‘Old-school’ Boise bar opens with cheap drinks, happy dogs. ‘People are loving it’
When Gene and Erin Hutchison shuttered the Piper Pub & Grill in 2018 to make way for progress, it was the end of an era for a downtown Boise staple.
After 29 years, the writing was on the wall. The Piper had been put on a month-to-month lease. The renovated space at what is now Main + Marketplace ultimately was filled with a corporate chain replacement, Tupelo Honey.
“It’s sad,” Gene Hutchison told the Statesman prior to closing.
Seven years later, the Hutchisons are back — with a new watering hole: Black Dog Bar. And if you’re an Idahoan who pines for a simpler time, this might be your new favorite drinking destination.
“People,” Hutchison says, “are loving it.”
Located at 420 N. Orchard St. in the former New Colony Beer Co. space, Black Dog Bar is named in honor of the Hutchisons’ first dog, Rascal. Canines are welcome inside.
Beyond that, what makes the bar attractive in 2025 is its traditional appeal. Sports banners. Sports on TVs. One pool table. Two dartboards. A Golden Tee machine.
And drink prices that don’t add up to a car payment.
A whiskey and Coke (or any other well drink)? Four bucks. A pint of beer? $4 domestic, $5 craft. A 32-ounce schooner? $7 or $8.
Black Dog also offers a two-for-one-happy hour until 6 p.m. weekdays for beer, well drinks and house wine.
It isn’t a dive bar, exactly. It’s clean and well-lit.
Black Dog is “just a local, neighborhood, old-school kind of bar where people can bring in their dogs and hang out,” Hutchison says. “... We’re not going the speakeasy style that everyone does. We’re not doing the dark, and the 8-minute drinks, and the fancy pouring. We’re just making simple drinks. Our costs are really good.”
Keeping prices competitive make sense with longtime bars the Navajo Room and McCleary’s Pub nearby on the Bench.
Black Dog also plans to launch food service, either through a kitchen inside or a food trailer behind the building. “Your burgers and wings and nachos and fried food,” Hutchison says. A “few old Piper Pub favorites” will be resurrected, too, “because people loved our fish and chips, and people liked our burgers.”
For now, there’s a food truck outside, normally Thursdays through Saturdays. And bargoers are welcome to haul in their own eats. “McDonald’s is right next door,” he said.
Black Dog Bar is open 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 4 p.m. to midnight Fridays and 3 p.m. to midnight Saturdays. By the end of summer, most likely, “my plan is once I start serving food, I’ll be open seven days,” he says.
The Hutchisons, who also own Capital City Event Center in downtown Boise, definitely took their time getting back into the bar business. They even looked for real estate in Meridian, Gene says.
In the end, it appears, the wait has paid off — for them, and for Boiseans longing for a welcoming, affordable, dog-friendly bar.
“I wasn’t in a hurry,” Hutchison says, “but I just wanted to find the right spot.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 3:45 PM.