If you've driven past CenterPlace on a Friday in June expecting to see white tents on the West Lawn Plaza, you already know something is off. The Spokane Valley Farmers Market isn't there anymore. For the 2026 season the City of Spokane Valley partnered with Four Roots and the Spokane Conservation District to move the market to The Scale House Market at the Quarry, at 4422 E 8th Avenue, running Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m., June 5 through August 28.
That's a bigger change than the address swap suggests, and it quietly rearranges how a lot of Valley households spend a summer evening.
What actually changed
The market's core identity — Friday nights, local vendors, food trucks, live music — carries over. The logistics do not.
| 2025 season | 2026 season | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | CenterPlace West Lawn Plaza, 2426 N Discovery Pl | The Scale House Market at the Quarry, 4422 E 8th Ave |
| Hours | 4 to 8 p.m. | 4 to 7 p.m. |
| Season | May 16 to Sept 12 | June 5 to Aug 28 |
| Producer | PNW / City of Spokane Valley | Four Roots + Spokane Conservation District + City |
Three practical consequences fall out of that table. The window is an hour shorter, which changes the "leave work, grab dinner, then swing by" math a lot of Valley families rely on. The season is trimmed on both ends, so mid-May tulip runs and early-September apple hauls are gone from the calendar. And the site itself is entirely different in character — the West Lawn was a manicured event plaza next to the Discovery Playground, while the new home sits on active quarry land on the south side of the freeway.
Why the Quarry location changes the Friday route
For six years the market ran out of the West Lawn Plaza, a hardscape space the city added as part of a $2.2 million upgrade to CenterPlace. That anchor made the natural Friday loop obvious: park at CenterPlace, let the kids burn energy at Discovery Playground, walk 90 seconds to the tents, then wander to Mirabeau Meadows or the Centennial Trail before heading home.
The Scale House Market sits south of I-90 on 8th, closer to Dishman-Mica and the Painted Hills / Chester neighborhoods. If you live in Greenacres, Ponderosa, or south of Sprague, you probably just cut ten minutes off your Friday drive. If you live in North Valley near Trent or the Sullivan corridor, you added a few. Households closer to the river will now find themselves choosing between the Valley market and the Kendall Yards Night Market on Wednesdays, which runs 5 to 8 p.m. through mid-September along the Centennial Trail bluff — a real head-to-head for the same weeknight-market audience.
The Appleway Trail is the underrated winner here. It runs east-west along the Sprague corridor and threads through Greenacres, and it lands you within striking distance of both the new market site and the restaurants on East Sprague. A pre-market ride from the Balfour Park trailhead is genuinely doable on a summer evening.
The dinner question, answered
The market has always been a snack-and-graze event, not a sit-down dinner. That leaves the "what about actual food" question, and the most interesting answer this year is in Greenacres.
Dodos at the High Spot opened in early December at 17416 E Sprague, in the barn-red building that used to house the Stupid Cow cafe. Chef Joe Absolor trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Scottsdale and spent years as corporate executive chef for Evening Entertainment Group in Arizona before returning home; he opened the place with childhood friend Todd Zyph. The menu leans modern American with Filipino accents — scallops with curry and lumpia are on the plate, according to the Inlander. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 3 to 9 p.m., and reservations are only taken for parties of six or more, so a 5:30 arrival before the market closes is the play. They're also installing bike racks in partnership with the Spokane Conservation District, since the Appleway Trail runs directly behind the restaurant.
If Dodos is full or closed, the Greenacres and Millwood corridors are quietly deep on options right now, and Yaya Brewing in the Valley has announced a large taproom expansion of its own.
The rest of the summer, in the order it's happening
The Friday market is the spine of the Valley's summer, but it isn't the whole calendar. Here's what to keep on the fridge, in date order:
- Fridays, June 5 through Aug 28 — Spokane Valley Farmers Market at The Scale House Market at the Quarry, 4 to 7 p.m. Note the closures on July 3 and any other holiday weeks the producers announce.
- Late June — The Spokane Symphony's BeethoVAN small-ensemble concert at Balfour Park, timed to one of the longest days of the year. Free, open to the public, with an instrument petting zoo beforehand.
- Saturday, Aug 22 — The 35th annual Motors @ Mirabeau open auto show along S Mirabeau Parkway, starting 9 a.m. This one dates back decades and pulls cars from across the Inland Northwest.
- Sept 15, 16, 17 — Spokane County Interstate Fair concert series at the Fair & Expo Center. Gretchen Wilson and The Band Perry on the 15th, Daughtry on the 16th, Nate Smith on the 17th, each at 7 p.m.
- Friday, Sept 25 — Hearts of Gold Parade down Sprague Avenue, the traditional kickoff to Valleyfest.
- Saturday and Sunday, Sept 26 and 27 — Valleyfest across Mirabeau Point Park, Plantes Ferry Sports Complex, and CenterPlace. It remains a volunteer-run community festival funded by local business donations, and it's the closest thing the Valley has to a homecoming weekend.
One more item worth putting on the radar: at its April 28 meeting, the Spokane Valley City Council voted 6-1 to approve a 99-year ground lease with Ignite Youth Ice and Spokane Youth Ice for a two-sheet NHL-sized ice sports facility on city land at 2100 N Sullivan Road. The facility is anticipated to be complete by summer 2027, so this year's summer routine is the last one without it in the picture. Mayor Laura Padden called the deal "a smart, strategic collaboration that maximizes community benefits, while minimizing the burden on taxpayers," and the private-donor structure is unusual enough that it's worth understanding before construction traffic ramps up next spring.
How to actually use this
A Friday in the Valley this summer looks something like this. Leave the house around 4:15. If you live south or east, drive straight to 4422 E 8th and shop first while the produce is deepest. If you live north or if the kids need to run, start at Mirabeau Meadows or the Discovery Playground and drive over to the Quarry site around 5:30. Aim for a 6 p.m. sit-down at Dodos if you booked ahead as a group, or grab something off a food truck at the market and eat along the Appleway Trail. Be home in time for the sunset without feeling rushed, because 7 p.m. is the new hard stop.
That's the small, useful shift underneath the headline. The market didn't just change addresses. It compressed the window, moved the geographic center of gravity south, and opened up the Appleway Trail as the natural connector between the market, dinner in Greenacres, and the way home.
If you're thinking about a move within the Valley this year and any of this factors into where you want to land — closer to the Appleway corridor, closer to Mirabeau, closer to the schools that empty into the parade route on Sprague — that's the kind of neighborhood-fit question worth talking through before you start touring. Kristin Vanos has spent her whole career watching how the Valley actually lives on a Friday night, and she's happy to help you translate that into a short list of streets. Get your free home valuation whenever you're ready to start the conversation.
