Spokane, WA is a wonderful city and we greatly enjoyed our 10 days there. In addition to having beautiful waterfalls downtown, a highly walkable city and lots more, one of the highlights for us was the abundance of breweries, wineries and cideries all located downtown.
Seeing as we travel full-time with our dog Truffles, we like to find pet-friendly activities as much as we can. That means we tend to seek out places to drink where your pup can join you – ideally both inside and out, but at a minimum out on a patio area.
Thankfully there are many pet-friendly breweries, wineries and cideries in Spokane. We didn’t have a chance to visit all of them (our livers thanks us), but we did manage to check out eight during our time there – here’s what they were.
1) Whistle Punk Brewing
We’re not going to put all the drinking establishments in order of preference in this list, but this first brewery – Whistle Punk Brewing – was easily our favorite for many reasons.
The first is that it’s very pet-friendly, with them allowing dogs both inside the brewery and out on their patio.
Second, they have great beer. Their flights come with your choice of six beers, so on our first visit there I got a couple of flights to try nearly all their beers. All of them were very good, with my favorites being the hefeweizen, espresso stout and huckleberry crumble. If you’re not a beer drinker (like Shae), Whistle Punk has wine and cider options too.
Third, their staff were excellent. In particular, Chris was wonderful – incredibly friendly, generous and welcoming. He seemed to love Truffles and Truffles did absolutely love him. She can sometimes be a little protective when guys are walking up behind Shae, but she never had any concerns about him – she simply got excited every time and wanted all the attention.
Finally, the brewery is attached to Heritage Bar & Kitchen, so you can easily grab something to eat if you need to soak up some of the alcohol. We grabbed food from there one night and it was delicious.
2) Iron Goat Brewing
A little further west downtown is Iron Goat Brewing. Although dogs aren’t allowed inside, they can join you on their patio out back.
Iron Goat had a good selection of beers to choose from, as well as wine, cider, sparkling waters and Italian sodas.
Similar to Whistle Punk, Iron Goat Brewing offers flights of six beers and so that’s what I ordered. I picked:
- Minnehaha Northwest IPA
- Lucky You Czech Pilsner
- Irish Stephen Imperial Brown Ale
- Goatmeal Oatmeal Stout
- Chocolate Cherry Stout
- Bob’s Your Uncle Porter
The beers were all decent, with the Goatmeal Oatmeal Stout being my favorite, so I got a pint of that afterwards.
The reason Iron Goat presumably can’t allow pups inside is because they have a kitchen on site. They serve pizza and had several with intriguing toppings.
We already had dinner plans, but got a side of garlic knots which came with beer cheese and mustard dips. These were very tasty and hit the spot.
3) Barrister Winery
Spokane doesn’t only have breweries to offer – there are lots of winery tasting rooms too. Just around the corner from Iron Goat Brewing is Barrister Winery, so we stopped by there one afternoon.
They’re not pet-friendly inside, but they do allow dogs on their patio area out front.
Shae and I both decided to do a wine tasting. We prefer red wine to white, so we were pleased to discover that all five wines that are part of their tasting were reds.
All five of the wines were very good. Shae’s favorite was the Rough Justice XVIII, while my favorite was the 2020 Carménère. We ended up sticking around for another glass, so we bought a bottle of the Rough Justice to start working on there, then took the rest back to our hotel.
4) Brick West Brewing
One of the most popular breweries in Spokane seems to be Brick West. It has a large complex, with a spacious indoor taproom as well as a massive outdoor seating area which seemed to be able to seat at least 100 people, if not significantly more than that.
We visited Brick West a couple of times. During our first visit I got a flight of lighter beers and on our second visit I got darker beers.
My favorite of the light beers was their Something Good pale ale. I forgot to make a note as to which my favorite dark beer was, but I think it was the Sweet Success honey brown ale.
Next door to Brick West is Outlaw BBQ and they have a counter for the restaurant inside Brick West too. On our final night in Spokane we got a tray of their Outlaw Nachos which came topped with BBQ brisket and were amazing.
5) The Grain Shed Taproom
After visiting Barrister Winery, but before stopping in at Brick West for the second time, the three of us stopped for a drink at The Grain Shed Taproom.
The Grain Shed Taproom doesn’t allow dogs inside as they serve food there, but they are allowed on their patios both at the front and out back. We were standing up at a table rather than sitting down, so Truffles decided she needed to be up with us rather than languishing on the floor by herself.
Side note: this is Truffles’ “I’ve got mom and dad wrapped around my little finger paw” face 😉
Anyway, on to the drinks. Shae got a glass of red wine, while I got another flight. The flights at The Grain Shed Taproom come with your choice of four beers, so I picked their stout, the porter and a couple of red ales. From what I can remember, the Red (Teddy’s Version) was my favorite.
The Grain Shed Taproom had cornhole set up outside where we were, so Shae and I challenged each other to a game, then another, then another. She won the first one, but I ended up winning the next two – woohoo! That was despite Truffles insisting on being held as she was getting freaked out by the sound of the bean bags hitting the boards.
6) Locust Cider
In addition to breweries and wineries, Spokane has several cideries too. We picked Locust Cider which we knew was pet-friendly outside, but we were pleasantly surprised to find out that they were pet-friendly inside too. That was perfect as it was a bit more chilly the date we visited Locust, so sitting inside was preferable.
Locust Cider has 14 different ciders, although they were out of their coffee cider the day we visited.
They offer flights as an option that come with your choice of six ciders. Seeing as there were two of us, we coordinated with each other to each pick different ciders. That meant we could try each other’s ciders to taste-test 12 of the 13 available ciders. That’s wisdom after almost 20 years of marriage 😉
All 12 ciders were very good and, most impressively, each had their own distinct flavor. At some cideries we’ve been to the ciders have all tasted fairly similar as they were all primarily apple ciders, but Locust Cider had a bunch of interesting and unique flavors.
What worked out even more perfectly was that we both had our own favorites which were different to each other. That meant that after trying each cider, we finished off the six we each preferred. My three favorites were the blackberry, peach and strawberry mojito ciders, while Shae’s four favorites were the O.G. Dry, lingering heat, honey perry and berry blues.
7) Humble Abode Brewing
We’d walked past Humble Abode Brewing a few times on our way to/from several of the above locations, but I hadn’t been able to find any information online as to whether or not they were pet-friendly as I think they’re fairly new downtown.
Shae and I decided to stop by to check it out, so she waited outside with Truffles while I went in to ask about their pet policy. We were therefore very pleased when the answer was that Humble Abode Brewing is pet-friendly and that dogs can join you inside the brewery, not only out on a patio.
If you enjoy playing pinball while drinking beer, Humble Abode has you covered.
Humble Abode Brewing had almost a dozen beers available, as well as cider, wine and root beer options.
As you’ve probably guessed based on all the other breweries listed in this post, I ordered a flight. I picked the following beers:
- Smiling Eyes hazy IPA
- Pina Colada double IPA
- Sterlinator doppelbock
- Peanut butter porter
Humble Abode’s beers were all OK, but they weren’t my favorite compared to the other breweries we visited. That said, the guys working at the brewery that day were very nice and welcoming. Truffles loved them too and she’s a great judge of character.
8) No-Li Brewhouse & Bier Hall
The final brewery we visited in Spokane was one we stopped by as we were leaving the city to head on to Leavenworth. We’d met the guy who runs No-Li while having a drink at Whistle Punk and he mentioned that they’re pet-friendly both inside and outside, so we wanted to give them a try.
When checking their beer menu, I was surprised to see that they only seem to brew lighter beers – there were no brown ales, stouts or porters which tend to be my favorite.
Despite that, I ordered a flight of six beers to try a selection of them:
- Red White & Hazy (hazy IPA)
- German Lager
- Porch Glow (amber ale)
- Squatch Smash (citra hazy pale ale)
- Pistachio IPA (IPA)
- Tangerine Wheat
The German Lager and Pistachio IPA were my favorites of the six. The Pistachio IPA in particular had a unique flavor that I don’t remember encountering in a beer before.
No-Li has several areas you can sit at their location. We drank inside their Bier Hall and attached to that is their Brewhouse.
What we hadn’t realized until we were about to leave is that perhaps the best place to drink there is out on their patio as it’s right next to the river with some pretty views.
Final Thoughts
The three of us had a fantastic time exploring Spokane’s pet-friendly breweries, wineries and cideries during our time there. We’d happily return, so let us know in the comments if there are any other pet-friendly drinking establishments we should check out on a future visit.
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