‘Food is my passion’: Hangry’s expands to North Side

Lost Boys Garage Bar and Grill was a beloved location for North Siders. When Lost Boys closed, whatever took its place, at 6325 N. Wall St., had delicious shoes to fill.

Hangry’s owner Nathan Rouse beat the competition to the highly sought-after restaurant space, opening the third Hangry’s location last month.

The first location opened in 2019 in Spokane Valley. The second location was opened on June 30, 2023, on Seltice Way in Stateline, Idaho. After signing the lease on the North Spokane location in early December, Rouse had the restaurant fully functioning by Feb. 9.

“I saw the opportunity to expand, and we had requests from guests to open new locations,” Rouse said. “The timing was right for everything and I jumped right on the opportunities. So far, it’s been great.

“We’ve been steadily busy with repeat customers who live nearby. Since we opened, North Spokane has been our top requested location, so we were super excited to get the old Lost Boys space.”

Rouse says owning a restaurant runs in his blood. His grandparents owned restaurants, and his parents owned an eatery when he was young. He was “burnt out” working in landscaping, because it was hard to make consistent money during the winters, so he took full advantage of the opportunity to open the Spokane Valley location.

“I pretty much put every dime I had into opening the Spokane Valley location,” Rouse said. “Food is my passion. I love making guests happy and seeing their reactions; that’s the main reason I opened up.

“I always tell people I’m not in it to get rich. I just try to put out quality food for a decent price and try not to go bankrupt, I guess.”

Rouse says Hangry’s stresses quality, uniqueness, freshness, locally sourced ingredients and a good price point. They try to connect with their guests and community through charity and other outreach events.

After just beginning his business in 2019, Rouse battled through the pandemic in 2020 and kept Hangry’s afloat. He says he wouldn’t have been able to maintain success without the consistent and endless support of his fiancee, Lauren Fisher.

“I just took the gamble to try to do something I want to do, and it paid off,” Rouse said. “I just kept grinding at it. It was nerve-wracking at first, not knowing what to expect and having the stress of owning a new business on top of the pandemic.

“I just kept working every day and kept going at it and expanding and stuck to good quality food, and it all worked out in the end.”

Rouse has worked diligently to craft a menu that will appeal to his customers.

Initially, Hangry’s served breakfast all day, but eventually chose to stop serving breakfast after 3 p.m.

For breakfast, the chicken fried steak is a customer favorite. The brown sugar barbecue burger and the hangtime burger are bestsellers. The hangtime has freshly sliced pineapple with brown sugar, jalapenos, gochujang ranch and bacon.

“That one took me months to perfect,” Rouse said. “I put a lot of time and thought into that burger.”