This Boise building has ‘character.’ It’s being transformed into a restaurant
When Gordon Speagle is asked to describe the building that he and his wife envision as their future restaurant and bakery, the phone goes momentarily silent.
“I would say it is —” he begins, words trickling off as he chuckles. “I’d say it has some character.”
Located at the intersection of Emerald and Garden streets — at 802 N. Garden St., specifically — the worn white structure with peeling paint doesn’t look like much. Not yet. Residents on the Boise Bench might remember it as a secondhand store for toys, or decades ago, a neighborhood market.
But Speagle and his wife, Kaya, have a fresh, ambitious vision for the roughly 1,100-square-foot, century-old structure. Upgrading the space with a 900-square-foot addition, they hope to open The Dusty Miller, a breakfast and lunch cafe — and bakery — by midsummer.
“It has that look — that old Boise look — that we really like,” Gordon Speagle explains.
He’s from Illinois. Kaya grew up in the Boise area. When the couple lived in Champaign, she “built her first bakery, Hopscotch, from humble Mason jar cakes at an Illinois farmers market,” as The Dusty Miller’s website explains, “into a beloved Champaign neighborhood institution.”
When they relocated to Idaho with their children in 2024, it was time for the next step. With a penchant for house-milled flour, the Speagles launched Dusty Miller Goods last year, a bakery and gift shop at 2518 W. Main St. in Boise. A pastry chef, Kaya cooks out of a nearby commercial ghost kitchen.
When The Dusty Miller opens on Garden Street, kitchen operations will be moved there, Gordon says. And although it will be a bakery, brunch service will be a major focus, too.
“We are still kind of planning out the menu,” Gordon says. “I think it’s going to be traditional upscale American, I would say. And just interesting kind of brunch. Comfort food with a twist.”
In Champaign, the Speagles started Hopscotch in an older building that required TLC. So when it comes to their Boise fixer-upper, “we kind of knew what we were getting into,” Gordon says.
Construction on The Dusty Miller should start by March 1, he adds.
“There’s potential. We’re pretty excited about it — the Central Rim, the whole neighborhood,” Gordon says.
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 2:26 PM.