Interesting article in the Inlander this week. It turns out that the current front runner on Top Chef, Kevin Gillespie, had a short and unsuccessful stint as head chef of Luna in 2007. According to the article, he left after two months because customers rebelled when their favorite dishes disappeared from the menu to be replaced with fare more in keeping with Gillespie's southern comfort food style. I believe the coconut curry prawns were a particular problem. The article quotes several local chefs to make the point that Spokane menus are -- and have to be in order to find a consistent clientele -- almost completely static. Chester Gerl, formerly of Fugazzi, has the following quotation: "I see the same things on people's menus that are ten years old." This is true, and this is sad.

There are some good, fine dining meals to be had in Spokane. I am partial to the food at Mizuna -- they do fine seafood, and their lamb is often spectacular -- and the service at Wild Sage almost always makes up for the rather astronomical price. Scratch I hate, but I need to preface my comments about Scratch with the disclaimer that I haven't been there in over a year. I went twice in their first six months, and both times my table was completely dropped. The menu was all over the place: three different steaks, stir fry, and game? Find an identity! And, I ordered the artichoke ravioli, and found on my plate two enormous, gummy pillows of flavorlessness. They may have worked out some of the kinks by now, but I may never know. Luna is not my favorite. It seems to me caught in between wanting to be casual fine dining and real fine dining, and taking the worst of both worlds. The prices are too high for the food offered, and the service and table settings too informal for the kind of food they want to serve. Sante started strong, but it remains to be seen if they can maintain their level of interest. Latah Bistro is often nice, especially once you get over the view of the supermarket parking lot.

While it is possible to have a good dinner out in Spokane, there really are no great fine dining restaurants. For me, to be great, a restaurant has to earn my trust. It's the difference between picking out what to order because I like the listed ingredients and I can imagine how they would go well together, and ordering something because I can't imagine what that would taste like and I can't wait to see how the chef pulls it off. It's the difference between ordering something because it seems well within the comfort zone of the restaurant and ordering something because I couldn't make it at home. It's the difference between eating as an experience and just paying for someone else to do the cooking and hosting for you. There's a need for both in this world. The problem is that we only have the latter.

The Inlander is right about one of the problems with Spokane fine dining when they talk about the fact menus don't change. Not only does that keep a chef from surprising you, and I imagine stifles their own growth, but it also means that the menus here are incredibly dated, and the ingredients being used are not necessarily fresh. Crab cakes are always on the menu at Luna, when the Dungeness season is from December through February. What does that suggest about the crab that they use?

But there are other problems. For one is the insidious over-pricing. One of the great things about Spokane is the low cost of living, but a top-tier meal here costs what it would cost in Seattle. While one can pay much more in California, it is only because their is a whole other tier of restaurant quality there. Of course one pays a premium for Fleur de Lis or The French Laundry! Another problem is the inability to understand service -- but on that topic I have already vented my bile.

And then there is the problem of restaurant and menu identity. Scratch is not alone in being unable to decide whether it is a steak house, an asian restaurant, or the kind of place where you can get rabbit. Moxie (and I will always love Moxie for the Moxie Mojito, one of the best cocktails ever) has a Japanese mural on the wall, puts olive oil and balsamic down for its bread, and has meatloaf on the menu. And even at Latah Bistro. . . the head chef there, David Blaine, makes a point in the Inlander article about the need for a chef to learn what Spokane diners want. Apparently, he decided what we want is pizza along with our filet and half priced bottles of wine and cocktails. I'm not complaining about the half-priced wine -- I have drunk many a bottle and gratefully -- or about the pizza, which isn't bad. But it is insulting and condescending that what he learned about us is that we need gimmicks and a stable of non-threatening items. Just acknowledge that that is the kind of place Latah is trying to be, and lose the pretentious line on your website about how often you change your menu. The wild mushroom ravioli has been on there for at least three years, and I don't think the filling ever changes, even though mushrooms are -- wait for it -- seasonal.

Trust must be mutual. I'm sure Spokane diners have let down good chefs. I'm sure Gerl couldn't have won a James Beard prize here, but Fugazzi failed for many reasons, and not all of them are our fault. Let's both do our part. Chefs, give us a restaurant that really is seasonal, where the specials are fresh and challenging and thoughtful. In turn, we diners will come, and we won't throw a fit if there are no coconut curry prawns from the nineties. We promise.