Maybe it's the spirits of past prostitutes or the guardianship of saintly nuns, but walking into 315 Cuisine in Coeur d'Alene feels, well, different.
The two-and-a-half story house was built in 1908. It's seen its fair share of life since then. Bricklayer Harvey Davey built the home for his wife, who used it as a small boarding house during Idaho's population boom in the 1910s. The Daveys sold it a decade later, and the red brick walls have been home to plenty of inhabitants since: brothel workers and patrons, railway executives, government health and welfare officials. It's even been a cloister for Catholic nuns.
Today, the historic building at 315 Wallace Ave. has two complementary identities. Upstairs is Greenbriar Inn, a boutique hotel, while the first floor is 315 Cuisine, an upscale, eclectic restaurant both for hotel guests and the neighborhood.
The fine dining room is co-owned by three local ski bros with deep roots in Coeur d'Alene, Gared and Essex Prescott, actual brothers, plus their longtime friend and brother-from-another-mother Corey Schneider.
Despite having its identity transformed again and again, the integrity of the house has stayed the same. When Bob and Kris McIlvenna bought the building in 1984, they restored it with careful attention to historical accuracy. When Schneider and the Prescotts remodeled the dining room at the end of 2022, they also prioritized preservation, which they decided was key to the 315 Cuisine experience.
"It has character but also an energy to it where people feel like they are in a space of elevated fine dining, but they're also getting those hints of history at the same time," Essex says. "You definitely won't find a similar experience in Coeur d'Alene."
Walking up to 315 Cuisine, you'll see a huge wraparound porch on both the first and second stories, its white railings embracing the original brickwork of Davey himself. Inside, you'll walk past a mantled fireplace, wooden archways and plenty of picture molding, into a moody charcoal dining room with exposed brick and an original, built-in china cabinet.
Updates include a black-and-white checkerboard floor and streamlined lighting. But the overall effect is the perfect balance of new and old, which comes from a deep history that you just can't fake.
"It's really cool because we're bringing people together in a world where everything is drowning in technology," Schneider says. "Restaurants are one of the last unique stands of in-person creativity — connecting people at a moment around a table at the intersection of food and beverage."
The menu at 315 Cuisine has just as many conversation starters as the dining room itself. The wide ranging menu curated by chef Tyler Booth draws inspiration from both home and abroad. Huckleberry barbecue chicken ($32) adds a surprising Northwest twist to a classic, and the maple glazed espresso steelhead ($39) is the local specialty you didn't know you needed until right now.
But can three 30-something shredders really own a restaurant that doesn't serve some killer steak?
315 E. Wallace Ave., Coeur d’Alene
Open Wed-Sun from 4-9 pm, Fri-Sat 4-10 pm
315cuisine.com, 208-667-9660
"We try to do a lot of different steak specials, especially moving into the winter time," Essex says.
But this isn't a thoughtless hunk of red meat. The chimichurri flank steak ($29), one of their best sellers and Schneider's personal favorite, is served not only with the bright green Argentinian herb sauce but also Salvadoran slaw called curtido and a tomato confit. Their filet mignon ($55) is served with butter poached asparagus, king trumpet mushrooms, and a llapingacho, an Ecuadorian stuffed potato pancake.
The flavor combos are surprising, exciting and modern, though they're still in touch with tradition and history. Bridging that gap between past and future has planted 315 Cuisine firmly in the present. It's earned a special place in the heart of its current neighborhood, continuously gathering year-round residents for community events, anniversaries and evening getaways.
"We definitely attract tourists when they are here," Essex says. "But what's neat is, because of the history of the building as well as just being a staple in the area for quite some time, there is 100% a solid local crowd that has made this their special night spot or their once-a-month location to go get reliable food and elevated service."
Keeping that history alive comes with its own challenges.
"It does take a lot of care to maintain and keep a building as old as this one is," Schneider says. "There's extra bandwidth beyond just a normal restaurant that has a new build or something."
But that care and attention seems to be paying off.♦
