Sample a few of the features in our 2009 Spokane Sizzle Magazine.  

Downriver Grill - Introducing Relentless Red
A collaboration between Townshend Cellar and The Downriver Grill

The Downriver Grill, located in the Downriver neighborhood at 3315 W. Northwest Blvd., has offered Townshend wines on their list since the day they opened more than five years ago. Don Townshend offered T3, one of his most popular blends, to the DRG first. Soon it was being asked for all over town. Through their business relationship, Don became friends with owners Aaron and Jonathan Sweatt. “We’ve had a wonderful relationship with Don,” said Jonathan. “We just thought it would be a fun and unique idea to take that a step further and work together to create a wine that we both would be proud to serve. Don was equally enthusiastic, so the endeavor began last summer with the blending process.” With a great deal of help from Don—and rigorous barrel tastings—Relentless Red was born.
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Chaps - An Unscripted Café
The West has an enduring impression on the people who have lived here or been raised in its possession. It’s a place where the prairie meets the mountains, the mountains meet the sky and the sky goes on forever. It’s the home of our legends, our heroes and outlaws. It’s our romanticized past and present. MY earliest memory of life with my Grandmother Selma, a no-nonsense Eastern Montana farm girl, was waking to the mouth-watering aromas of baked bread and fried summer sausage. Simultaneously, those smells folded into the delicious wafting of a freshly boiled cowboy coffee. Slabs of smoke-cured ham steak toyed with my tiny nostrils like a siren song. I would lie beneath fresh clothesline-dried sheets and dissect the air for scents that could only come from the magic of her primitive kitchen. Chokecherry preserves, creamy thick gravy, mounds of fried potatoes seasoned just so with a crunchy outer crust, oatmeal to ‘die for.’ Inevitably, everybody has his or her own idea of what constitutes a comfort food. More often than not, foods described as such are conjured from memories of past times and places that were safe and inviting, warm and friendly, loving and nurturing.
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Madeleine's Café and Pâtisserie
In the heart of Downtown Spokane, Deb Green and daughter Megan Poffenroth are celebrating! Their first year in the new, and very French, Madeleine’s Café and Pâtisserie has been a huge success and grown into more than they ever expected.

Going from the spark of an idea of opening a quaint French pâtisserie to serving full-on breakfast, lunch and dinner, this bustling downtown café’s popularity has escalated quickly in their first year since opening. A warm and welcoming ambiance greets you as you enter Madeleine’s Café and Pâtisserie. The effect of the mother-daughter team, Deb Green and Megan Poffenroth, took their vision into a blossoming new atmosphere overlooking the streets of Downtown Spokane. Madeleine’s is a thriving place where people love to sit street-side, in full view of pedestrian and vehicle passersby. The mood here is that of a lively city at its best. The menu is eclectic and serves the smaller appetite as well as the hearty eater and those with a taste for pastries that have a true European flair.
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Robert Karl Cellars - From the fields to the glass
Robert Karl owners Rebecca and Joe Gunselman make a stir in the wine-rating world far beyond Spokane, and they have had their sights set on this goal for some time. The sophisticated wines of Robert Karl Cellars come from a winery where the passion for fine wine meets the science of the process to become the flavors that waft through the nose, rest on the tongue and warm the heart of the taster. Joe and Rebecca Gunselman are winemakers who have passion for the winemaking process and for each other. She, a Southern belle who is not afraid to wear a hat—and wear it well—graciously along with a frilly dress, as well as with jeans and rolled-up sleeves while crushing grapes at the winery. He, with a studied and scientific understanding of the winemaking science, the refined palate and the energy to pull the whole operation together; the charm of Robert Karl wines is in the noble family name, the family that enjoys working with each other and the distinctive wines that they are producing.
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Townshend Cellar is on the move. Not far from the original location, just up the hill on the west side of Green Bluff, will be a new home for Townshend Cellar. In the coming year, if construction and development progress as planned, the winery will host events there, and a flurry of activity is planned as the transition from the original location takes place. Although the winery and tasting room are still located at the original location on Green Bluff Road north of Spokane, Winemaker Don Townshend has purchased a new property farther north on Green Bluff Road and up on the bluff. With the rising popularity of Townshend wines, the need for a larger space to call home has beckoned. Don has been producing wines since 1998, and his production has increased considerably from the beginning days.
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Cobra Roofing Polo Classic - The freshness, the excitement, the exuberance …

Sept. 7, 2008, marked the Fourth Annual Cobra Roofing Polo Classic held at the Spokane Polo Club in Airway Heights, just minutes away from the airport. Men, women and children of all ages dressed up to impress at this year’s Polo Classic. The largest event of its kind west of the Mississippi, this polo event exceeds all others in both attendance and money raised since its 2005 inaugural year.

“Sky divers, live music, gourmet food, fine wine, silent auction, art walk, a polo match and cancer survivor Abbey Silveria singing the national anthem—there is not a better value in town or a better experience,” said Sue Eymann, an RMHC board member, “and it's all for the families and kids staying at the Ronald McDonald House.”