An early July opening is planned for a new restaurant to be called Austin Live Fire Barbeque at 421 W. Main, in the heart of downtown Spokane.

This will be the second restaurant concept for Mike Jones, current owner and operator of Mizuna Restaurant & Wine Bar, at 214 N. Howard downtown.

“I wanted to open a barbeque restaurant because it seems like for years now Spokane has been lacking in that style of cuisine,” he contends. “I recently made a trip down to Austin, Texas, where I learned a lot about their style of barbeque, so the idea was to bring that style back here.”

He expects the restaurant to have 20 employees and plans to begin hiring for open positions soon. 

Jones says the restaurant will take up a 3,090-square-foot space formerly occupied by a portion of Wollnick’s General Store.

“Wollnick’s recently downsized to about half the space they were using, so they’ll still have a storefront there just not as large as before,” he says. “We’re remodeling our half to include a kitchen, dining seating area, and bar.”

Jones says designs for the space were created by Spokane-based Uptic Studios, and the project’s contractor is Post Falls-based Basso LLC.

He says the restaurant’s menu will focus on central Texas-style barbeque, and slow smoked meats, including brisket, ribs, and pork shoulders.

“I’m custom building a smoker unit that’s kind of a hybrid of the old-school wood-burning smokers you find in Austin,” he says. 

“We’ll start the fire in the early morning and smoke meat all day until dinner service, at which point the lid will come off and we’ll use it as a grill for meats like steaks and sides like corn on the cob.”

While the restaurant will have barbeque sauce, Jones says he hopes the combination of cook smoke and dry rubs will make its use unnecessary.

“The goal is to make it flavorful enough, so people don’t feel the need for extra sauce,” he says.

If construction goes as planned, Jones says the space should be completed by the end of June, in time for a July 5 opening.