The Maxwell House

I'll preface this by saying I've had exactly one thing off this menu, and it arrived by delivery. My brother-in-law lost a bet and ordered a heaping helping of the broasted chicken with jojos, and it was delicious — hot, crispy, and properly seasoned. What else do you want out of delivery chicken? I can't wait to get in and work through the rest of the menu.

The building went up in 1905 and spent its early life as a meat market, a grocery, and a plumbing shop. It became a tavern and restaurant in 1934, the year after Prohibition ended, and it still holds the oldest legal liquor license in Spokane, issued in 1935. Richard and Kay Culnane ran it for roughly fifty years and sold in 2020 to Ethan Higa and Alex Springer, who kept the thing everyone actually comes for: the broasted chicken, which regulars have been ordering for half a century. There's a sand volleyball court out back that has a reasonable claim to being the best at any bar in town.

Know what you're walking into. This is a neighborhood tavern with regulars measured in decades — a retired radio announcer coming up on fifty years, families on their third generation at the same tables, a few seats that are understood to belong to someone. That's the charm, and it's also the etiquette: you're a guest in somebody's living room. And a fair caveat on our end — one delivery order is not a visit, so this write-up is a starting point. We owe the Maxwell House a proper sit-down, and it's on the list.