It’s easy to underestimate Idaho – at least from afar. Land there, just once, and you fall in love with the place, the people, and the eats. This month Cheapflights is highlighting food towns across the country, serving up – we hope – slices of culinary genius.
Today the focus is Boise – home of NCAA powerhouse Boise State, they of the big blue football field and national title aspirations. Universities attract smart, and commensurately sophisticated, people – and the city reflects it. Boise loves its jazz and theater scene. The town revels in its food too – an ambitious admixture of western, fusion, and Basque influences. Unbeknownst to most, Boise boasts the second-largest Basque community in the country.
Here’s Cheapflight’s take on some of the best places to eat in this mountain west enclave:
Think big at Barbacoa: This is one of those larger-than-life restaurants where style and substance are cut from the same cloth. Reminiscent of cowboy campfires, there’s open-fire grilling. To underscore the ambience you dine in what Barbacoa calls its “gallery, museum, and dining room.” Bone-handled steak knives are the instruments of choice here, and meat is the object of their affection.
As an appetizer try the BBQ Duck Quesadilla with smoked pineapple sauce. Follow it up with a Hot Rock Filet and cognac sauce. An order of jalapeno green rice on the side works nicely.
Barbacoa’s bill won’t kill you, but its’ not inexpensive either. The restaurant is located on the lake at Parkcenter Park.
Order up an extra serving of fries: A quick round of word association. Say “Idaho” and what comes to mind? “Potato,” probably. The Boise Fry Company has taken the once timid tuber to new heights. The restaurant’s motto is ‘Burgers on the Side.’ That’s how seriously they take French Fries.
Choose from half-a-dozen different kinds of potatoes, and a quartet of cut styles – none of them besmirched by bad old MSG. Immerse the fries in one of seven different types of homemade dipping sauces here. Oh yeah, those burgers on the side aren’t bad either. When you go back home and drive up to the local burger joint things just won’t be the same.
Follow your nose to the Boise Fry Company at 111 Broadway Ave.
Belly up to the bar at Bardenay: First, some context. “Bardenay” is the term loosely used by sailors in place of “cocktail.” And the folks who run this emerging Boise institution are connoisseurs of the cocktail. Many of Bardenay’s concoctions are hand-crafted using the restaurateur’s own distilled vodka, rum, gin and freshly-squeezed citrus. Bartenders employ ingredients such as Fee Brothers Orange Bitters, pure vanilla extract, homemade whipped cream and blue cheese olives stuffed by hand. Stuff like that makes for singular cocktails.
Cory, rating Bardenay on Yahoo Local, labels the food, the “Best…in Boise at an affordable price. The salmon is cooked to perfection and the pasta is very rich.” Another person rating the fare via Yahoo Local raves that the fare is “Almost as good as the Boise St. football team.” That rare praise from folks in these reaches of the West.
Bardenay Restaurant and Distillery is located at 610 West Grove St.
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Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Diane Taylor)
