Paint & Pints studio opens downtown

Paint & Pints, a studio offering painting classes while serving locally brewed craft beer, wine, and champagne, has opened in downtown Spokane. 

Amber Juliano, a dental hygienist by day, co-owns the studio with her husband, Paul, who is an electrician. The couple are leasing a 2,000-square-foot space located at 718 W. Riverside, a block south of the River Park Square retail mall. The space, which formerly housed the Gibliano Brothers Dueling Piano Bar & Music House, now houses Paint & Pints in the front lounge and the Ridler Piano Bar in the back. 

Juliano says she came up with the idea for the business after taking some painting classes. 

“I had taken classes before and always found myself thinking of how great it would be if they added this or that,” she says. 

The business’s website lists painting classes starting at $35 per person for a two-hour class and ranging up to $45 per person for a three-hour class. Only adults 21 years old and older may attend, and no outside beverages are allowed. Juliano says the studio can comfortably seat up to 60 painters, with each class averaging around 35 people. 

“As we just opened, it might take a while for weekday classes to build momentum, so Saturdays are currently our busiest days,” says Juliano. She says the business’s most popular class so far is the date night option, as it offers couples the chance to share a painting, with one person completing the left side and the other completing the right. 

Juliano says the studio also offers private parties, group and fundraising sessions, with several already scheduled for September and October. 

“We’re big on supporting the community. Fundraisers are really important to me, and the momentum we’re seeing for events like that is really exciting,” says Juliano. 

—LeAnn Bjerken

Market Street Grill gears up in Hillyard 

Trying to make a profit just might prove easier than attempting to open in the first place for the owners of the Market Street Grill in northeast Spokane’s Hillyard neighborhood.

Grill owners Don Seaman and Donna Ostrom hope they finish 2015 stronger than when they first started trying to get the restaurant up and running in the former Whiskey Dick’s Bar & Grill space at 3027 E. Liberty.

 “You can only imagine how long it took to clean up. It ended up taking months after Whiskey Dick’s closed on Dec. 31,” says Ostrom, Seaman’s daughter.

Then in May, thieves got on the roof of the restaurant and stole reams of copper from the mechanical system and walk-in cooler. The roof had to be replaced, as well as ceiling tiles, Ostrom says. Finally, after opening July 14, father and daughter can now focus on trying to make the restaurant take off. Seaman has owned the building since 2000, she says.

“I know we were ready for a change of ownership, and the neighborhood was definitely ready for a change,” says Ostrom, adding that her father has worked restaurants for most of his life.

The restaurant seats up to 100 customers and employs eight people. It’s open every day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Lunch fare dominates the menu, which includes sandwiches, wraps, and burgers. Dinner includes “comfort foods,” such as fish and chips and spaghetti and meatballs, Ostrom says.

 

—Kevin Blocker

Therapy centers open in Spokane

After relocating to Spokane and opening the Center for Healthy Couples and Families in January, owner Kim McMillin now has opened the Center for Music Therapy at the same lower South Hill location.

McMillin, who is a licensed mental health counselor, registered nurse, and board-certified music therapist, is the centers’ only employee and splits her time between the two businesses, she says.

The two ventures share a 244-square-foot space at 1717 W. Sixth, says McMillin. 

The Center for Healthy Couples and Families focuses on family therapy, particularly on couples, but also offers individual therapy, McMillin says. Some of the services offered include different types of research-based therapy. 

The Center for Music Therapy is geared mostly toward special-needs youth and families, as well as individuals experiencing medical challenges, she says.

“Musical therapy is a relationship with somebody who is a board-certified music therapist,” she says. 

Patients don’t have to be musically talented for the therapy, says McMillin. One of the techniques used at the center involves writing songs, she says.

Benefits of music therapy include increased sensory-motor skills, cognitive skills, impulse control, and problem-solving skills, says the center’s website.

Among creative art therapies, music is the most researched and has been around the longest, McMillin says. 

 “I wanted a place where people could come that could create a refuge, a safe place where they would love to come to get away from their lives or to create transformation,” she says. 

Both centers’ hours are Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

 

—Samantha Howard

Uncle Dan’s expands product availability 

Uncle Dan’s Salad Dressings Inc., of Spokane, says WinCo Foods Inc. supermarket chain has agreed to carry Uncle Dan’s products at more of its stores. 

Uncle Dan’s President and General Manager Chris Stephens says its dressings are now available in more than 50 WinCo stores in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. Of these stores, Uncle Dan’s is newly available in 20 and is expanding its selection in the other 30. 

The company says it also has been approved for vendor status with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and expects to start seeing its products on the shelves in 30 Walmart stores in the Northwest by March. 

 The company, which distributes to grocery stores throughout the region and in western Canada, operates out of a 3,000-square-foot office space and adjacent warehouse at 623 N. Hogan. Its products are manufactured in Kent, Wash. 

 “With both Walmart and WinCo on board, we expect to see a 10 to 15 percent increase in case sales by the second quarter of 2016,” says Stephens. “Full distribution at Walmart will take up to six months, so we probably will not have a solid idea until the third and fourth quarters, really,” he says.

 

—LeAnn Bjerken