It’s easy to spot a little touch of Florence, Italy, when you walk in the door of Gander & Ryegrass. You can also spot a little touch of Moses Lake and several Seattle restaurants.
That’s how head chef Peter Froese likes it: a little bit of everything, all in a perfect balance.
“It makes a lot of sense for my personality, and I think it makes sense for our culture, our city, our region,” Froese says. “We can have something that is very elegant and deliberative, but we don’t lose the plot: we don’t lose the fact that we're here for dinner."
Chef Froese’s restaurant, Gander & Ryegrass, hadn’t even been open for four months when Inlander Restaurant Week kicked off. The name itself also holds a bit of balance, just like his food.
Gander is a classic, specialty preparation of goose meat, Froese explained. Ryegrass, though, is common in the front lawns of almost every home in Spokane.
The restaurant sits in the former home of Santé Restaurant and Charcuterie, where Froese serves what he calls "Italian-inspired long-course meals." But the inspiration really comes from so many places other than Italy, especially when it comes to hospitality.
"I guess you could say one of my food heroes is my mom,” Froese said, “in the midwestern sense of hospitality where there's always a casserole or four in the freezer. When people stopped by, we took care of them, and that's really what we're all about here [at Gander & Ryegrass]."
As he wrapped up his days as a Gonzaga student, Froese says his mom actually hired him for one of his earliest paid gigs: dinner for his dad’s 60th birthday.
“That's when I knew I wanted to do long-courses. That was my instinct,” he said while laughing. “I went for the 12-course meal. Didn't know what I was doing at all, but we had a lot of fun doing it."
Someday, Froese says, he wants to bring that birthday menu into Gander & Ryegrass, to try and get it perfect.
You can find Gander & Ryegrass’s Restaurant Week menu listed at the $33 price range, along with more than 120 other restaurants participating in the 2020 event.