City recognizes Wolffy's owners

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – The owners of a local restaurant were recognized Sept. 24 for their outstanding service in the community.

Justin and Jessica Davis of Colbert have been running Wolffy’s Breakfast, Burgers, and Brew for five years, and were recognized for their efforts.

Police Chief Brad Richmond and Fire Chief Mitch Metzger awarded the local restaurant owners with the plaque recognizing the hard work and community outreach the duo have helped organize.

“They are always quick to help members of our community,” Richmond said.

Entrepreneurship has been in Justin’s family for generations he said, and his family opened the first Wolfyy’s restaurant in Spokane in 1988.

Justin said he likes to view other local businesses as community not competition and he always wants to see his neighbors succeed.

“This community has made us what we are,” Justin said.

He said the couple has recently helped fellow restaurant owner Doug Gariepy re-open the Knight’s Diner in Spokane, and the Davis’ helped train workers and critique everything to get the business up and running.

The Airway Heights restaurant has been involved in multiple community events and partnered with several groups to help make a difference in the lives of others, Jessica said. The couple organized a dinner fundraiser event last year to help local families that had been devastated by fires.

“Two families had lost everything, so we raised $5,600 through the dinner and donated all proceeds to those affected families,” Justin said. Jessica said they have also worked with Heights Church to help organize some donations to benefit fire victims as well.

The business owners developed a menu specifically to feed families attending movie nights at the church.

That led the Davis family to implement the Square system into their restaurant and they were able to start taking long distance orders that would be delivered to the event, Jessica said.

First responders and military personnel frequently utilize the restaurant for meetings, Justin said, and they are allowed to use the facilities without being charged to rent or reserve a room.

“We also provide over 40 meals for all of the city employees during bi-monthly meetings that are hosted at Wolfyy’s,” Justin said.

“We also hosted a military baby shower here at no cost to the family, and we held an event for a wing commander from Fairchild and about 50 guests,” Jessica added.

As with many businesses, Wolffy’s has faced some setbacks over the past year due to COVID-19.

Relying on outdoor dining and patio space during a lot of the pandemic slowed business for bit.

Jessica said that raising five kids became extremely tough as well, and that the kids had to be home-schooled while they were in the restaurant cooking.

Several first responders in the community stepped forward to help tutor the Davis’ children while the husband and wife worked, she said.

“We have so many service minded individuals working as first responders, and solutions like that come from the natural thought process of these people,” Richmond said..” We develop trust in our community by building working societal partnerships.”

Thanks to a very strong foundation of workers, Jessica said the restaurant has bounced back quickly although finding new employees has been tough.

She said the restaurant is short staffed like many other places, and only 3 people out of 60 scheduled interviews showed up.

Justin said he loves seeing the friendly familiar faces, because to him that steady traffic points right back to the community support Wolffy’s has come to know.

“We are very fortunate to operate in a town where everyone cares and looks out for each other,” Justin said.

Matthew O. Stephens can be reached at reporter2@cheneyfreepress.com.