Walk past Howard and First on a Tuesday morning and you'll find a line for waffles. Walk past the same corner on a Tuesday night now and you'll find the lights off on half the building. That's Emma Rue's and People's Waffle, two businesses that opened together in the same space back in 2021 and have been sharing walls ever since. One just went dark for good this past month. The other never missed a beat. If you want to understand what's actually happening to Spokane's food scene this September, that split is the place to start, not the closures themselves, but what separates the businesses that are pulling back from the ones that are pushing further in.
The Building That Used To Be One Thing
Before it was Emma Rue's, the corner spot at 17 S. Howard spent 14 years as the Blue Spark, a fixture of downtown Spokane's nightlife scene long before either current tenant existed. Emma Rue's took over the south-facing half in 2021 as a day-to-night cafe and cocktail bar, then in 2024 narrowed its hours to focus exclusively on evening cocktail service, building a reputation as the place for post-dinner drinks and special occasions. In late August, owner Alyssa Agee announced on Instagram that the lounge would close its doors by August 30, and it has stayed closed since.
"Emma Rue's is not gone forever but it is done for now."
That's the whole announcement in one line, and it leaves the door open without committing to anything. What isn't ambiguous is the other half of the building. People's Waffle, which launched alongside Emma Rue's in the same corner space, is continuing normal operations, still serving its mix of sweet and savory gluten-free waffles through the daytime hours the two businesses always split between them.
The pattern here isn't about who had the better concept. It's about which day-part actually pays the rent right now. Emma Rue's own history makes the point: it started as a cafe that ran day into night, then in 2024 made the choice to narrow down and compete only in the evening slot. That's the exact window that ended up not holding. Meanwhile the daytime waffle counter next door, open through breakfast and lunch on steady foot traffic, never had to make that bet. That's a useful thing to know if you're trying to read any single closure in this city as a verdict on downtown. Sometimes it's not the neighborhood. It's the clock.
Where The Growth Actually Went
While one corner went quiet, several other Spokane businesses spent late summer moving toward exactly the kind of built-in traffic that Emma Rue's couldn't count on after dark.
4 Seasons Coffee Roasters has been roasting in Spokane since 1976. Now in its 50th year, the company just opened a second location inside Eastern Washington University's Catalyst Building at 601 E. Riverside Ave, a spot that comes with a captive daytime population of students and staff walking past it every day. That's not a bet on evening foot traffic finding a new favorite bar. It's a bet on a building full of people who already need coffee on a schedule.
Mother Bear's Bakery made a similar calculation in a different direction. The business started as a home-based cottage bakery, opened a storefront in the Town and Country neighborhood last year, and relocated again this month, holding its grand opening at 5503 N. Wall St. on September 1. Two moves in two years isn't instability. It's a business testing locations until it finds the one with enough walk-in traffic to justify a permanent address.
Supa! Authentic Japanese Kitchen took the more straightforward route. After building out locations in Cheney, Post Falls and downtown Spokane, the sushi-by-the-pound and ramen concept opened a fourth location at 12801 E. Sprague Ave in Spokane Valley this summer, a stretch of Sprague that's been absorbing a steady run of new food and retail businesses this year. A few blocks away, Beans & Bind, a new bookstore cafe at 17325 E. Sprague Ave, opened August 1 serving beans roasted by DOMA Coffee Roasting Co. alongside its book selection. And Capitol Bar & Grill, which opened in Spokane Valley on August 7, has reportedly been packed every day since, according to Spokane Journal of Business coverage of the opening.
None of these are downtown addresses. All of them are betting on corridors where the foot traffic is already proven rather than corners where it depends on the night's crowd showing up.
Not Every Move Is Toward Something
The counter-example is on the South Hill. Allie's Vegan Pizzeria & Cafe is set to move out of its longtime Grand Boulevard location by the end of September. No new address has been announced yet, though the business has said on Instagram that the new spot will let it offer more than the current one allows. Grand Boulevard has seen its own share of turnover this year as businesses along the corridor test whether the street's foot traffic matches its reputation, and Allie's departure is one more data point in that ongoing story rather than a surprise ending.
The lesson isn't that Grand Boulevard is failing. It's that even well-established corridors see their tenants recalculate, the same way Emma Rue's did on Howard Street. A good address gets you noticed. It doesn't guarantee the math works out long term.
Why This Is All Happening In September
Some of the timing here isn't coincidence. September is Eat Local First Month, a designation Washington's Sustainable Connections Food and Farming program created and that Governor Bob Ferguson gave an official proclamation to this year. The idea, at its simplest, is eating food from producers you can actually name.
Billie's Diner in Airway Heights is a good example of what that looks like in practice. Owner McKenzie DonTigny says roughly 70 percent of what comes through the door is sourced locally, often specifically from Spokane-area producers, including eggs from Spokane Hutterian farms, mushrooms from Pacific Northwest Mushrooms, produce from Valleyford's Casa Cano Farms, and beef from Browning Beef in Spangle. The diner's menu changes with what's actually in season, tomatoes now, winter squash coming soon.
That same local-sourcing energy is showing up in September's event calendar. Dry Fly Distilling held a Barnyard Bash on August 29 to celebrate a new fair-themed canned cocktail. The Steam Plant Restaurant hosted a rooftop party the night before, complete with free tacos for first responders. The Shadle Park Library is hosting a harvest swap on September 19 for gardeners with more tomatoes and zucchini than they know what to do with, with similar swaps at the Airway Heights, Spokane Valley, and Cheney branches on September 1 and October 1.
None of this is why Emma Rue's went dark or why Supa! opened a fourth location. But it's the backdrop against which all of it is happening, a month when Spokane's food culture is actively pointing residents toward what's grown, made, and roasted close to home, right as the map of who's serving it gets redrawn.
What's Actually New To Try This Month
If you're deciding where to spend a Saturday morning or a weeknight dinner, here's what's changed on the ground:
- 4 Seasons Coffee Roasters, new second location inside EWU's Catalyst Building, 601 E. Riverside Ave
- Mother Bear's Bakery, opened its new location at 5503 N. Wall St. on September 1
- Beans & Bind, bookstore cafe now open at 17325 E. Sprague Ave in Spokane Valley
- Supa! Authentic Japanese Kitchen, fourth location now open at 12801 E. Sprague Ave
- Capitol Bar & Grill, open since August 7 in Spokane Valley
- HoneySpell Cafe, a fantasy-themed North Spokane cafe from Page 42 Bookstore's Emily Peterson, expected to open sometime this month
Emma Rue's is closed for now, but People's Waffle is still serving in the same building. Allie's Vegan Pizzeria is still open on Grand Boulevard for a few more weeks while it figures out where's next.
This is what a healthy, restless food scene actually looks like up close. Not every business survives the corner it started on, but the ones that pay attention to where people actually show up keep finding new corners worth trying.
If you're already calling Spokane home and keeping an eye on how your own neighborhood is changing, whether that's the restaurant lineup down the street or what your house might be worth in a market that's shifting just as fast, the team at Graves Re Group is always happy to talk through it. Reach out anytime for a free home valuation or just to compare notes on where to eat this week.
