which we did not.  What a neato parking lot on the way to the garden.

Close up of the parking lot.

Tara of Bouzie's Bakery saw us coming from the bakery window and whenever she sees a child she takes them to collect eggs.  She came right out and gave us a warm welcome and asked the child among us if she would like to help collect eggs. The photo below shows them on their way to do that WITH PURPOSE in their step.   The waitress had said the bakery was behind the restaurant but we hadn't put that all together until after Tara invited us in to tour the bakery.  This was a wonderful impromptu experience and we did not want to leave.

Stay tuned, there is a lot more, but I have to take a break and get the vacation rental ready.

30th Anniversary...Lunch at Brasserie Four: Cuisine Francaise

This blog is more about the wedding than food this time.  Scroll to near the end for the food part.

It was good to go through the wedding album and pick a few photos in honor of our wedding day 30 years ago.  Weren't we just the skinnies?

I was 97 lbs in these photos.  THAT was short lived!

I was really into vintage anything.  Not much has changed has it?

The dress was quite the story.  Everyone has their own idea of what the most important detail of the wedding is.  For me it was the vintage dress.  I was prepared to make a dress I could wear again and when I showed a drawing of the vintage style calf length dress...

... I had in mind to my husband to be, he said no. "Have a full length dress with a train like Princess Diana (she got married the year before). There is no need to wear the dress again."  WHAT!!!???  I thought I knew this conservative man after 6 years of courting. But that took me by surprise.  This was a departure from both of our family's tradition of being practical and appearing humble.

So with the assurance it was what he wanted, I went all out, choosing the most difficult antique pattern I could find from a company that has long since gone out of business called "Past Patterns."  This is the 1905 Muslin Gown.

The vintage patterns were so outdated it was difficult to find things I needed to make it and had to improvise. This pattern called for boning which I'd never hear of before. Thankfully I had been sewing for many years by this time and when I ran up against difficulties I had aunts, a sister and a mother and a talented neighbor who stepped in with help and suggestions.   One of the things that was improvised was that I really wanted this watermarked appearance in the fabic.  I was in love with watermark at that time of my life as were many people in the early eighties.  However, the pattern was for a muslin gown and the fabric I found and bought without knowing better was drapey polyester. (I learned a lot on this project).  The fabric and the pattern so did not go together.  When I was a few weeks from the wedding and ready to give up, my aunt Gwynne suggested taking it to a dry cleaners for pressing.  You see the tiny pin tucks over the hips sewn on the bias polyester fabric were a nightmare that was not going away.  Well that worked and then I was off and running again.  The next hurdle was how the dress hung straight down and the train didn't stand out like it was supposed to.  I was sent to a wedding shop by my parent's neighbor, Debbie, to buy a slip with a hoop.  Voila!  That worked too.  With encouragement and support from the right sources I was able to wear the dress.  However, not as finished as my highschool Home Ec teacher taught me...the hem is still unfinished to this day.  It's sewn up and all, just has a raw edge under there and it's got pine needles and stuff stuck in it from that day so long ago.

And here we are saying our vows in front of our relatives.

Then....and now:

My husband was going to be away for work on our actual anniversary day so we decided to celebrate on the one weekend in August that was available.  It was such a last minute decision that I just loaded up the kids and drove an hour down the road to meet up with my husband, just returning from a week of work 3 hours away and drop off the younger children to spend the weekend with their sister.

We had dinner at PF Changs which was good.  We had never been there before.  Since my husband was gone recently he wasn't in much of a mood to go anywhere so we just headed back home and relaxed all weekend.  It was hard not to tend to things that needed to be done but for the most part we managed.  We went out for one lunch and it was excellent.  I spent some time in the kitchen because we were home.  That's where I usually am you know.  It's why I'm not so skinny anymore.  The skinny began to change about one week into being married and I've struggled ever since.

Brasserie Four is owned by the daughter of the lady I signed up to sell Demarle under.  So this owner being related to her mother and also owning a French restaurant certainly does use Demarle for some of her presentations.

The menu is amazing and so is the food.

We ordered the last item on the menu:  Pizze La Paysanne and here is a photo:

We split that and also ordered a Ceasar Salad.  Love how they stack it.  Great presentation and of course delightfully tasty.

Tick Tock goes the clock.  Fast forward a week and now my husband is gone away for the week to work.  It's the day of our anniversary and my daughter is visiting for the day.  After running errands we come home and this was sitting on the front porch.  Love!

Back in those days we actually printed photos so I put one of our wedding photos out for the week.