Kombucha brewery gears up in Cd’A

Bare Culture Kombucha LLC has opened a kombucha brewery and taproom in Coeur d’Alene. 

 Owner Heather Threadgill says the company has leased a 1,500-square-foot building at 814 N. Fourth St., which required minor renovations to fit the needs of a brewery. Threadgill and one employee run the taproom, which offers bar and table seating, including outdoor seating soon.

Kombucha is made by fermenting sweet tea with yeast and bacteria, resulting in a slightly effervescent beverage with trace amounts of alcohol. The drink isn’t classified as an alcoholic beverage by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to the fact that alcohol content typically falls below 0.5 percent by volume. Kombucha has long been extolled for its health benefits, though the extent of such benefits is widely debated. The beverage does contain probiotics, which evidence suggests might aid digestion, according to WebMD.

Bare Culture Kombucha produces eight flavors of kombucha, says Threadgill, all of which can be tasted when the taproom is open Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The brewery also offers kegs of the beverage for sale.

“I am the first one in the Idaho area to produce kombucha on this level,” Threadgill asserts.

Bare Culture beverages are carried by several businesses in North Idaho, including Java on Sherman, Pilgrim’s Market, and Winter Ridge in Sandpoint. Threadgill also sells the kombucha at her frozen yogurt shop, Blue Palm Frozen Yogurt, in Walla Walla, where kombucha frozen yogurt floats are a menu item.

Threadgill hopes to expand to the Spokane area in the coming months and is searching for restaurants to carry her product as an alternative to alcohol.

—Virginia Thomas

Weldon Barber adds outlet, corporate HQ

Weldon Barber Inc., a barber shop chain based in Spokane, has opened a new North Spokane location and is settling into a new corporate and training facility. 

The new store, located at 9502 N. Newport Highway, occupies about 1,400 square feet of retail space in a building in the Northpointe Plaza shopping center.

Suzette Nordstrom, who founded and owns the business with her husband, Bill Nordstrom, says about nine people, including at least six barbers, are employed at the North Side location, adding to the more than 70 employees working at other Weldon locations. 

Weldon Barber began in Spokane in 2004, and since has expanded to four locations in the Spokane area and four locations across the state, including one in downtown Seattle. The other Spokane-area barber shops are at Five Mile, in the Spokane Valley, and on the South Hill.

The new corporate office, located at 1603 N. Monroe, includes a training facility and has about 2,000 square feet of space. Nordstrom said the company didn’t have an official corporate location prior to leasing the space on Monroe. Currently four employees work from the corporate office space. 

Services offered by the barber shops include cutting and styling, coloring and highlighting, face and head shaves, and waxing. 

 

—Virginia Thomas

Anytime Fitness slated at Five Mile

Spokane residents Ken and Tracie Zanol have leased a 5,600-square-foot space in the Five Mile Shopping Center, at 1804 W. Francis, where they plan to open an outlet of the gym franchise Anytime Fitness, Tracie Zanol says. 

The gym will operate under the entity Kentra Corp., Zanol says. Currently, Anytime Fitness is expected to open in September, she says. 

“It’s contingent on how long it takes for the build-out,” she says. 

Kilgore Construction Inc., of Colbert, is the contractor for remodeling the space, Zanol says. She says the finished space will have three bathrooms, two of them with showers; a tanning room; a hydro massage room; member’s area, and a 600-square-foot group fitness room. 

“We want to provide a gym that’s easy access: get in, get a workout, get on with your life,” she says. 

The gym, which will have two or three employees, will have a variety of exercise equipment, including cardio machines, free weights, and circuit training equipment. It will also have what’s known as Well Beats, Zanol says, which is a virtual class that a user selects and then watches on a screen. 

“You call up a video class and the screen comes down, and you can do your on-demand class whenever you want,” Zanol says. “It’s kind of virtual group fitness; it allows us to meet the demands of more people.” 

This is the Zanols’ first business, she says, but her brother owns several Anytime Fitness outlets in Moscow, Idaho.

“It’s been our dream to open our own business, and fitness is kind of a passion of ours, so the timing was just right,” she says. 

 

—Katie Ross

Couple here opens New York-style deli

Aaron Steinberg and his wife, Jessica, Spokane residents and owners of Herbs & More at 9331 N. Division for the past 16 years, has opened Marina’s New York Deli in the same 850-square-foot store space. 

“We remodeled the store, put in a kitchen, and we’re serving Italian food, East Coast style,” Steinberg says. 

Originally from Brooklyn, he says he’s been around food and restaurants his whole life, working as a sous chef and chef at country clubs before moving to the Spokane area. 

Steinberg and his wife are the business’s only employees, and the couple handles all the work required to keep the restaurant up and running six days a week, from Monday through Saturday.

Located near the North Division “Y” in the Heritage Square Shopping Center, the shop serves a variety of sandwiches. 

Steinberg says all the sauces served at the shop are made from scratch. 

“We even make all the salad dressings … everything is homemade,” he says. 

The restaurant also serves a variety of pasta dishes, burgers, salads, and side dishes like seasoned French fries and coleslaw.

Steinberg says medicinal herbs are still available for purchase in the store. 

 

—Judith Spitzer