Bicycle shop plans Kendall Yards move

Monkey Boy Bicycles, a 3-year-old Spokane-based retail bicycle business, will move from its current location at 606 W. Garland to new digs in Kendall Yards in November, says Lynn Ellis, part owner. 

The company has leased about 700 square feet of retail space at 1206 W. Summit Parkway and plans to relocate there from its current 600-square-foot space.

Ellis, who owns the business with two of her siblings, Donald Gibson and Patti Nepean, says the business operated as a mobile bike repair business for its first two years. One year ago, the owners opened the retail space on Garland.

The last day of business at the Garland location will be Oct. 25, Ellis says. She says she hopes the move to Kendall Yards will occur before the Thanksgiving holiday, but the company doesn’t yet have a definitive opening date.

Ellis says the owners believe the new corner retail space next to Brain Freeze Creamery will give the business a better chance to reach its target market.

“We want to grow the business and that won’t happen at the current location,” she says. 

Monkey Boy Bicycles carries upright, Dutch-style, urban bikes, Ellis says. It offers bikes from the Brooklyn Bicycle Co., Papillionaire bikes, and Virtue Bikes for sale, as well as a new line of bikes for kids called Linus Bikes. 

The bike shop also carries cycling gear such as helmets, gloves and other accessories, as well as some clothing.

Eventually, she says the owners hope to add bike rentals to the shop’s offerings. 

Ellis says the three siblings are Monkey Boy’s only employees thus far. 

—Judith Spitzer

Nectar Wine & Beer to open in early ’15

Josh Wade, who launched the Nectar Tasting Room at 120 N. Stevens in downtown Spokane in 2011, says he plans to open a craft wine and beer shop in the Kendall Yards development next February or March, at 1331 W. Summit Parkway, next to Veraci Pizza.

The new location, which will be built out over the next couple of months, has about 2,200 square feet of space, and the wine and beer shop there will be open six days a week, Wade says. Spokane-based Hurtado Hissong Design Group will design the new space. 

“One-third of the space will be retail wine and beer, a third will be soft, transitional seating areas, and one-third will be a traditional bar serving beer and wine by the glass or bottle,” Wade says. 

Nectar Craft Wine & Beer will offer wine from around the world, he says, as well as specialty and local beer that can be sold to go, or consumed on the premises. Most of the wines will differ from the wines at the Nectar Tasting Room downtown. 

Wade says wine accessories, as well as novelty gift items related to wine, also will be available for purchase. 

For customers who desire food, an appetizer menu, as well as menu items from Veraci Pizza next door, will be available.  

Wade says he will be adding four part-time employees to staff the new shop. 

“I will be splitting my time between the two,” he says. He currently employs three other people part time at the Nectar Tasting Room downtown. 

 

—Judith Spitzer

Yoga studio opens near Kendall Yards

South Hill yoga studio Harmony Yoga LLC has opened a second location one block north of Kendall Yards at 707 N. Cedar in the Pelican Building, owner and director Alison Rubin says. 

Classes at Harmony Yoga North, which is located in a 540-square-foot leased space, began on Oct. 13, Rubin says. The business’ main location, Harmony Yoga South, located at 1717 W. Sixth, has about 1,400 square feet of leased space, she says. 

Rubin has 10 independently contracted instructors at Harmony Yoga South, and the new Harmony Yoga North has eight instructors, she says. 

Harmony Yoga offers a variety of yoga classes, from beginners’ yoga to intermediate and advanced classes, as well as Vinyasa, or flow, yoga. 

“We have 20 classes a week, Monday through Sunday, at the North Side,” Rubin says. “At the South location we have 26 classes a week, also Monday through Sunday.”

Students will be able to use their membership or class packages at either location, Rubin says. 

Rubin opened Harmony Yoga in 2002. Prior to that, she had been operating as Life Dance Yoga in a variety of spaces since 1984.

“I moved here in 1983 and pretty much started right away,” she says. 

Two years ago, Rubin also launched a 200-hour yoga teacher training program. The program runs every other weekend from February to June every year. 

 

—Katie Ross

Brazilian restaurant opens on South Hill

Hughes Restaurant Group Inc., of Spokane, has opened a new all-you-can-eat restaurant, called the Rio Grill Brazilian Steakhouse, on Spokane’s South Hill, says co-owner Patrick Hughes. 

Hughes, who owns Rio Grill with wife Billie Jo, says the restaurant opened in late August in the 57th and Regal Center, at 5620 S. Regal. The restaurant occupies just over 4,700 square feet of leased space in the center.

The eatery offers Brazilian barbecue meats, all cut tableside, Hughes says.

“The way it works is the customer grabs their side dishes from our side bar, then sit down, and then they get a sampling of all our meats that will be carved tableside,” Hughes says. 

Rio Grill’s meat offerings include chimichurri chicken, marinated steak, barbecue pork, and garlic chicken. The restaurant also has grilled vegetables and glazed pineapple as well. 

Hughes has worked in the restaurant business for more than 23 years, he says, holding positions from dishwasher to executive chef to director of operations. 

“We had the opportunity to get the space, and we chose the Brazilian concept because it’s something different, and something we felt Spokane would really embrace,” he says. “Who doesn’t love all-you-can-eat meat?”

The Rio Grill has about 25 employees, Hughes says. There aren’t any firm plans for expansion right now, he says, but in the future he would like to open more locations. 

 

—Katie Ross