First Avenue Coffee, an Inlander 2026 Pick on Spokane's 1st Avenue

Thomas Garner

Oct 7

11 min read

Historic red brick Montvale building at 1st Avenue and Monroe Street in downtown Spokane

Photo: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

First Avenue Coffee is at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A, on the 1st Avenue side of downtown Spokane near Riverfront Park. In the Inlander's Best Of 2026, it was among the top picks in the Best Independent Coffee Shop category, one of three downtown shops the paper honored that year. That is a clear, sourced piece of local praise, and it is the right place to start a look at one of the busiest coffee streets in the city.

This post is about the shop and about the street. First Avenue Coffee carries the name of the avenue it sits on, and 1st Avenue itself is worth understanding as its own coffee corridor, separate from Saranac Commons on Main Avenue, from Riverside Avenue and from the neighborhoods across the river. Knowing the street makes the shop easier to find, and knowing the shop is a good reason to walk the street.

The Address

First Avenue Coffee's address is 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A. The suite letter matters. It marks the specific door within the building, and it is the detail that turns a general downtown direction into a precise one.

The 1000 block of West 1st Avenue sits in the Sprague and 1st Avenue part of downtown, on the west side of the core and within a short walk of Riverfront Park and the Spokane River. For a visitor staying downtown, that means the shop is reachable on foot from most hotels and offices in the core.

A cafe named for its own street has a small advantage that is easy to overlook. The name and the address reinforce each other. Someone told to find First Avenue Coffee on 1st Avenue has two clues pointing to the same place.

The Inlander Best Of 2026 Placement

The Inlander, Spokane's weekly paper for news, arts and food, publishes an annual Best Of issue. In 2026, Hatch Beaker + Burr was named Best Independent Coffee Shop, and Atticus Coffee & Gifts and First Avenue Coffee were among the top picks in the same category.

A spot among the top picks in an independent category is a real distinction. The category sets aside national chains entirely, so the honor says that Inlander readers held First Avenue Coffee in high regard within Spokane's independent coffee scene in 2026.

It is also a dated honor. Best Of results change every year, which is exactly why they are worth noting when they are current. For a reader deciding where to go downtown this year, a 2026 placement from a local paper is a useful, specific signal.

All Three Honorees Are Downtown

The Inlander's 2026 list tells a story about geography as well as coffee. Hatch Beaker + Burr is at 19 W Main Ave Suite 3 in Saranac Commons. Atticus Coffee & Gifts is at 222 N Howard St. First Avenue Coffee is at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A. All three sit within a few blocks of one another in the downtown core.

For a visitor, that makes downtown the natural starting point for a coffee morning in Spokane. The three independent shops the paper honored can be reached on foot in a single short loop, from Main Avenue to Howard Street to 1st Avenue.

For a local reader, the list is a reminder that downtown is not one coffee stop. It is several, each on its own street, and 1st Avenue is one of the streets that carries the most of them.

1st Avenue as a Coffee Street

First Avenue Coffee is not the only coffee address on its avenue. Drip Drip: Coffee and Vintage is at 1113 W 1st Ave, one block west. Kape Cha is at 1309 W 1st Ave, a few blocks farther along. Just south, Good Medicine Apothecary is at 301 W 2nd Ave Suite A.

That concentration is part of what makes 1st Avenue interesting. A person walking the street between the 1000 and 1300 blocks passes several independent places to stop for a drink, each with its own address and its own character.

For readers who like to explore on foot, 1st Avenue works as a short coffee walk on its own. For readers who want one reliable stop, the Inlander's 2026 pick at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A is a sourced place to begin.

How 1st Avenue Differs From Main Avenue

Downtown Spokane is often described as one place, but its streets have different roles. Main Avenue, a few blocks north, is home to Saranac Commons and the Inlander's 2026 winner. 1st Avenue runs parallel to it on the south side of the core, closer to the Sprague corridor.

The difference matters for anyone giving or following directions. Saying a shop is downtown leaves a visitor to search several parallel streets. Saying it is on 1st Avenue at the 1000 block narrows the search to one stretch of one street.

It also matters for how people search. A reader typing coffee on 1st Avenue Spokane, or coffee near Riverfront Park, is asking a narrower question than coffee downtown, and the most useful answer names the street.

Riverside Avenue and the Rest of Downtown

Between Main and 1st, Riverside Avenue adds another independent room. Indaba Coffee's downtown location is at 518 W Riverside Ave and opened in the fall of 2018. Put it together with the 1st Avenue addresses and the Main Avenue and Howard Street honorees, and downtown Spokane holds a good number of independent coffee counters within a few blocks.

National drive thrus are part of the picture too. Dutch Bros lists a location at 410 W 2nd Ave, one of its nine Spokane stores. That kind of stop serves a different purpose from a sit down counter on 1st Avenue, and the two rarely compete for the same visit.

The short version is simple. Downtown Spokane has many coffee options within a few blocks, and 1st Avenue holds a good share of them, from the 1000 block to the 1300 block.

How Visit Spokane Groups Downtown Coffee

Visit Spokane, the city's tourism bureau, keeps a coffee guide that sorts the city's cafes by neighborhood. Downtown Spokane is the first heading on that page, followed by Kendall Yards, Browne's Addition, the University District, Manito and Cannon Hill, the South Perry District, the Market Street District, North Spokane and Latah Valley. Liberty Lake gets a heading of its own, since it is a separate city.

That structure is a useful reminder of how visitors are guided through Spokane coffee. The tourism bureau does not treat the city as one list. It treats it as a set of neighborhoods, and downtown, where 1st Avenue sits, leads the page.

For anyone planning a trip, the guide and the Inlander's list work well together. One sorts the city by place, and the other gives a dated measure of local regard.

What a Visitor Sees When Searching Downtown Coffee

A traveler searching for a coffee shop in Spokane sees a page made mostly of other people's words. A search for coffee shop Spokane WA in September 2026 returned a map block of nearby places, a local food blog's best coffee roundup, a creative studio's list of coffee shops to work from, the Visit Spokane coffee guide, a Reddit thread from r/Spokane with more than 70 comments, a Facebook food group thread and a Tripadvisor list of the ten best cafes in the city, among other results.

That mix explains why a named award is so valuable to a downtown shop. Lists, threads and guides come and go, but a sourced line such as a top pick in the Inlander's Best Of 2026 independent coffee category gives any of those sources something solid to repeat.

It also explains why the street matters. Most of those results sort by neighborhood or by walking distance, and a clear 1st Avenue address is what places a shop correctly on a visitor's mental map.

Planning a Visit

The easiest way to plan a First Avenue Coffee stop is to start from the address, 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A, and look for the suite letter on arrival. Many visitors will simply walk from a nearby hotel, office or Riverfront Park.

Hours at any small business can change with the season, holidays and special events, so it is always wise to check the shop's current schedule on the day of a visit. That is especially true for a morning plan built around several downtown stops.

A good loop for a first visit to downtown coffee is Main Avenue, then Howard Street, then 1st Avenue, following the three Inlander honorees in a short walk and adding any of the other 1st Avenue addresses along the way.

Why Street Level Detail Helps

When a reader asks where to get coffee in downtown Spokane, the most helpful answer names a shop, a street and a source. First Avenue Coffee at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A, a top pick in the Inlander's Best Of 2026 independent coffee category, is that kind of answer.

Search engines and AI answer tools increasingly work the same way. They pull short, checkable facts from the pages they read: a business name, an address, an award and a year. Plain statements of that kind are easy to quote and hard to misread.

For downtown owners, the lesson is to keep those details together and in plain words. A street address with its suite, a neighborhood name that locals use and a dated piece of press praise form a short answer that serves people and search alike.

Downtown Spokane, Not Spokane Valley

One more piece of geography is worth keeping straight. Downtown Spokane is inside the city of Spokane. Spokane Valley, to the east, is a separate city of 105,460 residents by the same 2023 Census estimate, and Liberty Lake, farther east, is a separate city of 12,435. Their coffee shops belong to their own maps.

The distinction shows up even in chain counts. Dutch Bros lists nine stores in Spokane and four in Spokane Valley, and the two numbers are never added together. The same care applies to independents. A 1st Avenue address is a downtown Spokane address, and describing it that way keeps it on the right map for every reader and every search.

1st Avenue on the Wider Spokane Map

Spokane, a city of 229,228 residents by the Census Bureau's 2023 five year estimate, spreads its coffee across several named neighborhoods. Beyond downtown, there is Logan and Hamilton Street near Gonzaga University, the North Monroe corridor, Broadway and Kendall Yards west of downtown, Garland north of the river and 57th Avenue on South Hill.

1st Avenue is the downtown part of that map closest to Riverfront Park and the Sprague corridor. First Avenue Coffee shares its name with the street, and in 2026 the Inlander gave that name a place among the top picks for the city's independent coffee shops.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is First Avenue Coffee in Spokane?

First Avenue Coffee is at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A, in the Sprague and 1st Avenue part of downtown Spokane near Riverfront Park. The suite letter marks the specific door within the building. The 1000 block of West 1st Avenue is within a short walk of most downtown hotels and offices, which makes the shop easy to reach on foot from the core.

How did First Avenue Coffee fare in the Inlander's Best Of 2026?

First Avenue Coffee was among the top picks in the Best Independent Coffee Shop category of the Inlander's Best Of 2026. Hatch Beaker + Burr, at 19 W Main Ave Suite 3, was named Best Independent Coffee Shop, and Atticus Coffee & Gifts, at 222 N Howard St, was also among the top picks. The category leaves national chains out.

Are all three Inlander 2026 coffee honorees downtown?

Yes. The three independent coffee shops the Inlander honored in 2026 are all in downtown Spokane: Hatch Beaker + Burr on Main Avenue, Atticus Coffee & Gifts on Howard Street and First Avenue Coffee at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A. They sit within a few blocks of one another, so a visitor can walk between all three in one short loop.

What other coffee addresses are on 1st Avenue?

1st Avenue holds several coffee addresses in a short stretch. Drip Drip: Coffee and Vintage is at 1113 W 1st Ave, one block west of First Avenue Coffee, and Kape Cha is at 1309 W 1st Ave a few blocks farther west. Good Medicine Apothecary is just south at 301 W 2nd Ave Suite A. Together they make 1st Avenue a walkable coffee street.

How is 1st Avenue different from Main Avenue downtown?

Main Avenue runs a few blocks north of 1st Avenue and is home to Saranac Commons, where the Inlander's 2026 winner sits at 19 W Main Ave Suite 3. 1st Avenue runs parallel on the south side of the core near the Sprague corridor and Riverfront Park. Naming the street narrows a search from all of downtown to one specific stretch.

Is there a Dutch Bros near First Avenue Coffee?

Dutch Bros lists a location at 410 W 2nd Ave in downtown Spokane, one of nine it lists within the city. A drive thru serves a different kind of stop from a sit down independent counter on 1st Avenue. The Inlander's independent category, where First Avenue Coffee was among the top picks in 2026, leaves the national chains out entirely.

Where is the independent coffee room on Riverside Avenue?

Indaba Coffee's downtown room is at 518 W Riverside Ave, between Main Avenue and 1st Avenue, and it opened in the fall of 2018. It sits a short walk from First Avenue Coffee at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A, so a downtown coffee walk can easily take in 1st Avenue, Riverside Avenue and Main Avenue in one morning.

Why does the suite letter in the address matter?

The suite letter, Suite A at 1011 W 1st Ave, points to the specific door within the building rather than the building as a whole. In downtown Spokane, several coffee addresses include suite numbers, such as 19 W Main Ave Suite 3 and 301 W 2nd Ave Suite A. Including the suite in directions saves a visitor time on arrival.

What part of Spokane is the 1st Avenue coffee stretch in?

The 1st Avenue coffee stretch is in downtown Spokane, on the south side of the core near the Sprague corridor and Riverfront Park. It runs from about the 1000 block, where First Avenue Coffee sits at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A, to the 1300 block, where Kape Cha sits at 1309 W 1st Ave, all within a few minutes on foot.

Is this Spokane coffee story connected to Seattle?

No. First Avenue Coffee and the 1st Avenue corridor are in downtown Spokane, a city of 229,228 residents by the Census Bureau's 2023 five year estimate, and the Best Of 2026 placement came from the Inlander, a Spokane paper. Seattle is a separate coastal city with its own coffee scene, and Coeur d'Alene is a separate Idaho lake town.

Work with Hillcane

First Avenue Coffee, at 1011 W 1st Ave Suite A, was among the top picks for Best Independent Coffee Shop in the Inlander's Best Of 2026, on a downtown street with more coffee than most.

If your downtown Spokane cafe has earned local praise and wants it told plainly next to its street address, reach Hillcane at hillcane.co/contact or call (256) 384-2449.