For years, the honest answer to "where do you go for a drink up here?" was some version of "we drive." Kendall Yards, Garland, downtown. The Indian Trail loop was for groceries, gas, and the library. As of the summer of 2026, that answer has changed, and the change is happening inside one parking lot at 9001 N. Indian Trail Road.
Sundance Plaza has been the neighborhood's default errand stop since Albertsons anchored it in the early 2000s. What is new is the second act. In under a year, the same center picked up a legitimate craft cocktail bar and, opening this month, a family arcade and ice cream shop, both from operators who live in the neighborhood. The plaza did not add square footage. It added a reason to stay.
What Actually Changed at 9001 N. Indian Trail Road
The plaza still runs on its old anchors, the ACE Hardware, the McDonald's, the Safeway on the pad next door. The interesting shift is in the smaller in-line spaces along the north and center of the center. Here is the quick map, before and after.
| Space | Before 2025 | Now, summer 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 9025 N. Indian Trail Rd | Happy Trails to Brews (closed), formerly a Bennidito's Pizza location | Alibi Spokane, opened Aug 2025 |
| ±1,400 sf immediately north of Safeway | Vacant in-line retail | Scoop 'N Score ice cream and arcade, planned open July 24, 2026 |
| 8801 N. Indian Trail Rd, Ste C | Older Mexican tenant | Cantarito Mexican Restaurant, Peruvian ceviche, patacones, pisco sours, signature cantarito cocktail |
| Pad K, fast-food building | Undeveloped pad | Proposed ±3,500 sf fast-food pad listed for lease through Kiemle Hagood |
Three of those four rows moved in the last eighteen months. That is not a normal cadence for a suburban strip center that had been mostly stable for two decades, and it is what makes the plaza worth writing about in July rather than in a "neighborhood guide" a year from now.
Alibi Is the Piece That Rewires the Evening
The bar at the north end of the plaza is doing the heavy lifting here, so it is worth being specific about what it is. Deb and Bill Weisgerber, who live on Five Mile Prairie, took over the former beer bar last spring after Deb spotted a for-lease sign on the door of the former Happy Trails to Brews while shopping at the Safeway next door. The interior is intentionally a hideaway: dark, moody paint accented by floral wallpaper and scattered plants, with plush couches and chairs that invite guests to sink in. It is 21-and-over, and the entry is gated by a roped-off vestibule.
The menu is not an afterthought. Alibi runs a full food menu alongside its craft cocktails, plus a packed event schedule of trivia, bingo, live music and karaoke, and its Restaurant Week menu leaned on truffle oil tater tots, a smoked salmon sandwich, and a rosemary brown butter rice krispy treat. In March, the Inlander named it Best New Nightspot in its 2026 Best Of issue, describing the goal as a classy but laid-back place where anyone can feel at home.
Two things about that award matter for people who live up here. First, Best Of Inlander is a citywide vote. A bar in Sundance Plaza beating out downtown and Kendall Yards openings is unusual and tells you the crowd is real. Second, the Weisgerbers are neighborhood operators, not a downtown group testing the north side. The couple call themselves "nighttime people," have owned bars before, and decided the neighborhood needed a great local spot. When the owners live nearby, the hours and the calendar tend to hold up. That has been the difference between the plaza's previous tavern tenants and this one.
Scoop 'N Score Fills the Slot Families Have Been Complaining About
If Alibi solves the adult side, the space opening this month solves the other one. Scoop 'N Score will span roughly 1,400 square feet immediately north of the Safeway, with decor built around local youth sports teams, TVs showing games, 15 modern arcade games, a ticket redemption counter for prizes, and a dessert menu of handcrafted sundaes, milkshakes, ice cream nachos, fresh-baked cookies and brownies. It is scheduled to open July 24, 2026.
The operators are worth naming. Anna and Brandon Haugen are the couple behind it. Anna is a longtime board member of the Spokane Youth Sports Association, and Brandon serves as the freshman football coach at Shadle Park High School, a board member of Hoopfest, and board chair of Spokane Sports. Anna, who grew up in the neighborhood, put the reasoning plainly:
"Opening Scoop 'N Score in North Indian Trail is especially meaningful because it represents an opportunity to invest back into the neighborhood that helped shape my upbringing and continues to shape the lives of my children. We believe the Indian Trail Neighborhood is an ideal location because it continues to grow and is home to many families looking for local entertainment options."
Take that at face value and pair it with Alibi across the parking lot, and Sundance Plaza has quietly built the two things a neighborhood evening actually needs: a place to send the kids and a place for the adults. Most Indian Trail parents already know the standing complaint that there was nowhere between the Regal on Northpointe and the trampoline parks off Division that worked for a Tuesday after practice. As of the last week of July, there is.
The Dining Bench Around It Is Deeper Than People Give It Credit For
The plaza's small-restaurant cluster does not always show up on the "Indian Trail dining" conversation, and it should. Cantarito, in Suite C at 8801, is doing Latin American work well beyond the standard Mexican menu, with Peruvian ceviche and Caribbean patacones alongside a pisco sour and its namesake cantarito cocktail. The Yelp radar for 9025 N. Indian Trail Road currently pulls Cantarito, JJ's Tap and Smokehouse, Adelo's Pizza, Cascadia Public House, The Barrel Steak & Seafood House, and Pint House Burgers & Brews as the everyday roster within a short drive. None of those are new. What is new is that with Alibi and Scoop 'N Score, all of it now clusters around a plausible before-and-after routine. Cantarito at 6, Alibi at 8, home at 10.
There is one more space to watch. The plaza's fast-food pad, labeled Pad K on the leasing sheet, is listed as a proposed ±3,500 sf fast-food building for lease through Kiemle Hagood. Whoever lands there will materially shape the plaza's lunch traffic. Worth keeping an eye on if you live near Barnes or Lowell.
Don't Forget the Daytime Half a Block North
Sundance Plaza sits directly across Indian Trail Road from the Indian Trail Library, and the two are functionally one destination on a summer Saturday. The library's schedule this month leans hard on outdoor, family-friendly programming. It hosts Madeline McNeill in concert on July 14 at 6:30 pm and again on July 28 at 6:30 pm, plus rotating Summer Reading Club programming that runs through August. Outside, the branch's bird garden and pollinator meadow are open for a walk-through, with Community Educator Juan Juan available to answer questions about the multi-use space, the idea, the people, and the plants. If the kids need a landing pad before ice cream, that is it.
WSU Spokane County Master Gardeners run periodic plant clinics through the library system if the July heat has done something to your yard you need diagnosed. Bring a leaf.
Why This Matters If You Own Here
Zoom out for a second. The reason to notice a quiet retail shift like this one is that neighborhood retail depth is what makes a place feel finished. North Indian Trail has had housing depth for two decades. What it has been missing is the "third place" layer, the bar that is not a chain, the after-practice hangout, the evening reason to keep the car in the garage. Sundance Plaza was always going to be the site of that layer if it ever arrived, because it is the only shopping-center-scale parcel in the neighborhood's core. In 2025 and 2026, it arrived.
For residents, the practical implication is a Friday plan you did not have last summer. For anyone thinking longer-term about the neighborhood, it is a small piece of the broader story the Inlander made explicit earlier this year: Indian Trail has grown a lot over the years, with new housing developments, businesses and amenities expanding across the far northwest edge of the city over recent decades. The plaza's second act is the amenity piece catching up to the housing piece.
Try the loop this month. Library at 5, dinner at Cantarito, ice cream and arcade with the kids at Scoop 'N Score after it opens on the 24th, and if you have a sitter, Alibi at 9. That is a full evening inside three blocks. It is the first time you can honestly say that up here.
If you have been in your North Indian Trail home long enough to remember when Sundance Plaza was still filling in its first phase, you may be curious what all this neighborhood momentum has done to your equity. Kristin Vanos has worked this part of Spokane for four generations, and the fastest way to find out is the free instant valuation on the site. Get your free home valuation and see where your address stands as the neighborhood keeps filling in.
