Eating and drinking in Alpine, Wyoming has been interesting. Dining out options are limited. There are two saloons—the Bull Moose and the Tavern on the Greys—and a motel with a sometimes-open dining room, the Flying Saddle. There is Melvin Brewing, with fantastic outdoor seating on the edge of the reservoir, and casual and tasty bar food. There are three Mexican restaurants: the Taco Bus, Tienda la Mexicana, and La Cabana del Tequila, as well as the iconic Yankee Doodle Café, where even the sugar at each table is colored red, white, and blue. It’s a deep dive into swaggering Americana. But I’m not comfortable with the open carry policy.
We mostly cook at home, the trout that John catches from the Greys, the Salt, or the Snake Rivers, or what we can procure from Broulims, the local supermarket. But on Fridays, we often have pizza from Driftwood, with the kids choosing plain cheese and pepperoni, and my personal favorite—the Lakeside pizza, which features prosciutto, artichokes, spinach, and feta cheese. It was a routine that was established the first night I landed in Alpine, back in May 2021, when Joe and John drove our belongings from Colorado to Wyoming for our next tour of grandkid duty. Sadly, that pizza tradition will come to an end this month, when the restaurant closes. Are there any pizza makers out there who need an establishment with an already very high benchmark?
There used to be a great mini-donut shop with tasty cake donuts with fancy toppings, but it closed two years ago. So Kirk and I made donuts, using a recipe from Cardamom and Tea’s blog, and he had fun with the project—especially the eating part, with Iris.
On our last trip to Idaho Falls, John and I took the kids to the Farmers Market before going to the zoo, and they opted for corndogs (hey, anything goes on your last outing with your grands.) We also had ice cream at the Berry’s Square Ice Cream pitstop in Swan Valley. (No photo of the square ice cream scooper. That was not allowed.)
A trip to Graze restaurant in Etna was another highlight of my last week. Cynthia treated me to an early birthday lunch, and I veered off my usual avocado toast order to try a fried chicken sandwich. It provided a bonus lunch the following day when I ate the other half.
There was also a pickled turnip project, thanks to friend Paula, who provided a beet for color. It wasn’t anything the kids would try, but it made a very nice palate cleanser on an appetizer platter. The remainder of her beet-hemoth became a roasted beet and apple salad. Paula also delivered a bag of apples from her tree, which made a tart applesauce that was especially tasty at this time of year, paired with pork tenderloin.
But all of that is old news, exit news. The new news is Alpine has a Thai restaurant—Neon Tiger—and it is excellent. We were there for their soft opening a week ago and enjoyed their appetizers, interesting drinks, and watching the kids play cornhole in the big outdoor dining space next to the elk refuge. The owner, Ryan Haworth, and his Thai wife, Sununta, the chef/kitchen mastermind, have other Thai restaurants in Jackson and Driggs and are very familiar with the process. The restaurant is just launching and is expected to flourish in Alpine. It’s a whole new ball game in dining.
That’s the update from Wyoming. That’s how we eat and drink out here. My next post will be from the East Coast. Kirk and Iris will be caught up with Halloween this month, turn around, and it will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas. They will be too busy to miss us. But I miss them already and this very interesting chapter of life in western Wyoming. Time to move on. Giddy up!
