Downtown Coeur d'Alene's Newest Spots Are Living in Buildings You Already Know

Start at 422 E. Sherman Avenue, the building that was Crickets for as long as most of downtown can remember. Walk east and 1524 E. Sherman, the old Schmidty's Burgers, now serves breakfast. A block off the main drag, 309 E. Lakeside is a brunch room with custom booths where Emran Restaurant used to be. Over on 406 N. Fourth Street, the former Mik's has reopened as a bar run by VFW Post 889, the first bar in the space since Mik's closed in 2023.

Downtown Coeur d'Alene's best-known openings of 2026 didn't come with ground-breakings. Every one of them waited for a building locals already knew to open up. Then the new operator rebuilt the inside and kept some piece of whatever had been there before.

Four Addresses, Four Previous Lives

The four didn't move in the same way. The Waldhers bought the Crickets building and gutted it. Danny Griffin heard about the Schmidty's vacancy at a family barbecue, and the House of Brunch owners got a call from a landlord. On Fourth Street, a veterans' post whose liquor license had been leased to the previous bar decided to run a bar itself. All four followed the same order, though. The room came open first, and the concept moved in after.

When the Building Owner Makes the First Call

House of Brunch shows how hard it is to find space downtown. Co-owners Jackson Connery and Brad Duffy first wanted to open in Coeur d'Alene, but after about a year and a half of looking they couldn't find a space. So they opened their first location at 818 W. Riverside in Spokane in 2023.

This time the space found them. In an interview with the Spokane Journal of Business, Connery said the owner of the Lakeside building, Spokane-based Dave Black Properties, approached them. "We weren't looking for another space," he told the Journal. "We didn't have a commercial real estate agent or anything."

Emran Restaurant had been in the space for about two years. The changes were cosmetic, not structural. The owners took out the dark finishes, built custom booths, refinished the walls, put in new countertops and flooring, and brightened the room. The Coeur d'Alene location is 5,000 square feet, about 1,000 more than the Spokane original, and much of that extra space goes to storage. Both restaurants seat 110. The menu's calling card is paddlefish caviar, priced well below the sturgeon caviar that can run hundreds of dollars, so more diners will try it. The Inlander puts the opening at July 9.

What Carried Over at Crickets and Schmidty's

At 422 E. Sherman, Jessi and Chad Waldher bought the former Crickets building in September 2025. They opened River & Rye on Aug. 5, almost a year later. "We took everything down to the studs and rebuilt it," Chad told the Coeur d'Alene Press. They split the 7,000-square-foot building in two, adding a full kitchen facing Sherman and a second bar.

The concept is new. It's a craft cocktail bar built around Ernest Hemingway's ties to Idaho and his taste for rye whiskey. Jessi described the food to the Press as New American, drawing on French, Spanish and Italian flavors with some Cuban and Pacific Northwest touches. Some of the staff followed the Waldhers from their earlier bars in Kirkland and Walla Walla, including chef Ryan McCuen, general manager Joshua Rae and bar manager Nick Spencer. The assistant general manager, Savannah Grinder, worked at Crickets for seven years. So someone who knew the old room is still working in the new one.

River & Rye is 21-plus and keeps evening hours:

• Wednesday and Thursday, 3 to 11 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. to midnight
• Sunday, 3 to 10 p.m.

Coral Cafe's ties go back further. The Spokesman-Review reported that owner Danny Griffin started in 2005 as a dishwasher at Cedars Floating Restaurant. Over the next two decades he worked nearly every job in a restaurant, including six years managing Belle's Brunch House in Hayden. He looked at several spaces before Schmidty's Burgers closed earlier this year. He mentioned the empty building at a family barbecue, and his brother-in-law turned out to know the owner. Griffin met with him the next day.

The cafe is named for the Coral Cafe his grandparents opened in Burbank, California, in 1957 and ran for 33 years. Griffin told the Spokesman-Review he wanted to carry on that place's hospitality rather than copy its menu. "It's important to me to get to know all the faces that come in," he said. It serves breakfast and lunch. The Spokesman-Review gives the opening date as June 10, and a Coeur d'Alene Press photo caption says June 11.

KREM reported that the Schmidty's owners cited the economy, rising food costs they didn't want to cover by cutting quality, and growing competition from chain restaurants. A family breakfast spot now fills the same corner of East Sherman.

A Veterans' Post Runs the Bar Itself

The Patriot Bar is the one case where the new operator already had a history with the space. Mik's rented 406 N. Fourth St. along with VFW Post 889's liquor license until it closed in 2023. Reporting for the Coeur d'Alene Press, Jack DeWitt wrote that the Post spent almost two and a half years planning and rebuilding before opening on Oct. 3.

Their method was unusual. The Post sold its hard-liquor license and paid for the remodel with the proceeds, so it took on no loans. It plans to apply for a club liquor license so members and guests can order full spirits again. Volunteers hauled out nearly 25 containers of debris, and Army and Marine Corps veteran Jeremy Glenwinkel donated his time to design and build the bar. All revenue stays with the Post, and about 300 combat veterans vote on where it goes.

"When a veteran calls, we find a way."

That's Commander Robert Martin, quoted by the Press.

Manager Callie Kellogg, a Coeur d'Alene native, runs the bar and a new 200-seat event center upstairs. The plans include a scratch kitchen, Wine Wednesdays, live music, and pool and dart tournaments. The temporary bar counter will eventually be replaced with an epoxy top filled with badges, coins and patches, and the Post is collecting donations for it.

The Pieces Still Being Filled In

Two downtown stories are still in progress. River & Rye's rebuild included a separate back section for another concept, and in the Sept. 6 Press story the Waldhers said they weren't ready to reveal it. We haven't found any later announcement. Once it opens, one former Crickets building will hold two businesses.

A few blocks north, the Press has listed Crescent Moon Bakery at 315 E. Walnut as open since July. Its online ordering page offers sourdough loaves, bagels and sweets, with Coeur d'Alene pickups set for Saturday evenings.

Two Downtown Dates This Fall

Harvest Market & Apple Palooza, Saturday, Oct. 17. The market runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on 5th Street between Front Avenue and Coeur d'Alene Avenue, according to the Coeur d'Alene Downtown Association. River & Rye's corner of Sherman is a short walk from 5th, and it opens at 3 p.m. on Saturdays, the same hour the market closes.

Lighting ceremony, Friday, Nov. 27. The Downtown Association's parade runs 5 to 6 p.m., starting at 8th Street and Sherman Avenue and heading west on Sherman. The Coeur d'Alene Resort has confirmed its annual lighting ceremony for the same night. Heading west from 8th, the parade passes the 400 block, so this is the first holiday season the floats will go by River & Rye's windows instead of Crickets'. Coral Cafe at 1524 E. Sherman is east of the starting point and well off the route.

If you've been watching other towns in the corridor change this year, our recent posts cover downtown Post Falls' new evening block and the I-90 work between Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls. More neighborhood guides are on our Idaho neighborhoods page.

Downtown keeps changing one address at a time, and we keep track of what fills each one. If you own a building here or near Sherman and want to know what this year's turnover means for your property, Stacey Leech is happy to go through it with you. Discover Inland Northwest Living — Request Your Consultation.