Patrick McLaughlin, the former food and beverage manager at the Davenport Hotel, says he’s developing what is scheduled to be the Magnolia American Brasserie restaurant on the first floor of Hotel Indigo, in downtown Spokane.

Hotel Indigo owner Curtis Rystadt has hired McLaughlin as the general manager for the planned hotel, which is in the renovated, former Otis Hotel building at 1103 W. First.

Rystadt, who is based in Portland, was scheduled to meet with city of Spokane officials on Wednesday to discuss his building permit application for the restaurant. The hotel and restaurant are scheduled to open March 12.

While the menu is still currently being formed, McLaughlin says plans call for affordable, casual French fare.

“It will be old-school, French-influenced but not necessarily a French restaurant,” McLaughlin says. “The most important thing though is that it will be everyday ... comfortable.”

Menu items receiving strong consideration include appetizers such as Pacific mussels and oysters Rockefeller, main course action like flat iron steak with bearnaise sauce and a tuna niçoise salad loaded with fresh vegetables from around the region, McLaughlin says.

“The plan is to have good value for a great experience,” he says.

McLaughlin says he and Rystadt want to construct a restaurant that just so happens to be in a hotel.

“The goal is to develop a restaurant that is unique,” McLaughlin says. “It will be built separate of the hotel and have its own free-standing identity.”

Early design discussions have centered around building a restaurant that will be inviting to the nearby community.

“As we’ve seen in neighborhoods around Spokane in recent years, the restaurants that experience strong success are the ones that have taken a community-based approach in appealing to their neighbors,” he says.

Instead of having to go through the hotel to gain access, Rystadt says plans call for an entrance along West First Avenue.

Spokane-based Uptic Studios is the project architect. A general contractor has yet to be named.

Rystadt says the restaurant will have room for banquet seating, a bar and private dining area in about 4,500 square feet of space.