Review: Boots Bakery & Lounge (Downtown Spokane)

I've been a vegetarian (now vegan) living in Spokane, Wash. for almost three years now. I've been waiting, not-so-patiently for my city to get a vegetarian restaurant. I just wanted a place where I could go and order ANYTHING.

Boots Bakery & Lounge, which is, as far as I can tell, Spokane's only vegan restaurant (save for Method Juice Cafe), has been hanging out at it's Main Street location for about 9 months. Enough time to get pregnant and have a child. And I hadn't gotten my little hiney down there until Friday. My omni friends beat me to it! They've been raving since July.

Boots ended up being everything I had hoped for. Not only could I devour almost all of their savory choices (darn that no-soy!), but also could nom nom on a selection of sweet treats.

I started my meal with a priced-just-right trio of deli case savories: spinach basil pesto penne, roasted veggies, and a chickpea salad. Yum.

My iphone picture of my salad trio. SO GOOD (not the photo; the food).

The food was quite good. My favorite was the chickpea salad. It had the perfect fresh flavor and combined chickpeas and lentils in an interesting way. The tomatoes and spices added just the right element of richness to the dish. Let's just say that if someone wanted to make me this salad for lunch every day, I wouldn't mind.

The other two savories weren't amazing, but they were still good. The roasted veggies came to me a little oily (perhaps from re-heating), and the pasta could have used just a little salt. That said, I still left mighty satisfied and I will definitely be returning.

With my belly full (but not too full) of savory goodness, I headed to the sweet selections. I chose the most delectable no-bake cookie the size of my palm. I paired the cookie with a tasty caramel latte made with almond milk.

This is what really got me. The latte was one of the best almond milk lattes I've ever had. Let me say, you can definitely tell when the barista has experience in steaming non-dairy milk.

The cookie also tantalized my taste buds. It was chocked full of dried fruit, oats, seeds, and other nummy goodies.

This review is starting to get exceptionally long, so I'll try to hit my next points quickly: Customer service was awesome even before I went down. (I spent a few minutes that afternoon on the phone with the owner, Alison, verifying that there would be soy-free choices.) I will say that the in-store experience felt a little impersonal, but they were pretty busy when I was in.

The atmosphere inspires you to kick back and enjoy an early spring afternoon with homey furniture mixed with fresh decor.

Pros:

Yummy food (especially sweet options)

Fantastic vegan barista skills

Priced just right

Awesome atmosphere

Top-notch pre-visit customer service

Great options for allergy-ridden (soy-free, gluten-free, etc.)

VEGAN!

Cons:

Savory food could use some sprucing

Slightly impersonal in-store experience