Earlier this month I went out to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for a sales meeting. My advice is that If you ever get a chance to go out to Idaho in the summer, take it for the love of Hey-Zeus! CDA is beautiful and I would compare it to Stillwater, MN on steroids. The Coeur d’Alene Resort is the main draw to the town and towers above an extremely large lake with monstrous boats parked up on the slips. They also have a famous golf course that has a floating green.
To get out onto the course you are driven by boat (how cool would that be?!) . What I also found interesting was that the town seemed like it was run by the mob, with the mob boss being the owner of the Coeur d’Alene resort. There are a couple different stories around this:
• When we asked some of the front desk people where we should go out to eat (since we wanted to leave the resort) each one of them looked scared to even mention anywhere off the resort and told us that they could get in big trouble for even mentioning any other places and ultimately never even gave us recommendations off-site.
• After picking out a place suggested by a local we tried to get a shuttle to the place that was about 8 miles away. The van driver let us know that it would be a $250 charge. WHAT?! Obviously we took rental cars but we found the whole thing weird…
• When we got to the steak house we mentioned the situations to our waitress and joked that the steakhouse should get a shuttle down at the hotel. With fear in her eyes she said “We would never want to make them mad and we would get in sooo much trouble”.
The way that everyone’s fear shined in their eyes, we got the impression that people had lost their jobs (and maybe had hits taken out on their families – jk) for recommending the steakhouse that was a local favorite.
BUT back to the “eat” portion of my blog. Beverly’s was a surprise find and was I ever happy that it was right there in the resort! Beverly’s is a five-star restaurant right in the heart of Northern Idaho with a $2 million wine inventory. I went there a few times and do I ever have some things to talk about.
Signature Orange Rolls – I’ve never had anything like these and man were they tasty. Flaky rolls doused in a sticky citrus sauce. Wowee.
Mediterranean Chicken Salad – grilled chicken breast on organic greens tossed in a lemon-garlic vinaigrette with olive tapenade romesco, hummus, grilled pita bread, marinated grape tomatoes, roasted red peppers and roasted garlic. $12! Are you kiddin’ me? You can’t even get a salad at Perkins at that price! My Aunt Donna ordered this and I just about had a heart attack when our food came I was so impressed!
I ordered a regionally grown and caught product, the Dungeness Crab Melt – fresh Oregon Dungeness crab, rich artichoke cream cheese filling, lemon garlic aioli on toasted sourdough baguette with melted Tillamook cheddar cheese. Holy yumminess.
The next day for lunch I ordered the Dungeness Crab Cakes – panko crusted with lemon garlic aioli, chili oil, Yukon mashed potatoes and organic vegetables. The crab melt I thought was better from a taste and flavors standpoint but look at that presentation!
Other honorable mentions include the Wolf Lodge Inn and the Wine Cellar. You drive out to the Wolf Lodge thinking that you’re GPS is leading you straight into a horror movie with a weaving road and full on Freddy Krueger ending. Then when you pull up you are still wondering about what you’re in for since it looks kind of like a rundown red barn. Inside it’s filled with funny signs about hunting and fishing, decked with a few fireplaces, and waitresses dressed as cowgirls.
And THE STEAKS. The steaks are why people are driving from all corners of the Northwest to get here. The steak that I had was fantastic, juicy, perfectly cooked to medium rare, had wonderful side dishes. You can check Yelp or any restaurant review site to vouch for it. One bite and you’ll see why the resort doesn’t want to drive people to this local favorite. They also had another interesting dish that you can see below on the menu:
I had an overall wonderful couple of days and hopefully get the chance to come back to the Northwest and make my second time out there an equally as flavorsome success. : )
Eat Cook Read 
