Sandbar restaurant in Marsing reopens — with a charitable twist

The Sandbar restaurant closed in 2015, leaving Marsing residents and those who live in the nearby Sunnyslope area of Caldwell in a lurch when it came to eating lunch.

Well, good news, folks. The restaurant, at 18 Sandbar Ave., recently reopened under new management with an entirely different mission. The Sandbar: Café with a Cause is now a nonprofit organization with a goal to feed low-income seniors and disabled citizens in the area with its in-house and Meals on Wheels programs.

Here’s what it means for diners: Patrons 60 and older who qualify through registration at the restaurant can get a meal whether they can pay for it or not. The prices are a suggested donation. Those who are under 60 can get affordable dishes from the breakfast and lunch menus, and it supports a great cause.

The all-day breakfast menu (offered from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday) has fat omelets, French toast, pancakes and breakfast sandwiches, including a buttery Monte Cristo sandwich ($7.50) made with fried ham and cheddar. Or bust your gut with apple pancakes ($7.50) served with two eggs any style and sides of bacon and breakfast sausage.

At lunchtime (11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday), the menu is all about burgers, sandwiches and fish and chips. Noteworthy picks include a pulled pork Cuban sandwich ($7.25) and a Gorgonzola burger ($8) gussied up with sautéed mushrooms and tangy onion jam, served with fries or a house salad. There’s also a baked potato and salad bar ($7.95) that gets set up daily.

And of course, there are plenty of Idaho wines (made right across the Snake River from town) to wash everything down.

To learn more about the organization, visit thesandbarinmarsing.org.

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Sandbar restaurant in Marsing reopens — with a charitable twist."