Sliding Into Missoula, Montana

Road-trip driving occasionally produces white knuckles

I’m a little jittery to fully enjoy my lunch at Pueblo Lindo, in McCall, Idaho. It’s not the usual three cups of road coffee jangling around an acidic stomach that does it. It’s the two hours of white-knuckle driving to get here in a late October snowstorm, traveling in a 25-mile-per-hour (40 kmh) convoy, hoping we’re going fast enough that I can get up any icy hills in summer tires and using the white van in front of me as a guide to see the road as the “window” created by the slush-encrusted wipers keeps getting smaller and smaller. So by the time I pull up to Pueblo Lindo for a nerve-calming break, it’s all I can do to properly taste the decent chicken burrito with rice and beans, the best part being the accompanying basket of warm tortilla chips with a piquant house-made salsa (all for a bargain $5). By the time I finish, the road’s been plowed, and I can renew the long drive to the next meal. By the way, the McCall public library charges $2 for 15 minutes of Wi-Fi access for non-cardholders. Someone should report them to the Gates Foundation!

Chicken burrito at Pueblo Lindo in McCall, Idaho

Pueblo Lindo
1007 West Lake Street, McCall, Idaho
Daily 11 am-9 pm

Fabulous driving along the Salmon River on Highway 95 north of McCall, Idaho

Missoula is a charming college town (population 68,000) with a foothills backdrop and the Clark Fork River dividing the downtown from the rest of the city. But the University of Montana certainly doesn’t encourage motoring visitors; it’s almost impossible to park within a mile of the place without a university or residential parking permit. And the street-naming system is downright weird; an example from below is South 4th Street West (if you’re going to have a quadrant system, follow Calgary’s lead and go, for instance, with SW). The city’s food scene, though, is lively, with a number of fine places you can drive right up to.

I’ve already heralded Bob Marshall’s Biga Pizza as one of the best pizzerias in the mountain west (241 West Main Street. Weekdays 11 am-3 pm and 5 pm-9:30 pm, Saturday 5 pm-10 pm). It’s here that I first encounter the outstanding *KettleHouse Cold Smoke Scotch Ale, which because of arcane state laws on microbrewery production limits is for now pretty much only available in western Montana. So, of course, I have to visit the character-filled KettleHouse Brewing Company’s taproom, where an afternoon crowd is gathered to sample a pint or fill a larger “growler” to go. Here’s another bit of strange state law: A small brewery taproom can only serve a patron 48 ounces of beer between the hours of 10 am and 8 pm. Other FAQs from the Kettlehouse website: “Can you ship me some beer? No. Sorry. Plan a vacation in beautiful Missoula instead.” “Do you have food in your tap rooms? No. But you can bring in your own.” Note: Their “six-packs” are four, 16-ounce cans.

Funky taproom at KettleHouse Brewing Company in Missoula

KettleHouse Brewing Company
602 Myrtle Street, Missoula
Daily noon to 8 pm

There’s definitely something to be said for keeping things simple and doing one or two things well. Le Petit Outre (“The Little Outrageous”) has that nailed. As a small bakery, it produces a wide variety of excellent handcrafted breads—ryes, baguettes, cocodrillos, ciabattas and the like, some baked in a French hearth oven—as well as pastries and nice buttery, flaky croissants to munch on. It also has fine coffee, whether it’s a nice strong blend from a pump pot or a well-crafted cappuccino from its Synesso espresso machine. In good weather, there are a few tables outside; otherwise, it’s takeout.

Le Petit Outre
129 South 4 Street West
Monday to Friday 7 am-6 pm, Saturday 8 am-3 pm, Sunday 8 am-2 pm

There aren’t many places I’d frequent simply to sit in the space, ordering latte after pour over just so I don’t have to leave. *Caffe Dolce is such a place, with its tile floor, light orange walls and high ceiling reminiscent of a centuries-old Italian building. Actually, owner Peter Lambros had it built only a few years ago, though an Italian artist did spend a Michelangelo-like 750 hours on a scaffold to paint the ceiling (a side room is lined with Italian pottery for sale). One of the baristas says she loves working here, especially on a wintery day, when the high windows make the space feel like a giant snow globe. By the way, they make good coffees here, along with iron-grilled sandwiches, a large selection of gelato and, something of a rarity, a bowl of fresh breakfast fruit. Just order things one at a time, so you can spread your stay out.

Caffe Dolce, a great place to hang out in Missoula

Caffe Dolce
500 Brooks Street (the one described here) and 2901 Brooks Street (Southgate Mall), Missoula
Check the website for hours, which are too confusing to list here

The Montana pasty (paste-ee) is supposed to be the preserve of Butte. It’s where English-born miners carried their Cornish pasties underground in lunch buckets. I guess no one told Lisa she couldn’t take the Butte tradition to Missoula and open Lisa’s Pasty Pantry. Some folks say her version of the meat-filled pastry pocket is better. I can only tell you it’s a mighty tasty pasty: a bunch of hand-cubed beef, potatoes and onions packed into a crimped pastry and then baked till golden. Add a little gravy if you want, and you’ve got a filling lunch for a bargain $6. Though they seemed a little insulted when I don’t finish things off with one of their fruit turnovers.

A hearty pasty quells the lunchtime hunger pangs at Lisa’s Pasty Pantry

Lisa’s Pasties
2004 West Sussex Avenue, Missoula
Monday to Friday 11 am-7 pm, Saturday 10:30 am to close. Closed Sunday

Death by sandwich? There are worse ways to go. In fact, the amount of mortadella and dough I’ve already consumed this trip might cause my porcine valves to seize up. But when I see the Megadeath sandwich on the Tagliare Delicatessen menu board, I’m powerless to resist. Mercifully, I only order the $9 half loaf, er, sandwich. The whole would be enough to choke a horse, if a horse ate ham, finocchiona (whatever that is), hot sopressata, pepperoni, hot capicola and various other things pressed between two hunks of ciabatta and sawn in half. Some of the meats and/or the “feisty” vinaigrette give this sandwich the slight kick of a mule. If that’s insufficient meat for you, consider the Zeppelin, an unholy alliance of roast beef, turkey, salami, ham and pastrami. Way down the menu, there is a vegetarian option, featuring goat cheese and pickled beets. These takeout sandwiches can be messy, so take care how you eat them.

I’m still kicking after finishing the Megadeath half sandwich at Tagliare Delicatessen

Tagliare Delicatessen
1433 South Higgins Avenue, Missoula
Monday 10 am-5 pm, Tuesday to Friday 10 am-7 pm, Saturday 10 am-5 pm. Closed Sunday

My Own Private Idaho Eating Tour

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Spectacular Snake River Gorge in Twin Falls, Idaho. Can’t think of any other western U.S. city that can match this view

If you’re making the long drive on I-84 between Salt Lake City and Boise, Idaho, be sure to find time for a short detour to Twin Falls. It has the most spectacular viewpoint you’ll find in any city: the Snake River Gorge. From the visitor centre beside the superb bridge spanning the canyon, it’s a gut-churning drop to the river far below and not far from Evel Knievel’s failed attempt to jump the canyon by motorcycle in 1974.

Sometimes, it’s just one overlooked detail that keeps you from thoroughly enjoying your breakfast. At Buffalo Cafe, it’s the biscuit. The eggs over easy are nicely done, the house-made chorizo sausage is tasty and the hash browns decent. But the hefty biscuit arrives cold. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but the butter sits in an unmelted lump on top and even the nice touch of homemade jam doesn’t quite salvage things. A minute in the toaster or on the grill, and all would have been well. Buffalo Cafe is all by itself in an unlit industrial part of town, with a row of big truck cabs across the street in a compound.

Nice enough breakfast, other than the cold biscuit, at Buffalo Cafe in Twin Falls, Idaho

Buffalo Cafe
218 4 Avenue, Twin Falls
Daily 7 am-2 pm

It’s not often I’ll wait an hour for a sandwich, especially when I’m the only customer in said sandwich shop. But I’m glad I do at *High Country Bakehouse on charming Main Avenue in downtown Twin Falls. The wait is largely my fault, as the coffee is on when I arrive at the 8 am opening, but the sandwiches aren’t due out for a couple of hours. Which gives me a chance to chat with owner Aaron Adams, a former psychology major who opened the bakery/sandwich shop a year ago, with the mandate to make everything from scratch. Thus his sourdough bread takes three days from start to finish. And his cousin Sara, who prepares all the meat for the sandwiches, marinates the turkey in Guinness and the New York strip steak in red wine before cooking and then slicing them. I order a half BLT, savouring every bite of the hickory-smoked bacon and vine-ripened tomato inside the chewy sourdough. To go, I take a loaf of honey whole wheat, too hot from the oven to bag and thus filling my car with a heavenly odour that almost overpowers the stench from three weeks of car camping.

High Country Bakehouse
144 Main Avenue South, Twin Falls
Monday to Friday 8 am-3 pm. Closed weekends

While waiting for the day’s sandwich making to begin, I also talk to Paul Graff, who’s just moved into Bakehouse’s premises to set up his Twin Beans Coffee Co. He pours me a fresh cup of his day’s blend. Tastes pretty damn fine to me, but he grimaces slightly with his first sip. He’s not happy with the city water supply and how the required filtering will affect the dissolved solids in his brew. Some tweaking will be required. Got to love that passion for perfection.

Boise, Idaho’s state capital, is a surprisingly modern, prosperous city—population 200,000-plus/over 600,000 in the metropolitan area—with more downtown high-rises than I’m expecting. Boise State University is a dominant presence, with its formidable football team (Go Broncos!) playing on distinctive blue turf. There are lots of good eating options here for the road tripper.

I’m ready for something different at lunch and Tango’s Subs and Empanadas certainly delivers on all fronts—originality, taste and affordability. I walk into what looks like an old drive-through and am warmly greeted by the burly owner with a bushy moustache, stationed firmly behind the counter while his wife hustles around the kitchen. It’s an Argentinian joint, so I opt for a couple of empanadas, which come out hot and fast. One is a gaucho—a ground beef, green olive and hard-boiled egg mix—and the other a Mexican-style mole with pulled chicken, peanuts, chocolate and chilies. Add a little green salsa for kick and I’m ready to chow down. But what hits these babies out of the park is the enveloping pocket: flaky pastry that’s fried to produce a crunchy texture to offset the soft insides. Two of these empanadas, for $5, is almost more than I can eat, but when they’re this tasty, I manage to get every crumb down. Unfortunately, there’s no spare room for a dessert empanada—a thick caramel dulce de leche.

Big, flaky empanadas hit the spot at Tango’s. $5 total

Tango’s Subs and Empanadas
701 North Orchard Street, Boise
Monday to Friday 11 am-7 pm, Saturday noon-4 pm. Closed Sunday

How often have you been asked: ‘Would you like that with fries?’ Well, at Boise Fry Company, in the great potato state of Idaho, things are turned on their head. Here, the burgers are the sides, and the focus is squarely on the esteemed spud. Thus, when entering this potato palace, I spurn the burger menu completely and am walked through the many fry options. You pick your potato—say a russet, purple, sweet or Yukon gold—and see what cuts it’s being offered in that day; regular, shoestring, etc. I opt for an unfamiliar variety, a Laura, in a shoestring cut. It has a sweet, nutty flavour and is slightly crisp from being double fried in peanut oil, as are all Boise Fry’s offerings. A nice touch is adding the salt mixes (try the rosemary garlic) and choosing the dips yourself and thus being able to season to your taste. As I leave, I’m tempted to ask for a sack of potatoes to go.

Laurel potatoes in a shoestring cut at Boise Fry Company. Yum

A main course of Laura potatoes in a shoestring cut at Boise Fry Company. Yum

Boise Fry Company
111 South Broadway and 3083 South Bown Way, Boise
Daily 11 am-9 pm

It’s funny sometimes how you’ll go looking for one thing and discover something even better. So it is when I walk into Dawson Taylor Coffee in downtown Boise. The French press pot I order is decent enough though rather pricy at $4.50. While waiting for it to brew, I walk through a doorway into an attached space that turns out to be a separate business: Zeppole Baking Co. I’m pretty fussy about muffins and rarely order them, but I can tell that these, with their thick bottoms wrapped in paper, are dense and moist. So I order a blackberry streusel, a sinfully good $2 treat to go with my coffee. The kalamata ciabatta also catches my eye (I can usually tell baked quality by just looking) among the many fine, cold-fermented breads on display. I’ve just eaten lunch elsewhere, but I notice lots of folks munching on ciabatta-based sandwiches, and they’re only $4.59. A bowl of soup with endless bread is another bargain at $3.69. It all adds up to tasty cuisine at rock-bottom prices, especially for downtown Boise.

Dense, moist blackberry streusel muffin at Zeppole Baking Co. in Boise

Zeppole Baking Co.
217 North 8 Street (downtown Boise), Monday to Friday 7 am-8 pm, Saturday 8 am-8 pm; and 983 East Parkcenter Boulevard, Monday to Saturday 6 am-6 pm, Sunday 8 am-4 pm

It’s a Monday night, so I’m safe from temptation at Bar Gernika. I can go with a Basque-style Solomo sandwich, a lovely marinated pork loin with mounds of red pimientos in a crusty French loaf, along with a side of croquetas (little doughy, deep-fried balls similar to that southern staple, hush puppies) and a pint of nitro-infused stout. I could also order a nice sandwich of Basque chorizo sausage or sliced lamb. But if I want a little tongue, I’ll have to be there on a Saturday. It’s the only day beef tongue is offered, albeit with a good amount of garlic and tomato seasoning. Indeed, it’s slow cooked enough, the bartender assures me, that it falls apart like a pot roast. In any event, it’s all gone in a couple of hours. Bar Gernika is a pub in a narrow, historical building (it was once a Chinese laundry) in downtown Boise, with exposed brick walls and a small open kitchen next to the bar. In fact, grab a Saturday bar seat, and you can watch your tongue being grilled.

Basque-style Solomo sandwich with a side of croquets at Bar Gernika in downtown Boise

Bar Gernika
202 South Capitol Boulevard
Opens Monday to Friday at 11 am and Saturday at 11:30 am, closing around midnight. Closed Sunday

Want to design your own breakfast? *Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro, a cozy little downtown diner that you strangely enter through a heavy purple curtain, let’s you do just that. You can choose your meat, style of eggs, potatoes and bread or any of the above on their own. I actually prefer a complete package, so I go for something I’ve never had before—Andalusian eggs. It’s a revelation, featuring a bowl full of ham, chorizo and peppers in a thick tomato sauce, with two poached eggs on top and a thick ring of asparagus. It’s delicious but a little too rich for me to finish this early in the morning. What puts this place over the top is the offer to take another coffee refill to go. When I say I want to go to an Internet cafe, the waitress says just take the coffee up the block to their Goldy’s Corner, where they offer me yet another free refill. Now, that’s service.

Lovely Andalusian eggs at Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro in Boise

Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro
108 South Capitol Boulevard
Weekdays 6:30 am-2 pm, weekends 7:30 am-2 pm

Heading From Colorado Into Utah

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Tons of Italian meats on this calzone at Carelli's Pizza & Pasta

Lots of Italian meats on this sandwich at Carelli’s Pizza & Pasta

Hungry? I hope you bring company, or at least a healthy appetite, to Carelli’s Pizza & Pasta in Craig, a short drive west of Steamboat Springs on Highway 40 in northwest Colorado. The calzones are enormous, stretching in a couple of instances to two or three feet. A more reasonable monster is the Carelli Calzone, featuring a liquidy furnace of meatballs, sausage, ricotta and mozzarella. I settle for the merely massive Mancinelli sandwich—layers of mortadella, salami, capicola, ham and lettuce—heated in the oven till the provolone cheese melts and the focaccia is nicely toasted. Attacking with a knife and fork, I put a healthy dent in it but have to box the rest for a later road snack, er, meal. The two young women beside me have a more manageable strategy, ordering big, single slices of pizza.

Carelli’s Pizza & Pasta
465 Yampa Avenue, Craig, Colorado
Monday to Saturday 11 am-9 pm

Farther west on Highway 40, Vernal, Utah is the nearest staging point for Dinosaur National Monument, established to protect an historic dinosaur quarry, which can be viewed by guided tour. If you’d like a quick, authentic Mexican meal in town, stop at Tacos El Gordo (“Never trust a skinny cook”). Behind some non-operating gas pumps, El Gordo retains a faded convenience-store feel, with fridges full of sodas and packaged snacks for sale. Soon after placing my order at a little window, two tacos (pollo/chicken and carnita/pork) arrive—hot, crispy, a little greasy and flavourful, with a little bottled hot sauce added from the drink fridge. It’s a good, light lunch in an unpolished eatery for $4, a few bucks more if I’d gone for a burrito or quesadilla.

Cheap, fresh food at Tacos El Gordo in Vernal, Utah

Tacos El Gordo
395 East Main Street, Vernal, Utah
Monday to Saturday opens at 8 am. Closed Sunday

I guess you could say I hit a double bagel in Park City. The place I want to go to, Nature’s Wraps, is closed, so I head next door to Wasatch Bagel & Grill (1300 Snow Creek Drive), where I have a chicken parmigiano sandwich on a fresh, toasted bagel. It’s decent, but the service is distracted, despite the place being mostly empty. The next morning, I drive a fairly long way to reach a different part of Park City, where I have a pretty good egg bagel sandwich (something I rarely order) at Park City Bread & Bagel (3126 Kilby Road), though the pounding soundtrack is annoying at 7:30. I then navigate through construction in a new mall nearby to have a nice coffee at Park City Roaster (1680 Ute Boulevard), though by this point I just want out of town. I know Park City is a big ski resort town (it has a much bigger tourist than resident population), is the principal location for the Sundance Film Festival and hosted some 2002 Winter Olympic events. But I don’t know if Park City has a historic centre. It doesn’t seem to have any centre, just a bunch of new, disparate developments with little character. It certainly helps to have a GPS to find my way around.

Once you’re safely past the hour-long stress of driving the chock-a-block I-15 past Salt Lake City (it helps to tackle it on a Sunday morning), it’s worth slowing down and getting onto a quieter parallel highway. One such road, Highway 89 to the near east, leads into Brigham City, featuring a large, white Mormon temple, stately and well-tended historic buildings and a wide Main Street flanked by enormous overarching sycamores, their leaves still green in late October.

When you see a sign saying, “Gone fishing,” you just figure you’ll come back another time. But Kathie and Bert, owners of Bert’s Cafe in downtown Brigham City want to go fishing full time… in Oregon. After 30-plus years of running a diner Bert’s parents started in 1929, they’re ready to retire and have put the place up for sale. Their own kids don’t want to run it, and Kathie doesn’t blame them, saying it’s a 24/7 business. Here’s hoping the new owners can somehow carry on the tradition, because this is a real old-fashioned diner, where the cutlery comes in a little paper bag, the waitresses chat leisurely with the customers and the food comes out hot and fast. My omelette special has nice chunks of avocado, the home fries are crispy and the butter melts into the steaming pancake. Lunch items include a sirloin sandwich and an open-face pot roast sandwich with gravy. It’s good, old-fashioned comfort food.

Hey, if anybody knows what’s happened to Bert’s since I passed through last fall, let me know.

The good news: Great homestyle breakfast at Bert’s Cafe in Brigham City

The bad news: the owners want to sell.

Bert’s Café
89 South Main Street, Brigham City, Utah
Monday to Saturday 7 am-7 pm, Sunday 7 am-2 pm

It’s hardly a news flash to say interstate highways have helped shut down many restaurants in the small towns they’ve bypassed. But some manage to persist, such as Mollie’s Cafe in tiny Snowville, just off I-84 near the Utah-Idaho border. Located in a century-old building and owned by Mollie for more than 30 years, it’s the kind of run-down-looking place many travellers might hesitate to enter. But once you walk past walls of old ranching photos, sink into a red-cushioned booth and watch heaping plates of eggs and cheese burgers go past, you know you’re in good hands. Indeed, the cook looks over the counter and asks me if I want the onions atop my little bowl of chili grilled (all of $2.15, including tax). After I’ve licked my bowl clean, she wishes me safe travels. It’s not the kind of treatment you normally get in places on the beaten path.

A true, old-fashioned diner, off the interstate in Snowville, Utah

Mollie’s Cafe
15 East Main Street, Snowville, Utah
Daily 6 am-10 pm

Chugging Into Carbondale and Steamboat Springs, Colorado

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Nothing like a dog to draw customers into your Steamboat Springs restaurant

Nothing like a cute puppy to draw customers into your Steamboat Springs restaurant… or read your blog

I’m resuming my road trip through Colorado, hitting a couple of high mountain towns.

After following the tortuous road over Independence Pass (12,100 feet) and down into Aspen, Highway 82 heading west is a smooth, four-lane freeway, complete with high-occupancy vehicle lanes (I’m not sure where all this commuter traffic is heading, though). Beyond the chi chi town of Basalt, I pull into Carbondale. It partly made its early living supplying potatoes to miners in Aspen. The tradition continues, with Carbondale acting as a cheaper bedroom community to the resort. One cool thing, at night, is skies dark enough to see the stars, or the start of a meteorite shower when I’m there.

Looking for some spirited nightlife in this otherwise quiet town? Just stop for an excellent ale or two at Carbondale Beerworks (647 Main Street, Monday to Thursday 4 pm-11 pm, Friday till 1 am and weekends 2 pm-11 pm) especially during one of their boisterous Trivial Pursuits nights, when the cheers, cowbells and clinking of pint glasses make it hard for waitresses to be heard calling out orders for high-end dogs, wings and fries. Once the show’s over, many of the young patrons hop onto their bikes and wobble off into the night. If you want to pick up some distinctive Colorado microbrews to go, drop into Main Street Spirits (“Buy your ale in Carbondale”), where Rosemary lets me fill my own assorted six pack. 389 Main Street. Monday to Thursday 10 am-10 pm, Friday and Satuday 10 am to 11 pm.

Trivial Pursuits night packs them at Carbondale Beerworks

For an early-morning eye opener, be sure to stop at The Blend Coffee Company. They make great coffee, whether it’s the house espresso blend or a nice pour over. This is coffee with rich, complex flavours, primarily from Denver-based roaster Novo. Let’s see: great coffee, cozy atmosphere, friendly, accommodating staff (Greg let me sample the drip brew before I order). Think it warrants a *.

Great pour overs at The Blend Coffee Company in Carbondale

The Blend Coffee Company
1150 Highway 133, Carbondale
Weekdays 6:30 am-5 pm, weekends 7 am-5 pm

*Village Smithy Restaurant (“We reserve the right to serve everyone”) is humming minutes after the 7 am opening. Customers are streaming into the 1904 house and tucking into hearty omelettes, breakfast quesadillas and pancakes or Belgian waffles mounded with fresh fruit. My breakfast is simple but first class, nailing all the details. The eggs are perfectly over easy, the hash browns hot and crispy, the slightly sweet apple-chicken sausages nicely grilled and the two pieces of multi-grain toast (you really don’t need four) covered edge to edge in butter and accompanied by a pot of fresh raspberry jam. The kicker is a delicious, house-made salsa that I dip everything in.

First-class breakfast at Village Smithy Restaurant in Carbondale

Village Smithy Restaurant
26 South 3 Street, Carbondale
Daily 7 am-2 pm

Now, here’s a concept: give customers samples to help them decide what to order. That’s what The Lost Cajun does with its soups. When you sit down in this small Frisco eatery, you’re given three little Dixie cups of gumbo—one a Gulf shrimp and crab in a dark roux and another a spicy chicken and sausage—along with my favourite, a creamy shrimp and lobster bisque with a mild bite. Then, to cover all the bases for you readers, I actually switch gears and order a breaded and fried catfish po boy, a crunchy treat inside a garlic-buttered mini French loaf.

Catfish po boy at The Lost Cajun in Frisco

The Lost Cajun
204 Main Street, Frisco
Sunday to Wednesday 11 am-8 pm, Thursday to Saturday 11 am-9 pm

Steamboat Springs has hot springs, of course, ski hills and all the usual outdoor sports that demand the Colorado emblem that goes with this lifestyle: the Subaru wagon. I swear that in five minutes of sitting on a street corner, I watch 20 Subarus go by. Almost as popular in these parts are half-ton trucks. I’m guessing you can tell who’s a Democratic or Republican supporter simply by what they’re driving. I’ll let you guess who’s who. Most of the town’s restaurants can be found on or just off the main drag, Lincoln Avenue.

The emblem of outdoor, active Colorado: the Subaru wagon

This lovely old brick building is home to Creekside Cafe & Grill

On a long road trip, I’m always looking for something different, especially for breakfast. So when I peruse the menu at *Creekside Cafe & Grill, I’m ready to move right past the usual eggs Benedict with hollandaise atop an English muffin until I see a version with a quarter pound of shredded corned beef. When I hear the corned beef is seasoned, cooked and pulled apart in house, I’m on board. And I must say it’s a delight, with the tender, slightly salty meat nicely balancing the lemony sauce. Creekside also offers a corned beef hash, large enough, the waitress tells me, that many folks take the leftovers home to make a pseudo Reuben. Creekside looks after the small details, making their own breads, biscuits, hamburger buns and gluten-free granola; you can buy a bag of the latter to go. When I say I’m hitting the road right after breakfast, the waitress even offers to refill my coffee in a to-go cup. Nice.

Eggs Benedict on a mountain of corned beef at Creekside Cafe & Grill. Yum.

Creekside Cafe & Grill
131 11 Street, Steamboat Springs
Daily 6 am-2 pm

I don’t get a chance to eat at Winona’s Restaurant & Bakery (I’ve just polished off a big breakfast at Creekside). But judging by the recommendation of two locals and the full house by eight on a Saturday morning, I’d say it’s well worth a breakfast visit. The restaurant is famous for its cinnamon bun, featured in Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, and big enough to feed a linebacker. Winona’s also makes highly regarded French toast, Belgian waffles and creative pancakes such as apple streusel, banana granola and chocolate strawberry.

A full house for breakfast at Winona’s Restaurant & Bakery

Winona’s Restaurant & Bakery
617 Lincoln Avenue, Steamboat Springs
Daily 7 am-3 pm

5^th Street Market & Deli is a good destination for a quick, hot pastrami, turkey-bacon or roasted pepper sandwich. My grilled meatloaf sandwich with melted provolone and arugula greens on a rectangular panini hits the spot; it comes with a small pasta salad. At $10, the price is a little steep, though perhaps not by resort standards.

Grilled meatloaf sandwich at 5th Street Market & Deli

5th Street Market & Deli
435 Lincoln Avenue, Steamboat Springs
Monday to Saturday 10 am-6 pm, Sunday 10 am-3 pm

Just up the street, and down the stairs, The Steaming Bean has nice java (including French press) and smoothies. Besides the usual breakfast treats, it also offers toasted bagels, homemade granola and oatmeal with blueberries. 635 Lincoln Avenue. Daily 7 am-6 pm

Best Pizza in the Mountain West

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Can I get this entire pizza, from Pizzeria Prima Strada in Victoria B.C., in my gut? You bet

Over time, I’ve become a sucker for thin-crust pizzas. Preferably, the dough has some sour sourdough starter and has been rested/proofed a while. The decorated pizza should then be cooked in a smoking-hot brick oven for scant minutes, emerging slightly blackened on the bottom and puffy and leopard spotted along the edges. The true test of a great, chewy-but-still-soft-in-the-middle crust is I could eat it all by its lonesome.

I’ve also learned to love simplicity—a few outstanding, house-made ingredients that complement and don’t overwhelm that fine crust. So, no more three kinds of oily meat, blankets of greasy cheese or hearty ladlings of indifferent tomato sauce; heck, increasingly, I don’t want any sauce. As for ham and pineapple, just banish it to Hawaii, please. Instead, I’m all over freshly-made mozza and sausage and maybe something I’ve never tried before: dried cherries, yes, peanut butter, not so much.

I’ve organized these by best pizza in each mountain state and province, extending the latter to include British Columbia. The list is by no means exhaustive, a starter in pizza parlance. For instance, I’ve yet to try two Arizona standouts: Pizzicletta in Flagstaff or Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. By all means, let me know about your favourites.

Mountain States

Utah
At Pizzeria Seven Twelve, in Orem, the focus is on fresh, creative ingredients like hand-pulled mozzarella, house-made sausage and roasted fennel and cauliflower, all riding atop a thin, bubbly crust with a nice tangy flavour from the sourdough starter. The servers wear t-shirts hammering home that point with single words on the front—simple, local, inspired. Check, check, check. Definitely check it out.

This pie from Pizzeria Seven Twelve has it all: hand-pulled mozza, house-made sausage and sourdough crust

Pizzeria Seven Twelve
320 South State Street, Orem, Utah
Lunch Monday to Friday 11:30 am-2:30 pm, dinner Monday to Thursday 5 pm-10 pm and Friday-Saturday 5 pm-11 pm. Closed Sunday

Arizona
It’s a tossup (sorry, bad joke), with entertainment winning the day at Screaming Banshee Pizza in Bisbee and The Parlor Pizzeria taking the flavour crown in Phoenix.

I’ve always thought if you’re going for wood-fired pizza, you might as well get a front-row seat and enjoy the show. Sure enough, as soon as I sit down at Screaming Banshee Pizza and start sipping a hearty Kiltlifter Scottish ale, the pizza maker starts rolling out discs of dough and tossing them ceiling-ward three or four times. I’m so entranced, I don’t notice my own Screaming Banshee pizza ($15) getting lifted from the 760-F. oven with a long-handled wooden paddle. It has a lovely, lightly charred crust strewn with creamy fresh mozzarella, strips of fennel sausage and caramelized onion. After a game effort, I’m still left with half to go.

Enjoy the show at Screaming Banshee Pizza

Screaming Banshee Pizza
200 Tombstone Canyon Road, Bisbee
Tuesday-Wednesday 4 pm-9pm, Thursday to Saturday 11 am-10 pm, Sunday 11 am-9 pm. Closed Monday

At Parlor Pizzeria, it only takes five minutes in a 460 F. oven for my eight-inch Forager pizza to emerge, with, no surprise, a bubbly char on the thin crust. The topping is a compelling, rich mix of wild boar meatball, rabbit sausage and finocchiona. Add some radicchio, thinly sliced fennel and rosemary, and I’ve got a first-rate, six-slice pie for only $10, knocked down to $6 during happy hour (3-6 pm).

Boar meatball and rabbit sausage highlight this gem at Parlor Pizzeria

The Parlor Pizzeria
1916 East Camelback Road, Phoenix
Monday to Thursday 11 am-10 pm, Friday-Saturday 11 am-11 pm. Closed Sunday

New Mexico
Any surprise that Santa Fe takes the pie here? At Rooftop Pizzeria, you can dine in-house or, even better, head down the elevated hallway to Marble Brewery’s Taproom and enjoy a pint with your pizza from a patio seat overlooking the historic downtown plaza. I pick a New Mexican theme for my plentiful 12-incher—green chile with a fair kick, toasted piñon nuts and a blue-corn crust—alongside tender chunks of chicken, cotija and asadero cheese and alfredo sauce ($13.50). I must say, it goes down nicely with a 21.5-ounce tumbler of Irish Red.

This Rooftop pizza has a New Mexico twist with a blue-corn crust, pinon nuts and green chile

Rooftop Pizzeria
60 East San Francisco Street, Santa Fe
Sunday to Thursday 11 am-10 pm, Friday-Saturday 11 am-11 pm, with slightly reduced winter hours

Montana
There’s no contest here. As previously mentioned in my Best of 2012 road food post, the guy sitting next to me at Bob Marshall’s Biga Pizza, in Missoula, says it’s the best pizza he’s ever tasted. Here, they use a sourdough starter, known as biga (bee-ga), add fresh, ingenious ingredients like fig paste and toasted hazelnuts and slide it all into a 650 F. brick oven for about eight minutes. I get a half and half—one side their award-winning sausage, cherry chutney and smoked gouda (my favourite of the two), the other a medley of local squash and pumpkin. I wash it down with a pungent, Missoula-produced Kettlehouse Cold Smoke Scotch ale.

This half cherry chutney standout at Bob Marshall’s Biga Pizza is in my top three favourite pizzas

Bob Marshall’s Biga Pizza
241 West Main Street, Missoula
Lunch weekdays 11 am-3 pm, dinner Monday to Thursday 5 pm-9:30 pm, Friday-Saturday 5 pm-10 pm. Closed Sunday

Colorado
I can’t say I’ve tried enough pizza in this great culinary state to yet declare a winner. Here are some places chosen as much for character as fine pizza. One is The Sink, a graffiti-laced rabbit’s warren on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder (try the Buddah, featuring tofu, spinach and artichoke hearts). Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub and Amica’s Pizza are two good reasons for making the pilgrimage to Salida, my favourite Colorado town. Oh, they also both make their own beer.

The atmosphere rivals the Buddah pizza at The Sink in Boulder

Wyoming. Okay, I’ve only eaten pizza at one place, Lander Bar in downtown Lander. But it gets high marks for character, largely because of the boisterous, young crowd and my seatmates: three local women with a ranching heritage and a penchant for chewing tobacco. As for the pizza, it was a fine chicken and artichoke medley thrown down with a Five Pound brown lager from Lander Brewing next door. If you’ve noticed a theme here, it’s that pizza goes down well with a good craft beer. Sorry, wine just doesn’t cut it for me.

Again, the liveliness of the Lander Bar kept pace with the pizza

Lander Bar
126 Main Street, Lander
Monday to Saturday 11 am-2 am, Sunday noon-10 pm. Note: The Gannett Grill is open daily 11 am-9 pm

Canadian West

Alberta
As the name suggests, Una Pizza + Wine obviously breaks my beer-and-pizza rule. It’s also somewhat expensive ($15-20 per pizza) and often has a lineup (though it does Tweet about how long the wait is). But it’s worth bending some rules for one of the top-rated restaurants in Calgary, somewhat unusual for a place largely dedicated to pizzas. Creativity, first-class ingredients and execution are the reasons for its popularity, plus it’s a fun, noisy place to hang out. Our pizza choice is a puffy crust covered with roasted cremini mushrooms, smoked mozzarella, fresh arugula and the trump card, splashes of fragrant truffle oil. Una has also transformed the predictable Caesar salad into a mountain of kale topped with crisp Serrano ham, garlic panko, an organic egg and shaved pecorino Romano.

Una Pizza + Wine
618 17 Avenue S.W., Calgary
Daily 11:30 am-1 am

Coco Brooks also breaks some of my rules. It’s not thin crust, it’s a little heavier on the cheese and its toppings are by no means leading edge. Indeed, it pumps out the little cardboard boxes of pizza with industrial efficiency. But the Egg n Bacon is a guilty pleasure, with the soft, puffy filling offset by just a slight crunch of smoked bacon and melted mozza and aged cheddar. And at $6.29, it’s maybe the best value on this list for an individual-sized pizza.

Egg n bacon works spectacularly well at Coco Brooks

Coco Brooks
640 42 Avenue SE, #80 (two other Calgary locations)
Monday to Thursday 8 am-8 pm, Friday 8 am-9 pm, Saturday 9 am-8 pm

British Columbia

Getting the pizzas ready for the 850 F. oven at Pizzeria Prima Strada

Here’s how Pizzeria Prima Strada, in Victoria, earns its Italian certification for thin-crust Neapolitan pizza. It begins with a well-aged sourdough starter, mixed with fine-ground Caputo flour from Italy and left to rest for two days. After it’s stretched out and loaded with toppings, it goes into a 650 F. wood-fired oven for a minute, is turned and then finished for another minute in the 850 F. section. “The cook’s eyes are on the oven at all times,” the waitress tells me. My Salsiccia Piccante pizza ($15 for six substantial slices) features house-made fennel sausage, roasted peppers and mozzarella. But it’s that deliciously chewy, leopard-spotted crust that makes it a home run for me.

The sourdough crust at Pizzeria Prima Strada is among the best I've tasted

The blistered sourdough crust at Pizzeria Prima Strada is among the best I’ve tasted

Pizzeria Prima Strada
230 Cook Street (one other Victoria location)Sunday to Thursday 11:30 am-9 pm, Friday-Saturday 11:30 am-10 pm

Charming Kootenay, B.C. Communities of Nelson and Rossland

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In honour of Thör’s final Kootenay road trip

Nelson is one of the most charming small cities in western Canada with its historic downtown buildings (a legacy of previous mining and logging booms) and steep streets plunging from enveloping forest past colourful two-storey houses to the west arm of Kootenay Lake. And ah, yes, there’s the enduring hippy culture, from the excellent Kootenay Co-op (where you can get organic dishes or picnic supplies to go) to the long-haired stoners wandering through town. With its rich arts culture, it’s not hard to find a number of good places in the compact downtown to eat, sip coffee and watch the fascinating world go by.

Lush, colourful Nelson, B.C.

For those wishing to spice up their breath, The Outer Clove boasts every type of garlicky dish imaginable, though the pungent flavour is toned down somewhat from the cooking. There are several garlic pasta and chicken dishes, but I can never get past the Yum burger, a garlic-infused and incredibly moist patty accompanied by crispy sweet potato wedges. A vegetarian companion thoroughly enjoyed the Portobello mushroom burger, stuffed with roasted peppers. And of course, there’s the palate-cleansing finale of garlic chocolate cookies.

All things garlic at The Outer Clove

Garlic-infused Yum burger and sweet potato fries at The Outer Clove

The Outer Clove
536 Stanley Street
Lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday

The Full Circle Café is Nelson’s go-to breakfast joint, if you don’t mind paying a little more for first-class fare. I launch my morning with the Kick Hash ($13), a scrumptious mix of scrambled eggs, buffalo sausage, bacon, banana peppers and melted mozzarella, topped with chipotle hollandaise sauce and served with potatoes and rye bread. My companion’s Nanny Bennies ($12) features goat cheese and a lovely topping of caramelized onions. Unfortunately, we aren’t around for the weekend special of two eggs, a half rack of slow-smoked baby back ribs, pan fries and cornbread, all for a bargain $13. The restaurant is also now smoking much of the chicken breast, brisket and pork shoulder found in its sandwiches.

Lovely Kick Hash at Full Circle Cafe

Full Circle Cafe
101, 402 Baker Street
Monday to Saturday 6:30 am-2:30 pm, Sunday 7 am-2 pm

At Oso Negro Café, the swift-moving lineup goes out the door most mornings at this elegant, brightly lit café. Trendy, yes, but a great place to nurse a java while reading the paper or perusing the Internet. While Oso Negro beans can be found in stores throughout B.C., Alberta and a few points east, the espressos and brewed drinks seem to taste freshest here, a few blocks from the company’s home roasting base. The breakfast offerings are mostly limited to egg sandwiches and fresh-baked muffins.

Oso Negro Cafe is a happening morning place

Oso Negro Cafe
604 Ward Street
Monday to Saturday 7 am-6 pm, Sunday 8 am-4 pm

Note: The rest of this post is courtesy of my friends Nancy and Dennis Stefani, frequent visitors to the Kootenays. Here’s their favourite places for coffee and breakfast snacks in Nelson and Rossland, an hour’s drive away.

If you’re looking for awesome, homemade muffins in Nelson, we recommend the Dominion Café. Although they specialize in raw foods, their traditionally baked muffins are an exquisite treat, especially our favourite—orange, espresso and chocolate. Dominion also offers espresso drinks and teas.

Dominion Cafe
334 Baker Street
Monday to Saturday breakfast and lunch

Another Nelson discovery is Bean Here Now Consciousness Cafe, a unique espresso vendor. Owner Mitch Kushner operates from a mobile trailer, currently located in the old Extra Foods parking lot (corner of Hendryx and Vernon Streets). He calls his fair trade beans feral! The beans are grown and hand picked in the northern coastal mountains of Mexico. Mitch says the single-origin Capulin coffee beans are 100-per-cent sun dried, rather than water bathed, as is the case with the mass-produced commercial process, which de-natures coffee. Monday to Friday 8 am-5 pm, Saturday 10:30 am-5 pm.

Bean Here Now Consciousness Cafe offers feral coffee

The “Red Mountain” ski town of Rossland—home of gold-medal Olympian Nancy Greene Raine— is where you’ll find Alpine Grind Coffee House & Microbakery. The name may refer to the many gnarly mountain bike trails in the area (check out the Seven Summits Alpine Ridge trail ride), or the incredibly steep highway, a 600-metre elevation gain over the nine kilometres from Trail to Rossland. Or maybe it just refers to the more obvious espresso-based drinks.

House-made granola on the patio at Alpine Grind Coffee House & Microbakery in Rossland, B.C.

Alpine Grind provides a friendly atmosphere to savour its various menu offerings: homemade granola, breakfast frittatas, unique cinnamon buns, robust muffins, delicious soups, made-to-order sandwiches, hot entrees and a variety of desserts. Owner John Snelgrove is a coffee aficionado, and his shop is one of the few places in the Kootenays that does latte art.

Unique cinnamon buns at Alpine Grind Coffee House

Alpine Grind Coffee House & Microbakery
2207 Columbia Avenue, Rossland
Weekdays 7 am-5 pm, weekends 8 am-4 pm

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Marathon Mouth

Great road trip eats in western U.S. and Canada

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Best Pizza in the Mountain West

Charming Kootenay, B.C. Communities of Nelson and Rossland

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