PHOTOS BY CHRIS GUIBERT AND JEANETTE DUNN
315 at The Greenbriar
A Restaurant at The Greenbriar Inn? Coeur d’Alene’s Newest Happy Hour! The Greenbriar Inn, located in a quiet semi-residential area in the heart of Downtown Coeur d’Alene, has been many things to many people.
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HE INN WAS BUILT IN 1908 by Harvey Davey during the lumber and mining boom in Coeur d’Alene. Davey was a bricklayer who transplanted his family to Coeur d’Alene from Sandpoint, Idaho. Originally built as a boarding house for his wife, Carrie, the house later became a bordello—owned by the mayor’s mistress—then a rooming house for Burlington Northern Railway, a headquarters for HEW (Health Education and Welfare), and even a home for 30 nuns! Inspired by the hospitality and charm of inns and bed and breakfasts visited in trips abroad, Bob and Kris McIlvenna bought the 14-bedroom house in 1984 and set out to renovate this twial Revival-style mansion.
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Former stockbrokers, Bob and Kris wanted a slower-paced lifestyle for their infant son and grade school-aged daughter. Determined to succeed, they were soon to learn the true meaning of sweat equity. In 1985, their home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and they opened their doors as the Greenbriar Bed and Breakfast Inn. Despite the fact that Bed and Breakfasts were a new and largely unknown phenomena at the time, Greenbriar quickly gained a reputation for good food and great hospitality, and over the years, Bob and Kris have had many repeat guests. By 1986, Kris had so many requests for catering to family reunions that she and her husband installed a commercial kitchen and