Training, wellness studio opens in core

Elite Wellness LLC, a personalized training, nutrition and wellness studio, has opened in downtown Spokane, says Connie Stark, one of three partners in the new business. 

Elite Wellness occupies 1,400 square feet of space in Suite 902 of the Paulsen Center at 421 W. Riverside. Stark, a wellness and athletic coach, and studio co-owners Julie Hatcher, a nutrition therapist and personal trainer, and Jordan Kolstad, a personal trainer, coach and wellness coordinator, plan to provide a private setting for clients aimed at improving their overall health. 

The studio will offer one-on-one training, as well as small group classes with no more than four to six clients. Small group classes include topics such as functional movement and circuit training. Stark says workouts are designed around a client’s needs, which are established from a fitness assessment done by one or more staff members. 

“We will assess what their needs are and everyone will have a plan based on those needs,” Stark says. The studio incorporates fitness and cardiovascular equipment such as treadmills and rowing machines. 

“Our unique approach incorporates assessments and education for body alignment, functional movement, mobility, corrective exercises, strength training, cardiovascular health, and nutritional guidelines,” she says. 

Stark says she has been working in the field of sports management since 1986 and has worked as an athletic director and manager for several fitness centers. 

Elite Wellness is open seven days a week by appointment, or by online reservation for group classes. In January yoga classes also will be available, says Stark. Rates for personal training vary and can be viewed on the Elite Wellness website at myelitewellness.com. 

—Judith Spitzer

New Wake Up Call outlet planned here

Spokane Valley coffee shop Wake Up Call, which operates under the corporate entity Wake Up Inc., is constructing a new 1,100-square-foot outlet at 3526 E. Fifth, at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Freya Street, says co-owner Christopher Arkoosh. 

The shop is scheduled to open in late January, Arkoosh says, and will feature Wake Up Call’s signature building style. 

“It’ll be one of our signature stores, so it’s got a 20-foot-tall, red steel English phone booth as the entrance,” he says. 

Wake Up Call, which launched in 2004, has four other outlets, all of them in Spokane Valley. The other shops are located at 1106 N. Pines, 112 N. Evergreen, 1703 S. Dishman-Mica, and 210 N. Sullivan. 

Wake Up Call serves high-end coffee, Arkoosh says. It also sells pastries, delivered by Spokane bakery Rocket Bakery seven days a week, he says. 

 “We’re a family-friendly neighborhood coffee shop,” Arkoosh says. 

The company employs about 50 people throughout its four current locations, Arkoosh says, and plans to add 10 to 12 more when the new shop opens. 

The company will be looking to add more locations in the future, he says.

“We’d like to do a location on the North Side, and eventually Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls,” he says. 

 

—Katie Ross

Bubbadogz to open store in Liberty Lake

Matt Wasteney says he and his wife, Sandi, owners of Bubbadogz Hot Dogs, will open a store in Liberty Lake next month. 

The hot dog eatery will occupy 1,200 square feet of space of former deli space inside a Chevron gas station at 1109 N. Liberty Lake Road, he says.

 The couple plans to be keep the store open seven days a week and to sell Nathan’s Gourmet Hot Dogs, made famous by Nathan’s annual hot dog eating competition at Coney Island, New York, Wasteney says. In addition to the all-beef Nathan’s dogs, the menu will include chili dogs, corn dogs, chili fries, and chili cheese fries, he says. 

For the past four years, Bubbadogz hasn’t operated out of a fixed location, but has been serving hot dogs out of a cart at corporate events, festivals around Spokane, and other special events, which isn’t feasible during winter months.  

Formerly a homicide investigator in Contra Costa County near San Francisco for 24 years, Wasteney says he retired early due to a medical problem and the two moved to Spokane in 2010. Sandi Wasteney grew up in the Spokane area and her father, known as Big Bubba of Big Bubba’s Tires & Custom Wheels, owns several tire and custom wheel stores in the Spokane area. The couple named their hot dog business after Big Bubba.

Wasteney says when he was changing careers he decided to go with a hot dog cart since his grandfather used to own several amusement parks in California, complete with hot dog carts, in the 1960s. 

Makena Wasteney, one of the couple’s daughters, will be employed at the new store part time.

 

—Judith Spitzer

Event planner looks to expand its staff

Spokane Valley event planner Karen Herford, who launched late this summer a full-service event planning business called Events! by Karen Herford, says she is preparing to hire more staff as her business expands.

“A facility here contacted me about being their planner, and for that I need more staff,” Herford says. Events! by Karen Herford currently has two part-time employees in addition to Herford. 

She declines for now to disclose the name of that facility, but says she’s looking at hiring three more employees.

Her company offers complete event and wedding planning, as well as some services a la carte, Herford says.

“I’m on site for all our events, or someone from my staff is,” she says. 

Herford operates the company out of the basement of her Spokane Valley home. 

She is a certified meeting planner through the Convention Industry Council. She most recently worked for Spokane-based event and catering company Catered for You Inc., where she was the director of sales and event planning. 

Herford started working in hospitality in the hotel industry in 1992, she says, after earning a degree in hospitality management and business. 

“I did the planning, coordinating, the audio/visual, room block, anything that had to do with the hotel,” she says. 

 

—Katie Ross