February 27, 2020 • 46 mins
Being that The Passenger is a travel show, one might expect us to highlight exotic, far-flung locales. And we will get to those. But it's equally important to look at places you may not have considered and really dig into their culture. And that brings us to Boise, Idaho, an unlikely international city with a rich cultural life full of music, food, and the great outdoors. I'll give you my take on what to check out, and I'll talk to Dave Yasuda of Snake River Farms about the Treefort Music Fest and why you should give finger steaks a try (or not).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A number of years ago. I spent a lot of
time in the north of Spain, in the Basque Country
which straddles France and Spain, and bill Bao. And since
Bastion and those people are a proud people, they went
through a lot in sort of seven since Picasso's Guernica.
(00:23):
They were bombed by the Franco regime, the fascist regime
in ninety seven and there was an exodus and of
all places for a lot of the people to land,
Boise Idaho was not the place that you would think,
but where where they would go. I'm Hugh Atchison. This
(00:46):
is the passenger from my Heart Radio. People ask me
all the time because I traveled a lot for work
and being a chef and doing all these things. You know,
what's that list of places to go in this city?
In that city? Where's a good coffee shop, what's a
good museum? So I've always doodled and created lists, and
this show is dedicated to that idea, immersing yourself in
(01:07):
that culture and finding out in a quick couple of
day trip what's intriguing about that place and what resounds
and where they at and what we think about the
future of that place. As a visitor as a passenger,
and so this show is about that where we'll talk
about that place later in this episode, I'll talk to
Davea Suda of Snake River Farms and I'll get feedback
(01:29):
on what I've done and where i should have gone.
It's the travel show. My name's Hugh Atchison. Let's do this.
So the Basque immigration and Boise started in the eighteen
hundreds really then ramped up after in the bombings of
Gernaca when the Basques decided to leave a lot of
(01:50):
them decided to have an extus from their their land
and they went to in the immigration ways, they're sort
of brought to because of their skill sets and sort
of mountainous farming and mountainous sheep herding. They were brought
to Boise. And so Boise has a Basque cultural center.
(02:12):
It's got a number of Basque restaurants. It's got Bar
Gernica and lekaon Onna. It's got a very famous oak
tree from a sapling of an oak that was symbolic
of the oak of Gernica, and it was thought to
be brought from that actual tree, which is this amazing
tree in the original Kernica um So in the middle
(02:33):
of nowhere in Idaho exists this uh cultural repository of
an exodus of people under strife who came to the
lend of potatoes. For years, I've been going to Boise
because I cook at a festival called Tree for It.
(02:53):
I'll get to it a little bit. Tree for It's amazing,
But Boise is amazing, and you fly into it, and
usually I hub. I go from Atlanta to Salt Lake
City on Delta and then a hub on Delta from
Salt Lake to Boise Land. I get picked up by
a friend. I go to a hotel. Their number of
great hotels. Um, there's a beautiful, uh sort of redone
(03:17):
motel called the Hotel Modern. That's awesome. It's got a
beautiful bar and restaurant in it. Then I usually go
and hopefully I've rented a car, because I go out
and find arguably the best pettisserie pastry shop in America
is in a strip mall Emboise, Idaho called Ganjou Pastry,
(03:37):
and it is phenomenal, phenomenal pastry work like really iron
crazy interesting work, beautiful kishas and laminated pastries and croissants
and cookies and really really find pastry work nominated for
Beard Awards. Um. But literally in a strip mall outside
(03:58):
of Boise Boys. He's got uh is a repository of music,
um and amazing things to do. It's got a number
of good museums and things like that. It's got an
old Idaho penitentiary that's really good. Um. The Boise Farmers
(04:19):
Markets totally cool. Where else do you find the world's
largest potato. I did go in a search for something
I never find, which is the rocket um, Marvin's rocket
from Looney Tunes. Marvin was the crazy Martian, Marvin the Martian,
and he had his little Lydium Q thirty six space
(04:39):
modulator gun uh. And he was dressed in Roman garb,
and he was a little guy, and he had this
crazy rocket. Evidently the rockets there somewhere there's a replica
of it. I couldn't find it. There is the Idaho
Candy Store with the famous Idaho spud. It is a chocolate,
coconut and marshmallow candy bar that will immediately strip all
(04:59):
of the ring off your teeth because it's saccharin sweet. Um.
There's a giant Abe Lincoln. I did find that. Yeah,
there is amazing coffee there and really a growing amount
of really good food. UM. I go to probably twice
a day when I'm there. I go to a place
called Slow by Slow Coffee, which is exquisite, really really
(05:21):
good focused coffee shop. Two different espressos UH play every day.
You got to choose which espresso you want. Amazing poor
of a program, really good beans, amazing graphic design, and
really cool place outside of town is the World Center
for the World Birds of Prey, which is really cool
if you're into things like, um, I like what are
(05:44):
they called the kestrels? Uh? Are the little uh murderous,
little wonderful birds. Uh to le into that when we
talk about potatoes. Um, they are big there. Um. But
it is not a town fully run by simplot Uh.
(06:04):
There's lots of different agrarianism happening right around the corner. UM.
In the in the rural landscape of Idaho. There's a
very large beef company called agar Beef, which has Snake
River Farms, which actually I've done some work for UM
in the past, and actually Davey sudo works for who
will talk to you later. So food wise and boise,
(06:27):
there is a fair bit. There's an amazing restaurant called
Putty four um little for petty for like the little
gift you get from the kitchen. Uh, tiny little place
doing for the French focused stuff. There's another restaurant called
Fork that was really good. There's lots of bars and
arcades that I really like. There's a space bar arcade
(06:48):
that's that's great. It's old pinball machines and old vintage
video games. It's a lot of fun to go into.
I went to an amazing bar called prost p r
o s T. Exclamation mark. Great selection of wonderful beers,
really cool and great menu of like brats and uh,
you know, different first and all that sort of stuff
(07:11):
that's really interesting. And there's a lot of that sort
of European sort of thing going on in in Idaho
and and centered in Boise that's really interesting. There's a
great club though called New Rolex, which is a kind
of a punk rock club that's that's really really great
place to go. Uh. There's a place called Whiskey Bar
(07:34):
that's a fun place. Tom Greenie's I went there. Um,
but yeah, Tenth Street Station is a great little dive
far as well. There's the Basque Cultural Center and the
Basque Cultural Center has a bar within it um which
kind of feels like you're at a like he could
be playing bingo at any time with a lot of
(07:55):
Boulder folk, which, hey, that's that's my speed. So that's
a The food seen there uh is is growing. I
think it's it's getting better and better, and we're seeing
a lot of things happening. Banjo is probably the apex
of of what we're talking about, um when it comes
to great food. But then there's Wilder Cafe. Um. There
(08:18):
was an amazing restaurant called State and Limp that's moved on. Uh.
There is Bar Gernica, which is one of the basque
bars and right around the corner from a cultural center,
which is an amazingly interesting little spot. I wouldn't say
when the bass x this happened that Boise fully embraced
um meticulous basque technique and food because the Basque area
(08:41):
in Spain is known for being really the birthplace of
monica astronomy in a lot of ways and molecular gastronomy
and things like that. They they didn't they didn't grab
onto that as much. But I think there's uh, there's
a lot of things going on in the in the
world of food there that are going to be really good.
(09:10):
Let's got a tree for it. And talk about the festival,
which is in sort of early spring, late winter. Uh
this year it's in late March. Oftentimes it's in April.
It's an arts festival. Uh, it's got tech stuff, it's
got a ton of music. It's got food and beer
elements to it as well. So I go there and
cook with friends out there. But you know, for but
(09:33):
the festivals is music wise is amazing. A couple of
years ago I saw More in front of probably fifty people,
which is an amazing punk bands from l A. I
saw alves A l B v A y S from
Toronto who is an amazing band, Angel Olson, the Meat Puppets,
the Coat Hangers, Grouper, Kishibashi who's from Athens, Georgia, Lower
(09:55):
Den's Mac DeMarco Um and then obviously one of the
uh really homegrown bands of boys and probably the biggest
band out of boys ever which is built to spill
Um and that's Doug Marsh's amazing guitar work and uh songwriting.
So Tree for It is an amazing festival because you
(10:16):
get to wander around and I love festivals, and I
love food festivals, um and and this this this is
a good remark for every festival planner out there. I
find the best festivals are ones where you get around
on foot, where it's very pedestrian bays. They happen a
lot of different venues. There's a lot of different things
going on at once, and Tree Fort uses about fifteen
(10:37):
different venues to do that, So at any given time,
there's you know, fifteen shows going on that you can
wander around and see. Uh. They're pretty easy to get into.
Some of them are really packed. Some of them are
mainstage things. They're very crowded, but they're still very accessible.
Um and and just that wandering around and that that
act of being immersed in an entire city that's into
an entire festival. It's really interesting. So it really is
(10:59):
a festive all that I think, after being to a
gazillion festival in the United States, is probably one of
the best. Like to me, it's just top three type
of places during tree for it and uh, A lot
of the a lot of different venues are used, including
the Elk Cora Shrine, which is um a shriner's club. UH.
(11:23):
Two stories served restaurant e we're a more bar um
and then main venue downstairs where the shows go on.
And it is the oddest place to see a show.
That's wonderful because all these old Shriners are selling you
tokens for buying drinks because you have to pay in tokens,
and so they're all wandering around and they're crazy hats.
(11:46):
There's a whole little stall selling sort of Shriner memorabilia.
So I have a Shriner's convention belt buckle from Toronto
that I bought there. I bought a couple of little
hats just in case I ever want to, um have
a new hobby, because the Shriners do to do a
lot of great things. But but in this venue, it's
(12:06):
it's it's totally amazing juxtaposed. It's kind of like going
to ah, you know, a veterans hall or something like that. Uh,
and and it it just it changes the whole perspective
and when it is it kind of makes it a
lot more fun. Um. So go to a show at
elkor Shrine during Tree for it you will you will
(12:27):
not be disappointed. Um. And I've seen a lot of
shows there and it's actually really good venue. For sound.
Sound comes out really well. There's some places when they've
got music festivals going on and they plunked down different
bands and different venues that aren't meant for music that
the sound just as horrible. But the sound of Delcore
Shrine Is is really good. And it's just another aspect
(12:48):
of Boise that I find really idiosyncratic and interesting and
something to show off. The motto of Boise is energy,
peril and success. The inhabitants are called Boiseans, and let's
(13:10):
talk about the pronunciation of Boise because it's not Boisey
like Noisy, it's Boise boise. And they even have that
on their website, on T shirts and things like that.
So this is a place that's got you know, great
small breweries happening. Uh, it's got great food, it's got
the university culture. It's got the blue field of Boise State,
(13:34):
which is a um, you know, smaller university that's got
an amazing football program and are on national TV a
lot because they have that really bright blue field. Um.
The weather they're in the summer is beautifully warm. Uh.
In the winter it's beautsy, snowy, and in between it's
always beautiful. So It's just a really amazing city to
(13:57):
go to, and it's the type of play is that
you can go to and have a urban environment and
ten minutes later you were in such pristine wilderness and
rural areas and along rivers and streams that there's no
excuse not to experience something like that. I'm Hugh Atchison
(14:23):
and this is the passenger. When we come back, we'll
talk about immigration past and present, and we'll get a
locals take on Boise with daveut Suda of Snake River Farms.
(14:47):
This is the passenger from my Heart Radio. So staying
in Boise, I've stayed of the Grove Hotel, which is
a large and good, luxurious, simple um in a lot
of ways still reasonable. I mean, that's the other thing
about going to a place in a city like Boyse
the is it's extraordinarily reasonable to get there. To fly there,
(15:10):
at least where I am in Atlanta and from the
other coast would be very reasonable. The airport is probably
ten fifteen minutes away from downtown, so it's one of
those places it's really easy to get to. The worst
is flying into a town and the airport's like two
hours away from where you actually need to be, and
then you have to jump into taxi and like take
the equivalent of another flight to get to your hotel.
(15:33):
You're probably gonna have to hub still. But then the
hotel rate. You know that the fanciest hotel in the
in the whole city is going to run you well
under two hundred dollars UM. The Grove Hotel is really good.
I've also stayed at the uh, the very schmancy UH
Hampton Inn. I've stayed at the Highatt Place downtown. UM
(15:55):
those are all just national chains and things like that,
but there they are great, and it really is such
a pedestrian town, and you can rent a bike, you
can wander on foot and and really traverse. Their downtown
is really gonna be about twelve, like twelve twelve blocks,
and within that Confines is going to be the capital.
If you want to get out of town or you
(16:16):
want to drive outside of town to go to different
restaurants or Genjou, that pastry shop that I love, and
then you're gonna have to rent a car or get
jumping an uber or something like that. So back back
to the Basque history that it's really interesting that UH
(16:36):
to me that the largest population of Basque people outside
of Spain and Frances is in Idaho, um in the
capital of Idaho. UM. I mean, I was kind of
plum extend blown away when I heard that. But they
originally came and they were often tried to be put
(16:58):
to work in mining camps and um things like that,
and but they really found their home in ranching and
shepherd ng and and sheep herding, and because that's what
they did back home, and so that that transfer of
skill set was really interesting. But to sort of preserve
their cultural heritage, starting in the eighteen hundreds, they also
(17:20):
opened up a lot of Basque hotels and boarding houses, um,
and just to sort of welcome other Basque people. And
so they became this sort of um to block radius
three block radius in downtown Boise that was thoroughly Basque
and it still still is. And then there's a full
adoration of that culture there of of immigrants, and and
(17:43):
when we when we talk about immigrants in Boise and
and in Idaho overall, it's kind of really really interesting
that they that they welcomed that way back when for
such a long time, but now it's kind of front
and center in another air way, and another version of
immigrants coming from California, and as an exodus of people
(18:06):
from California are moving because of m vast ments of
population growth and and traffic and and cost of living.
A lot of people have found themselves in Boise and
there's kind of a pushback right now, UM that that's
a little little weird against that sort of migration of
people from California. So it's really interesting in the one
hand that you've got this largest immigrant community in the Basques,
(18:29):
and I have another moving immigrant community of of Americans
from California moving again that are kind of being pushed
back against. So there's a little bit of a story
and a a news newsworthiness to that. The Basque UH
and the Museum and Cultural Center UM, they have a
yearly festival as well called a gig the I'm really
(18:54):
bad with bask pronunciation j A I A L d
I and that rings together people UM and Basque people
from all over the world to celebrate the culture of
the Basque people through traditional games, dancing, and music. And
as you know, if you've ever been in the Basque
region of Spain, those things are really prized and that
those you know, the cider culture and pink soce and
(19:18):
all the small plate stuff is really a reverential thing
within within the Basque community. And it's just oddly enough
we see it as well in in Idaho. It's funny
how you learn history. I was watching an episode of
Homeland the other day and a compromised Russians by it
(19:44):
was being interviewed or we've talked to by um, I
don't know, one of the many characters, and they're near
the Snake River and they're looking at the Snake River,
and the the Russians said, do you know why they
call it the snake River? And he sort of meandered
his hand in a sort of motion like a snake,
and he said that the Indians, when confronted by the
(20:07):
white settlers, the white settlers and asked, what's the name
of the river? And the Indians made a motion like that,
and they obviously the white people thought it was a snake,
so they called it the snake River. But what they
really meant was that that was fish, and there was
an abundance of fish in this river, and that's what
they loved about it, so they called it the fish River. Well,
(20:29):
the snake River stuck. There's so many things that stick
when it comes to history. There's another saying in Boisse Boise.
See how I said that is le Bois lebois, the woods,
the woods in French. And that's kind of the rallying
(20:49):
cry of boise Um. And it's a it's a credit
to Captain Bonneville the U. S. Army. After tracking for
weeks through drew in rough drain, his exploration party reached
an overlooked with a view of the Boise River valley.
The place where they stood is called Bonneville Point, located
on the Oregon Trail east to the city. Quoting the story,
(21:11):
a French speaking guide, overwhelmed by the side of the
verdant river yelled le Bois le bois, and the name
stuck Boise le Boi. So the name seems to have
derived from there Um. But you know, there's a lot
of history of Canadian fur trappers around there Um, which
(21:33):
again goes the French derivation of the name. But again
it's Boise. We look at a map of boise Um.
You know, you're you're in the Beer in the mountains.
You're in Idaho, and the Snake River is just served
south of you Um. And every time I go out there,
I'm not really a big fisherman fisher person, but I
(21:55):
do find myself fly fishing because the friend that I
hang out without there is a guy named David who
will talk to you later. Um he's got a brother
in law who's a very good fly fishing guide, and
so he takes us out and we kind of cast
things into the river and hope for the best. And
sometimes I've got big trout and sometimes not, but that
(22:16):
doesn't matter. Sometimes fly fishing is just more philosophical and
peaceful than it is productive in the in the way
of you know, it's catch release anyhow. It's not like
I'm actually going to cook the thing, but it's it's
an amazing thing to stand in a cold river and
waiters and just sort of pensively and technically try and
(22:36):
and land to fish and coax them onto that hook
and bring it up, and it's amazing. So, you know,
we've got this city that's growing, and it's got a
lot of things going for it. I think the education
system and the university there is is growing like mad
and and that's good. I think the cost of living
is going up, but I think it's still a good
(22:56):
time to be there. Uh and again like the cost
of going there is really just not that that expensive. Um.
But uh, you know bo Boise State plays in the
Albertson Stadium with that blue field. Those are the Broncos.
You should get to a game. All into a game.
Was great against Air Force. They won. I think they
always went at home and they're always on TV because
(23:19):
the blue field, because everybody wants to see a bluefield.
I can. I think I may have like go into
sort of epileptic shock with the blue field watching in
a TV. It's it's very blue. So obviously, you know,
I miss a lot. And uh, I'm visiting places for
(23:42):
a brief period of time. I'm not a resident, and
so I call on people. And this week I'm gonna
call on Davis Suda, who's lived in Boise a long time. Uh.
He works. He does marketing for a very large and successful,
amazing American Kobe beef company called Snake River Farms, which
are the most delectable beef. But we're not selling that,
(24:04):
so you can buy it if you want. Now I've
got on the line. Giggling in the background is David Suda,
and Dave lives in Boise. Dave, tell the world what
you do in Boise, Hi, Hugh. I worked for a
company called snaker of Farms. It's the American wagu beef
That's my regular job. But then I also work as
(24:26):
the director of Food for It, which is the food
part of the tree Fort Music Festival, which I have
participated in many times. So Dave and I, over the years,
through his affiliation with Snake River Farms, which is a
beef firm that we absolutely adore and what tree Fort,
have become very good friends over the years. Dave, let's
talk about Boise. What's cool and Boise these days? You know,
(24:47):
Boise at its core, Hugh is an outdoors town. The
Boise River runs right through the middle of it. Um,
there's my office sits there. I see people pulling fish
out of there. So there's all so we're in close
proximity to river rafting to mountain biking, to skiing, to
snowboarding to trail running. So that's kind of the thing
(25:09):
that I think brings people in Um. But if you
look online, we were always at name like ten best
city for Louis ability for you know, they've they've said
you were like the next culinary scene. Um. I think
that was in Vogue magazine last year or something. So
a lot of people are pointing to us, and I
(25:30):
think that some of those accolades are maybe not deserved.
But you know, you've been here. I think what's cool.
It's it's a it's a friendly group of people. You know,
it's very welcoming city. It's clean, it's you know, easy
to get around. You know. You you feel like everyone
has cars, but you don't really need one here. I
walk to work. It's really pedestrian. Is the city I find? Yeah,
(25:51):
and that's because it's it's the right size. Um. You know.
So let's talk about what's happening in food there right now.
And you know we've talked. Yeah, I talked about State
and Limp, which was there for a while is no
longer there. I talked about yeah pretty four. I talked
about Jean Ju Bakery, which is so amazing. Patussori, Um,
(26:13):
what are what are your top three go to restaurants
these days? So I'm I'm gonna come back the answer
real quick. I just want to say the State and
Limp people. So that's uh. Chef Kris Camori and Ramy
made Mannus They are in the process of reopening under
the name kin k i n and that's a restaurant
(26:34):
actually will be open probably when you come back for
a tree for it, Hugh. I think they're gonna continue
that vision of you know, maybe a really high end
tasting menu, but then at the same time they're gonna
have a bar and they're gonna have things available for,
you know, people who are just cruising in. So I
haven't even tried that, but that's a you know, in
my top of my list to go in there. As
(26:54):
far as things that I do on kind of a
regular basis, I'm somewhat of a creature of a habit um.
I like beer a lot. I actually bourbon, as you know,
because we've had some bourbon together. But there's a restaurant
that's kind of the venerable old place. It's called Bitter
Creek Ale House, and I like Bitter Creek because they
have a great selection of beer. I usually cruise in
I know the people that are there, and you know,
(27:17):
sit at the bar, and the food is you know,
pub food, but it's like a really great pub food.
They have things like the Focasia beef Aju that's a
actually they may have changed. I think they serve on
focacsha anymore. But it's really great beef, you know, dip
it in the in the delicious aju. They handcut their fries.
It's awesome. Other places that I really like in town
are are Petite for I know you mentioned that Sarah
(27:39):
Kelly and her husband Dave run that and and uh
it's French inspired. Again. I guess I'm not a planner.
I like to just cruise in at the weird times
and maybe see if I can get a seat at
the bar or something. But Sarah does a great job.
Tech tip if you get it for a happy hour.
They almost always have oysters there, two bucks half price
(27:59):
champagne been and things like that. And I'm a sucker
for a good deal. Also, there are other places I
go to to. One of the places right in my
neighborhood is a stage coach and I'm not sure if
I've taken you there, but that's as it's got that
awesome sign. It's an old steakhouse sort of place, isn't it. Yeah,
it's been there since nineteen fifty nine. I have not
(28:20):
been there. I do want to go there. This historic
steakhouses of the West are so cool to me. Yeah,
and it's like that, you know, it's like the red
vinyl Bankhetts and you know, it's like it's a it's
a great place. And they actually closed down for a
short amount of time and then the people who worked
(28:40):
at the restaurant bought it and they brought it back,
and you know, they've updated it slightly, but it's still
at its core. You know, a place you get a
good steak, they do a great fried chicken. So those
are some places to check out in Boise. Okay, so
we've we've we've gone down down this road before. Um
but in pardon my French, but what the fund is
up with steak fingers? So it's finger steaks is what
(29:04):
we like to call him here, Hugh Um. They say that, Well,
there's there's a you know, some a little bit of controversy.
Everyone claims to have invented them, and I've never had
a good one. It's it's like batter deep fried finger
shaped pieces of beef um served with cocktail sauce. Like
(29:29):
it was somebody just wanting a shrimp cocko and it
was like I killed a cow and we can do this.
It is it is the strangest traditional food I think
I've seen in the bid in the West. I mean
I did, and I don't really get it, but I
mean I still have this because I'm a chef stuff
that want to like recreate it to be amazing. Um
(29:51):
but I want I want that to to be like, uh,
you know somebody else catching that fire and doing it
for me. Well, I've seen it in restaurants and someone
will use like a tempera batter, or they'll try to
do hanko or different things, and you know it's it's
there was this place. It is now like a topless
(30:12):
bar called the Torch. But back in the day it
was the place to go for finger steaks. And I
wish they were still open because I would take you there.
Did they have Booie's in figure stakes at the same time? Not, No,
I don't think there was, because that isn't our kig
prohibition era law in Idaho. Um. Deep fred steak and
(30:33):
naked women do not mix. Um. So, and then you
took me to once you have. You picked me up
at the airport and we went for a drink Gill's
Canine Bar. Tell me about that place. Well, I'm gonna
get in trouble for talking about this. This is like
telling something about your fishing hole, right, you know, but
it's a it's a great place. It's been there for
(30:53):
as long as I can remember, and the owner really
I mean, we didn't eat there, but they always have
you know, much elevated food. I mean, I think they
have like a two for one burger thing on Thursday.
But the burgers are delicious, and you know they've got
you know, big half pound patties, etcetera. But they like bourbon.
And in this town, in this state, we don't get
(31:15):
a lot of the really premium liquor. And you know,
the more bourbon is caught on, it's like that everything's
on allocation. But rather than um, you know, do something
crazy or over price that there's just almost always a
really great selection of bourbons there and at a reasonable price.
You know, you'll see all the regular things, you know,
but they'll they'll mix it up like you you'll see
(31:35):
a you know, a well or twelve. You'll see you know,
some of the nicer e H tailors, But I mean,
and on up anything you can think of, and a
man kind of comes down to your timing and how
nice you are, and I think you kind of have
to you have to uh prove that you're worthy of
of of the purchase. But for the most part, it's
a super friendly place and uh it's a great place
to get a whiskey. Yeah. Boyse always seems like a
(31:57):
super friendly place overall. It's got one of the mac
Daddy amazing record stories called the Record Exchange right down
town that seems to be really popure during tree Ford.
Nice shop for records there when I'm in town because
I love collecting vinyl. Um. What's the history of the
record Exchange? They started? Didn't they start Record Store Day? Uh? Yeah,
(32:18):
they did. Mike Bannell and his wife Jill. They Mike's
is one of the founders of Record Store Day. And
you know, you and I have been in this record
stuff long enough to know, just not that long ago
when vinyl was not a thing and Mike stuck through it.
They for some reason, all the big record stores bypassed
boise Um, you know, so like Tower Records and some
(32:40):
of those places that are actually I guess out of
business now. But Mike and Jill just stuck it out
and they, you know, when people were buying CDs. They
did the CD thing, but they've always sat on this
huge inventory of amazing vinyl and uh now I'm sorry,
I'm not thinking of of their it's it's a coalition
of independent record store and Mike has been president. Yeah,
(33:01):
it's it's all the record store Day coalition and they
do a really good job and it's awesome. But the
record store is phenomenally cool and really fun. Tell me
about Tree For because Tree For it's coming up at
least this year, but it's always it's always in the
sort of March April time frame, correct, it is. It's
scheduled right after south By Southwest. So the idea originally
(33:22):
was when artists were leaving south By Southwest, they're heading,
you know, back home or whatever, they can come come
check out Boise and it this year it's March twenty nights,
so it runs Wednesday through Thursday. It's possibly the best
deal on a music festival. You you can imagine that
the tickets slowly go up right now, for two bucks,
you could see every show hit every venue, you know,
(33:45):
from Wednesday to Sunday, and every show would be like
two fifty show. I mean, it's insane. How many things
are going on at once during the day because there's
so many different venues. That's what's really cool about it.
I think that, you know, from a locals perspective, what
which what I've learned to do is you kind of
just stay in a general vicinity. And the thing that's
(34:05):
crazy about the festival, you know, I have friends all
over the country they want to come and they go,
so tell me about it. You know, what's what kind
of music do they play? And it's one of those
few festivals literally any kind of music you want is there.
I mean everything from Americana it's you know, out rock
to you know, jazz, to um you name it, it's there,
E M. D. It's it's it's kind of crazy and
(34:25):
it's it's part of the fun. And shows run everywhere.
You can walk down the street in places that are
unlikely venues, there's probably music playing. Yeah, it's it's always
starting as really interesting and using a lot of sort
of disparate places, disparate venues and sort cool lasting them
into this festival each year. And that that's what kind
of makes intimate and really cool. So in boise Um,
(34:46):
you know, if obviously we've read nationally about a little
bit of sort of, Um, I don't know, like issues
with people from California moving there and some sort of
So is that is that a real issue? Is that?
Is that something that people were talking about because it's
a city of a certain size that's an ideal in
(35:07):
a lot of ways, and some people don't want their
ideal and pinged upon by others outsiders. Um. But at
the same time that people are saying that this is
a town that lays a lot of its history within
the basque population there of immigrants and and and you know,
the large way is built to its current state by
a huge amount of you know, people from that area
(35:27):
of the world coming over. Yeah, so you know, you know,
I I grew up around here, then I you know,
I lived in all around the coast San Francisco, l A,
Seattle and kind of saw things happening there. And then
when I got back it was kind of during that
sweet spot when you know, it was housing was super affordable,
you know, when you compared to the rest of the world.
(35:48):
We're still more affordable than those places. But you know,
a person work in an hourly wage, you know, could
buy a house here in in a in a nice
location and that part of it has gone away. And
I think that's where you get a lot of the
you know, the local pushback on people coming in because
what happens is people might get a good job here.
You know, they're coming from a big market. They sell
(36:09):
their house. They don't really shop the market. I've got
a weekend and they you know, they pay full cash
for um, you know, a house here, and it keeps
driving the prices of for homeowners. I mean, you know,
I count myself in there. I'm fortunately I have a
nice place and the value has skyrocketed. But you know,
if I want to stand boys to sell, it doesn't
make any sense. So I mean that that that does
(36:30):
create people are talking about that, and you get more.
I mean, the only thing I would say to those
people is that's everywhere these days. You know, it's in Athens, Georgia,
it's in Atlanta, it's in you know, Cleveland, it's you know,
it's like if you sell your house in San Francisco
for one point six million and you go to a
city that the fanciest house in the world there is
(36:50):
six hundred thousand, you're kind of winning in some way. Um, So,
you know, and and good for you. But and and
hopefully you just spend a lot of money in the
local economy as you do it and support good restaurants.
So that's the logic that I always use on those things.
But Dave Boysey is a is an amazing place, and
I think the future of it's really bright and it's uh,
(37:13):
it's due to locals like you who make it alive.
So thanks man. You know, in every direction you can
go somewhere in Boise and see amazing beautiful wilderness and nature.
So what's the closest like skiing place. There's a place
called Bogus Basin. It's about forty minutes up the hill.
I was just there yesterday. I mean, so here's here's
(37:33):
a Boise story for you. I got up, I was
up there at nine o'clock a ski till noon. I
came back, clean the house, and I went for a
mountain bike ride. So it's like, if you're an outdoors person,
it's it's all here. But Bogus is right up the hill,
and I think they're running their ski pass deal now.
It's like a full season past. I think's like two
ninety bucks or something. So and they have night skiing.
You can go up skiing after work and they have
(37:56):
the lights that are on the runs. And so that's
the that's a very Boisey thing is is the close
ski areas. Of course we also have sun Value. It's
about two and a half hours away, world class key
resort in a great place called Brendage that's in McCall.
Also around there's a place called Tamaracks. So and a
lot of the kids I work with here they love Tamarack.
(38:17):
It's close enough they can go for the day. Yeah.
Now it's it's just amazing abundance of different things to do.
But yet the urban environment is really exciting to me
now there and it's really lively. Well, Dave, thanks a lot,
and uh, everybody go out to Boise and wave a Dave.
You'll see him all right. Thanks, he appreciates time. I'm
Hugh Atchison. You're listening to The Passenger from my Heart Radio.
(38:39):
We'll be back after this quick break. I'm Hugh Atchison.
This is The Passenger. One good way to prepare for
a trip beyond packing your suitcase is through media and
(39:04):
for some recommendations, I'm gonna hand it over to Jordan
run Tug is a former music editor of People Magazine
at VH one dot com and regular contributor at Rolling
Stone and entertainment weekly Run. Tug is also co host
of the podcast Rivals, which is out now from My
Heart Radio. If you're interested in music industry beef, definitely
(39:26):
check that out. When in Boise, you gotta play the
hometown heroes loud if possible, built a spill or arguably
Boise's favorite musical sons and why not. Songs like Twin
Falls and Carry the Zero are amazing. But I wanted
to shine some light on another band with local connections. Yes,
I'm talking about Paul Revere and the Raiders. You may
know them as that somewhat goofy novelty group that dressed
(39:49):
up in full Revolutionary War regalia back in the sixties.
But I'll tell you what. These guys rocked hard. They
were founded by a guy named Paul Revere. Dick, yes
that was his real name, ran some restaurants in the
Boise area, and one day, while picking up some hamburger bones,
he met a young bakery worker named Mark Lindsay. This
guy Mark saying a bit, and together they decided to
create a group. First, they went with the name the
(40:11):
down beats, but they decided that shocker that name is
a little too downbeat, so they embraced Paul's historical moniker
in when they released the full throttle instrumental Likes Long Hair,
which broke the top forty on the national chart, a
fairly uncommon occurrence for a Boise area band at the time,
and that paved the way for the fame and fortune
to come with hits like Kicks and Hungry. If you
(40:43):
do end up heading to the Tree Fort Music Festival,
like Hugh mentioned earlier, you'll be able to catch one
of my favorite local Boise bands, Hill Folk Noir. In
case that name isn't evocative enough for you, dig this
description by fellow local musician John Doe. If John Steinbeck
owned a speak Easy Hi Folk Noir would be the
house band. Pretty great, right. I've also heard them described
(41:04):
as Johnny Cash on Robotism. He Folk Noir a trio
fronted by Travis Ward and they play old school Depression
era hillbilly instruments like washboard guitar, musical saw, upright bass,
and even an old suitcase for percussion. But they play
these traditional instruments in an extremely non traditional way. They
call their sound junker Dash, a blend of folk, bluegrass, punk,
(41:26):
string band, blues, and other diverse musical influences. The band
recommend pairing this sonic stew with bourbon and dancing, always
a recipe for a good time. Maybe the best example
of their whole o brother ware out thou meets hot
topic vibe is the track North Idaho Zombie rag As
you heard that right. It opens with a furiously strum
distorted banjo feedback, which I have to admit was a
(41:48):
first for my ears. It's truly indescribable. So give it
a spin and try to check them out next time
you're in town. Last time I was in Boise, actually
(42:13):
second the last time I was in Boise. We're going
to be flying out um the next day. My friends
Sam who cooks with me, and we've been cooking there
and so we're we're gonna miss one of the headlining acts,
Built to Spill, who I've been a big fan of
for many, many years, having seen them at the forty
(42:33):
Watton Athens a couple of times and on the road
in other places. And um, if you've ever heard Built
a Spell, you should. It's just one of the seminal
Um to me alternative bands of the last twenty five years.
And Doug Marsh, the lead singer and guitarist, has been
just writing an amazing songs for eons and eons and
(42:54):
um isn't that band and a couple of others, but
really Built spell Is is his main one. But remember
they were supposed to play the next day. We're gonna
miss the show. We went to a bar in the
afternoon to have a beer and go over some notes
of other things we needed to do. And the bar
had was on the ground floor and there are a
couple of floors above it, and this older building it
down to boys and you can't even remember the name
(43:15):
of the bar. Simple place. And uh suddenly I hear
bass from coming through from upstairs, and I know the
beat and it's a song called the Plan and it's
a Built Spill song. And my strange brain is connecting
(43:37):
dots and then figuring out. And we were having a
beer underneath Built just bills practice space, so through a
muffled area of a floor, basically I heard a whole
concert of Built a Spill while playing pool and having
a beer. So I felt like I had seen the
show in a more intimate environment, albeit muffled by six
(43:57):
inches of flooring between us would probably some installation in between.
You know, when you go down one of the main
streets and you look up the capital and it's just
such an amazingly beautiful valley city, and then you're looking
around at the mountains around you, and uh, you just
realize you're in a place that's just so amazingly interesting
(44:19):
and and so close to just this abundance of nature.
And you go fishing, and you go hiking, and you
go back into the town and you go up for
a nice dinner and a beer, and you relax, and
you look outside the window and you breathe the clean
air outside, and you wander around the town and people
(44:40):
are smiling and generally happy and quite athletic, and that's
all good. And you realize you're in a place that
not a lot of people get to, and they should
because it's easy. You've been listening to the Passenger. This
(45:00):
is the production of I Heart Radio, created by Hugh
Atchison and Christopher Hassiotas were produced and edited by Mike John's.
A researcher is jess Lyn Shields and Christopher hassiotus as
our executive producer. Special thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters
and the rest of the crew. If you like The Passenger,
leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other
(45:22):
people like you find the show. If you're a local
and you want to let me know what I missed
and where should go on my next visit, or if
you've recently been a passenger like me and want to
share your experience, hit me up on Instagram and Twitter
at Hugh Atchison. Next time with The Passenger, we'll travel
far Away, from far Away to Newfoundland and to Bogo Island.
(45:44):
Culture is nothing more than a response to a place,
so we wanted to put place and community back in
the center of life. Well more podcasts from my Heart
Radio use the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening,
(46:10):
m HM.
A number of years ago. I spent a lot of
time in the north of Spain, in the Basque Country
which straddles France and Spain, and bill Bao. And since
Bastion and those people are a proud people, they went
through a lot in sort of seven since Picasso's Guernica.
(00:23):
They were bombed by the Franco regime, the fascist regime
in ninety seven and there was an exodus and of
all places for a lot of the people to land,
Boise Idaho was not the place that you would think,
but where where they would go. I'm Hugh Atchison. This
(00:46):
is the passenger from my Heart Radio. People ask me
all the time because I traveled a lot for work
and being a chef and doing all these things. You know,
what's that list of places to go in this city?
In that city? Where's a good coffee shop, what's a
good museum? So I've always doodled and created lists, and
this show is dedicated to that idea, immersing yourself in
(01:07):
that culture and finding out in a quick couple of
day trip what's intriguing about that place and what resounds
and where they at and what we think about the
future of that place. As a visitor as a passenger,
and so this show is about that where we'll talk
about that place later in this episode, I'll talk to
Davea Suda of Snake River Farms and I'll get feedback
(01:29):
on what I've done and where i should have gone.
It's the travel show. My name's Hugh Atchison. Let's do this.
So the Basque immigration and Boise started in the eighteen
hundreds really then ramped up after in the bombings of
Gernaca when the Basques decided to leave a lot of
(01:50):
them decided to have an extus from their their land
and they went to in the immigration ways, they're sort
of brought to because of their skill sets and sort
of mountainous farming and mountainous sheep herding. They were brought
to Boise. And so Boise has a Basque cultural center.
(02:12):
It's got a number of Basque restaurants. It's got Bar
Gernica and lekaon Onna. It's got a very famous oak
tree from a sapling of an oak that was symbolic
of the oak of Gernica, and it was thought to
be brought from that actual tree, which is this amazing
tree in the original Kernica um So in the middle
(02:33):
of nowhere in Idaho exists this uh cultural repository of
an exodus of people under strife who came to the
lend of potatoes. For years, I've been going to Boise
because I cook at a festival called Tree for It.
(02:53):
I'll get to it a little bit. Tree for It's amazing,
But Boise is amazing, and you fly into it, and
usually I hub. I go from Atlanta to Salt Lake
City on Delta and then a hub on Delta from
Salt Lake to Boise Land. I get picked up by
a friend. I go to a hotel. Their number of
great hotels. Um, there's a beautiful, uh sort of redone
(03:17):
motel called the Hotel Modern. That's awesome. It's got a
beautiful bar and restaurant in it. Then I usually go
and hopefully I've rented a car, because I go out
and find arguably the best pettisserie pastry shop in America
is in a strip mall Emboise, Idaho called Ganjou Pastry,
(03:37):
and it is phenomenal, phenomenal pastry work like really iron
crazy interesting work, beautiful kishas and laminated pastries and croissants
and cookies and really really find pastry work nominated for
Beard Awards. Um. But literally in a strip mall outside
(03:58):
of Boise Boys. He's got uh is a repository of music,
um and amazing things to do. It's got a number
of good museums and things like that. It's got an
old Idaho penitentiary that's really good. Um. The Boise Farmers
(04:19):
Markets totally cool. Where else do you find the world's
largest potato. I did go in a search for something
I never find, which is the rocket um, Marvin's rocket
from Looney Tunes. Marvin was the crazy Martian, Marvin the Martian,
and he had his little Lydium Q thirty six space
(04:39):
modulator gun uh. And he was dressed in Roman garb,
and he was a little guy, and he had this
crazy rocket. Evidently the rockets there somewhere there's a replica
of it. I couldn't find it. There is the Idaho
Candy Store with the famous Idaho spud. It is a chocolate,
coconut and marshmallow candy bar that will immediately strip all
(04:59):
of the ring off your teeth because it's saccharin sweet. Um.
There's a giant Abe Lincoln. I did find that. Yeah,
there is amazing coffee there and really a growing amount
of really good food. UM. I go to probably twice
a day when I'm there. I go to a place
called Slow by Slow Coffee, which is exquisite, really really
(05:21):
good focused coffee shop. Two different espressos UH play every day.
You got to choose which espresso you want. Amazing poor
of a program, really good beans, amazing graphic design, and
really cool place outside of town is the World Center
for the World Birds of Prey, which is really cool
if you're into things like, um, I like what are
(05:44):
they called the kestrels? Uh? Are the little uh murderous,
little wonderful birds. Uh to le into that when we
talk about potatoes. Um, they are big there. Um. But
it is not a town fully run by simplot Uh.
(06:04):
There's lots of different agrarianism happening right around the corner. UM.
In the in the rural landscape of Idaho. There's a
very large beef company called agar Beef, which has Snake
River Farms, which actually I've done some work for UM
in the past, and actually Davey sudo works for who
will talk to you later. So food wise and boise,
(06:27):
there is a fair bit. There's an amazing restaurant called
Putty four um little for petty for like the little
gift you get from the kitchen. Uh, tiny little place
doing for the French focused stuff. There's another restaurant called
Fork that was really good. There's lots of bars and
arcades that I really like. There's a space bar arcade
(06:48):
that's that's great. It's old pinball machines and old vintage
video games. It's a lot of fun to go into.
I went to an amazing bar called prost p r
o s T. Exclamation mark. Great selection of wonderful beers,
really cool and great menu of like brats and uh,
you know, different first and all that sort of stuff
(07:11):
that's really interesting. And there's a lot of that sort
of European sort of thing going on in in Idaho
and and centered in Boise that's really interesting. There's a
great club though called New Rolex, which is a kind
of a punk rock club that's that's really really great
place to go. Uh. There's a place called Whiskey Bar
(07:34):
that's a fun place. Tom Greenie's I went there. Um,
but yeah, Tenth Street Station is a great little dive
far as well. There's the Basque Cultural Center and the
Basque Cultural Center has a bar within it um which
kind of feels like you're at a like he could
be playing bingo at any time with a lot of
(07:55):
Boulder folk, which, hey, that's that's my speed. So that's
a The food seen there uh is is growing. I
think it's it's getting better and better, and we're seeing
a lot of things happening. Banjo is probably the apex
of of what we're talking about, um when it comes
to great food. But then there's Wilder Cafe. Um. There
(08:18):
was an amazing restaurant called State and Limp that's moved on. Uh.
There is Bar Gernica, which is one of the basque
bars and right around the corner from a cultural center,
which is an amazingly interesting little spot. I wouldn't say
when the bass x this happened that Boise fully embraced
um meticulous basque technique and food because the Basque area
(08:41):
in Spain is known for being really the birthplace of
monica astronomy in a lot of ways and molecular gastronomy
and things like that. They they didn't they didn't grab
onto that as much. But I think there's uh, there's
a lot of things going on in the in the
world of food there that are going to be really good.
(09:10):
Let's got a tree for it. And talk about the festival,
which is in sort of early spring, late winter. Uh
this year it's in late March. Oftentimes it's in April.
It's an arts festival. Uh, it's got tech stuff, it's
got a ton of music. It's got food and beer
elements to it as well. So I go there and
cook with friends out there. But you know, for but
(09:33):
the festivals is music wise is amazing. A couple of
years ago I saw More in front of probably fifty people,
which is an amazing punk bands from l A. I
saw alves A l B v A y S from
Toronto who is an amazing band, Angel Olson, the Meat Puppets,
the Coat Hangers, Grouper, Kishibashi who's from Athens, Georgia, Lower
(09:55):
Den's Mac DeMarco Um and then obviously one of the
uh really homegrown bands of boys and probably the biggest
band out of boys ever which is built to spill
Um and that's Doug Marsh's amazing guitar work and uh songwriting.
So Tree for It is an amazing festival because you
(10:16):
get to wander around and I love festivals, and I
love food festivals, um and and this this this is
a good remark for every festival planner out there. I
find the best festivals are ones where you get around
on foot, where it's very pedestrian bays. They happen a
lot of different venues. There's a lot of different things
going on at once, and Tree Fort uses about fifteen
(10:37):
different venues to do that, So at any given time,
there's you know, fifteen shows going on that you can
wander around and see. Uh. They're pretty easy to get into.
Some of them are really packed. Some of them are
mainstage things. They're very crowded, but they're still very accessible.
Um and and just that wandering around and that that
act of being immersed in an entire city that's into
an entire festival. It's really interesting. So it really is
(10:59):
a festive all that I think, after being to a
gazillion festival in the United States, is probably one of
the best. Like to me, it's just top three type
of places during tree for it and uh, A lot
of the a lot of different venues are used, including
the Elk Cora Shrine, which is um a shriner's club. UH.
(11:23):
Two stories served restaurant e we're a more bar um
and then main venue downstairs where the shows go on.
And it is the oddest place to see a show.
That's wonderful because all these old Shriners are selling you
tokens for buying drinks because you have to pay in tokens,
and so they're all wandering around and they're crazy hats.
(11:46):
There's a whole little stall selling sort of Shriner memorabilia.
So I have a Shriner's convention belt buckle from Toronto
that I bought there. I bought a couple of little
hats just in case I ever want to, um have
a new hobby, because the Shriners do to do a
lot of great things. But but in this venue, it's
(12:06):
it's it's totally amazing juxtaposed. It's kind of like going
to ah, you know, a veterans hall or something like that. Uh,
and and it it just it changes the whole perspective
and when it is it kind of makes it a
lot more fun. Um. So go to a show at
elkor Shrine during Tree for it you will you will
(12:27):
not be disappointed. Um. And I've seen a lot of
shows there and it's actually really good venue. For sound.
Sound comes out really well. There's some places when they've
got music festivals going on and they plunked down different
bands and different venues that aren't meant for music that
the sound just as horrible. But the sound of Delcore
Shrine Is is really good. And it's just another aspect
(12:48):
of Boise that I find really idiosyncratic and interesting and
something to show off. The motto of Boise is energy,
peril and success. The inhabitants are called Boiseans, and let's
(13:10):
talk about the pronunciation of Boise because it's not Boisey
like Noisy, it's Boise boise. And they even have that
on their website, on T shirts and things like that.
So this is a place that's got you know, great
small breweries happening. Uh, it's got great food, it's got
the university culture. It's got the blue field of Boise State,
(13:34):
which is a um, you know, smaller university that's got
an amazing football program and are on national TV a
lot because they have that really bright blue field. Um.
The weather they're in the summer is beautifully warm. Uh.
In the winter it's beautsy, snowy, and in between it's
always beautiful. So It's just a really amazing city to
(13:57):
go to, and it's the type of play is that
you can go to and have a urban environment and
ten minutes later you were in such pristine wilderness and
rural areas and along rivers and streams that there's no
excuse not to experience something like that. I'm Hugh Atchison
(14:23):
and this is the passenger. When we come back, we'll
talk about immigration past and present, and we'll get a
locals take on Boise with daveut Suda of Snake River Farms.
(14:47):
This is the passenger from my Heart Radio. So staying
in Boise, I've stayed of the Grove Hotel, which is
a large and good, luxurious, simple um in a lot
of ways still reasonable. I mean, that's the other thing
about going to a place in a city like Boyse
the is it's extraordinarily reasonable to get there. To fly there,
(15:10):
at least where I am in Atlanta and from the
other coast would be very reasonable. The airport is probably
ten fifteen minutes away from downtown, so it's one of
those places it's really easy to get to. The worst
is flying into a town and the airport's like two
hours away from where you actually need to be, and
then you have to jump into taxi and like take
the equivalent of another flight to get to your hotel.
(15:33):
You're probably gonna have to hub still. But then the
hotel rate. You know that the fanciest hotel in the
in the whole city is going to run you well
under two hundred dollars UM. The Grove Hotel is really good.
I've also stayed at the uh, the very schmancy UH
Hampton Inn. I've stayed at the Highatt Place downtown. UM
(15:55):
those are all just national chains and things like that,
but there they are great, and it really is such
a pedestrian town, and you can rent a bike, you
can wander on foot and and really traverse. Their downtown
is really gonna be about twelve, like twelve twelve blocks,
and within that Confines is going to be the capital.
If you want to get out of town or you
(16:16):
want to drive outside of town to go to different
restaurants or Genjou, that pastry shop that I love, and
then you're gonna have to rent a car or get
jumping an uber or something like that. So back back
to the Basque history that it's really interesting that UH
(16:36):
to me that the largest population of Basque people outside
of Spain and Frances is in Idaho, um in the
capital of Idaho. UM. I mean, I was kind of
plum extend blown away when I heard that. But they
originally came and they were often tried to be put
(16:58):
to work in mining camps and um things like that,
and but they really found their home in ranching and
shepherd ng and and sheep herding, and because that's what
they did back home, and so that that transfer of
skill set was really interesting. But to sort of preserve
their cultural heritage, starting in the eighteen hundreds, they also
(17:20):
opened up a lot of Basque hotels and boarding houses, um,
and just to sort of welcome other Basque people. And
so they became this sort of um to block radius
three block radius in downtown Boise that was thoroughly Basque
and it still still is. And then there's a full
adoration of that culture there of of immigrants, and and
(17:43):
when we when we talk about immigrants in Boise and
and in Idaho overall, it's kind of really really interesting
that they that they welcomed that way back when for
such a long time, but now it's kind of front
and center in another air way, and another version of
immigrants coming from California, and as an exodus of people
(18:06):
from California are moving because of m vast ments of
population growth and and traffic and and cost of living.
A lot of people have found themselves in Boise and
there's kind of a pushback right now, UM that that's
a little little weird against that sort of migration of
people from California. So it's really interesting in the one
hand that you've got this largest immigrant community in the Basques,
(18:29):
and I have another moving immigrant community of of Americans
from California moving again that are kind of being pushed
back against. So there's a little bit of a story
and a a news newsworthiness to that. The Basque UH
and the Museum and Cultural Center UM, they have a
yearly festival as well called a gig the I'm really
(18:54):
bad with bask pronunciation j A I A L d
I and that rings together people UM and Basque people
from all over the world to celebrate the culture of
the Basque people through traditional games, dancing, and music. And
as you know, if you've ever been in the Basque
region of Spain, those things are really prized and that
those you know, the cider culture and pink soce and
(19:18):
all the small plate stuff is really a reverential thing
within within the Basque community. And it's just oddly enough
we see it as well in in Idaho. It's funny
how you learn history. I was watching an episode of
Homeland the other day and a compromised Russians by it
(19:44):
was being interviewed or we've talked to by um, I
don't know, one of the many characters, and they're near
the Snake River and they're looking at the Snake River,
and the the Russians said, do you know why they
call it the snake River? And he sort of meandered
his hand in a sort of motion like a snake,
and he said that the Indians, when confronted by the
(20:07):
white settlers, the white settlers and asked, what's the name
of the river? And the Indians made a motion like that,
and they obviously the white people thought it was a snake,
so they called it the snake River. But what they
really meant was that that was fish, and there was
an abundance of fish in this river, and that's what
they loved about it, so they called it the fish River. Well,
(20:29):
the snake River stuck. There's so many things that stick
when it comes to history. There's another saying in Boisse Boise.
See how I said that is le Bois lebois, the woods,
the woods in French. And that's kind of the rallying
(20:49):
cry of boise Um. And it's a it's a credit
to Captain Bonneville the U. S. Army. After tracking for
weeks through drew in rough drain, his exploration party reached
an overlooked with a view of the Boise River valley.
The place where they stood is called Bonneville Point, located
on the Oregon Trail east to the city. Quoting the story,
(21:11):
a French speaking guide, overwhelmed by the side of the
verdant river yelled le Bois le bois, and the name
stuck Boise le Boi. So the name seems to have
derived from there Um. But you know, there's a lot
of history of Canadian fur trappers around there Um, which
(21:33):
again goes the French derivation of the name. But again
it's Boise. We look at a map of boise Um.
You know, you're you're in the Beer in the mountains.
You're in Idaho, and the Snake River is just served
south of you Um. And every time I go out there,
I'm not really a big fisherman fisher person, but I
(21:55):
do find myself fly fishing because the friend that I
hang out without there is a guy named David who
will talk to you later. Um he's got a brother
in law who's a very good fly fishing guide, and
so he takes us out and we kind of cast
things into the river and hope for the best. And
sometimes I've got big trout and sometimes not, but that
(22:16):
doesn't matter. Sometimes fly fishing is just more philosophical and
peaceful than it is productive in the in the way
of you know, it's catch release anyhow. It's not like
I'm actually going to cook the thing, but it's it's
an amazing thing to stand in a cold river and
waiters and just sort of pensively and technically try and
(22:36):
and land to fish and coax them onto that hook
and bring it up, and it's amazing. So, you know,
we've got this city that's growing, and it's got a
lot of things going for it. I think the education
system and the university there is is growing like mad
and and that's good. I think the cost of living
is going up, but I think it's still a good
(22:56):
time to be there. Uh and again like the cost
of going there is really just not that that expensive. Um.
But uh, you know bo Boise State plays in the
Albertson Stadium with that blue field. Those are the Broncos.
You should get to a game. All into a game.
Was great against Air Force. They won. I think they
always went at home and they're always on TV because
(23:19):
the blue field, because everybody wants to see a bluefield.
I can. I think I may have like go into
sort of epileptic shock with the blue field watching in
a TV. It's it's very blue. So obviously, you know,
I miss a lot. And uh, I'm visiting places for
(23:42):
a brief period of time. I'm not a resident, and
so I call on people. And this week I'm gonna
call on Davis Suda, who's lived in Boise a long time. Uh.
He works. He does marketing for a very large and successful,
amazing American Kobe beef company called Snake River Farms, which
are the most delectable beef. But we're not selling that,
(24:04):
so you can buy it if you want. Now I've
got on the line. Giggling in the background is David Suda,
and Dave lives in Boise. Dave, tell the world what
you do in Boise, Hi, Hugh. I worked for a
company called snaker of Farms. It's the American wagu beef
That's my regular job. But then I also work as
(24:26):
the director of Food for It, which is the food
part of the tree Fort Music Festival, which I have
participated in many times. So Dave and I, over the years,
through his affiliation with Snake River Farms, which is a
beef firm that we absolutely adore and what tree Fort,
have become very good friends over the years. Dave, let's
talk about Boise. What's cool and Boise these days? You know,
(24:47):
Boise at its core, Hugh is an outdoors town. The
Boise River runs right through the middle of it. Um,
there's my office sits there. I see people pulling fish
out of there. So there's all so we're in close
proximity to river rafting to mountain biking, to skiing, to
snowboarding to trail running. So that's kind of the thing
(25:09):
that I think brings people in Um. But if you
look online, we were always at name like ten best
city for Louis ability for you know, they've they've said
you were like the next culinary scene. Um. I think
that was in Vogue magazine last year or something. So
a lot of people are pointing to us, and I
(25:30):
think that some of those accolades are maybe not deserved.
But you know, you've been here. I think what's cool.
It's it's a it's a friendly group of people. You know,
it's very welcoming city. It's clean, it's you know, easy
to get around. You know. You you feel like everyone
has cars, but you don't really need one here. I
walk to work. It's really pedestrian. Is the city I find? Yeah,
(25:51):
and that's because it's it's the right size. Um. You know.
So let's talk about what's happening in food there right now.
And you know we've talked. Yeah, I talked about State
and Limp, which was there for a while is no
longer there. I talked about yeah pretty four. I talked
about Jean Ju Bakery, which is so amazing. Patussori, Um,
(26:13):
what are what are your top three go to restaurants
these days? So I'm I'm gonna come back the answer
real quick. I just want to say the State and
Limp people. So that's uh. Chef Kris Camori and Ramy
made Mannus They are in the process of reopening under
the name kin k i n and that's a restaurant
(26:34):
actually will be open probably when you come back for
a tree for it, Hugh. I think they're gonna continue
that vision of you know, maybe a really high end
tasting menu, but then at the same time they're gonna
have a bar and they're gonna have things available for,
you know, people who are just cruising in. So I
haven't even tried that, but that's a you know, in
my top of my list to go in there. As
(26:54):
far as things that I do on kind of a
regular basis, I'm somewhat of a creature of a habit um.
I like beer a lot. I actually bourbon, as you know,
because we've had some bourbon together. But there's a restaurant
that's kind of the venerable old place. It's called Bitter
Creek Ale House, and I like Bitter Creek because they
have a great selection of beer. I usually cruise in
I know the people that are there, and you know,
(27:17):
sit at the bar, and the food is you know,
pub food, but it's like a really great pub food.
They have things like the Focasia beef Aju that's a
actually they may have changed. I think they serve on
focacsha anymore. But it's really great beef, you know, dip
it in the in the delicious aju. They handcut their fries.
It's awesome. Other places that I really like in town
are are Petite for I know you mentioned that Sarah
(27:39):
Kelly and her husband Dave run that and and uh
it's French inspired. Again. I guess I'm not a planner.
I like to just cruise in at the weird times
and maybe see if I can get a seat at
the bar or something. But Sarah does a great job.
Tech tip if you get it for a happy hour.
They almost always have oysters there, two bucks half price
(27:59):
champagne been and things like that. And I'm a sucker
for a good deal. Also, there are other places I
go to to. One of the places right in my
neighborhood is a stage coach and I'm not sure if
I've taken you there, but that's as it's got that
awesome sign. It's an old steakhouse sort of place, isn't it. Yeah,
it's been there since nineteen fifty nine. I have not
(28:20):
been there. I do want to go there. This historic
steakhouses of the West are so cool to me. Yeah,
and it's like that, you know, it's like the red
vinyl Bankhetts and you know, it's like it's a it's
a great place. And they actually closed down for a
short amount of time and then the people who worked
(28:40):
at the restaurant bought it and they brought it back,
and you know, they've updated it slightly, but it's still
at its core. You know, a place you get a
good steak, they do a great fried chicken. So those
are some places to check out in Boise. Okay, so
we've we've we've gone down down this road before. Um
but in pardon my French, but what the fund is
up with steak fingers? So it's finger steaks is what
(29:04):
we like to call him here, Hugh Um. They say that, Well,
there's there's a you know, some a little bit of controversy.
Everyone claims to have invented them, and I've never had
a good one. It's it's like batter deep fried finger
shaped pieces of beef um served with cocktail sauce. Like
(29:29):
it was somebody just wanting a shrimp cocko and it
was like I killed a cow and we can do this.
It is it is the strangest traditional food I think
I've seen in the bid in the West. I mean
I did, and I don't really get it, but I
mean I still have this because I'm a chef stuff
that want to like recreate it to be amazing. Um
(29:51):
but I want I want that to to be like, uh,
you know somebody else catching that fire and doing it
for me. Well, I've seen it in restaurants and someone
will use like a tempera batter, or they'll try to
do hanko or different things, and you know it's it's
there was this place. It is now like a topless
(30:12):
bar called the Torch. But back in the day it
was the place to go for finger steaks. And I
wish they were still open because I would take you there.
Did they have Booie's in figure stakes at the same time? Not, No,
I don't think there was, because that isn't our kig
prohibition era law in Idaho. Um. Deep fred steak and
(30:33):
naked women do not mix. Um. So, and then you
took me to once you have. You picked me up
at the airport and we went for a drink Gill's
Canine Bar. Tell me about that place. Well, I'm gonna
get in trouble for talking about this. This is like
telling something about your fishing hole, right, you know, but
it's a it's a great place. It's been there for
(30:53):
as long as I can remember, and the owner really
I mean, we didn't eat there, but they always have
you know, much elevated food. I mean, I think they
have like a two for one burger thing on Thursday.
But the burgers are delicious, and you know they've got
you know, big half pound patties, etcetera. But they like bourbon.
And in this town, in this state, we don't get
(31:15):
a lot of the really premium liquor. And you know,
the more bourbon is caught on, it's like that everything's
on allocation. But rather than um, you know, do something
crazy or over price that there's just almost always a
really great selection of bourbons there and at a reasonable price.
You know, you'll see all the regular things, you know,
but they'll they'll mix it up like you you'll see
(31:35):
a you know, a well or twelve. You'll see you know,
some of the nicer e H tailors, But I mean,
and on up anything you can think of, and a
man kind of comes down to your timing and how
nice you are, and I think you kind of have
to you have to uh prove that you're worthy of
of of the purchase. But for the most part, it's
a super friendly place and uh it's a great place
to get a whiskey. Yeah. Boyse always seems like a
(31:57):
super friendly place overall. It's got one of the mac
Daddy amazing record stories called the Record Exchange right down
town that seems to be really popure during tree Ford.
Nice shop for records there when I'm in town because
I love collecting vinyl. Um. What's the history of the
record Exchange? They started? Didn't they start Record Store Day? Uh? Yeah,
(32:18):
they did. Mike Bannell and his wife Jill. They Mike's
is one of the founders of Record Store Day. And
you know, you and I have been in this record
stuff long enough to know, just not that long ago
when vinyl was not a thing and Mike stuck through it.
They for some reason, all the big record stores bypassed
boise Um, you know, so like Tower Records and some
(32:40):
of those places that are actually I guess out of
business now. But Mike and Jill just stuck it out
and they, you know, when people were buying CDs. They
did the CD thing, but they've always sat on this
huge inventory of amazing vinyl and uh now I'm sorry,
I'm not thinking of of their it's it's a coalition
of independent record store and Mike has been president. Yeah,
(33:01):
it's it's all the record store Day coalition and they
do a really good job and it's awesome. But the
record store is phenomenally cool and really fun. Tell me
about Tree For because Tree For it's coming up at
least this year, but it's always it's always in the
sort of March April time frame, correct, it is. It's
scheduled right after south By Southwest. So the idea originally
(33:22):
was when artists were leaving south By Southwest, they're heading,
you know, back home or whatever, they can come come
check out Boise and it this year it's March twenty nights,
so it runs Wednesday through Thursday. It's possibly the best
deal on a music festival. You you can imagine that
the tickets slowly go up right now, for two bucks,
you could see every show hit every venue, you know,
(33:45):
from Wednesday to Sunday, and every show would be like
two fifty show. I mean, it's insane. How many things
are going on at once during the day because there's
so many different venues. That's what's really cool about it.
I think that, you know, from a locals perspective, what
which what I've learned to do is you kind of
just stay in a general vicinity. And the thing that's
(34:05):
crazy about the festival, you know, I have friends all
over the country they want to come and they go,
so tell me about it. You know, what's what kind
of music do they play? And it's one of those
few festivals literally any kind of music you want is there.
I mean everything from Americana it's you know, out rock
to you know, jazz, to um you name it, it's there,
E M. D. It's it's it's kind of crazy and
(34:25):
it's it's part of the fun. And shows run everywhere.
You can walk down the street in places that are
unlikely venues, there's probably music playing. Yeah, it's it's always
starting as really interesting and using a lot of sort
of disparate places, disparate venues and sort cool lasting them
into this festival each year. And that that's what kind
of makes intimate and really cool. So in boise Um,
(34:46):
you know, if obviously we've read nationally about a little
bit of sort of, Um, I don't know, like issues
with people from California moving there and some sort of
So is that is that a real issue? Is that?
Is that something that people were talking about because it's
a city of a certain size that's an ideal in
(35:07):
a lot of ways, and some people don't want their
ideal and pinged upon by others outsiders. Um. But at
the same time that people are saying that this is
a town that lays a lot of its history within
the basque population there of immigrants and and and you know,
the large way is built to its current state by
a huge amount of you know, people from that area
(35:27):
of the world coming over. Yeah, so you know, you know,
I I grew up around here, then I you know,
I lived in all around the coast San Francisco, l A,
Seattle and kind of saw things happening there. And then
when I got back it was kind of during that
sweet spot when you know, it was housing was super affordable,
you know, when you compared to the rest of the world.
(35:48):
We're still more affordable than those places. But you know,
a person work in an hourly wage, you know, could
buy a house here in in a in a nice
location and that part of it has gone away. And
I think that's where you get a lot of the
you know, the local pushback on people coming in because
what happens is people might get a good job here.
You know, they're coming from a big market. They sell
(36:09):
their house. They don't really shop the market. I've got
a weekend and they you know, they pay full cash
for um, you know, a house here, and it keeps
driving the prices of for homeowners. I mean, you know,
I count myself in there. I'm fortunately I have a
nice place and the value has skyrocketed. But you know,
if I want to stand boys to sell, it doesn't
make any sense. So I mean that that that does
(36:30):
create people are talking about that, and you get more.
I mean, the only thing I would say to those
people is that's everywhere these days. You know, it's in Athens, Georgia,
it's in Atlanta, it's in you know, Cleveland, it's you know,
it's like if you sell your house in San Francisco
for one point six million and you go to a
city that the fanciest house in the world there is
(36:50):
six hundred thousand, you're kind of winning in some way. Um, So,
you know, and and good for you. But and and
hopefully you just spend a lot of money in the
local economy as you do it and support good restaurants.
So that's the logic that I always use on those things.
But Dave Boysey is a is an amazing place, and
I think the future of it's really bright and it's uh,
(37:13):
it's due to locals like you who make it alive.
So thanks man. You know, in every direction you can
go somewhere in Boise and see amazing beautiful wilderness and nature.
So what's the closest like skiing place. There's a place
called Bogus Basin. It's about forty minutes up the hill.
I was just there yesterday. I mean, so here's here's
(37:33):
a Boise story for you. I got up, I was
up there at nine o'clock a ski till noon. I
came back, clean the house, and I went for a
mountain bike ride. So it's like, if you're an outdoors person,
it's it's all here. But Bogus is right up the hill,
and I think they're running their ski pass deal now.
It's like a full season past. I think's like two
ninety bucks or something. So and they have night skiing.
You can go up skiing after work and they have
(37:56):
the lights that are on the runs. And so that's
the that's a very Boisey thing is is the close
ski areas. Of course we also have sun Value. It's
about two and a half hours away, world class key
resort in a great place called Brendage that's in McCall.
Also around there's a place called Tamaracks. So and a
lot of the kids I work with here they love Tamarack.
(38:17):
It's close enough they can go for the day. Yeah.
Now it's it's just amazing abundance of different things to do.
But yet the urban environment is really exciting to me
now there and it's really lively. Well, Dave, thanks a lot,
and uh, everybody go out to Boise and wave a Dave.
You'll see him all right. Thanks, he appreciates time. I'm
Hugh Atchison. You're listening to The Passenger from my Heart Radio.
(38:39):
We'll be back after this quick break. I'm Hugh Atchison.
This is The Passenger. One good way to prepare for
a trip beyond packing your suitcase is through media and
(39:04):
for some recommendations, I'm gonna hand it over to Jordan
run Tug is a former music editor of People Magazine
at VH one dot com and regular contributor at Rolling
Stone and entertainment weekly Run. Tug is also co host
of the podcast Rivals, which is out now from My
Heart Radio. If you're interested in music industry beef, definitely
(39:26):
check that out. When in Boise, you gotta play the
hometown heroes loud if possible, built a spill or arguably
Boise's favorite musical sons and why not. Songs like Twin
Falls and Carry the Zero are amazing. But I wanted
to shine some light on another band with local connections. Yes,
I'm talking about Paul Revere and the Raiders. You may
know them as that somewhat goofy novelty group that dressed
(39:49):
up in full Revolutionary War regalia back in the sixties.
But I'll tell you what. These guys rocked hard. They
were founded by a guy named Paul Revere. Dick, yes
that was his real name, ran some restaurants in the
Boise area, and one day, while picking up some hamburger bones,
he met a young bakery worker named Mark Lindsay. This
guy Mark saying a bit, and together they decided to
create a group. First, they went with the name the
(40:11):
down beats, but they decided that shocker that name is
a little too downbeat, so they embraced Paul's historical moniker
in when they released the full throttle instrumental Likes Long Hair,
which broke the top forty on the national chart, a
fairly uncommon occurrence for a Boise area band at the time,
and that paved the way for the fame and fortune
to come with hits like Kicks and Hungry. If you
(40:43):
do end up heading to the Tree Fort Music Festival,
like Hugh mentioned earlier, you'll be able to catch one
of my favorite local Boise bands, Hill Folk Noir. In
case that name isn't evocative enough for you, dig this
description by fellow local musician John Doe. If John Steinbeck
owned a speak Easy Hi Folk Noir would be the
house band. Pretty great, right. I've also heard them described
(41:04):
as Johnny Cash on Robotism. He Folk Noir a trio
fronted by Travis Ward and they play old school Depression
era hillbilly instruments like washboard guitar, musical saw, upright bass,
and even an old suitcase for percussion. But they play
these traditional instruments in an extremely non traditional way. They
call their sound junker Dash, a blend of folk, bluegrass, punk,
(41:26):
string band, blues, and other diverse musical influences. The band
recommend pairing this sonic stew with bourbon and dancing, always
a recipe for a good time. Maybe the best example
of their whole o brother ware out thou meets hot
topic vibe is the track North Idaho Zombie rag As
you heard that right. It opens with a furiously strum
distorted banjo feedback, which I have to admit was a
(41:48):
first for my ears. It's truly indescribable. So give it
a spin and try to check them out next time
you're in town. Last time I was in Boise, actually
(42:13):
second the last time I was in Boise. We're going
to be flying out um the next day. My friends
Sam who cooks with me, and we've been cooking there
and so we're we're gonna miss one of the headlining acts,
Built to Spill, who I've been a big fan of
for many, many years, having seen them at the forty
(42:33):
Watton Athens a couple of times and on the road
in other places. And um, if you've ever heard Built
a Spell, you should. It's just one of the seminal
Um to me alternative bands of the last twenty five years.
And Doug Marsh, the lead singer and guitarist, has been
just writing an amazing songs for eons and eons and
(42:54):
um isn't that band and a couple of others, but
really Built spell Is is his main one. But remember
they were supposed to play the next day. We're gonna
miss the show. We went to a bar in the
afternoon to have a beer and go over some notes
of other things we needed to do. And the bar
had was on the ground floor and there are a
couple of floors above it, and this older building it
down to boys and you can't even remember the name
(43:15):
of the bar. Simple place. And uh suddenly I hear
bass from coming through from upstairs, and I know the
beat and it's a song called the Plan and it's
a Built Spill song. And my strange brain is connecting
(43:37):
dots and then figuring out. And we were having a
beer underneath Built just bills practice space, so through a
muffled area of a floor, basically I heard a whole
concert of Built a Spill while playing pool and having
a beer. So I felt like I had seen the
show in a more intimate environment, albeit muffled by six
(43:57):
inches of flooring between us would probably some installation in between.
You know, when you go down one of the main
streets and you look up the capital and it's just
such an amazingly beautiful valley city, and then you're looking
around at the mountains around you, and uh, you just
realize you're in a place that's just so amazingly interesting
(44:19):
and and so close to just this abundance of nature.
And you go fishing, and you go hiking, and you
go back into the town and you go up for
a nice dinner and a beer, and you relax, and
you look outside the window and you breathe the clean
air outside, and you wander around the town and people
(44:40):
are smiling and generally happy and quite athletic, and that's
all good. And you realize you're in a place that
not a lot of people get to, and they should
because it's easy. You've been listening to the Passenger. This
(45:00):
is the production of I Heart Radio, created by Hugh
Atchison and Christopher Hassiotas were produced and edited by Mike John's.
A researcher is jess Lyn Shields and Christopher hassiotus as
our executive producer. Special thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters
and the rest of the crew. If you like The Passenger,
leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other
(45:22):
people like you find the show. If you're a local
and you want to let me know what I missed
and where should go on my next visit, or if
you've recently been a passenger like me and want to
share your experience, hit me up on Instagram and Twitter
at Hugh Atchison. Next time with The Passenger, we'll travel
far Away, from far Away to Newfoundland and to Bogo Island.
(45:44):
Culture is nothing more than a response to a place,
so we wanted to put place and community back in
the center of life. Well more podcasts from my Heart
Radio use the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening,
(46:10):
m HM.
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