Overbluff Cellars set to move soon

The owners of Overbluff Cellars hope to move the winery to a new space in the downtown area by July 9, says Darby McKee, one of the company’s owners.

The winery has been at 620 S. Washington since May of 2010. 

“Our main tasting room in the new building will be roughly the size that it is now—800 to 1,000 square feet—because we don’t want to lose the intimacy,” McKee says. “But we will have the ability to open up and expand to 5,000 square feet of overflow space that will be ideal for big events.”

Overbluff Cellars also will have access to another 800 to 1,000 square feet of space for outside seating, giving the new location up to 7,000 square feet for wine tastings and events, he says.

He adds, “We’re ready to move now. The only thing we are waiting for is the approval of a part of an application from the state’s liquor control board.”

Scheduled hours of operation in the new location will be from noon to 6 p.m., Thursday through Saturday. McKee owns the business with his wife, Javonka McKee, and Mark Camp. Former owners Jerry and Penny Gibson continue to assist in the winery’s operation.

McKee says Overbluff Cellars may hire two or three full-time employees. The winery relies mostly on volunteers for tastings and events.

—Kevin Blocker

Longtime downtown barbershop moving

Leland’s Barbershop, which has operated on north Wall Street in downtown Spokane for most of 57 years, has moved into temporary quarters at River Park Square while it waits for remodeling work to be completed on a new permanent space there, says owner Claudia Kirkebo.

Kirkebo says the barbershop’s temporary space is located next to Pottery Barn on the first floor of the shopping mall, at 808 W. Main. She says she expects to move the barbershop to its new permanent space on the second floor of the mall in late summer.

She moved the barbershop into temporary quarters at the mall to accommodate the demolition of the Saad Building at the northwest corner of Main Avenue and Wall Street and the construction of a new building there that Philadelphia-based national retailer Urban Outfitters will occupy. The Saad Building is at the east end of the mall complex, and the barbershop occupied the north end of that building, at 217 N. Wall.

The Journal reported earlier that the Urban Outfitters building will be a two-story, 10,000-square-foot structure and that it’s being developed at a total project cost of about $2 million. The store there is expected to open this fall.

“Although it was emotional to leave our home on Wall Street, I am excited to move the shop into River Park Square,” Kirkebo says.

Leland Kuskey founded the barbershop in 1958 and operated it continuously in that stretch of Wall Street, except for a brief period when it had to relocate due to a fire, until selling it to Bob Moore in 1975, she says. A woman named Donna Davidson bought it in the mid-1990s, Kirkebo says. She says she began working there in 2001 and bought the business from Davidson several years later.

“It’s been a labor of love. It’s had four people who’ve really taken care of it,” she says. 

The barbershop employs two part-time barbers in addition to her, she says, and is looking to add another barber due to expanded operating hours in the mall.

 

—Kim Crompton

Escape game room ready to launch here

Jerry Jensen says he and business partner Kristin Jensen have formed Escape Entertainment LLC, which will bring the escape-room interactive adventure game concept to Spokane.

Escape Entertainment will be located in 3,100 square feet of leased space when it opens this month at 7456 N. Division, in the Cascade Plaza, Jensen says.

Under the escape-room concept, a group of players are locked in a room for an hour and try to find clues and solve puzzles, a combination of which could lead to the participants’ escape, he says.

Escape Entertainment will open with a prison-themed escape room, and other theme rooms will be added as the business evolves, he says.

Escape Entertainment has hired four employees in addition to the owners.

“We might add more as we get busier,” Jensen says.

Among other reception and marketing duties, the employees will trade off as game masters, he says.

“Somebody will be in the room in character to give hints and help people along,” Jensen says.

Jensen also owns 16 Subway sandwich restaurants, mostly in the Inland Northwest, and Kristin Jensen is the Spokane-area regional manager for the franchise. Other than their business affiliations, they aren’t related, Jerry Jensen says.

Commercial real estate agents Brian Anderson and Jim Orcutt, both of Spokane-based NAI Black, handled Escape Entertainment’s lease.

 

—Mike McLean

Sandwich bistro set to open on Division

Co-owners Mike Sparkes, Patrick Moore, and Rick Wilcox plan to open a restaurant named Sparky’s Bistro on the main floor of the Northtown Office Building, at 4407 N. Division, in late July, says Sparkes.

The bistro is leasing a 600-square-foot space there that Kowalski’s Deli & Espresso formerly occupied. 

The restaurant plans to hire five to seven people, half part time and half full time, says Sparkes, a retired firefighter who formerly operated Sparky’s Firehouse Subs at the intersection of Monroe Street and Indiana Avenue for 14 years.

Sparkes says the bistro has been in the works for a few months now. Asked what drove him to open a new eatery, Sparkes says he somewhat missed owning Sparky’s Firehouse Subs, which he sold to Sue Wendt in 2008. The bistro won’t be tied to the sub shop. 

“I did the sandwich shop once before; it’s something different, and I’m kind of taking it to the next level,” Sparkes says. 

Compared with a typical fast-food sub restaurant, he says, Sparky’s Bistro aims to provide customers with higher-quality ingredients. 

“High-end meats, high-end cheeses—everything in there will be high end,” says Sparkes. The bistro also will serve soups, salads, and Craven’s Coffee Co.

Sparkes says the business plans to offer delivery service during the lunchtime period. Its tentative hours of operation will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., he says.

Lou Neeser and Colin Conway, both of Kiemle & Hagood Co., and Bill Sleeth, of W.R. Sleeth Realty, negotiated the lease transaction.

 

—Samantha Howard

Drug consultant looks to expand

Pharmacist Holly Jackson says she wants to hire another pharmacist, or two, to help grow her business that’s designed to help people better understand their prescribed medications. 

Jackson says there is especially strong demand from people, many of whom are elderly, to have someone explain the multiple medications they’re prescribed from more than one doctor.

That’s why she started her own business, Pharmacist Connect, about two years ago. She is a sole proprietor operating her business from her Spokane home. 

Jackson is also a part-time pharmacist for Group Health Cooperative. 

“They’re often confused and lost,” Jackson says of patients. “Often, they don’t know why they’re taking the medications in the first place.”  

Jackson says she serves as a liaison between the patients and their families and between families and doctors.

Jackson, 31, earned her doctorate from the University of Washington

Jackson also believes her business would work well in rural areas where it is often more challenging to secure medical assistance.

More information about Jackson’s business can be found at www.pharmacist-connect.com.

 

—Kevin Blocker