Culinary
Lex Nelson
When local knitting and yarn shop The Twisted Ewe moved from its longtime home at the intersection of 17th and State streets to a new building at 3640 W. Chinden Blvd., store owner Carolyn Parkinson discovered something unexpected: an incomplete commercial kitchen in the back of the building.
Read more “Garden City’s Culinary Secret”
Beer
Lex Nelson
Walking into the empty space off Bannock Street that will soon house a second location of Mad Swede Brewing feels like stepping into the hybrid of a coffee shop and a cathedral. Luckily, that’s exactly the vibe Mad Swede’s Eric Larson, son of owners Jerry and Susie Larson, was going for when he helped choose the new spot.
Read more “Spreading the Madness”
Farm
Lex Nelson
Since 2010, ranchers Brecca and Mitch Hipwell have been running 150 head of cattle and raising their family on Mitch’s parents’ ranch in Oreana, Idaho. In that time, they became known for their grass-fed BrAngus beef, which they sold at the Caldwell and Nampa farmer’s markets, and for their Juniper firewood cut from the Owyhee Mountains. Then in August 2019, the couple turned their lives upside down when they purchased their own 185-acre parcel of land, intending to craft a brand-new, entirely self-sufficient version of Hipwell Ranch.
Read more “Bigger Doesn’t Always Mean Better”
Culinary
Lex Nelson
When the doors swung open for Chop Shop BBQ’s Friends and Family Night Nov. 30, the tiny Caldwell restaurant filled up almost at once. The fact that the clock had just struck 3 p.m. didn’t seem to have an impact on the eager diners’ appetites for smoked pork shoulder, St. Louis-style pork ribs, and brisket.
Read more “Chop Shop BBQ Opens Its Doors In Caldwell”
Culinary
Elena DeYoung started cooking for her mother and five siblings at the tender age of 11, four years after her father’s death turned her family’s life upside down and forced them to move in with her grandmother. DeYoung remembers her grandmother as excellent cook, and recalls learning the basics of food and flavor in her kitchen in Kazakhstan, flipping through an old cookbook that would later become the Bible of her family cuisine.
Read more “A Taste of Home”
Culinary
Lex Nelson
Looking around their soon-to-open shop on the Boise Bench, Jessica Harrold and Carissa DeGuzman were like two queens surveying a miniature kingdom.
Read more “Larking About on the Bench”
Beer
Lex Nelson
In 2014, Edge Brewing set up shop in a tangle of corporate offices and distribution centers near the intersection of Emerald Street and North Maple Grove Road. In the years since, its owners have turned what could have been a sterile warehouse into a cozy restaurant/brewery that serves as a home base for office workers and nearby residents. Now, Edge is expanding into downtown Boise with a second location on 10th Street set to open this month.
Read more “Edging Into Downtown Boise”
Culinary
Lex Nelson
Fifty-year-old Boise entrepreneur Michelle Russell paints a vivid picture of herself at 40: A decade ago, she said, she was depressed, crippled by allergies, 85 pounds heavier, drinking too much, and taking almost a dozen medications each day. Then, she decided to make a change. If she swapped out her job, she thought, she just might be able to swap out her life.
Read more “The Big Cheesy”
Beverages
Lex Nelson
Bitters—concentrated flavor infusions similar to kitchen staples like vanilla extract—are the unsung heroes of craft cocktails, adding sophisticated notes that can be a difficult to single out. For Adrienne and Danny Warn, parsing those flavors began as hobby but soon became a business.
Read more “A Sweet Tale of Bitters”
Beer
Lex Nelson
On June 8, Culinary Collective Network’s Chef Kris Ott did what should have been the impossible: He crammed 60 New York strip steaks into a single home oven, then plated them up for a hungry crowd. Though the exercise sounds like part of a Food Network cooking show challenge, it was actually the lynchpin of the fourth course of Dinner in the Garden, Waterwheel Gardens’ annual farm-to-table dinner.
Read more “Dinner in the Garden”