Boise Eats Boise Drinks 2019

BOISE EATS DRINKS 2019-2020 GUIDE

TAKE ONE

7 Days A Week breakf breakfast - lunch - dinner CATERING COMING SOON CATER

RELEASE YOUR INNER PIG.

AVAILABLE ONLY ON www.biscuitandhogs.com

1941723

breakfast sandwiches healthy stuff supper local - Boise & Meridian

WE MAKE THE FRIES

YOU CREATE THEM

Roasted Jalapeño Ranch

Fry Sauce

Black and Blue Salt

Spicy Ketchup

Jalapeño Salt Vanilla Salt

Garlic Aioli

? ? ?

Sea Salt Garlic Rosemary Cajun Salt Smoked Salt

Cinnamon Togarashi Salt Salt & Vinegar Ginger Salt

Chipotle Aioli

Plain

Maple Marshmallow

Blueberry Ketchup

?

Barbecue

Ketchup

Pumpkin Aioli

Sour Thai

Sweet Mustard

No Sauce

THATʼS WHY WE HAVE THE BEST FRIES!

WWW.BOISEFRYCOMPANY.COM

A Seat at the Table For people across the country, “Boise” has become synonymous with “opportunity.” For some, it’s an opportunity to escape the crush of the rat race and enjoy a lower cost of living. For others, hailing from troubled nations across the globe, it’s an opportunity to start over in a safe place. For still others, it’s an opportunity to come home and return to family roots. Regardless of where they come from, these new residents and the changes needed to accomodate them have sparked conversation and, occasionally, controversy.

Growth, development, transportation, and affordable housing are all under debate, and with people taking sides, one question has risen to the top: Who deserves a seat at the table?

The answer, when it comes to Boise’s food scene at least, is “everyone.”

Stroll through downtown, the Bench or the suburbs, and you’ll see that Boise has come a long way from the burgers-and-beers town it used to be. In this 2019 edition of Boise Eats, Boise Drinks, BW’s annual culinary exploration of the City of Trees, our team of journalists zeroes in what’s old, what’s new, what’s possible, and what’s missing in the bars and restaurants we visit every day. From the local history of ice cream to a rundown of the newest eateries and watering holes, there’s something for every Boisean in these pages. Old hand or recent transplant, you’re likely equally curious about the nearby rabbit farm, how food delivery apps have shaped the way we eat, why bartenders love fernet, and the reason Japanese curry is difficult to come by.

Food and drink have long been a language of cooperation: There’s a reason warring factions, familial or governmental, often break bread when it’s time to make peace. Here in our discussion of the two, we offer everyone a seat at the table. Why not flip the page and take yours?

—Lex Nelson, Special Publications Editor

NEW SNACKS ON THE BLOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A WOMAN IN THE KITCHEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 SWEET, MEET SALTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 THE CASE OF THE MISSING CURRY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 ORDER UP!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 THE ICE CREAM CAPITAL? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 LITTLE BUNNY FOOD FOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 BOISE ON THE HALF SHELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 FRIED CHICKEN KOREAN STYLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 THE SALAD TOSS-UP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 WELCOME TO THE REMIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 MUSICAL BARTENDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 THE GLASS TEACUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 ALL THE BREWERY’S A STAGE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 A VELVET CUP OF JOE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 BULL BALLS AND CABERNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 THE BARTENDER’S NECTAR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

BOISEWEEKLY STAFF General Manager: Sally Freeman – sally@boiseweekly.com Publisher: Matt Davison – mdavison@idahopress.com Editorial Editor: Harrison Berry – harrison@boiseweekly.com Senior Staff Writer: Xavier Ward – xavier@boiseweekly.com Special Publications Editor: Lex Nelson – lexnelsonwrites@gmail.com Contributing Writers: Skylar Barsanti, Henry Coffey, Micah Drew, Sonja Fiebert, Samantha Stetzer, Graham Zickefoose Advertising Account Executive: Urie Layser – urie@boiseweekly.com

TO CONTACT US: Boise Weekly is located at 523 Broad St., Boise, ID 83702 Phone: 208-344-2055 • E-mail: info@boiseweekly.com www.boiseweekly.com Address editorial, business and production correspondence to: Boise Weekly, 523 Broad St., Boise, ID 83702 The entire contents and design of Boise Eats Boise Drinks are ©2019 by Adams Publishing Group.

Boise Weekly is an edition of the Idaho Press.

Creative Art Director: Jason Jacobsen – jason@boiseweekly.com Circulation Man About Town: Stan Jackson – stan@boiseweekly.com Boise Weekly prints 30,000 copies of Annual Manual, which is available free of charge inside the July 31, 2019, edition of Boise Weekly at more than 1,000 locations, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of this edition of Annual Manual may be purchased for $3, payable in advance. No person may take more than one copy, without permission from the publisher.

4 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

proud to be locally greek owned & operated

AUTHENTIC GREEK FOOD We are honored to serve our Greek family recipes! Moussaka, Dolmades, Gyros, Lemon Rice Bowls, Baklava & More!

TAKE OUT & DINE IN #853-0844 6748 N. Glenwood St. Corner of State St. & Glenwood St.

Get Your Greek ON! Mon-Sat 11am-9pm

WWW.SOFIASGREEKBISTRO.COM

New Snacks on the Block A rundown of Boise’s latest restaurants and bars GRAH AM Z I C KEFO O S E

F COURTESY KATRINA COZADID

or the past few years, Boise’s growth has been nearly unparalleled on a national scale. But for all the gripes about traffic and increases in rent and property taxes, one undisputedly positive outcome of that growth has been the food. As more people come, new, savvy restauranteurs have stepped up to fill culinary niches and give both locals and visitors more choices for dining out. 2019 continued the trend in spectacular form with fresh restaurants and watering holes that reflect the zeitgeist of the City of Trees.

A CAFE

In a city center that already has its fair share of coffee shops and cafes, A Cafe set up shop on 10th Street next to Good Burger with one goal in mind: to create a simple yet satisfying dining experience. From its avocado toast to its “Turkey Situation” sandwich, this cafe, for all its minimalist decor, is more than meets the eye.

BLUE TORO

BEI LOUNGE

Yen Ching has been an institution on the BoDo dining scene for nearly 30 years, but rather than rest on its legacy, the restaurant has upped its game by opening Bei Lounge. Built out of what was once the Yen Ching bakery, this upscale enclave attracts office workers and Eighth Street diners with the promise of carefully crafted Asian comfort food and pub fare. The inspiration for Bei Lounge’s cuisine comes not only from China, but also Vietnam, Thailand and Korea. While some restaurants are set in their ways, Bei Lounge proves Yen Ching is prepared to embrace Boise’s changing foodscape.

LEX NELSON

Blue Toro’s owner, Brandt Casey, knows a thing or two about Mexican-inspired food.

His father, Jeff Casey, has run Cafe Ole Restaurant and Cantina for 37 years, and Brandt started working there when he was 12 years old. Brandt’s expertise favors anyone who loves succulent street tacos, crispy quesadillas and tasty burrito bowls—especially Californian transplants to Eagle, where Blue Toro is located. Whatever customer base it ultimately draws, Blue Toro’s doors are open to those looking for some Baja-style tacos and a laid-back atmosphere.

THE HARP

While some restaurants dabble in fusion or high-concept culinary experiences, others just want to bring food from one country to another and keep it as authentic as possible.

The Harp, which sits at the intersection of Eagle Road and Fairview Avenue in Meridian, strives to emulate the food, drink and atmosphere of Ireland. Its menu includes dishes like shepherd’s pie, and corned beef and cabbage, and its drink menu wouldn’t be complete without Irish coffee and, of course, Guinness beer. For diners who love authentic international food close to home, this a a spot for the bucket list.

6 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

RAMAPONG

An underground haven for ramen and Ping-Pong enthusiasts, Ramapong finally came to fruition in April, three years after Boise Fry Company CEO Brad Walker first proposed the idea in 2016. Far from the twinkle in a CEO’s eye that it once was, this venue has table tennis, a full bar, and of course, a no-nonsense menu of ramen dishes that draw on both Japanese and Idahoan influences. At 4 p.m., the family spot becomes a 21-and-over venue, leaning heavily on its full bar.

HARRISON BERRY

LEX NELSON

Boise’s Main Street Deli may have found the secret sauce for casual Italian dining. After faithfully serving stacked sandwiches to Boisians for years, the deli decided to trade in its Coke machine and chip baskets for wine and tableside service—at least after 3 p.m. The deli still runs during lunch hours, but after that, the space transforms into il Sugo, an Italian restaurant where customers can choose from a variety of pasta dishes with house-made sauces and pair them with wine. Few restaurants could pull off such a dramatic personality swap.

LEX NELSON

IL SUGO

THE ROYAL

Hyde Park, the North End’s miniature city center, got a new upscale watering hole of its very own this year. The Royal opened its doors to the public in mid-July, around the same time another drinking spot, Water Bear Bar, invited guests in downtown. The Royal serves classic cocktails with “a modern twist,” according to its Facebook page, along with a wide selection of craft beers. If you stop by, try pairing a lemon-basil fizz with a sandwich from Archie’s Place, the food truck parked patioside.

WATER BEAR BAR

TOASTED

Water Bear Bar opened its doors in July, and hasn’t closed them since. Rays of natural light illuminate everything in this quirky cocktail bar, from houseplants to floral wallpaper to taxidermy.

The style, called “Mountain Tiki” by the owners, is an ode to the oddity of the Pacific Northwest. The quirkiness of the space belies the sophistication of its drinks and snacks, however, which include plenty of designer cocktails, sweet and savory popcorn, and fresh oysters on the half-shell.

DEVON BURLIEGH

UMAMI AVENUE

Have you ever heard tell of an executive chef from a renowned French restaurant opening a food truck to share his culinary expertise with the masses? Well, in late August, Chef Richard Jimenez of popular Eagle restaurant Le Coq d’Or did just that when he opened Umami Avenue. Jimenez’s desire to focus on savory flavors led him to create a menu of Asian/Italian-inspired dishes that are as tasty as they are off-the-wall. Don’t let the opportunity to experience Umami Avenue drive away!

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

Vegan and vegetarian options have long been reserved for larger cities in America, but that trend has seen a slow reversal thanks to Boise’s steady growth.

Toasted, the latest addition to Boise’s vegan scene, offers its customers a wide variety of toasts and toppings that are 100% plant-based. Even with this rigorous standard, Chef Brad Wegelin has had no problem drawing vegan-curious and meat-eating customers into his space in the historic Idanha building right next door to Guru Donuts.

Piling onto the list of new eateries, Certified Kitchen + Bakery, a fresh breakfast and lunch concept from the owners of The Wylder and the chefs once behind Jenny’s Lunch Line, brought pastries, sandwiches and craft coffee to Hyde Park in late September, and Room and Boards Cafe opened in Meridian to offer a space for tabletop gamers to eat, drink and play. Boise also attracted a number of popular national names in 2019, like the Tennessee eatery Donut + Dog, the all-you-can-eat Lone Star State steakhouse Texas de Brazil, and the meaty Utah-based restaurant Mo’Bettahs Hawaiian Style. Anthony’s Seafood and Tupelo Honey, two more national chains, are poised to join the Boise food scene very soon.

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 7

A Woman In the Kitchen College of Idaho alums’ award-winning podcast questions the culinary status quo SO NYA FE I BERT

COURTESY COPPER & HEAT

D

uring the final episode of Copper & Heat’s first season, podcast Co-creator Katy Osuna asks, “Why would anyone want to listen to me?”

Not long after she posed the question, in April 2019, the podcast won a James Beard Award—one of the most coveted distinctions in the culinary world, and proof that people were listening. When the news broke, Katy and her partner Ricardo Osuna, who co-created and co-produced the podcast, could hardly drink it in.

Drawing on Katy’s experience in professional kitchens, including her time as a chef de partie at the three-Michelin-starred Bay Area restaurant Manresa, Copper & Heat explores “the unspoken rules and traditions of the kitchen” and reveals the vantage point of line cooks, chefs de partie and sous chefs. In addition to sharing her own experiences, Katy interviews former coworkers, industry professionals and her boss at Manresa, Chef David Kinch.

8 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

The first season of Copper & Heat, “Be a Girl,” focuses on the gender gap that increases with each level in the hierarchy of a professional kitchen, a place where women are strikingly absent. According to RestaurantHER, “Women represent only 19% of chefs, and 7% of head chefs across the culinary world.”

Traditionally, restaurant kitchens have functioned as meritocracies. Cooks move up through grit and hard work, starting out as unpaid stages (pronounced “staahjz”). If cooks prove themself, they become chefs de partie, then sous chefs, and, eventually, head chefs or chef/owners. This tradition has produced both hardened, precise and skilled chefs; and workplaces that discourage those who don’t jive in aggressively heterosexual, masculine environments.

“Be a Girl” interviewees highlight that it isn’t just women who are forced to adapt to the kitchen’s norms. As listeners learn from Katy’s conversations, many cooks who identify as male feel equally fed up with the system.

Both Idaho natives and College of Idaho alums, Katy and Ricardo bring an inquisitiveness to Copper & Heat that keeps listeners thinking long after each episode wraps.

Both credit their liberal arts educations.

Katy started her first restaurant job while working on the senior capstone for her sociology and anthropology degrees. Challenged by Associate Professor Scott Draper to apply theory to real life, she looked at the rituals taking place around her during and after the Friday night dinner rush.

“It was the first time I thought about it in that way,” she told BW. Ricardo attributed Copper & Heat’s success in part to journalism Professor Alan Minskoff.

“I learned from him to focus more on asking questions rather than trying to prove a point. I think we brought that through to the podcast,” he said.

After graduation, jobs at the City of Boise and Create Common Good, which focused on one-on-one work with individuals, further shaped the Osunas’ perspectives.

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

COURTESY COPPER & HEAT

Katy and Ricardo Osuna took Copper & Heat from a flash of college inspiration to a James Beard Award-winning podcast.

After choosing the podcast platform, Ricardo and Katy dove into the medium, devouring how-to books, connecting with others in the podcast community, listening to “podcasts about how to make a podcast” and using their technical knowledge of audio to produce each sound-rich episode. In August, Katy and Ricardo had the opportunity to visit the Podcast Garage in Boston through a program with the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), where they spent a week with some of their podcasting heroes.

Recognition from the James Beard Foundation has helped validate what Katy and Ricardo set out to do with Copper & Heat.

“It’s an amazing shorthand for people understanding that we’re serious about it, and we take it seriously—and apparently other people do as well,” Ricardo said.

Still, it’s the people the Osunas hear from every day that fuel Copper & Heat more than any award. The second season of the podcast is in the works, and Katy

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

and Ricardo are asking for submissions from folks in the industry to form mini episodes they’re calling “Family Meal.”

“We got our first one from Meagan Stout, a black female chef based in Nashville, Tennessee,” Katy said. “She sent in her stories of being underpaid, and of finding out someone she was supervising was making $8,000 more than her.”

Shortly after submitting her story, Meagan sent a message to Ricardo and Katy telling them what the experience meant to her.

“Thank you so much for doing this,” she wrote. “Going back through these things, I realized I hadn’t fully healed. Talking about it and sharing it was really helpful.”

“Those kinds of things are really validating for me,” Katy said. “I read them and feel like, ‘Ok, I’ll keep doing this.’”

It’s not just those in the restaurant industry who connect to Copper & Heat.

“When we first released, a woman who’d gone through the military wrote us this very long, heartfelt note about how she

had no idea this is how it is in kitchens. It reminded her so much of the challenges she faced as a woman in the military,” Ricardo said.

Friends and family members who’ve listened to the podcast echoed that surprise.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with people I know well who go, ‘Oh, that’s what you’ve gone through?’ They had no idea,” Katy said.

Helping people connect their fine dining experiences and what goes on behind the scenes is at the heart of Copper & Heat.

“We think of that as the mission of our project—why we’re so passionate about it,” Ricardo said. “We felt these are underrepresented voices and experiences in the larger food media landscape.”

Katy and Ricardo still work on Copper & Heat when they can, and dream of someday opening a restaurant with a kitchen that defies the norm.

You can listen to Copper & Heat on most platforms where podcasts are found and at copperandheat.com.

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 9

Sweet, Meet Salty Three Treasure Valley eateries pair donuts with savory treats SON YA F EI BERT

COURTESY TOASTED

P

eanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, donuts and...everything?

When it comes to perfect pairings, sweet and savory combinations are a no-brainer, but having donuts and savory dish share space on one plate is a bit less traditional. Places like Voodoo Donuts in Portland, Oregon have long taken the humble donut to inventive places. Now, a few Boise eateries giving it even more range, not with wild flavors or wacky toppings, but by pairing it with savory foods and complementary beverages. The idea, restaurateurs said, is to give people more options.

DONUTS + TOAST

In July, Brad Wegelin opened Toasted, a vegan artisan toast restaurant situated in downtown Boise’s Idanha building. A hallway joins his space to Guru Donuts, a connection meant to encourage people to enjoy what both places have to offer.

“To have this as a one-stop shop is a great way to complement what’s already here,” Wegelin said. “People come for the donuts. At the same time, maybe today I don’t want donuts and most people in my family do. What options are there for me?

The choices abound. You can have a little bit of everything.”

Meeting Krystle and Evan McLaughlin, the new owners of Guru Donuts, made opening Toasted next door an easy decision. They pair offered up their extra space and went in on the concept.

10 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

“I’m proud to be part of something that’s so well-respected,” Wegelin said of Guru.

Toasted’s offerings include twists on classic avocado toast, homemade banana bread topped with peanut butter and bananas, and even toasts made with Guru’s donuts.

Wegelin loves seeing new customers discover Toasted. Some are vegan, some are vegan-curious, and others are simply drawn by the cozy, minimalist decor and the promise of avocado toast. As someone who admits he’s rarely satisfied with a first attempt, Wegelin uses toast as a vehicle to explore different combinations and flavors.

“We eat with our eyes first. I like to use food as a canvas that helps people enjoy it. This was the perfect platform,” he said of the restaurant. “The banana bread started as an accident because I bought too many bananas.”

That kind of resourcefulness is visible throughout Toasted’s menu. For the “Marco Polo Doesn’t Swim,” Wegelin starts with one of Guru’s vegan unglazed bar donuts. He toasts it; layers on red-pepper hummus, olive tapenade, Mediterranean herb-marinated beets, and vegan feta; adds cracked peppercorns to one side and garlic olive oil to the other; and tops the whole thing off with microgreens. The dish is served open-faced so customers can relish the artfully layered, colorful ingredients.

“I’ve shifted to more savory toast because I enjoy watching people get a toast, then a donut,” Wegelin said.

“This is my favorite thing to watch: that couple on their first date, having two toasts and sharing a donut. It’s the perfect harmony. The fact that I get to be part of that is amazing.”

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

DONUTS + DOGS

Hailing originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Donut + Dog opened its doors in The Village at Meridian this summer.

The restaurant goes all out with its sweet-savory inventions, “pushing the boundaries of what a ‘donut’ and ‘hot dog’ is” with 20-hour brioche donuts and artisanal hot dogs.

Co-founder Will Primavera is proud of the fact that just about everything at Donut + Dog is made in-house, including that special 20-hour brioche donut.

“Talk to anyone who bakes, and it’s one of the most temperamental doughs,” Primavera explained. “What you get is a super-rich, deep donut without it being heavy. Cut it open, and you see the layers similar to what you see in a croissant.”

At Donut + Dog, those confections are paired with coffee, beer and Champagne flights that complement, rather than combat, their delicious dough.

“Any good pairing shouldn’t overwhelm,” Primavera said.

Recipes aside, Donut + Dog is all about presentation. There’s the “Grilled Cheese and Friend,” a sandwich made from a halved, grilled brioche donut stuffed with two types of cheese and melted apple butter. The sandwich is placed on a hook over a bowl of tomato-basil soup for dipping. The “Elote Loco” is a chorizo dog with Mexican-style street corn that’s roasted and topped with cotija, chipotle powder, lime and cilantro. On the donut side, “Pillow Talk” features guava, cream cheese and Italian buttercream.

During the Meridian restaurant’s grand opening, Primavera was pleased to see customers react the same way they had to Donut + Dog’s unveiling in Tennessee. As he put it, those diners “really want the artisan process, all done by hand with ingredients that pair well together.”

Primavera pointed out the Treasure Valley food scene was perfectly primed for Donut + Dog’s wacky dishes.

“The excitement is here to try new and exciting things,” he said, adding that as his company grows, it will do its best to give back to the Valley by supporting local suppliers.

The restaurant is already sourcing local honey and patronizing local artists for its decor, making itself right at home in the Gem State. Primavera said he hopes customers leave Donut + Dog feeling just as comfortable (if a bit full).

PHOTOS LEFT TO RIGHT COURTESY DONUT + DOG

Donut + Dog (above) puts an artisan spin on its sweet and salty creations, while the now-shuttered Donut Daze (below) took a more straightforward approach with its waffles and fried chicken.

DONUTS + FRIED CHICKEN

Donut Daze, the Eighth Street brainchild of the folks behind Pie Hole and The Mode Lounge, is currently closed for remodeling and a conceptual revamp. According to Owner Russ Crawforth, it will reopen as Regal Beaver, and expand its menu of fried chicken and donuts to include baguette sandwiches, fries and tots. There will be vegan options and fried pickles, too.

Like its eclectic menu, the restaurant’s new concept is wide-ranging. It will be open seven nights a week and showcase local artists and entertainers alongside its creative cuisine. Regal Beaver will host music as well “karaoke, the occasional comedy show, fringe theater and readings. Maybe drag shows,” Crawforth said.

Crawforth is open to exploration with both the menu and the feel of Regal Beaver.

“Whatever personality or vibe or direction the business takes, I’m going to let it go there,” he said.

HARRISON BERRY

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 11

The Case of the Missing Curry

Why isn’t Japanese curry on more restaurant menus?

HEN R Y C O FF EY

HENRY COFFEY

B

oise claims a few good sushi spots and some tasty ramen, but residents may not realize that one popular Japanese dish is glaringly absent: curry. While Thai and Indian curries have flourished in the City of Trees, the Japanese version remains obscure, to the point that many Idahoans have never heard of it.

Japanese curry is milder, sweeter and significantly thicker than Indian or Thai curries. Unlike other curries, it’s made with a rich brown roux and a variety of vegetables—potato and apple are often added to provide substance and sweetness. The fruity, richly spiced curry is sometimes served over Udon noodles and under fried pork cutlets, but the most common dish by far is curry rice.

Boisean Tommy Miller, whose mother is Japanese, grew up eating curry in Japan.

12 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

“I would say that Japanese curry is extremely popular in Japan, probably in the same vein that ramen is,” he said.

“Even in Japanese pop culture, you see curry as a regularly occurring dish in a lot of Japanese TV, and Japanese cartoons and anime.”

The Japanese restaurant chain Go! Go! Curry’s website emphasizes that popularity, declaring that “Curry is Japanese comfort food. Nine out of 10, or almost all, Japanese people would say that we grow up eating curry more than sushi or tempura.”

Curry didn’t originate in a single place.

Like nearly everything we eat, it’s the product of cultures colliding, conflicting and cooperating. In her book Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, Lizzie Collingham explains that the Indian curry of

today came about when Portugese people attempted to recreate their favorite native dishes with New World peppers and the ingredients they could find in India. Later, it was the British who created the term “curry” as a catchall for butter, fruits, vegetables, nuts and spices paired with meat.

Surprisingly, it was Britain, not India, that introduced curry to Japan. From the middle of the 17th century to the 19th century, Japan’s leaders aggressively isolated the country from the rest of the world, shutting down almost all trade and limiting contact with other countries. But in the 1850s, the United States forced its way into Japan and opened the door for European countries to follow suit. When the British arrived, they brought their version of Indian curry—a mild, sweet, light-brown concoction enjoyed by the W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

Royal Navy. It quickly took hold in Japan, possibly as a result of its adoption by the Japanese Imperial Navy. Historians have found references to Japanese curry as early as the late 1870s.

Over time, curry came to reflect local tastes and flavors. Originally, people would make their own roux from scratch, but in the first half of the 20th century, large food companies began producing pre-packaged curry bases. These factory-made pastes— like Vermont Curry, which is named after the U.S. state due to its inclusion of apples and honey—have become a distinct part of the Japanese curry flavor, and some claim that it’s impossible to get the taste of the dish right without them.

Chains like Go! Go! Curry have begun to expand to major U.S. cities, but they haven’t yet reached Boise. While more than two dozen restaurants in the City of Trees serve sushi, only a handful offer curry rice.

One of those them, Ramen Sho, requires a short trek to Meridian. Owner Yuji Hirose isn’t sure why Japanese curry is so uncommon in the Treasure Valley, but said it might come down to a lack of familiarity.

“One of the reasons is that most of the people think that curry is from India,” he said. “They only think that sushi and ramen are from Japan, they don’t think of curry.”

Ramen Sho’s curry is based on chef Miki Tanaka’s family recipe.

“I tasted it and I liked it, and I thought, ‘We can produce this authentic curry in Boise,’” said Hirose. “None of the Japanese restaurants serve Japanese curry, so it was a good opportunity for us to introduce Japanese curry to Boise and Meridian locals.”

Miller speculates that Boise’s lack of curry might be tied to the size of Boise’s Japanese community.

“I don’t think we have that big of a Japanese community in Boise, so I think overall that’s what it is,” he said.

People that don’t have time to search out one of the restaurants serving Japanese curry can make a satisfying version of the dish at home, thanks to premade curry pastes available at most supermarkets.

“My grandma used to make it for me, and my mom used to make it for me, and it’s basically just the recipe on the back of Golden Curry or Vermont Curry [boxes],” said Miller.

For him, making the dish is more than reenacting a fond childhood memory—it’s a point of cultural pride.

“I’m very proud of being half-Japanese, so I always like to share my culture whenever I can,” said Miller. “I would like people to try all foods from different cultures, because it’s like [visiting] people’s homelands. It’s a very easy way of experiencing someone else’s culture.”

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

HENRY COFFEY

Tommy Miller’s Curry Recipe This recipe, passed down through Miller’s family for generations, is best served over rice. One pot of curry will serve 6-8 people.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 lb. baby carrots • 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed • 1 lb. protein, cubed (chicken breast is a good option) • 1 1/2 onions, quartered • 1 tbsp. vegetable oil • 5-6 cups water (the more water you add, the looser your curry will be) • 1 box Vermont Curry (find it at Asia Market on Fairview Avenue)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the oil in a pan, then add the protein to brown 2. Add the chopped onions and sweat them as you continue cooking the protein until done 3. Remove the pan from the heat 4. In a separate pot, combine the water, baby carrots and potatoes 5. Bring the water and vegetables to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer 6. Wait for vegetables to soften up, testing them occasionally 7. Break up curry blocks and add them to the pot, then wait for them to lose their shape 8. Once the blocks begin to break down, start stirring slowly 9. When the curry is completely incorporated, remove it from the heat 10. Add the protein and onions, and serve over rice

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 13

Order Up! For Boise restaurants, food delivery apps are both boon and burden LEX N ELS O N

PETE GRADY PHOTOGRAPHY

I

f you’ve recently placed an order on a food delivery app like Uber Eats, Grubhub, DoorDash, or Postmates, you aren’t alone.

According to a survey released this summer by eMarketer, 38 million people in the U.S. are expected to use food delivery apps this year, up 21% from 2018. By 2021, the group predicts that number will rise to just shy of 50 million—roughly 20% of everyone in America who owns a smartphone.

No one denies that the popularity of food delivery has ascended faster than a veteran griddle man can stack pancakes. That said, restaurateurs do argue over whether the increasing ubiquity of third-party ordering has been a boon or a burden for business. Since Uber Eats touched down in the City of Trees in August of 2017, Boise has been a hub of that conversation.

At Sophia’s Greek Bistro near the corner of Glenwood and State streets, traditional Greek dishes like gyros, tyropita, dol-

14 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

mades and moussaka make their ways to tables in the cheerful blue-painted dining room and to-go boxes in the kitchen. The family-owned bistro partners with Uber Eats and Grubhub, and also sees regular pickups from DoorDash and Postmates.

According to co-owner Jessi Strong, it’s something of a love-hate relationship.

“The thing with Uber and Grubhub is that they keep like 25% of the sale, which as a small business is really hard,” said Strong. “The reason we partnered up with them is because we know people are wanting delivery. Nowadays the demand for it has grown a lot. But that pretty much just eats our profit as a small business.”

That 25% is a commission, which many food delivery apps take from restaurants in addition to charging customers delivery fees, service fees, and/or order fees as compensation for ferrying their food. For Uber Eats, commissions range

from 20-30%. For Grubhub, they start at 10% plus a 3.05% processing fee, and rise if restaurants are willing to pay for increased exposure.

Strong said that on top of already slim profit margins, those commissions pack a serious punch, and there are other downsides to the services, like lost tips for waitstaff, diminished quality control and confusing payment processes that vary from app to app.

Still, because so many people are scrolling through delivery apps on a daily basis, Strong feels dropping out of those partnerships would put Sophia’s out of sight and out of mind.

“It just seems like right now it’s something that we have to do,” she said.

On the plus side, Strong noted app orders help turn over inventory on slow days, and keep the kitchen busy during the hours between lunch and dinner.

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

o-fish-ally Meridian’s best sushi

We're More Than Just a Market...

PAELLA

ON THE PATIO ALL YEAR LONG WED & FRI AT NOON THURSDAY, 6 PM

PINTXOS/TAPAS

Menu Availible Daily

TAPAS BAR DAILY WEDNESDAYS, 11 FRIDAYS AM - 4 PM & SATURDAYS 11:30 - SLOW

THREE Happy Hours

FridaY dinners

MONDAYTHROUGH FRIDAY

3 to 6 pm & 9 pm to close

RESERVATIONS FULL MENU REQUESTED AVAILABLE CHECK WEBSITE FOR MENU

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

11 am to 6 pm

1948050

OPEN

DAILY MONDAY - WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY MONDAY-SATURDAY • CLOSED SUNDAYS 10 AM - 6 PM THURSDAY & HOURS FRIDAY ON EXTENDED 10 AM - 8 PM THURSDAY, FRIDAY & SATURDAY CLOSED SUNDAY

Across from BuffaloWildWings on Eagle Rd

208.888.5000 TheBasqueMarket.com

208.433.1208 608 W.Grove St.

3210 E Louise Drive Meridian LingandLouies.com

In downtown Boise, Paddles Up Poke Owner Dan Landucci cited those same perks and more.

“I think [delivery apps] are great for business. They’re great for marketing. They do take a lot of money from the restaurant, anywhere from 20-35% per sale, but what I like to think of is the person that’s ordering on that app, they’re looking for a delivery.

They’re not going to come in,” Landucci said. “They’re going to find something on the app that they want because they want to use that service, right? And I want them to have the choice to eat at Paddles Up.” Paddles Up, which serves Hawaiian-style poke bowls, was one of the first restaurants to partner with Uber Eats when the service rolled into town, and has since signed on with DoorDash, Grubhub and a local option, Five Star Express (more on that later).

Landucci said when his staff asks newcomers where they heard about Paddles Up, those apps come up regularly.

“A lot of them do say, ‘I’ve never been in, but I ordered you guys on Uber,’ or ‘I ordered you on Doordash.’ So it’s kind of cool to know that they definitely bring customers in,” he said.

Paddles Up does 60-100 orders through the four apps every day, and ranked No. 1 on Uber’s most-ordered-from list during the service’s first two years in Boise. Apart from a 1.5-year period when the restaurant suspended its partnership with Grubhub over slow orders that impacted food quality, Paddles Up’s relationship with the apps has been smooth. Handling the influx

of orders can be chaotic, but Landucci and his team have mastered the rush.

“It definitely gets crazy when you have four tablets going off and you have a line out the door, and we experience that every lunch,” Landucci said. But when it comes to keeping the services straight, he said, “They all have their own noise, they all have their own ring or their own beep that goes off, so you kind of know.”

Wanda Martinat, the owner of both The Stagecoach Inn and Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro, has no helpful beeps to rely on.

Her restaurants don’t partner with any food delivery apps, but that doesn’t stop the services from calling in orders by phone. Those calls often flood in during peak hours and drag on for minutes, disrupting service for customers lined up at the host stand.

“My opinion as a restaurant owner is it would have been nice if they would have asked us if wanted to participate—Uber Eats, Grubhub, all of them—because every restaurant is different. The restaurants that I have are small, and so we want to make sure that we do a good job for the customers that we have,” Martinat said.

She applauds the apps for giving disabled and elderly customers who can’t leave home the chance to enjoy restaurant meals, and notes that their orders do help fill off-hours, but she’s frustrated with the inefficient call-in process and drivers who show up late. Phone conversations with Uber Eats representatives are particularly grueling: They talk slowly, have

thick accents, and ask repetitive questions about menu items and prices. Sometimes, Martinat and her staff turn down orders because they’re too busy to accommodate them. If she’d been asked, Martinat said, she would have preferred to restrict the delivery orders to certain hours. As it is, they’re marked up 15% to account for the hassle and lost tips.

Zach Marble, who owns the local food delivery service Five Star Food Express, positions his company as a customer- and partner-oriented alternative to the mainstream hassel. Uber Eats stole some of Marble’s thunder in 2017 when it launched in Boise just months before Five Star, but the local service still gained traction. Today it partners with more than 130 Treasure Valley restaurants and employs 30-40 drivers. It relies on a network of U.S.-based dispatchers to call in orders, and has a helpline that lets customers add to or change their orders en route. Marble also says Five Star’s commission is at least 50% smaller than those of the national services.

“A lot of these places that we’re getting food from and doing business with are mom-and-pop businesses just like we are, and if I can provide them a good service at a fair rate, that’s our ultimate goal,” Marble said.

As restaurateurs debate the pros and cons of each individual app, and food delivery services in general, that philosophy could be the difference between a fighting chance at growth and the probability of getting lost in the chatter.

Five Star Food Express owner Zach Marble has a fleet of 30-40 delivery drivers.

PETE GRADY PHOTOGRAPHY

16 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

WO RLD FAM OUS

S JUTD G E H I B RVING ALLEY

BUR GER S

SE URE V RS! AS 0 YEA TREO 2 F R

BOISE

1289 S. PROTEST RD • 343-4439 •

MERIDIAN

3030 E. OVERLAND RD SUITE 100 • 629-5259 •

BIGJUDS.COM

LOCALLY OWNED SINCE 2004 FULL BAR

HAPPY HOUR 4-6PM

CATERING

Physical Therapy 208.344.0737 ThrivePTPilates.com (208) 884-0701

1890 E. Fairview Ave., Meridian, ID • www.sawaddeethai.com /Sawaddeeldaho

Pilates Studio 208.345.1515 ThrivePilates.com

1938969

SUSHI

2302 N Bogus Basin Road, Boise, Idaho 83702

COURTESY STELLA’S

A RICH HISTORY

Boise’s rocky road to ice cream excellence

COURTESY STELLA’S

The Ice Cream Capital?

As he planned the festival, Wink stumbled onto the unexpectedly compelling story of ice cream in Idaho, and much of that story centers around the state’s dairies. Today, the dairy industry in Idaho is tantamount to that of the almighty potato, and in the 19th century, dairy farms in and around Boise fueled enthusiasm for ice cream.

At a panel during the Ice Cream Festival, Idaho Statesman reporter John Sowell showed off the first mention of ice cream he could find in the newspaper’s archives: coverage of a small ice cream saloon opening in the Idaho Hotel in 1865. At that time, he said, ice would have been provided by commercial vendors who delivered it packed in straw. Even when keeping things cold required incredible effort, Idahoans found a way to eat ice cream.

Creameries in Boise and Meridian supplied the raw materials for the many ice cream shops that thrived in downtown Boise in the early 20th century. Eventually, rising property costs drove the industry away from downtown, but Boise was already hooked. In the 1920s, Boise’s drugstores and pharmacies joined in, offering milkshakes and ice cream sodas to customers.

They did steady business, and at one point even joined forces to advertise the patriotic benefits of ice cream. Then, as cars became more prevalent, the local ice cream landscape shifted and drive-ins came to

HENRY C O FFE Y

M

ost cities are the proud owners of a signature food. Philadelphia has the cheesesteak. New Orleans has beignets. Buffalo has wings. And Boise has, well, what exactly?

The search for Boise’s most important dish yields no obvious answer, and if you ask food blogger Scott Wink of Boise’s Best Bites, it’s complicated by Idaho’s agriculture.

“Our flavor palate is potatoes, dairy, and beef,” he said. “It’s very bland, but it’s very historic to Boise.”

In 2018 when Wink wanted to start a food and wine festival, he found himself searching for the right dish that would excite foodies and bring people to Boise restaurants. He wasn’t sure he could draw a crowd for tasting

18 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

menus and fine wine, so he decided to build a festival that was a little simpler, and a lot sweeter: The Boise Ice Cream Festival.

For the two-week festival, which ran from late May to mid-June 2019, Wink asked chefs to incorporate innovative ice cream dishes into their menus, assembled panel discussions about ice cream and capped off a month of events with a “Grand Tasting” at JUMP that featured more than 200 flavors. It was a screaming success. Nearly every event at the festival was sold out.

“It exceeded every goal we had,” said Wink.

As the sprinkles settled, a question loomed: Had Boise discovered its signature food?

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

HENRY COFFEY

COURTESY THE STIL

Fresh cookies-and-cream ice cream churns at Goody’s Soda Fountain (left), while The STIL serves up its scoops with beer and wine (right).

rule the day. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, spots like the Golden Wheel Drive-In, which is still open on Fairview Avenue, welcomed hungry adults and droves of teens. Longtime Boise resident and history enthusiast Robert D. Austin Jr. spoke during the Ice Cream Festival about teen life at the height of car culture.

“We used to get in our cars and cruise Boise, and we went from one drive-in to the other,” he recalled. “It was kind of a rite of passage to cruise town in a circle over and over and travel from one end of town to the other to see who was hanging out where.”

At that time, Fanci Freez, then named Tasty Freez, was a dessert go-to. Though the drive-in wasn’t added until years later, the walkup window was one of the liveliest spots in town.

“They had lines down the sidewalk, definitely a lot of Boise High students,” said current Fanci Freez owner Bill Hawes.

Boise High was a closed campus back then, so sneaking out for ice cream was a way for students to win the admiration of their peers. On Saturday nights, the line was so long that the owner would arbitrarily choose a person in line and send everyone behind them home.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Today, spots like Fanci Freez, Viking Drive-In, and Westside Drive In are cornerstones of Boise’s culinary history and still regular stops for diners. But Boise’s boom has produced new and varied options.

When it comes to ice cream, it seems, there’s no single formula for success.

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

Delsa’s Ice Cream Parlour, Idaho’s longest-running ice cream shop, is beloved for its flavors even though it no longer occupies its original downtown location.

Goody’s Soda Fountain, founded in Hyde Park the 1980s, recreates the feel of a classic soda and candy shop. And C4 Creamery, which recently opened a brickand-mortar location on Cole Road, took the city by storm with rolled ice cream. Its employees chop ingredients and cream together in front of customers, then smear them into frozen layers that are scraped into ice cream spirals.

The most inventive establishments are probably Stella’s Ice Cream (in Nampa and Eagle) and The Sweetest Things In Life, aka The STIL, in downtown Boise. Stella’s makes everything from guacamole ice cream to Red Bull floats. The STIL boasts flavors like orange cream with fruity pebbles, lemon and olive oil, and balsamic fig, and makes alcohol-spiked ice cream, too.

Chad Hartley, the owner of Stella’s and the creative force behind much of its ice cream, stresses the importance of balance.

“We want to have the feel of an old-fashioned shop, but have some modern options,” he said.

Boise was slow to warm up to unusual ice cream flavors, at least according to Kasey Allen, co-owner of The STIL. “When we first opened up and had these unique flavors, they didn’t quite sell as well as our traditional flavors,” he said.

“Once we were able to get that reputation for having good products, people started to warm up to the idea of trying these more creative combinations.”

DOWN THE ROCKY ROAD

So, will Boise become a place known for its ice cream, or remain in relative ice cream obscurity?

It’s a difficult question to answer. Boise’s ice cream scene was stagnant for a long time before the latest wave of shops showed up, but Hartley thinks Boise has a chance to become an ice cream landmark by combining the history of places like Delsa’s and Goody’s with the fresh perspective of up-and-comers like Stella’s and The STIL. To realize that potential, he said, they’ll need to emphasize Idaho’s traditions and integrate the dairy industry more deeply into their ice cream innovations.

“Most of the dairy that people are getting to produce their ice cream here in the state is actually not from Idaho, which is really sad,” said Hartley. “It’s difficult to work with dairy suppliers here in the area.”

Other owners share his concern, but Wink hopes that giving Idaho’s “dairy backbone” a place in the Boise Ice Cream Festival will make the event a lasting part of Boise culture. If it works, the combination of groundbreaking flavors and storied businesses could make ice cream more distinctive than finger steaks.

“If you look at other places that are [considered] the ice cream capitals of the country, they’re little cities in Iowa that had an important creamery back in the ‘20s,” said Wink. “I think it would be easy to be like, ‘We’re a new ice cream capital of the country,’ and do it on the backs of all these new ice cream shops and the history of the drive-ins.”

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 19

Little Bunny Food Food Rabbit meat is on the menu at Hen and Hare Microfarm HAR R I S O N BER R Y

CHELSEA HARADA

Rabbit get short shrift in most of the U.S., but with the right preparation, it can hold its own against any other protein.

T

he heat came in through the windows I’d left open to keep the house cool, and a box fan I’d set up blew only hot air. It was the dog days of summer, but I was in the kitchen cooking a heavy soup. It was, I thought, out of season, but my curiosity nagged and I had to try it: On the menu was rabbit stew.

For more than a year, I’d been speaking with Jessica Harrold of Hen and Hare Microfarm about her rabbit operation. Only in the last few months, after contracting with USDA-certified Northwest Premium Meats for butchering, has she been able to sell slaughtered rabbits to her customers online, at the Boise Farmers Market and, starting in September 2019, at the Boise

20 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

Co-op. Cooking the meat, which is a delicacy pretty much everywhere but the U.S., had long been on my wishlist, and when I bought mine from her at the market, she handed over a card with a bare-bones recipe, which I used as a starting point for my own rabbit-cooking adventure.

“If you cooked a chicken, you shouldn’t be scared of it, as long as you follow the recipe, you’ll be good to go,” Harrold said.

The similarities between rabbit and chicken end with the color and ease of cooking. Rabbit is a low-fat white meat with a pillowy, porous texture and a surprisingly mild flavor that takes on the hues of what’s around it. In the stew, it was delicious, to the point that like a picky eat-

er, I had to restrain myself from spooning around the potatoes, celery and carrots to get at the pale cuts of meat.

In America, the taste for rabbit meat waned as mass agriculture favored beef, chicken and pork. Today, Idahoans are as unlikely to be familiar with the 1981 mass killing of rabbits in the Gem State as with the animal’s culinary possibilities. That should change, and for reasons beyond taste. Rabbits are easy to raise, they mature quickly, and compared to many other animals raised for meat, they’re environmentally sustainable. The amount of water required to grow one pound of rabbit meat is one-sixth that required to grow a pound of beef; the small animals require considW W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

erably less acreage to raise; and there’s little risk of herds compacting the soil or releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gasses. What’s more, rabbits, well, breed like rabbits.

“Quicker turnaround time means more feed efficiency for the animals. And overall, they have a smaller footprint, literally.

There’s less water, [and] less feed cost going in,” Harrold said.

Harrold began with a breeding trio— two does and a buck, which she and her husband, Ammon Judy, named Janet, Chrissy and Jack after the main characters in Three’s Company—on a quarter of an acre in the Boise Bench neighborhood.

Over the last two and a half years, they’ve expanded their operation both in acreage and the number of rabbits they tend. Today, they support four bucks and 30 does on two acres. Their breeds of choice are New Zealand satins and Californians.

Rabbit meat is also regarded for its high levels of protein and notoriously low levels of fat. It has 50-100 grams of digestible fat per 2 kilograms of live-weight rabbit, making it approximately 8.3% fat. Compare that

to beef and pork (32%) and lamb (28%). In some instances, people subsisting entirely on rabbit for extended periods of time have fallen ill from protein poisoning, also known as “rabbit starvation,” which comes from a diet too high in protein and too low in fat.

“They take a lot less and they’re the highest protein—they’re all-white meat,” Harrold said.

There’s little risk of rabbit starvation, however, with traditional preparation methods—i.e. with plenty of butter. Hen and Hare sells its meat on the bone, and after trimming it, I dredged it in flour and lightly browned it in a pan with butter, at which point it stopped looking like chicken and began to emit a pleasant aroma. The fat and minimal salt revealed the flavor of the meat almost immediately.

“The texture is really similar to chicken overall. It’s more flavorful than chicken overall, but it’s the same kind of taste. It’s just as easy to cook,” Harrold said. “The stew is a really nice way to get a fall-apart piece of meat.”

It wasn’t until the next day, after cooling it in the refrigerator overnight, that the

stew began to really blossom in appearance and taste. A lot of wintry soups get their heartiness from fat leaching out from the meat. Beef is especially good for this, since the fat (literally) renders a lot of the flavor as it’s absorbed into the stock and veggies. The fat in rabbit stew doesn’t come from the meat, so I had to quickly learn to be conscientious about how much fat and salt I added to the dish. In the end, I supplemented Harrold’s recipe with celery, carrots, red potatoes, extra butter and plenty of Worcestershire sauce, and was very happy with the still-very-light stew.

From Harrold’s back porch, Hen and Hare Micro Farm doesn’t look so “micro,” but it has a stillness that can only be found in the country. Neither Victory Road, which runs almost adjacent to the property, nor the Boise Airport a couple miles away, seemed to make much noise compared to the anxious murmur of turkeys, guineas and chickens coming from the small pasture. In between was the wire enclosure where Hen and Hare keeps its hares, including approximately a dozen does in cages.

“QUICKER TURNAROUND TIME MEANS MORE FEED EFFICIENCY FOR THE ANIMALS. AND OVERALL, THEY HAVE A SMALLER FOOTPRINT, LITERALLY.

DAVEN MATHIES

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

CHELSEA HARADA

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 21

Hen and Hare is small for a farm, but it manages to do big things. At the lot next door, a horse munched grass lazily. A few acres is barely enough for larger animals, but Harrold and Judy raise scores of rabbits and poultry, have enough room for a sizeable garden and hold down non-farm jobs: Harrold works for the Ada Soil and Water Conservation District, and Judy is a local attorney. The rabbits have already made something of a public debut—when LED, The Modern and Txikiteo threw the Red Hare(ing) progressive dinner in late August 2019, the rabbits served for dinner came from Hen and Hare.

There are also big things in store, starting with conducting rabbit-centered cooking classes at the Boise Co-op. On the farm, Harrold has plans to build a hay barn to keep her animals cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

“That’ll improve our care of the rabbits. They’ll be better protected from the elements. We try to have the highest quality of life, so having this barn in place will make their lives a lot more comfortable,” Harrold said.

As the palates of Boise shoppers grow more adventurous, and as they consider the impacts of their decisions at the grocery store on the environment, Harrold said she expects the demand for rabbit to increase, but so far, interest in the meat has been modest. Still, because of her work it’s available for people to experiment with and discover, and in the end, that’s just what she wants.

“I think it’s just an important, sustainable option to have in our community,” she said.

Hen and Hare Rabbit Stew INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cups flour • 4 tbsp. butter or lard • 1 small rabbit • 2 sliced onions • 2-3 cups sliced mushrooms • 2 cups red wine • 4 cloves garlic • 1 tsp. thyme • 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth • Salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Piece out the rabbit and dredge it in flour.

2. Melt the butter in a Dutch oven, brown the rabbit pieces and set them aside.

3. In the Dutch oven, saute the mushrooms and onions, adding more butter or lard as needed.

4. Deglaze the mushrooms and onions with red wine and bring the mixture to a simmer.

5. Add the browned rabbit pieces, broth, thyme and garlic.

Make sure the rabbit is mostly submerged.

6. Allow the stew to simmer for approximately 2 hours, until the rabbit is tender.

CHELSEA HARADA

22 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

Now Serving Breakfast at Our Park Center Location Only!

e Frerae kfast B

at Park ocation Center L m!

7am 9a

As a thank you to the community, we are offering buy one get one free breakfast everyday at our Park Center location 7am - 9am with purchase of 2 drinks

VOTED BOISE’S BEST MEDITERRANEAN FOOD 12 YEARS RUNNING! Two Locations to Serve You 1772 W. State St. 208.333.2566 404 E. Parkcenter Blvd. 208.333.2223 Check Out Our Menu @

WWW.MAZZAHBOISE.COM OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

Main Squeeze With our signature nectarine lemon drop, The Squeeze, and a SOCIAL HOUR from 4 to 6 pm weekdays, we just might become your new main squeeze.

PRIME STEAKS • FINE SEAFOOD ™

Hotel 43 | 981 West Grove Street, Boise ChandlersBoise.com | 208.383.4300

Boise on the Half Shell Restaurants, locals embrace oysters in a landlocked state SKY LAR BAR S AN T I

COURTESY WATER BEAR BAR

At Water Bear Bar, employees can sometimes be found singing to their most recent oyster delivery.

I

daho isn’t exactly the seafood capital of America. Anyone looking for something caught “fresh” off the coast has to wait at least a few days, but that wait has done little to slow coastal food trends on their journeys to Boise. Just ask the team at Water Bear Bar. To accompany its wide selection of classic and modern cocktails, Water Bear serves oysters on the half shell. Co-pwners Kylie North and Laura Keeler always intended for oysters to play a role in the bar’s appeal, but thought they would take a back seat to the drinks.

“First and foremost, we’re a cocktail bar,” said Water Bear Marketing Specialist Heather Newman. “None of our food is meant to be the star—the star is the bar.”

But the locals caught them by surprise. In the first week after the bar’s soft opening this summer, the Water Bear team shucked 1,500 oysters.

“It was so much more than we anticipated that we thought, ‘Wow, Boise is really into oysters!’ The people have shown us

24 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

how ready they are for us,” Newman said.

Since then, North and Keeler’s oysters have sold out regularly. They’re putting to rest the myth that you can’t get fresh (read: unspoiled) oysters in a landlocked state, and they’re not doing it alone.

At Reel Foods Fish Market, restaurant Owner Marcus Bonilla sells three to seven oyster varieties on any given day. Some of his biggest sellers, ranging in price from $1.50 to $2 each, are Kusshi oysters from British Columbia, Quilcene oysters from Washington and Kumamoto oysters from California. Bonilla doesn’t yet have a fully operational oyster bar, but he’ll still shuck a few for any customer who needs a saltwater fix.

Meanwhile, oysters have always been a staple at Petite 4. This summer, the French-inspired bistro rolled out an oyster cart in addition to its weekday happy hour oyster offerings. On select Friday nights, patrons could enjoy oysters shucked to order, shrimp cocktail, tinned fish and Champagne on the patio. The cart brought

in guests by the dozens who polished off 200 East Coast oysters each night, according to Petite 4 Co-owner David “D.K.” Kelly.

For the truly adventurous, the Owyhee Tavern on Main Street even sells a dozen oysters as part of its $100 seafood tower.

So, how did Boise manage to dive this deep? Well, it turns out the oyster has been experiencing a nationwide renaissance—an oyster-sance if you will—for some time.

American aquaculture is a $1.5 billion industry, and its farms produce millions of pounds of oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp and salmon. The demand for wild-caught seafood has stayed consistent, but “sales of domestic marine aquaculture increased 13% per year from 2007 to 2011, on average, led by increases in oyster and salmon production,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Of the three regions driving aquaculture production, the Pacific (Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii) accounts for the most at 41%.

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

Maybe it’s a coincidence that the most prolific region for oyster production also contributes some of the highest numbers to Idaho’s booming population growth. But if you ask Bonilla, he’ll say it’s more than that. After all, 32% of the people who moved to Idaho in 2016 hailed from either California or Washington.

“We have seen an uptick in oyster sales,” Bonilla said. “And with Boise’s constantly changing demographics, I have seen more people come in from California and the East Coast who had oysters at places like Water Bear and want more. People are bringing in a taste for oysters and a desire for fresh, never-frozen seafood.”

Considering Boise’s sharp growth trajectory, Kelly isn’t surprised by changing tastes.

“People haven’t always been able to get [oysters] here,” he said. “But in big cities, they’re everywhere. And there was no way we were going to feature seafood in Boise without oysters. At Petite 4, they’re never wasted because I’ll eat them.”

When it comes to getting good seafood, Bonilla and Newman agree that freshness matters just as much as taste. Thanks to technology and quality-control standards, maintaining both has been not just doable, but relatively easy.

“Any time an oyster comes out of the water, the purveyor has to test it for three days for viruses and bacteria,” Bonilla explained. “Then it’s shipped. Our freshest oysters are four days out of the water, but that’s only one day longer than you would get them on the coast. And they still taste like they just came out of the ocean.”

Bonilla say you’ll know a bad oyster when you smell it. Filled with a saltwater liqueur, shucked oysters give off a strong, pure ocean smell. If you shuck an oyster and it’s dry, that means it has been cracked, and is on its last leg.

At Water Bear, Newman says it’s dedication to quality that keeps Boiseans coming back.

“The ethos behind our oysters is similar to what’s behind the bar,” she said. “It’s the intention and the process as well as the freshness. We shuck every oyster to order, just like we make every syrup in-house. We respect our living product.”

Water Bear’s in-house “oyster king” oversees deliveries and makes sure new shipments are immediately put on ice to rest. It’s not unusual to find members of the Water Bear team talking or singing to the bivalves—treating the living gold washed ashore in the desert with utmost care.

+

INDULGENT EATS

+AMBIANCE

ECLECTIC

HARRISON BERRY

In addition to its seafood tower, The Owyhee Tavern serves oysters on the half shell as an appetizer.

CRAFT COCKTAILS

BREAKFAST,LUNCH,DINNER happyhour+outdoordining trilliumboise.com

208 333 8002

LOCATED IN THE GROVE HOTEL LOBBY W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 25

Fried Chicken— Korean Style Mr. Wok is the first Boise restaurant to serve an unsung delicacy HARRISO N BE RRY

K

oreans first developed a taste for fried chicken during the Korean War, quickly making the dish their own. Now, Joseph Kim of Mr. Wok in Boise says he’d like the golden-battered birds to be an entree for Americans curious about Korean food.

“The response has been great,” Kim said about the chicken. “People have been flocking to the doors. People have come to check out the chicken, and once they see the Korean menu, they get excited.”

The chicken comes on the bone or boneless, dipped in a butter powder, sauce or served basically plain. The sauce is a fun add-on, but the first thing Americans will notice when they bite into the chicken is that it has crunch, and not just a little bit.

The chicken is tempura-battered, then dipped in a secondary flour and double-fried. For the uninitiated, the crunching sound is shocking, but the crispy-butsomehow-smooth texture and nuanced flavor is as satisfying as it gets.

“There’s a lot more spice to it. If I’d have to compare it to Buffalo Wild Wings, the sauce is very unique on its own, especially the Yang Ngam chicken. It all has a distinct taste to it. It’s garlicky, [there are] peppers [and] onions. It has a super distinct taste.

The batter is different. There’s not much crunch to it at [Kentucky Fried Chicken].

This chicken has a lot of crunch,” Kim said.

The Kims started serving Korean fried chicken in April after they became

Mr. Work employees have served up Korean fried chicken since April.

ALL PHOTOS BY PETE GRADY PHOTOGRAPHY

26 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

franchisees of Vons, a Korean-based company that operates in America out of California. Kim said they buy their chicken locally, but prepare it according to Vons’ specifications (there’s also a roasted chicken on the menu for more health-conscious diners).

Essentially, they’re running two businesses out of the same space, but they make it work. Apart from a few Vons posters and an add-on Vons menu, it’s the same Mr. Wok Boise has come to know and love.

“We get our chicken from local markets from around here, but they train us how to prepare the chicken. We use their sauce and marinades. Butter powder, other things they provide for us. We just follow their system,” Kim said.

For first-timers, this reviewer recommends sampling. During my visit, I sat under one of the aforementioned Vons posters near the front door and stared googly-eyed as the server deposited the gargantuan half order of boneless Crunch Fried Chicken ($12.99, or $24.99 for a full order) at my table. These nuggets are the base model, served without sauce, and the only seasoning is in the batter—as good an option as any to see if this was my thing. It was: The batter crackled pleasantly, and the chicken breast inside was full of flavor.

More adventurous (or seasoned) fried chicken-lovers will fall fast for the Yang-Nyeom ($13.99-$26.99), which came doused in a plum-colored garlicky pepper sauce. This stuff has zing, and will have folks with average heat tolerance torn between the desire for one more bite and one more minute of recovery.

Whenever possible, pair the fried chicken with beer. It’s tradition. In Korea, it’s called chimaek, a portmanteau of chikin (chicken) and maekju (beer), and it’s at least as good a pairing as wine and cheese, oysters and Champagne, or Tango and Cash.

One more tip: Eat with friends. The servings are huge, and going solo on a whole fried chicken could be regrettable later. Splitting the meal and a few beers with some compatriots—that’s a recipe for a good time.

CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CUISINE & BAR 2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Best Martini - Lemon Basil Martini Best Bartender – Major Ludwig

Lemon Basil Martini

At Mr. Wok, diners choose between bone-in and boneless wings.

Nigiri Sushi

Scallop & Prawn with Ginger Wasabi Sauce

(208) 939-2595 228 E. Plaza St., Eagle, ID www.riceeagle.com

Like us on facebook for Special Deals and interact with us to win Gift Cards. facebook.com/riceeagle W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

1940383

OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY DAILY HAPPY HOUR 4-6 PM WE CATER BEAUTIFUL SHADED PATIO

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 27

The Salad Toss-Up How three bowls of Boise greens compare SKY LAR BAR S AN T I You may have wanted french fries, but it’s time to order, and you know you should get a salad. Decent salads come in all varieties in the City of Trees, of course, but for a quality combination of meat (or meat substitute), cheese and fruit, check out these three contenders.

PHOTOS BY SKYLAR BARSANTI

CLOUD 9 BREWERY’S APPLEPECAN SALAD: $9 FULL, $6 HALF One of four such options on the nanopub’s menu, this salad brings together tangy apple, candied pecans, creamy blue cheese and sweet honey-pear vinaigrette over a bed of mixed greens. Prepared in even slices, the Honeycrisp apple is as its name suggests, and there’s not a wilted leaf in sight. No one ingredient, whether the lightly cinnamon- and sugar-coated pecans or the pungent blue cheese crumbles, overpowers another. If there’s any downside to this dish, it’s the many halved pecans that find their way to the bottom of the bowl. By the time you reach them, they’ve lost their crunch. Unless you’re prepared to eat forkfuls of vinaigrette-soaked nuts, we suggest you forego them.

A popular item, the full size is big enough to satisfy even the heartiest of appetites, especially piled with grilled chicken (+$6).

If you’re not in the mood for fowl, substitute chicken for steak (+$8), tempeh (+$4) or salmon (+$7).

BONUS: Cloud 9 features the most meat substitutions of the three restaurants listed, not to mention housemade root beer and ginger ale.

WHERE: 1750 W. State St. WHEN: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. and Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

28 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

ZEE’S ROOFTOP’S STRAWBERRYAVOCADO SALAD: $8.75 A designated favorite on the Zee’s Rooftop menu, the strawberry-avocado salad also features feta cheese, sunflower and sesame seeds, and a thick honey-dijon dressing (add chicken +$3). Soft feta brings more texture than smell to the plate, and offers a break from the sharpness of the blue cheese piled on our other two contenders. When drizzled with bright yellow dressing, the feta takes on the color and texture of a hardboiled egg yolk— without the egg taste.

Compared to the other salads on this list, Zee’s presentation leaves something to be desired. But we’ll blame that on the fact that we had ours in togo boxes. If you don’t have time to eat lunch with a fork, get your salad as a wrap (+$1) and make sure you still take a second to enjoy the view.

BONUS: In addition to salads, Zee’s serves a variety of “Power Bowls,” including Thai with bulgur wheat and chia seeds, and Hawaiian with ahi tuna and papaya-ponzu dressing.

BRIXX CRAFT HOUSE’S BERRYCHICKEN SALAD: $12.45 If there has to be a winner of this salad toss-up, it’s Brixx’s berry-chicken. With pancetta, grilled (or crispy) chicken, blue cheese, fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries), candied hazelnuts and a raspberry-hazelnut vinaigrette over mixed greens, Brixx certainly offers the biggest bowlful. Softer than almonds and crunchier than walnuts, hazelnuts are a welcome alternative to the common salad staples, though they tend to get lost among the plethora of toppings. Meanwhile, salty pancetta adds a balanced kick to the sweet berry mix.

One salad size fits all here, but diners can substitute chicken for steelhead trout (+$3).

BONUS: Brixx has a second berry-based salad on the menu—spinach with strawberries, avocado, toasted almonds, red onion and a balsamic reduction ($9.95).

Add chicken (+$4) or steelhead trout (+$7) for a punch of protein.

WHERE: 7700 W. State St. WHEN: 11 a.m -10 p.m. daily

WHERE: 250 S. Fifth St. #900 (Penthouse) WHEN: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

Welcome to the Remix The Trailmix pitch competition returns to Boise, this time powered by yogurt LEX N ELS O N

COURTESY TRAILHEAD

Joni Kindwall-Moore (third from left) won Trailmix 2018 with cookies from her brand, Snacktivist Foods.

A

hefty share of the products stocked on the shelves at Albertsons, WinCo, Traders Joe’s and Whole Foods got their starts in home kitchens, even if these days they’re made in massive factories. If it’s wrapped in paper or plastic and didn’t come straight from a field or off of a tree, odds are someone once paused on the street, struck with the idea that this product would be tasty, nutritious, or just the thing to make them millions.

This year on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at the business incubator Trailhead Boise, dozens of people who have experienced those eureka moments will gather in a single room for Trailmix, a pitch competition for food startups that’s now its second year. The 2018 contest during Boise Startup Week saw over 40 entrants and products ranging from snack bars to tea blends. They competed for a chance to win a meeting with Albertsons’ sales managers, product placement in the Broadway Albertsons, and a one-year Trailhead membership.

Joni Kindwall-Moore, founder of the Coeur d’Alene-based company Snacktivist Foods, took home the top prize for her vegan, gluten-free cookies.

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

This year’s contest will have the same format, but more tempting prizes thanks in part to Idaho-based yogurt company Chobani, which joined Albertsons, Kitchen 2 Shelf and IGEM at Trailhead to present the event.

“One cool thing [Chobani is] doing for our Trailmix event is that all of the five finalists get access for two days to their innovation center in Twin Falls,” said Trailhead Executive Director Tiam Rastegar.

“They all get paired with a food scientist, so they get to prototype and work on developing their products.”

The winner will also cash in on a $20,000 prize and shelf space at Albertsons, while the People’s Choice winner will take home $5,000. Rastegar said this year’s submissions included an influx of products in the natural, organic, ethnic and health food spaces. Some of them use alternate protein sources like crickets, and one is a dairybased chicken nugget Rastegar swears tastes like real meat. Overall, the 2019 contest brought in more than 30 new applicants in addition to returning contestants. While the Trailmix team is excited about the new entries, Program Manager Matthew Gilkerson is equally happy to see last year’s faces.

After Trailmix, a few 2018 finalists won other accolades, including Judy Goodman with BGood Bars, whose cranberry-hemp bar won the 2019 Good Food Award in San Francisco.

“From my perspective, it has just been a really cool experience to see the growth within a year within these startups, whether it’s rebranding, or tweaking their recipes, or packaging and slotting,” Gilkerson said.

Really, that growth and evolution is what Trailmix is all about. As a facet of Trailhead’s business incubator, Rastegar said Trailmix is meant as an “onramp” specifically for food startups. Its goal is to offer networking opportunities, and bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and the food manufacturers and distributors that could help them reach consumers. The Gem State is particularly rich is food industry notables, like Alberstons, WinCo, Clif Bar, the J.R. Simplot Company, Conagra Brands and Chobani, which may help the startups in the long run, even if they don’t emerge victorious at Trailmix.

“I think Boise, and Idaho for that matter, have a competitive advantage in the food space,” Gilkerson said.

Who will have the advantage at this year’s competition, however, remains to be seen.

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 29

Musical bartenders In Treasure Valley bars, poaching personnel is part of the business M I CAH DR EW

E

rik Schweitzer may very well have come into this world dressed in a denim button-up and suspenders, mustache perfectly waxed and cocktail shaker in hand. To be a visitor at Press & Pony is to know that Schweitzer, like the rest of the bartenders, is nothing if not perfectly attired for the Prohibition-style venue. It’s impossible to imagine him working anywhere else.

“When I left this bar for the first time in Boise, I bounced between four different bars in less than a year and a half before coming back,” said Schweitzer, who started bartending during college up in Pullman, Washington.

Schweitzer worked at Reef and The BrickYard Steakhouse for a few weeks, then shifted over to Mai Thai. Then he left Mai Thai, bounced back to Mai Thai and finally ended up out at Bodovino in The Village at Meridian.

“There was a year of finding myself, and also a job that could pay,” said Schweitzer. Eventually, he got the call to come back to Press & Pony, and he’s been home ever since.

Shuffling from place to place is part of the hospitality industry in general, and bartending specifically.

“That’s the industry a lot,” said Schweitzer, recalling a passage from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential about a sous chef who poached cooks from other kitchens. “Pretty much you just find who’s not happy.”

Despite his air of being intimately connected to his bar—think Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman—Schweitzer gets offers to leave all the time.

After he won runner-up in this year’s Best of Boise Best Bartender catagory, four people tried to lure Schweitzer away from Press & Pony within a week. The offers were “farfetched ideas,” but Schweitzer says that comes with the gig.

“I work for a very fun, happy company, so it’s really hard when you’re happy to be poached,” he said. “If I was not enjoying myself, like I have at other jobs I’ve been working at, if someone said, ‘Hey, want to open a bar,’ I’d have gone, ‘Yeah, peace out!’”

PETE GRADY PHOTOGRAPHY

30 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

“I WORK FOR A VERY FUN, HAPPY COMPANY, SO IT ’S REALLY HARD WHEN YOU’RE HAPPY TO BE POACHED.”

123RF.COM

Erik Schweitzer tends the bar at Press & Pony, and his look fits the watering hole to a T.

On the other side of the equation, Schweitzer said that “it hurts if someone is poached, because they hate you or you’re not doing your job, like that’s on me [as a manager] for not making this work environment happy and profitable and fun.”

For new bar owners, the prevalence of poaching indicates approaching those at the top of their games might be a valid strategy. However, some who have been in the business a while feel that’s far from the best way to go about things. Most bar managers prefer a little green behind the ears when building a staff.

Sara Lynch, the bar manager for Bittercreek Alehouse, Red Feather Lounge and Diablo & Sons, prefers to interview potential bartenders without a lot of years behind the counter.

“The less bar experience, the better,” she said. “The No. 1 thing is definitely that outgoing personality and a genuine interest in people. We look for that little bit of sass— always a good trait in a bartender.”

For Lynch, hiring effective personnel means syncing up the personality of the employee with that of the bar.

“Bittercreek is definitely more casual. It’s louder, more rambunctious, so we’re looking more for the smarm. At Red Feather our atmosphere is a little quieter, so we want a W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

little more sophistication, a little more wit,” she said.

Lynch was recently charged with hiring staff for Diablo & Sons, the newest venture in the restaurant group owned by Boisean Dave Krick.

“It’s hard to know how to hire or how to design a menu before the space opens,” she said. “But now, Diablo is just nuts, so we need people who can just roll with chaos.”

Schweitzer also looks for personality traits rather than bar experience when he hires new staff.

“I don’t like experience—there are bad habits because when you get in the game, you’ve been bartending for a long time, that’s how you bartend,” he said. “I can teach knowledge. I can teach skill. I can teach habits. I can’t teach you how to be a good person.”

Schweitzer also aims for balance on his staff, comparing Press & Pony to an ecosystem full of different niches that need to be filled.

“Here, we’re a small space. We’re in close quarters so you’ve gotta be able to do the dance, do the flow, and be connected to the dynamics here or else it’s not going to process,” he said.

The niches at Press & Pony are covered by Schweitzer (the outgoing, vocal one), Travis

(the cynical, sly, sarcastic one) and recently, Geoffrey (the young upstart).

“Everyone fills a different void. You want to expand the business. You want as many people to feel comfortable in the bar as possible,” said Schweitzer. “Take Geoffrey for example—he’s our young hotshot, he’s gorgeous, he’s hilarious and he brings a whole different age bracket into the bar.”

Over on Eighth Street, Lynch says there is an unspoken rule in the front and back of house that they don’t poach employees from other local businesses downtown.

“We feel it’s not good for our relationships, and we want to be friends and good neighbors,” she said. But when it comes to corporate restaurants, “Fair game. Meridian, fair game.”

Overall, while the influx of new bars in the area like Water Bear and The Royal might irritate some locals, many in the industry feel that a rising tide floats all ships.

“We just want to keep it from getting too serious,” said Lynch. “I feel that craft cocktail has become such a serious art form, and we’re just making drinks. At the end of the day, if you’re making a lemon drop or a Long Island or a cocktail you’re excited about, we just want the guests to have a good experience.”

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 31

The Glass Teacup Idaho tea brands prioritize transparency LEX N ELS O N

J

eff Synder decided to start his own tea company because, he thought, something was wrong with the ones the world already had.

“At a certain point I just got a little bit frustrated with what I found in the tea industry,” he said, adding, “Tea in and of itself is a good product, there’s nothing really wrong with it, but a lot of the tea that people buy is really not quite as good as they think it is.”

Before he started his Caldwell-based company, Voce Tea, Snyder worked fulltime as a professor of Chinese history and religion at the College of Idaho. He was born in Japan and lived in China and Taiwan for much of his adult life, so tea was never far from his mind. As he put it, “I spend most of my time thinking about Asia”—and few things are more integral to Asian culture than tea.

Even so, it wasn’t until a few years ago that Snyder started taking a close look at the modern tea industry. What he discovered—including pesticide pollution, 32 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

environmental degradation, lab-synthesized flavorings, the exploitation of tea workers, and what he feels are false or overstated health claims—is chronicled on Voce Tea’s website, vocetea.com. In order to find a product he’d feel good about drinking, he started his own company in March of 2018. Today, Voce Tea sells 10 different fruit teas—or tisanes, technically, as they don’t contain tea leaves—to customers nationwide.

Snyder said if he had to choose one word to describe Voce Tea, it would have to be “real.” Transparency is his No. 1 priority, and it’s a creed that extends all the way from his ingredients (organic, additive-free and sourced almost entirely from the Americas) to his packaging (recently revamped to phase out all single-use plastics and include only recyclable and compostable materials).

“As far as I know, we’re the only fruit tea company that actually declares country of origin [of each ingredient] on its packaging,” Snyder said.

The dried fruits and herbs for each tea bag are hand-measured, and bags that include whole lemon slices, like the lemon-ginger and lemon-raspberry-mint blends, are hand-filled. It’s a lot of work, and these days, Snyder pulls double duty.

Helped by an ex-student, Megan French, he alternates between filling tea bags at the University of Idaho Food Technology Center and teaching classes at C of I. The three women behind another local tea startup, The Vervain Collective, are all experts at striking a similar balance between careers. Dr. Nicole Pierce, Kelsey Nunez and Carolyn Swenson are a naturopathic physician, an environmental lawyer and a sustainable supply chain consultant, respectively. In 2017, they bonded over the idea of filling what they saw as Boise’s niche for an herb shop, and this August, they opened their brick-and-mortar location, Vervain Apothecary, inside of Garden City’s Roots Zero Waste Market.

“All of the products are plant-based, so if you take it back down to the ingredients, W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

it’s plant matter, oils, seeds, roots, shoots, leaves, flowers,” said Nunez.

Vervain sells a carefully curated selection of locally and regionally made, minimally packaged goods, including everything from soaps and oils to punfilled greeting cards. One of the shop’s centerpieces, though, is its tea selection, which includes not only nine of its own proprietary blends but a make-your-own tea wall of herbs for amateurs to explore.

Customers are encouraged to bring their own jars for the bulk ingredients, which are sourced from Mountain Rose Herbs, Starwest Botanicals and, as much possible, local farmers like Purple Sage Farms, which plans to grow herbs specifically for the collective next season.

Like Voce Tea, Vervain values transparency. Its teas, which come in blends like the chrysanthemum, rose, and spearmint-rich Tranquilium and the savory nettle-and-rosehip based Farm & Forage, are free of additives and sourced close to home. Above all, though, Vervain is committed to enriching the local community.

“Our tagline is, ‘Informed by nature, powered by community,’ and I think that kind of boils down what we’re trying to go for,” said Swenson.

Just this year, a facet of the tea industry emerged in the Tea Association of the U.S.A., Inc.’s new report, the 2018-19 Tea Market Review & Forecast, that appears to align with the values Voce and Vervain display. The associa-

LEX NELSON

tion found that over the last three years, preliminary numbers indicate that the volume of tea imports has fallen, but their dollar value has risen, “implying that the teas brought to the U.S. were marginally more expensive and theoretically, of higher quality.”

If a trend toward quality and, perhaps, transparency, is building in the tea industry, both Voce and Vervain are well-positioned to ride the wave.

Voce Tea’s blends can be purchased at Boise Co-op, the Boise Farmers Market, the Ketchum Farmers Market or online at vocetea.com. Vervain Apothecary can be found at thevervaincollective.com, or inside Roots Zero Waste Market at 3308 W. Chinden Boulevard in Garden City.

COURTESY VOCE TEA

COURTESY VOCE TEA

Voce and Vervain offer minimally packaged teas that are as beautiful as they are well-researched.

COURTESY VOCE TEA

COURTESY VOCE TEA

COURTESY VOCE TEA

The Lemon Ginger Fizz

The Hot Colada

INGREDIENTS:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup bourbon • 1 cup lemon-ginger Voce Tea, brewed and iced • 3/4 cup ginger beer • Juice of 1/2 lemon

• 12 oz. mango-pineapple-coconut Voce Tea, brewed and hot • 1 oz. dark rum

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Combine the tea and rum in a glass

1. Combine the tea, bourbon, ginger beer and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker or glass of ice

INSTRUCTIONS: 2. Stir and enjoy!

2. Shake and pour, or simply stir and enjoy!

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 33

All the Brewery’s a Stage Boise beer hotspots host events of all stripes SAM AN T H A S T ET Z ER

SUSIE LARSON

T

here’s a brewery in Boise to satisfy nearly every beer lover’s craving. With novelty favorites, popular national brands and breweries-turned-restaurants filling the local scene, each spot has to find its own way to stand out and connect to the Treasure Valley community.

In the process of finding those niches, breweries are transforming from casual taphouses into destinations for events, fundraisers, and specialties. Only time can tell what local brewers will have on tap next.

STAY WEIRD, WOODLAND EMPIRE

If it’s out of the ordinary, you can probably find it at Woodland Empire Ale Craft.

Taproom Manager Christian Atley described the spot’s employees, co-founders and patrons as people who enjoy all things weird, and said the beauty in beer is its ability to connect them.

“We see ourselves as underground and weird and punk rock, so this is a way for us to express our personality,” Atley said.

Whether you’re looking for the hottest comedy show in Boise—perhaps literally, as the back-of-the-house brewing space doesn’t have air conditioning and can fit 100 people—a puppet horror show or a place to swap out your Atari for a Rolling Stones record, Woodland Empire has an event for that.

34 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

Its most popular and sought-after show is Hogspoiled, a celebration of comedy that challenges the longtime comedy superstition that Friday shows are terrible and boasts great acts through the winter at Hogspoiled. Two of Boise’s best-known comedians, Emma Arnold and Sophie Hughes, host touring stand-up comics, most of whom are female or queer.

Every show has sold out and patrons even line up out the door for a chance to watch their favorite performers.

Woodland Empire also stole a page from the Canadian punk band PUP when it released the ingredients of a newly concocted brew and invited homebrewers to create their own versions. Much like the band, which once dropped lyrics and chords before releasing a song, the brewery compiled many creative entries to

its Brew-It-Yourself Challenge, which was paired with PUP’s visit to Boise.

Groups of steadfast regulars have taken Woodland Empire co-owners Rob and Keely Landerman (the latter of whom is Idaho’s only female head brewer) up on offers to use the brewery as a home base.

One of the most tight-knit groups to call Woodland Empire home is Kegfit, which began its CrossFit-style workouts with empty kegs at Woodland Empire five years ago. The partnership is so close that the brewery honored Founder Dirk Manley with his own brew.

Not many breweries have gym junkies working out next to the barrels that drinkers will later drain, or have stage lights reflecting off their freezers. That would just be weird—which is how Woodland Empire likes it.

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

A FOCUS ON IDAHO

Powderhaus Brewing Company is the brewery to visit for a little German flair in the Treasure Valley. But despite its overseas-inspired names and events, Powderhaus staff will tell you the watering hole’s focus never wavers from the Gem State.

“One of the things that I think is very unique to Powderhaus is that we pride ourselves on using only Idaho ingredients; Idaho water, Idaho hops, Idaho people brewing it,” said Co-owner and Founder Lisa Schmidt. “We like to highlight the best that Idaho has to offer.”

That focus on Idaho prompted Schmidt and her family to open their brewery to local vendors, companies and organizations looking for the perfect event space. Since 2015, weddings and their attendant receptions, wakes, baby and wedding showers, campaign events, tradeshow-esque gatherings, sales presentations, company parties and training sessions have all filled Powderhaus’ taphouse, brewery and beer garden.

In addition, the brewery hosts its own events with an eye toward fresh, unique themes. Annually, Powderhaus invites its patrons to dress up for Beer Prom. On the traditional side, it also boasts an annual German Oktoberfest and Maifest celebration.

By opening the space beyond brewing, Schmidt said she and her family are marrying “the best that Idaho has to offer” with experiences the state has yet to tap.

“Idaho is so unique,” Schmidt said. “We have a beautiful place to brew [beer] in Idaho, and we have wonderful people to brew it for—visitors and locals.”

WELCOME TO VALHALLA

Visiting one of Barbarian Brewing’s Treasure Valley taprooms is a must if you want to experience its creative brews like Huginn and Muginn and Elixir of the Gods.

“We brew to keep our taproom stacked,” said Co-founder Bre Hovley. “You’re not going to find us in the grocery stores.”

Barbarian’s Garden City taproom can seat 40 people, but the business is in the process of adding an event space by expanding into what used to be a barrel room. The brewery’s downtown location can hold 99 patrons and boasts a private meeting space called, appropriately, the Valhalla Room. Currently, it houses painting nights and events thrown by local organizations. While the brewery and main taproom are never shut down completely, Hovley said she and her staff encourage companies to use the Valhalla Room for private parties.

Barbarian also throws its own events.

In honor of the Norse God, Thor, the brewery hosts “Thors-day” every week to release a new brew. During Boise

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

“ WE LIKE TO HIGHLIGHT THE BEST THAT IDAHO HAS TO OFFER.”

SAM STETZER

A new event is always around the corner at Powderhaus.

Downtown Association’s First Thursday event in September 2019, Barbarian also donated $1 from every pint sold to benefit Ales for ALS, a nonprofit that supports ALS research and treatment.

As the brewery continues to grow, Hovley said she and her husband, Barbarian Co-founder James Long, would love to host more even parties, food trucks and live music acts.

A DRINK ON THE WILD SIDE Susie and Jerry Larson have two passions: good beer and the environment.

When they opened Mad Swede Brewing Company in 2016, they found a way to fuse the two together.

After Snowpocolypse ravaged the Treasure Valley the winter after Mad Swede opened, the World Center for Birds of Prey approached the Larsons about hosting a fundraiser for building repairs. The result

was the first Birds & Brew event, featuring “live music, live raptors, and lively beer and food,” according to its Facebook page.

Mad Swede’s brewers even complimented the event by doing what they do best: brewing a beer in honor of the occasion.

For Susie and Jerry, it was the fulfillment of a long-held dream.

“It was an ideal fit for us really, because we love raptors. Ever since both of us were kids we’ve had a fascination with birds of prey,” Susie said.

Since the first Birds & Brew, Mad Swede has continued to partner with the World Center for Birds of Prey and other ecological-focused groups and events, including Pure Water Brew Boise in 2018 (when it used Boise’s recycled water to produce beer) and an event with the Nature Conservancy in fall 2019—not a bad track record for a pair of HP engineers turned eco activists and brew masters.

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 35

A Velvet Cup of Joe Micro coffee roaster Afro Phil likes to keep it smooth X AV I ER WAR D

PHOTOS BY XAVIER WARD

The name and logo of coffee company Afro Phil harken back to its founder’s signature hairdo.

P

hil Tegethoff starts his morning like more than half of the country does: with a cup of coffee. The difference for Tegethoff is his coffee beans are roasted within arms reach of his coffee-maker, just out the door in his own garage.

Tegethoff is a micro-batch roaster, running his bean business, Afro Phil, from his home on Boise’s west side.

“I think probably how I go about roasting, maybe, is a little bit different from what other people are putting out,” he said.

Tegethoff said it’s easy to let a computer run the show, and that surrender to tech is what separates the small-batch roasters from the big coffee conglomerates. He’s careful about what goes into the hopper of his roaster, parsing out poor-quality beans, rocks that may have made the trip from the coffee farm, and anything else that could be polluting his raw product.

Once roasted to perfection, the beans rest for 24 hours before packaging.

Wrapped, he sells them for around $12 a pound, not much of a mark-up from supermarket prices.

Tegethoff has been in love with coffee since childhood. He started drinking it when he was about 2 years old. His grandfather would give him a spoonful of

36 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

coffee with a little cream and sugar. It was around the ripe age of 4 or 5 that he started enjoying black coffee, he said.

For the past few years, Afro Phil has been a full-time venture. It started around six years ago, though Tegethoff had kicked the idea around for a decade before that.

“I had been talking about doing coffee for about 10 or 12 years,” he said.

After years of hearing about his plans, some friends invited him out for pizza and an intervention. It was time, they said, to put up or shut up on becoming a coffee roaster. That was just the kick Tegethoff needed.

“The first few years it was kind of just an expensive habit,” he said. “When I first started I think Neckar [another local coffee brand, headed by Grant Shealy] and I were the only guys doing it in Boise.”

Tegethoff sources his beans from Atlas Coffee in Seattle, where he had a connection that got him on his feet as a roaster.

“The reason I went with them is they’re very flexible for me,” he said.

Sometimes, he’ll only order four or five bags of coffee beans, depending on what’s available at that time.

“It can definitely change per order,” he said. “And coffee is seasonal like anything else.”

Afro Phil’s slogan is “Always Smooth,” which to Tegethoff is more than a catchphrase to print on his coffee bags. It’s a legitimate mantra for how he produces (and consumes) coffee.

“For me, it’s drinkability. It’s gotta be smooth,” he said. “If I can’t stand behind it 100%, I throw that batch out.”

Tegethoff is meticulous in his roasting process. After sorting his beans and pouring them into the roaster, he monitors the temperature during each minute of the roast and marks it in a notebook. Then come the cracks.

First crack and second crack are important to people who know coffee roasting. The first pop is similar to the sound of popcorn, and indicates the beans are splitting in the roaster and becoming more brittle and aromatic.

The second pop sounds more like a sizzle. It’s the sound of oil escaping the beans, and it says that the roast is about done. The longer the roast, the more oil escapes, which is why darker roasts have a shiny appearance, Tegethoff said.

Tegethoff’s detail-oriented approach is apparent in every cup of his joe.

“Just try my coffee,” he said. “It’ll stand on its own.”

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

Bull Balls and Cabernet Boutique butcher, bistro and wine bar Anderson Reserve brings quality meat to Sweet M I CAH DR EW

COURTESY ANDERSON RESERVE

A

quick search for “Rocky Mountain oysters” on Amazon brings up a limited list of products. They can be bought four pounds at a time, either sliced, breaded and ready for frying, or whole. Reviews range from “mouth-watering” to “gamey but not overpowering… awesome.”

A majority of them come from a single company: Anderson Reserve.

For the uninitiated, Rocky Mountain oysters are, to put it bluntly, bull balls.

“You’d be surprised, I send them all over,” said Paul Anderson, the owner of Anderson Reserve. “This is a weird product, so I thought I might as well throw them on [Amazon]. Sure enough, they just started selling like crazy.”

Paul is soft-spoken, but clearly passionate about the butcher business. His tattoo sleeves and Spartan Race t-shirt don’t jive with preconceived notions of what a butcher looks like—and he’s been steeped in the family business since he was 8.

Paul is a third-generation butcher. His grandfather launched Anderson Boneless Beef Co. in 1975, and at one point had contracts to supply meat to McDonald’s as well as more than 5,000 restaurants around Colorado.

“Every 3.5 seconds, a pound of ground beef was bagged and put into a box, every

W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM

minute and a half a patty box was filled,” said Dennis CK Anderson, Paul’s father.

Anderson Boneless Beef Co. was eventually sold in the mid-2000s, but Paul opted to stay in the business he’d learned from his father and grandfather. He started Anderson Reserve, focusing on high-quality cuts.

“It’s a business that will always exist in some form,” he said. “Whether it’s ground beef, or the market’s really good and you’re selling steaks, there’s always a market.”

After operating in Colorado and in online markets, Paul decided he wanted to enact one of his grandfather’s dreams and open a boutique butcher shop.

He moved his family to Idaho and now, nestled on the banks of the Payette River in Sweet, The Barn at Anderson Reserve is opening its doors for business.

The white two-story building houses a butcher shop, mini market, bistro and wine bar. Its second-story seating area offers 360-degree views of the valley, and large windows on the main floor allow visitors to watch the Andersons in action, practicing their art.

“Most people, when they think of a butcher shop, they think blood and guts up to their knees,” said Paul. “And that’s not what it is, not what it has to be.”

Quality is the emphasis for everything that takes place at The Barn. Paul and his

father can talk at length about how, often, cuts aren’t done properly.

“We might start with the same piece of meat [as other butchers], but by the time we’re done aging it, square it up, and cutting it true to form there’s a big difference in tenderness and flavor,” said Paul, adding he’s excited to pass that along directly to the customer. “If they want a 50-oz. porterhouse for a Superbowl party, then we can do that, or if they want to come in to grab a 4-oz. pork chop, we’ll cut it for them.”

After its grand opening this fall, the bistro will serve appetizers and rotating main courses, including duck and, of course, prime rib. There first iteration of wines will include the full lineup of Telaya Wine Co. offerings.

“We’re literally providing the high[-end], white-tablecloth dining here in Sweet, Idaho,” Paul said. “We’re selling our own filets, ribeyes and lamb racks, and the same ones you can eat here, you can buy and take home.”

Though the artisan shop isn’t yet open, Paul is already eyeing its legacy.

“I have two little boys, a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old, and I hope to pass on the trade to them,” he said. “My oldest is already interested in trying to cut steaks, so hopefully it will be a fourth-generation operation.”

BOISEWEEKLY | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | 37

The Bartender’s Nectar Why are Boise bartenders head-over-heels for fernet?

XAVIE R WARD

PHOTOS BY XAVIER WARD

G

ina Wind, a longtime bartender at Cactus Bar in Boise, has been drinking fernet for a decade. That’s long before the bitter amaro liqueur came into vogue with the public. Bartenders like Wind have known of its magic for quite some time.

“I was thinking, ‘I’m so sick of vodka, gin and whiskey,’” Wind said. “It’s a breath of fresh air, man. It’s so good!”

Fernet is a full-bodied, herbaceous drink with a medicinal taste, but it has a certain je ne sais quoi that makes it a refreshing and appealing sipper. At 39% alcohol by volume, it packs a punch, too.

Wind said it’s mysterious that bartenders’ passion for fernet hasn’t waned. She’s certainly not sick of it, and she’s been drinking it for 10 years. To her, it’s “nectar from the bartender gods.”

Fernet-Branca, a brand of the liqueur, comes from Milan, Italy, and as a digestif it’s meant to be consumed after a meal. An advertisement for Fernet-Branca in 1962 called it a remedy for “overeating, flatulence, hangovers, gas pains, [and] lifting yourself off the floor when you’ve mixed oysters and bananas.” The word bananas, according to some reports, was slang for ketamine at the time.

38 | BOISE EATS BOISE DRINKS 2019-2020 | BOISEWEEKLY

Jax Campa, another Cactus Bar bartender, said there are some medicinal qualities to it, too. Whether the effect is placebo or not is up for debate, but it does seem to cure an aching belly.

“We’re also around alcohol so often we need something that will settle [the] stomach,” she said.

Sara Schumacher, a recent entrant to the service industry, works the bar at Red Feather. Fernet isn’t her favorite drink, but it’s still something she’ll enjoy when the occasion calls for it.

“I think a lot of it’s like a social thing,” Schumacher said.

People outside of the industry rarely order fernet, making it a fun for an occasion, she said. There are a few employees at Red Feather, however, who go for fernet every time. That seems to be a constant at most Boise bars. While most members of staff enjoy the occasional shot of fernet, there’s always one person behind the pine who adores it.

In a way, fernet is like a calling card. It reveals members of the service industry to each other for who they are and where they work. Perhaps one attraction is that the liqueur comes with its own unique lore.

Sam, a bartender at Pengilly’s Saloon who didn’t give his last name, said there’s even an Idaho coin associated with fernet.

It’s a collectable item that carries some clout. If you flash it at a bar, the bartender will realize you’re in the know.

In truth, the coin is part of a game that bartenders around the world play. It’s known as the Fernet Coin Challenge, and when the giver is gifted a fernet coin, they’re drafted into the game. The first rule of play is that someone must explain the rules to the new carrier. The second is that the carrier must have the coin with them at all times. One coin carrier can challenge another to show off his or her coin. If it’s not produced, the disgraced carrier owes their challenger a drink, and might even have to buy a round for any other carriers nearby.

The final rule is that the carrier must leave their coin intact—they can’t drill a hole in it to affix it to a necklace or keychain, or deface it in another way. If someone gives their coin away, the person they gift it to becomes the definitive owner of that coin.

They’ll be a member of the secret, silent fernet club until they pass it on.

“I WAS THINKING, ‘I’M SO SICK OF VODKA, GIN AND WHISKEY.’ ...

IT ’S A BREATH OF FRESH AIR, MAN. IT ’S SO GOOD!” W W W.BOISE WEEKLY.COM