The second thing worth knowing is that Spokane's romantic restaurants are mostly the wrong delivery target, and saying so saves people money. Clinkerdagger, in the old Flour Mill building on West Spokane Falls Boulevard, has been the city's standing anniversary reservation for decades precisely because of the window tables above the falls. Anthony's at Spokane Falls on North Lincoln has the same view from the other bank. Churchill's Steakhouse on South Post, Wild Sage on West 2nd, Italia Trattoria in Browne's Addition and Luna out on South Perry fill the rest of the calendar. An arrangement sent to any of them at seven o'clock sits under a chair for the length of the meal and then rides home in a car trunk. The better version, and the one locals actually use: send it to the house first thing so it is there while they are getting dressed, or to the hotel front desk in the early afternoon so it is in the room before dinner. If you truly want flowers at the table, that is a conversation with the restaurant rather than with us — a single stem or a small low piece dropped at the host stand before service, arranged in advance, is the only form that works in a full dining room.
For milestone anniversaries the geography shifts to the neighborhoods where Spokane's long-married couples actually live. The South Hill — Rockwood and Cliff/Cannon in 99203 and 99204, Manito and Comstock around the park, Lincoln Heights and Moran Prairie in 99223 — holds a dense stock of older houses with long-tenured owners. Browne's Addition in 99204 is apartment-heavy and needs a unit number. North of the river, Audubon-Downriver, Shadle, the Garland District and the Five Mile and Indian Trail areas in 99205, 99207 and 99208 take a lot of fiftieth-anniversary deliveries. Then the Valley — Dishman, Opportunity, Veradale and Otis Orchards across 99206, 99212, 99216 and 99037 — and Liberty Lake in 99019. Retirement communities are their own category: Rockwood Retirement Communities on the South Hill and near Whitworth, and Riverview Retirement Community on the upriver side, both route deliveries through a front desk to an apartment, so a unit number is required and a late-morning or early-afternoon arrival beats the dinner hour. Manito Park matters here too — the formal Duncan Garden, Rose Hill, the Gaiser Conservatory and the Nishinomiya Tsutakawa Japanese Garden are where a great many Spokane couples were married or photographed, and a Rose Hill reference in the card message lands harder here than a generic one.