The fireplace still has a fish mounted over it. At 422 East Sherman Avenue, a rustic stone hearth now shares the room with sleek wood floors, patterned wallpaper, and a private dining room lit by a skylight over exposed brick. Behind the bar sit about 100 bourbons and ryes. For roughly four decades this address was Crickets. Since this summer it has been River & Rye.
Most of downtown's fall news has followed this pattern. The new places mostly opened inside rooms people already knew, and the rooms were rebuilt for hours that downtown used to leave quiet. A late kitchen on Sherman, a 110-seat brunch room on Lakeside, and a dance hall going up on Fourth Street all fill familiar addresses and push downtown's day later at night and earlier on weekend mornings.
Forty years at 422 East Sherman, then seven months down to the studs
The block of Sherman between Fourth and Fifth has been busy for nearly as long as Coeur d'Alene has been a city. The city built its first city hall on the block's eastern end in 1908. After city offices moved to East Mullan Avenue in 1979, the block stayed a hub for shops and restaurants. For the last 40 of those years, Crickets Restaurant & Oyster Bar was one of the stretch's best-known spots. Its owners sold the business to Jessi and Chad Waldher in September 2025, as the Inlander reported.
The Waldhers bought the building that month and took it down to the studs. Chad Waldher told the Coeur d'Alene Press that they split the 7,000-square-foot space in two. The front half got a full kitchen facing Sherman and a second bar. Work began in December and turned into a seven-month buildout. The Press gives the opening date as Aug. 5. The Inlander says diners first came in during July.
The concept takes Ernest Hemingway as its guide. "River" is for his time fishing in Idaho and "rye" for his whiskey. The menu draws on France, Spain, Italy, Cuba and the Pacific Northwest. Everything is made in-house except the bread, which comes from Back Pocket Bakery. The Inlander lists veal and chorizo albondigas at $15, lamb sliders at $20, and shrimp campanelle at $32. The room is 21+ and seats about 90 inside, plus about a dozen on the patio.
The staff connects the room to its past. Chef Ryan McCuen worked with the Waldhers for about eight years at Bottle and Bull, their Kirkland restaurant. Bar manager Nick Spencer came over from their former Walla Walla bar, Marcy's. Assistant GM Savannah Grinder spent seven years at Crickets, where she was one of its top managers.
The hours matter more than the décor. Many bars close the kitchen before the bar. River & Rye's kitchen stays open all night, which the Inlander describes as filling a gap in the region's late-night dining. As of the Press's September report, the bar was open 3 to 11 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 3 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday. The Inlander reports that by the end of this month the doors will open seven days a week, and that happy hour runs daily from 3 to 5 p.m.
A brunch room that came looking for its tenant
A block and a half away, 309 East Lakeside Avenue was the second address to change this summer. This one changed hands in the opposite direction from how most downtown leases begin.
House of Brunch co-owners Jackson Connery and Brad Duffy first tried to open in Coeur d'Alene. They told the Spokane Journal of Business that they searched for about a year and a half, found nothing, and opened their first location at 818 West Riverside in Spokane in 2023. The Coeur d'Alene location came about when the building's owner reached out to them. County assessor records list the owner as Spokane-based Dave Black Properties LLC. "We weren't looking for another space," Connery told the Journal. "We didn't have a commercial real estate agent or anything. The owner of the building came to us."
So the same downtown that had no room for them in the early 2020s had a room ready by 2026. That room had been Emran Restaurant for about two years. The renovation was cosmetic. The owners swapped dark finishes for brighter ones, built custom booths, and replaced the countertops and flooring. Nothing structural was needed. The space is 5,000 square feet, about 1,000 more than the Spokane restaurant, and most of the extra goes to storage. Seating stays at 110, the same as Spokane.
Connery calls the concept "polished casual." One detail captures it. Rather than premium sturgeon caviar that can cost hundreds of dollars, the kitchen serves paddlefish caviar at a much lower price. "It's cool to see how many people have tried caviar for the first time in our restaurant," he said. About 25 people work at each of the company's two restaurants. Most are full time, with part-time staff added for weekend demand.
River & Rye doesn't open until 3 p.m. House of Brunch covers the hours before that. Between them, two rebuilt rooms a few minutes' walk apart now serve downtown from weekend morning into late night.
Fourth and Front trades antiques for a dance floor
The third address is still under construction. In mid-September, the owners of The Beacon announced Kickers, a country bar and dance hall at 115 North Fourth Street. It sits one block south of The Beacon, near the corner of Fourth and Front, as Inland Northwest Business Watch reported. The plans call for live music, line dancing, and in the owners' words "all of your favorite beers and cocktails."
The building's history fits the pattern. For a long time it was Wigget's Antiques, then most recently a virtual-reality business. As of that September 19 report, work was underway and no opening date had been announced. The owners are posting progress on Instagram at @kickerscda_. A building that once sold antiques by day will now be busy mostly after dark.
| Address | Previous occupant | New tenant | Status as of the latest report |
|---|---|---|---|
| 422 E. Sherman Ave. | Crickets Restaurant & Oyster Bar, about 40 years | River & Rye, 21+ cocktail bar with late kitchen | Open; seven days a week planned by end of October |
| 424 E. Sherman Ave. | Back portion of the same building | Second Waldher concept, not yet named | Target "by next spring" |
| 309 E. Lakeside Ave. | Emran Restaurant, about two years | House of Brunch, 110 seats | Open since August |
| 115 N. Fourth St. | Wigget's Antiques, then a VR business | Kickers, country bar and dance hall | Under construction; no date announced |
The smaller morning openings at the edges
Away from the core, the newest openings are smaller and keep earlier hours. The Press's September 13 business roundup listed Crescent Moon Bakery at 315 East Walnut as newly open. Farther east, at 1524 East Sherman, Danny and Celine Griffin opened Coral Cafe on June 11 for breakfast and lunch. They named it after Danny's family history. Together with House of Brunch, they give downtown's mornings more options this fall than it had a year ago. River & Rye and Kickers do the same for the nights.
What's still coming at 424 East Sherman
One room from the Crickets building hasn't been used yet. When the Waldhers split the building, they left a separate back space for a concept they weren't ready to reveal in September. According to the Inlander, they are working on a second restaurant at 424 East Sherman, the connected address. Much is still undecided, but they expect it to open to customers by next spring. If they keep that timeline, a block that started with Coeur d'Alene's first city hall in 1908 will hold two new restaurants under one roof by spring 2027.
Downtown's best addresses tend to change hands quietly, often before a sign ever goes up. At Gunther & Co., we follow these changes block by block because they shape what it's like to live a short walk from Sherman. If you'd like to talk about the streets around these new rooms, we're happy to have that conversation over a Schedule Free Consultation.
