Each time I come home to visit my MoM draws up a list of cool things that I should do or try while I am in town. We went to lunch yesterday at a new-to-me restaurant the Green Spoon on Main Street. This wasn't on her list but I'd been wanting to try it out.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7844986038/" title="The Green Spoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8427/7844986038_7c9ee32c88_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="The Green Spoon"></a>
The list is important. It reminds me want I want to do while I am visiting and things I want to sample. I think that my MoM likes to show me just how hip, cool and live-able Walla Walla is. It's like she's saying to me without saying it directly to me: this isn't the Walla Walla you grew up in.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7845002752/" title="Mom at the Green Spoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8298/7845002752_f2336c3c7b_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Mom at the Green Spoon"></a>
She's right of course. (Then again she is a mom.)

This is not the Walla Walla I grew up in. My Walla Walla was a little down and out. It was a farming town with lots of shuttered doors on Main Street and beat up pick-up trucks. For a while when I was in high school, we didn't even have a movie theater in town. The closest one was an hour away. So my friends and I went bowling and we watched movies on VHS in our respective parents' basements or living rooms. It was fine. It was high school.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7844998102/" title="Me at the Green Spoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8423/7844998102_1a3a285b6b_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Me at the Green Spoon"></a>
The big turn is that as luck would have it, wine grapes like the same growing conditions that wheat does. Long hot days and cooler nights and ten-plus years ago the wine industry started growing in Walla Walla. In the beginning locals were skeptical. After all we grow wheat, peas, barley and grass seed not grapes.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7845029254/" title="Lunch menu at Green Spoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8427/7845029254_ec91e3a897_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Lunch menu at Green Spoon"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7845033690/" title="Green Spoon Menu by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8294/7845033690_12cc926ec8_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Green Spoon Menu"></a>
Today, 100+ wineries later, it looks like you can actually grow grapes in Walla Walla and this shift in the culture(and thinking) of the place has changed the city.  There are basically no shuttered doors on Main Street. There are a slew of new shops, bakeries and restaurants--not to mention wine tasting rooms. Heck, there's even a gourmet grocery store but I don't know who shops there--nobody I've talked to seems to admit to it.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7844989700/" title="BLAT at the Green Spoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8433/7844989700_ddef59abc1_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="BLAT at the Green Spoon"></a>
The food at the Green Spoon was great. I had a salad with organic greens, walnuts, blue cheese and raspberry dressing and grilled tofu. My mom had the BLAT--the bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato sandwich on polenta bread. The food was fresh, well made an most importantly tasty.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7844993810/" title="Salad at the Green Spoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8290/7844993810_80e77befed_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Salad at the Green Spoon"></a>
The service on the other hand was just okay. Actually for service in the States it was pretty horrible. I wont detail it incident by incident because no one needs to read that.  I summarize, the service was slow and inconsistent. Moreover, I think that the poor service had more to do with the fact that we were sitting out front of the restaurant and that we were on the later side for lunch in Walla Walla rather than the fact that the restaurant actually has poor service.

Anyhow, it didn't matter much to us. We were happy to sit out front, sip rose and to talk. Don't get me wrong though, we were also happy to order our food and to eat lunch.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7845007112/" title="Green Spoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8294/7845007112_107eb14fbc_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Green Spoon"></a>
So if you're ever in town, check it out. <a href="http://www.greenspoonw2.com/" target="_blank">The Green Spoon at 13th East Main Street</a>. Oh and at dinner time if you bring your own bottle of Walla Walla wine there's only a $1 cork fee. Not bad. Not bad at all.