The owner of the Wolf Lodge Inn Restaurant, a North Idaho establishment long known for its big steaks, plans to open a steakhouse this spring in the building that the Otter Restaurant & Beach Club Lounge currently occupies.


Wolf Lodge Inn Restaurant owner Tom Engle, of Post Falls, has signed a 20-year lease for the 210-seat restaurant and lounge in the Tapio Office Center, says Glen Cloninger, majority owner of the 10-building office complex located at Second Avenue and Thor Street in East Spokane.


Engle says he hopes to open in the 6,000-square-foot space, which houses the only restaurant at Tapio, in early April. The Otter Restaurant & Beach Club Lounge will close permanently in late March.


Engles establishment here will bear the Wolf Lodge Inn Restaurant name just like the long-standing North Idaho restaurant, located off Interstate 90 eight miles east of Coeur dAlene. The Tapio restaurant location is slightly larger than the North Idaho eatery, which includes about 5,000 square feet of floor space and seats 200.


The new restaurant also will have a similar dcor and menu, Engle says.


Well put in some deer antlers and other things like that, he says. Well try to make it a lodge-type atmosphere.


Eventually, Engle says he will build a fireplace in the lounge.


The menu will include steak, seafood, and some chicken entrees priced from $13 to $35, with steaks ranging up to 42 ounces in size, Engle says. Reservations will be encouraged.


Engle says he plans to hire 20 to 25 employees for the new restaurant and is in the process of interviewing current Otter Restaurant workers. So far, John Payne, currently the general manager at Otter Restaurant, and about half of that restaurants staff have agreed to stay on and work at the new establishment, Engle says.


Alsaker Corp., of Spokane, leased the restaurant space previously, and has subleased the restaurant to another operator for the past five years, company President Dan Alsaker says. That companys primary business is its 10 Broadway Truck Stops, and Alsaker says the company wants to focus its efforts on the truck stops.


It was time to move on, he says. Weve been buying quite a few truck stops outside the area, so were just reallocating assets.


During the past year, Alsaker says his company has bought three new truck stops, two in Montana and one in Nevada, and it plans to buy two more this year.


Engle is opening a restaurant here sooner than he had planned, but says he didnt want to pass on the Otter location.


Engle has owned the Wolf Lodge Inn Restaurant since 1993, when he bought it from his uncle and aunt, Wally and Patti Wickel, of Coeur dAlene.


The Wolf Lodge building, built 59 years ago, has been in the family since the Wickels bought it in 1970, Engle says. Back then, he says, part of the building was used for a general store, and the other part was a tavern. The Wickels converted it into a restaurant in 1982. Engle managed the Wolf Lodge Inn Restaurant for four years before buying the establishment, he says.