Latah Lounge

We will be closed on Feb 1st to enjoy Superbowl Sunday. Have fun.

John stole the show

The Latte crew was definitely not shy

Heather Ann has done this before

B-Mac and Cole hangin’ with the wrong crowd
We closed down last Sunday night to have our winter party and discovered that quite a few of our staff are talented singers. Dan brought some great wine, karaoke was the entertainment, nobody cried, and Greg kept most of his clothes on, so overall, it was fun.

Fresh dungeness crab is in the house. First dish; cioppino.

It may seem early but here’s a tip for you romantics; dinner reservations on Valentine’s Day get filled faster than any other day of the year and this year Valentine’s Day falls on Saturday which means the whole weekend will be busy. This is our biggest night so we thought we would give you early notice to call for reservations now. We already have close to half of our reservations already booked and we don’t want you to be left out.

Our menu this year will include aphrodisiacs, an optional chef’s menu and plenty of delicious chocolate and we also offer the convenience of a dozen red roses waiting on your table when you arrive.  Love is cool.   509 838-8338.

The baby pool for our upcoming baby Violet has kicked off to a good start and as you can see, the density of square selection centers around the Feb 7th due date. Some folks are betting on Feb 9th due to a full moon. Others are going with the scientific approach citing statistics for first time pregnancies being late by an average of 5 days. Me, I touch the magic belly often and due to her busy wiggling, I think she’s coming early. If you want to participate just come on down and pick a day and time.

 
Our neighbor, owner of Elite Tan, David Madvin, is expanding his empire to include a new 24 hour self serve fitness center called Elite Fitness (across the street from Latah Latte) and a new beauty salon, to be called Elite Salon in the old Great Clips location two doors North of us.

The fitness center is already in operation and I can provide a positive and sweaty testimonial to it’s effectiveness. Elite Salon is scheduled to open February 1st.

Thanks to David, people in our surrounding area will undoubtedly look much better soon.

Hey vegetarians, here is another great veg special in the making. Pictured above is a pan of roasted butternut squash on their way to becoming squash enchiladas for an upcoming special sheet due by Friday. Enjoy.

I feel it is my duty as a Washington State business owner to put in my two cents regarding our state’s minimum wage, now $8.55, up 6% from $8.07 as of Jan 1, 2009. This is the 5th wage increase since we started our restaurant 5 years ago. This minimum wage increase is mandated by a law passed 10 years ago and the result will once again, force us to pass on these higher business costs and raise our food prices in order to protect the jobs.

It’s simple economics to understand this direction will lead us to raise our prices resulting in fewer diners and less business. Eventually this will force us to cut jobs and possibly go out of business losing all jobs. How is this helping our employees?
It seems silly to me that our state legislators don’t see the futility or limits to this philosophy. We have the highest minimum wage in the nation, $2.00 over the federal minimum. Is there a point at which this automatic wage escalator has gone too far?  Is there a ceiling? If so, where is it?

Tipped servers receive this wage increase the same as chefs, and business owners (who create the jobs) receive nothing. Is this fair? State law does not allow us to capture tips and split them among our employees and our state does not have any tip credits. Compare the minimum wages in different states in this chart for tipped employees and you may be enlightened enough to contact your state representative and ask them to consider tip credits.

I am all for paying our servers well and I believe that they should be making enough in wages to be able to dine at our restaurant. This is an old philosophy made popular by Henry Ford and it has been proven successful over time for employees businesses and the economy - If only we could get our paid government reps to see the light.

This Wednesday night at 6:30 will be the last performance in a while for Heather, Dave and Bob because Heather is approaching baby Violet’s due date we will be chillin out so come on down and say hi and maybe even join the baby pool for big prizes.

This is the first winter in all my years in Spokane that the snow conditions in the city have rivaled our surrounding ski mountains for beautiful powder skiing and it just so happens that the high drive hill down to the Latah Creek valley has been spectacular these last couple weeks for those willing to give it a go. Crossing the creek at the bottom after a run is a challenge but most just climb back up the hill. I can proudly say some of those tracks in the picture are mine. Go snow!