3 minute read
REX CHANDLER
PHOTO COURTESY OF REX CHANDLER
50 years of hospitality
By Kate Jacobson
Five hundred dollars and a surfboard was all Rex Chandler packed when he decided to leave his home state to become a bartender in Hawaii. He was 19 at the time, not old enough to bartend in California, but just the right age in Honolulu.
On March 15, 1974, after six years of working in Hawaii, the then 25-year-old opened Rex and Eric’s, the first restaurant of his own. Today, five decades and over a dozen restaurants later, the restaurateur is celebrating “50 years of hospitality”—30 years of which have been in Idaho.
“I prefer the term ‘hospitality’ over ‘service’,” Chandler said. “We always offer hospitality that comes from the heart. It’s not just punching in an order, it’s an experience.”
Chandler first brought his hospitality to Idaho in 1994 when he moved to Ketchum with his wife, MB, and their son. Prior to the move, Chandler had only opened seafood restaurants, but he eventually decided that for Idaho, “it was better to have a steakhouse that serves good seafood than a seafood restaurant that serves good steak.” And with that, the first Chandlers Steakhouse was born.
When it came to making the move to Boise, Chandler said he knew it would happen eventually, it just came down to timing. “Boise was beginning to grow at that time, but I wasn’t certain if it could support a high-end restaurant yet,” Chandler said. “So we really took our time making the decision.”
The needed push finally came in 2007, when Chandler found the perfect location adjoining Hotel 43 in downtown Boise. At the time, the “Kimpton concept” was gaining popularity in many major cities—the concept involves an independent restaurant taking over the ground floor of a hotel—and Chandler thought that the idea would translate well to Boise.
And so it has. Chandlers Steakhouse has become a staple in the Boise restaurant scene, receiving dozens of awards and accolades over the years including the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator and the DiRoNA Award, which recognizes distinguished restaurants in North America.
“Success honestly has everything to do with the deal,” Chandler said. “You can have a great restaurant and do everything right, but if the rent is choking you or the location is wrong, then it’s easy to get disillusioned because you work so hard and there’s nothing left.”
Since coming to Boise, Chandler has also been involved in opening two Ling & Louie’s Bar & Grills in the Treasure Valley, the second of which just opened last year. “And that will be the last restaurant I open,” Chandler said.
“I don’t see this as a job or as work, it’s more like a life. It’s just who I am and what I do,” he said. “It doesn’t really get old, I just continue to develop relationships with members of the community—the people responsible for the heartbeat of Boise—and what’s tiring about that? It’s been a wonderful, wonderful career.”
