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Bars where Pete has had a Drink (5,608 bars; 1,754 bars in Seattle) - Click titles below for Lists:


Bars where Pete has had a drink

Sunday, December 23, 2012

#1863 - Beside the Mill, McCall, ID - 8/23/2011


"Beside the Mill" is the popular lounge portion of "The Mill" steakhouse in McCall. I've been there several times before, but never got it onto this list.  The buildings were remodeled from the Mile High Motel and Cabins into a restaurant and lounge (then the Green Lantern) in the late 50s.  One of the cabins had been used in 1937 to shoot a scene from "Northwest Passage," starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, and Walter Brennan.


 The interior is decorated in the now-familiar style of antiques hanging from the ceiling and upper walls -- tricycles, bicycles, and wagon; toys, sports items, and hunting trophies.  Much of the walls are covered by large, yellowed paintings of 19th century French street cafe scenes. There is a central bar surrounded by two levels of seats, with pool, shuffleboard and other games in the outer level.  The cocktails, wine, and beer options are pretty standard, and there is a mix of ages, but the crowd tends to be on the younger side, with more tourists than locals.




326 North 3rd Street McCall, ID 83638 - (208) 634-4441        
Est. 1989 (restaurant established 1971) 
Previous bars in this location: The Green Lantern
Web site: themillmccallidaho.com 

#1862 - Notch 8 Taphouse, McCall, ID - 8/23/2011

Notch 8 is a new beer mecca (51 on tap), which also sells comfort food, in an old railroad station on a bluff in McCall, Idaho.



411 Railroad Ave, McCall, ID 83638 - (208) 634-7700
Est. July 2012
Previous bars in this location: Chapala's
Web site: facebook
Reviews: rangewriter - tripadvisor

#1861 - Kahili Club, New Meadows, ID - 8/23/2011

The Kahili Club is much more classic small town dive bar than tiki.  The few hints of tiki-ness, beside the name, are a sign here and there and a couple quasi-tiki figurines.  But it is a quite nice local bar, with nightly dinner specials, photos of the old time regulars, and a warning sign commemorating a trip to Riggins when the owner and a friend passed out in front of the police station and were banned from town.  We were served stiff drinks and pleasant conversation from Gretchen, bartender and owner's girlfriend.





317 Virginia Street New Meadows, ID 83654 - (208) 347-3485
Reviews: tripadvisor

Saturday, December 22, 2012

#1860 - Lake Grill at Shore Lodge, McCall, ID - 8/22/2011

I don't know how old the "Lake Grill" name is, but this has been the bar area of the log cabin style Shore Lodge since 1949. The lodge itself opened in 1948, on the side of the Payette River once called "Lardo," and on the grounds of the old Shellworth campground, where campers once included Bannock Indians on their annual summer migration to White Bird to fish for salmon. Just eleven years later my parents spent their honeymoon at the lodge, so it was nice to return with them for an anniversary dinner, just a few days after this particular visit to meet an old high school friend who happened to be in the area.

The Shore Lodge is a sort of keystone of the Idaho recreational town of McCall.  It has been restored to its original name and reopened to locals and all visitors after two decades in the hands of a Montgomery Burns sort of ownership. Originally designed to be unpretentious, in 1989 it was acquired by a San Diego real-estate developer in a hostile take-over, and in 1999 was closed for two years for extensive remodeling.  When it was reopened, it was as a private club for high-end clientele, with rooms starting at $385 a night, and renamed "Whitetail Lodge."

Happily, a grandson of local grocery magnate Joe Albertson eventually got control of the lodge, and reverted it back from a plutocrat's private club to the sort of open, nice but affordable community destination that he remembered as a boy: "My grandparents and parents built a cabin in McCall in 1957, 58. Growing up, spending time in McCall with my family, are the best memories I have. Taking our boats to Shore Lodge for Saturday night BBQ on the patio, having the chef prepare a large Mackinaw trout that my grandfather caught in the lake ..." (justluxe)  They even restored the old sign.

The Lake Grill includes a patio looking out across the Payette Lake. It is not a great bar, in terms of either character or quality of cocktails, but it is quite a good destination for a nice dinner, particularly on a warm evening in central Idaho.



501 West Lake Street McCall, ID 83638 - (800) 657-6464
Est. July 3, 1948 (lodge), May 1, 1949 (current bar area),

Web site: shorelodge.com - facebook  
Reviews: link - tripadvisor - justluxe (nice lodge photos) - McCall's Historic Shore Lodge

Friday, December 21, 2012

#1859 - Si Bueno Southside Grill and Cantina, McCall, ID - 8/21/2011

Update: Si Bueno closed July 19, 2019

This is a pleasant place just across the street from the little McCall Airport (hence the tail of the airplane sticking out the top of the roof). They serve very average American Mexican food, steaks, margaritas and cocktails.  My favorite review comment comes from April R. on Foursquare:

    "I am the only female in this place. The odds are good, but the goods are ODD."

339 Deinhard Lane McCall, ID 83638 - (208) 634-2128

Est. 1989 (bar section, 1978 as restaurant - Closed July 19, 2019 - Building constructed: 1978
Previous bars in this location: None
Web site: sibueno.com
Reviews: tripadvisor - yelp - urbanspoon

#1858 - The Donnelly Club, Donnelly, ID - 8/21/2011

AKA just "The Club."  A nice enough place, but a little tame and uneventful after the Valley Club.

Of course it's probably less so on a Saturday night; a myspace post from 2009 says "GIRLS BRING YOUR GO GO BOOTS will have a Go Go stage set up for the party girls.Must keep your clothes."

I wonder how many women in Donnelly, Idaho have gogo boots?


256 N Main St, Donnelly, ID 83615 - (208) 325-8770              
Reviews: foursquare - yelp - urbanspoon

Thursday, December 20, 2012

#1857 - Valley Club, Cascade, ID - 8/21/2011



It's 2:00 on a Tuesday afternoon and the Valley Club in Cascade is rollicking. Folks at the bar are yelling insults at the guys playing pool and vice versa. Raucous laughter can be heard as soon as you approach the baby blue cinder block building from outside. And it's not just a momentary thing -- it is a fairly continuous stream of laughter and shouts from raspy-voiced women and ornery old men.

Inside there are pictures of eagles and John Wayne on the walls.  There's a trainee bartender learning the ropes -- not some doe-eyed 22-year old, but a sixty-ish lady with great big hair and abundant blue-green eye shadow.  If you like a lively dive, this is clearly the place to be in Valley County.


The small town of Cascade now subsists largely on tourism, despite the recent bankruptcy of the lavish Tamarack Resort just across the Cascade Reservoir (now renamed "Lake Cascade" to better comport with the nature theme of the area's attractions), and despite the much larger tourist town of McCall lying some 30 miles north.  Many ranchers remain in the area, but the last of the lumber companies left when the Boise Cascade sawmill shut down in 2001, for lack of further timber resources made available by the U.S. government.  But the Valley Club is no tourist magnet, and that's a key to its greatness.



115 N Main St, Cascade, ID 83611 - (208) 382-3416
Est. 1946
Reviews: dumpsdivesanddrunkards - urbanspoon

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

#1856 - Long Branch Saloon, Horseshoe Bend, ID - 8/21/2011

This is exactly the bar you would want in Horseshoe Bend.  Sure the Riverside Cafe down the street has the view -- sitting on the back patio along that bend in the Payette river that gives the town its name.  But the Long Branch is the one that feels like it is serious about being a bar -- with an old western saloon feel, vintage signs from the area, animal heads on the wall, and its own dusty back patio.  A nifty stop for  drink when you are passing through Horseshoe Bend.




473 Idaho 55 Horseshoe Bend, ID 83629 - (208) 793-2762
Reviews: tripadvisor - yelp

#1855 - Corner Cafe Bar and Grill, Horseshoe Bend, ID - 8/21/2011

The Corner Cafe Bar and Grill is a pretty average bar in an average restaurant in a large, barn-like building in the small town of Horseshoe Bend, Idaho.  They have nine bar taps, televisions playing sports, wifi and pool tables.




446 Idaho 55, Horseshoe Bend, ID 83629 - (208) 793-3374
Web site: cornercafeidaho.com - facebook
Reviews:  yelp

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

#1854 - Jim's Alibi, Boise, ID - 8/20/2011

Hanging in Bullshit Corner did not prevent me from getting the
BS Swatter treatment from Tristina, at Jim's Alibi, in Boise, ID
Jim's Alibi is a faithful dive bar.  It is open 365 days a year; there waiting for you on Christmas, Thanksgiving, whenever you feel like dropping in.  It's available in the morning and the middle of the day. It offers you all the activities you expect in a modern dive bar: karaoke, eight ball, bingo. And it is faithful in keeping your activities inside safe from the prying eyes of outsiders -- there are no windows. If you need an alibi, it's not because Jim's let you down.

2710 Broadway Avenue Boise, ID 83706 - (208) 342-9220
Est. 1983 (Jim's Alibi, the Alibi has been around longer)
Previous bars at this location:  Happy Hour Tavern
Web site: jimsalibi.com - facebook
Reviews: sneakysunday - boiseweekly - yelp

Sunday, December 09, 2012

#1853 - Moe's Place, Garden City, ID - 8/20/2011

You can pretty much know Moe's Place from the moment you pull into the parking lot. A big, open space between city and suburbs, with no particular attraction except cheap alcohol, a youngish crowd, and the distractions from mixing the two. You see the signage with the sort of sparkling font you might see at a low budget strip joint, and you can pretty much deduce that this place has much more than its share of fights and moron melodrama, and hence it probably changes owners every couple years or so. But if your life is going nowhere and you think the best way to fix that is Jack and Cokes, you might want to get down to Moe's -- or whatever it's called for now.

3933 W. Chinden Blvd., Garden City, Idaho 83714 - 208-343-1243
Est. 2011


Reviews: boiseweekly - neurolux

#1852 - The Stagecoach, Garden City, ID - 8/20/2011

This is a classic, mid-century steakhouse lounge, dark and romantic in a slightly shabby way. It claims to be the oldest family-owned restaurant in the Boise area, run by the family of founder Willie Schrier from 1959 to 2007, when it was acquired by another local family.  It is unabashedly old school, with red  naugahyde booths, fringe leather server outfits, and a sort of gamblers after-hours atmosphere.  The drinks are classic dive bar -- moderately priced and poured with a heavy hand. The food is classic middle-American steakhouse, with the best known dish among the locals being the large, breaded bar prawns.




3132 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, ID 83714 - (208) 342-4161
Est. 1959

Web site: stagecoachboise.com - facebook
Reviews: urbanspoon - boiseweekly - yelp