Plan now for Savor Idaho and Shore Lodge Culinary Festival

Now is the time to purchase tickets if you plan to attend the ninth annual Savor Idaho.

VIP tickets already are sold out for the food and drink celebration, which will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. June 11 at the Idaho Botanical Garden, 2355 Old Penitentiary Road.

But you can still get general admission tickets for “Idaho’s premier wine and food event,” which sells out each year in advance.

This year’s lineup includes more than 24 Idaho wineries and cideries, in addition to about a dozen local restaurants, bakeries, caterers and specialty food producers. Here’s how it works: Buy a general admission ticket ($45 per person), and you’ll receive a commemorative wine class and access to wine tasting and small bites galore.

Participating wineries include Huston Vineyards, Colter’s Creek Winery, Coiled Wines, Koenig Vineyards, Split Rail Winery and Hells Canyon Winery, to drop a few names. Longdrop Cider Co. and Meriwether Cider also will be there pouring samples of hard cider.

In terms of food, you’ll taste goodies from City Peanut Shop, Bardenay, Amaru Confections, Angell’s Bar and Grill-Renato, Kanak Attack Katering, Lucky Fins, Zeppole Baking Company and more.

For tickets, go to savoridaho.org.

Shore Lodge Culinary Festival

Make plans now to attend the fourth annual Shore Lodge Culinary Festival on April 7-9 at Shore Lodge, 501 W. Lake St., in McCall.

This event has been building steam since its inception. Each year the culinary soiree, held at the Shore Lodge Pavilions and the Narrows Restaurant, adds new features to the schedule.

This year’s festivities will kick off on April 7 at 6 p.m. with four simultaneous cooking classes ($51.36 per person) and a meet and greet with the invited chefs.

On Saturday, April 8, the Culinary King of the Mountain Competition will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Some of the best chefs in the Boise area and beyond will go head to head in this fun cooking competition. Participating chefs include Dave Shipley (Capitol Cellars), Jesus Alcelay (Cottonwood Grille), Kris Ott (Fork and Alavita) and Julian Greaves (Whitetail Club). A panel of judges will taste the individual dishes and crown the winner. Longtime Boise chef Alan Turner is the emcee for the event, which is free to the public.

Also that day, there will be a farmer’s and fair-trade market (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and a wine education class ($32.10 per person) from 3 to 4 p.m.

Later in the evening, at 6:30 p.m., enjoy a five-course winemaker’s dinner ($139.96 per person) at the Narrows Restaurant. Each course will be paired with a select wine from the Wagner Family of Wine, featuring Caymus Vineyard labels from Napa Valley.

The event will conclude on April 9 with a lavish Sunday champagne brunch ($57.78 per person) at 9 a.m.

Prices include tax and gratuity. You will need to make reservations for the cooking classes, the wine education class, the winemaker’s dinner and the Sunday brunch.

For reservations, call (800) 657-6464 or visit shorelodge.com. The website also has hotel lodging and festival packages (starting at $490 per person) available that weekend.

Menu change at Juniper

Juniper, 211 N. 8th St., recently introduced a new menu that features different Cut, Catch and Pasta choices each day.

“We are constantly trying to evolve and change. We want our menu to stay fluid and for our guests’ choices to change daily,” co-owner Kacey Montgomery says. “This gives our chef de cuisine the opportunity to constantly source new items and create new dishes.”

He’s talking about chef Aaron Wermerskirchen, a talented guy who tweaks the menu about every six to eight weeks.

The specials on the Cut (beef, pork or lamb), Catch (typically finfish) and Pasta of the day are market priced.

Other noteworthy picks on the all-day menu include fried Idaho catfish with cabbage slaw and piquant harissa aioli ($11), strawberry-cucumber salad ($9), spicy duck confit ramen ($16), blackened Idaho trout ($16) and a Reuben sandwich made on rye with Lava Lake Lamb, purple sauerkraut and fry sauce ($12).

In Juniper bar news, some new libations will be added to the current cocktail list in mid-April, and Julia Waddle was recently hired as the bar manager. She formerly worked at 900 Wall in Bend, Ore.

Online: juniperon8th.com.

BSU brings in food trucks

Boise State University’s Dining Services has lined up a rotating selection of food trucks to help feed the masses on and around campus this spring. Through the end of the semester, May 5, mobile food vendors will be set up in three locations from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The trucks will be dishing out food at the greenhouses near the Multipurpose Classroom Building (2110 University Drive), next to the Clearwater Apartments (660 S. Clearwater Lane) on University Drive, and in the Micron Engineering plaza (1020 S. Manitou Ave.).

Awesome Burger, Kono Pizza, Waffle Me Up, Tiki Teriyaki, The Rusty Dog and El Gallo Giro will take turns setting up at these spots on alternating weeks.

To check out the weekly schedule, go to boisestate.campusdish.com.

Cloud 9 Brewery to expand

Cloud 9 Brewery, 1750 W. State St., a nano brewpub in Boise’s North End, plans to double the size of its kitchen and seating space, increase its storage and add a bathroom. The brewery operation will remain the same size, co-owner and cook Maggie Lake says.

Lake and her husband, Jake, Cloud 9’s head brewer, will expand their restaurant’s seating and kitchen into the space next door now occupied by Queen Nails & Spa. Queen Nails will move to another storefront in the same shopping center in late May or early June. Cloud 9 will remain open during the expansion.

The first step will be to increase Cloud 9’s patio seating over the summer. The full Cloud 9 should be completed and open sometime in the fall.

“Hopefully before or by Oktoberfest,” Maggie Lake says.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Plan now for Savor Idaho and Shore Lodge Culinary Festival."