Deb Green first perfected her cooking skills by making new dishes for dinner parties with friends and trying to "one-up" herself. It wasn't long before that interest snowballed into a catering business, followed by managing the cafe at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, and finally opening her first restaurant, Madeleine's Cafe, in 2007. She now co-owns two other local restaurants with her family, Casper Fry in Spokane's South Perry District and Durkin's Liquor Bar downtown, both participating in Inlander Restaurant Week this year.
RESTAURANT WEEK: What is your culinary philosophy?
GREEN: My philosophy is to make and serve good food. I believe you don't need to use dozens of ingredients to make a stellar dish. Good food is also about providing a good environment for diners, one of excellent hospitality. In the end, that's just as important as the food being served.
What kinds of places do you look for when you dine out — what excites you?
Our whole family loves to cook and share meals together — we can even get a bit competitive about it! — so, oftentimes we stay in and cook at home. However, when we do go out, we like to try to support other locally owned places.
What are the biggest challenges you've faced while operating during the pandemic, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge has been the financial aspect. We're doing well, but we're still not seeing that same pre-pandemic volume of people coming out to our restaurants, with the exception of Madeleine's. Many people are still afraid to go out, which I don't blame them for at all.
Another challenge has been being short staffed and having to close when we don't have the people needed to operate. I currently have only about half the overall staff I used to have, split between the three restaurants. Throughout the pandemic we have tried our best to check in with staff, making sure they were getting the assistance they're entitled to (unemployment, stimulus checks, etc.) and helped them however we could. The staff who have stuck it out, and our new hires, are all rock stars. They come in to work every day with a good attitude, and we cherish them.
Looking into the future, how do you think the industry will permanently shift because of the pandemic?
Everyone who can will take advantage of outdoor dining spaces, because guests are, and will continue to be, more interested in dining when they can do so outdoors in fresh air.
I think the pandemic has also influenced some guests to be more compassionate toward restaurant staff. This industry is one of the toughest to be in, as well as being one of the hardest hit by COVID, and we haven't recovered yet, but we're looking out for one another as best we can. It's a transient industry in general, with many people trying their hand at cooking or bartending while in school or working toward another career. But the pandemic forced many of those people to move on, and that's been tough. However, going forward I think the industry will have more people in it who do this work because it's what they truly enjoy and want to continue in.
What are your thoughts on Inlander Restaurant Week, and what are you most looking forward to during this year's event?
The Restaurant Week we were part of this summer was really hard to pull off because we were so short staffed. It's a similar situation for this one, but it's good to have the event back at its usual run time. We're looking forward to seeing what our chefs put out, as we often find that items tried on the Restaurant Week menu really shine and tend to become part of our regular menu. It should be fun!
