About Us
A One of a Kind Dining Experience in Downtown Spokane
A Landmark Building, Reinvented as a Restaurant
There is no other restaurant in Spokane quite like this one.
Steam Plant Restaurant & Brew Pub occupies a fully restored 1916 steam heat plant in the heart of downtown, complete with the original smokestacks, catwalks, and boiler shells that once powered more than 300 buildings across the city. Today those same industrial bones frame the dining room, the bar, and the private event spaces, giving every visit a sense of place you won’t get anywhere else in the region.
National Preservation Honor Award
National Trust for Historic Preservation
2001
TouchBistro
20th Most Unique Restaurant Concept in the World 2025
National, Washington & Spokane Registers
Listed on all three Historic Places registers
Winner: Best Interior Design of a Restaurant
The Inlander Best Of Awards 2024
A living piece of spokane history
The Central Steam Heat Plant first went online in 1916 and ran for 70 years, supplying steam heat to more than 300 downtown Spokane buildings from Deaconess Hospital to the Spokane riverfront retail core. Washington Water Power operated it until the last boiler shut down in December of 1986. A decade later, a Spokane design-build team began the restoration that turned coal bunkers into office space and steam boilers into the seating you dine in today.
History You Can Touch
Rather than raze the site, Avista’s restoration team preserved as much of the original machinery as possible. Massive steam boilers became restaurant seating and a water feature. The 1,200 ton coal bunker now floats above the dining room as office space.
With their efforts, the preservation team earned a National Preservation Honor Award in 2001 and a place on the National, Washington, and Spokane Registers of Historic Places.
Dining or having an event with us connects you to the industrial heartbeat of our city.
Private Dining Inside a Spokane Icon
The Steam Plant private dining rooms and event spaces sit inside the same restored building as our restaurant, giving your group a setting unlike any other. This isn’t your standard hotel ballroom or banquet hall.
Whether you’re planning a rehearsal dinner, a company gathering, or a celebrating a milestone, let us host you under the original smokestacks, catwalks and boiler architecture that powered Spokane.