The Downtown Onion Story

This building was built in 1907 as the elegant St. Regis Hotel. Main Street was the center of town and the corner of Bernard and Riverside was a prime location. The hotel was first class, second in Spokane only to the world famous Davenport Hotel.

The present bar area of The Onion, previously known as the Union Tavern, was occupied by an unknown tenant until the twenties when it became a pharmacy. The pharmacy operated until 1958 when W. G. Cassis took over. He moved the beautiful back bar in and opened the Union Tavern. Cassis sold to Bob Gillespie in 1966. Larry Brown purchased the Tavern from Bob Gillespie in 1974.

The present dining room space of The Onion, previously known as the Ideal Shoe Store, had an unknown tenant until the Petrus family took it over in 1934 to operate a shoe store. The family operated the Ideal Shoe Store continuously until the death of Albert Petrus in about 1977. Interestingly enough, Albert's father had operated the Ideal Shoe Store across the street for 16 years before moving into this building in 1934. So they were doing business in the neighborhood from about 1918 until 1977.

The "back room" of The Onion was the hotel lobby until 1975 when the hotel business was closed and the upper three floors were converted into what is now The Metropolitan Apartments.

The tavern, shoe store and vacant hotel lobby were combined and built out as The Onion Bar and Grill in 1978. Everything remaining from the glory days of the old building was preserved and integrated into the restaurant at that time. Then in our 20th anniversary year, 1998, the restaurant was given a complete restoration, like an old antique, and is now ready for the next twenty years!!! (Those magnificent light fixtures really are carved alabaster).

But...What about the back bar?
The magnificent oak back bar is an original, built by the Brunswick Corporation in 1904. The bar was part of a complete set which included two matching glass doored liquor cabinets, six horsehair booths and several elegant room dividers that include marble bases and beveled glass inserts. The entire set left Chicago somewhere prior to 1910 and was moved west. The set was broken up at that time and all parts except our front and back bar appear to currently be in the Montana Bar in Miles City, Montana.

Our bar arrived in Spokane in 1910 and was installed in the Court Saloon, next door to the Spokane County Courthouse. The courthouse was down where the Lincoln Building now stands. The Levitch family owned the Court Saloon. To this day Harry and Dave Levitch are occasional customers of ours.

W. G. Cassis operated the Court Saloon for the Levitch family from about 1919 until prohibition when it was closed. Following prohibition the Levitch family still owned the bar and moved it with the same W. G. Cassis to the Union Tavern and Hotel, West 213 and 215 Trent Avenue (now known as Spokane Falls Blvd.) where Cassis bought them out.

Cassis operated the Union Tavern on Trent from 1934 until 1958 when he moved the bar to its present location. He operated the Union Tavern for eight years at Bernard and Riverside and then in 1966 sold it to Robert Gillespie, who sold it to Larry Brown in 1974. W. G. Cassis had worked in front of this beautiful back bar for 47 consecutive years with the exception of the interruption for prohibition.

If anyone has any additional information about the bar please pass it along to us. We would enjoy adding it to the story.

And...The Motorcycle?
The beautifully restored 1937 Harley Davidson motorcycle was added to The Onion in the 1998 restoration...just for the fun of it!! The bike came from the collection of Robert E. Smith of Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. Larry Brown had it restored under the watchful eye of "Lucky" Lawrence of Lawrence's Vintage Restorations, also of Coeur d' Alene. The bike was running when it went in to Lawrence's for restoration.

It is a Model UL, 74 cubic inch (1200cc) V Twin engine with cast iron "flathead" heads. There were 2,861 of the bikes produced at a base price of $395.00 each.

---The preceding information was provided by Larry Brown, the owner of Landmark Restaurants, previous owners of the building, neighborhood talk and newspaper clippings on file at the Spokane Public Library.