New Cd'A Restaurant Triple Whammy

I grew up a 4 minute bike ride away from Ponderosa Springs Golf Course and spent much of my youth hiding in the bushes that cover the little creek that runs between it and French Gulch Road. The memories are generally fond, barring the time I went wading in the creek and came out with little brown leeches clung to my leg, much to my mother's horror and dismay. My mom's best friend used to run the bar inside the clubhouse of the vintage 9-hole course, and when she married my stepdad almost 15 years ago, it's where they had their wedding reception party. My cousins and I got drunk and danced to the Ray Stone Band with the old ladies of the family. Good times.

So I was delighted to find out recently that the old clubhouse re-opened last week as the Backwoods Grill, under the seasoned watch of Anthony and Michelle Hall, former owners of Cd'A's much-lauded Anthony's Midtown Bistro. Things aren't looking so gourmet this time around, with old-fashioned stick-to-your-ribs breakfasts and sandwiches and burgers for lunch on the agenda. More importantly, they have a full bar and lots of open space to twirl around in once you've had your usual 6 shots of Jagermeister. Oh wait, maybe that's just me.

The Backwoods Grill is now open at 1291 Galena Drive. Hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., 7 days a week.

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Further into the future, specifically around May, will see the opening of the Garnet Cafe, located behind Syringa on 4th St., where Anthony's Midtown Bistro used to be. Details are a bit fuzzy at this point since all that seems to exist is a Facebook fan page, but I do believe the man with the plan is Viljo Basso, who is the Sushi God that brought Syringa into the world and made it such an incredible fabulosity for all us undeserving Cd'A sushi-heads.

Garnet Cafe's Facebook page does however offer a few clues. Among garnet's favorite Facebook pages are "Pancakes", "Bacon", and "Coffee in the Morning". The only entry so far in their discussion area poses the ever-important question "Bacon - How do you like it cooked? Rare, med-rare, medium, crisp?" and goes on to say that along with bacon, vegetarian dishes will be on the menu. So for now I guess we will just have to keep our bacony, pancakey, coffee-ey selves patient until more details unfold...

The Garnet Cafe will be located at 315 Walnut Ave in Cd'A.

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Also opening this week (I think) is the Texas Roadhouse on US95, which I can't really get too excited about because A) it's a chain restaurant and B) after experiencing nirvana at Famous Willie's BBQ in Post Falls (see this week's review), I can't imagine them coming anywhere close to such perfection.

So that you're up to speed, I will copy and paste Nils Rosdahl's news from November about the subject below, without permission, because I can't be arsed to write about it myself:

"Coeur d’Alene will become the farthest Northwest home of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain when it occupies an existing building at 402 W. Neider Ave. in late March. The building originally was an auto parts store and most recently housed a log furniture business.

Now with about 310 restaurants in 44 states, Texas Roadhouse specializes in barbecue items and features steaks, ribs, burgers, chicken and fish and has sides of salads, chili, bread and a kids’ menu. The places also have a section selling apparel and music items.

With its headquarters in Louisville, Ky., the chain’s Web site indicates the company is looking for additional sites in the Northwest and California. The company has three restaurants in Southern Idaho and one in central Montana. A spokeswoman in Louisville said each restaurant usually employs about 150 people. The renovation building permit for Coeur d’Alene is for $750,000."

If anyone gets a chance to check this place out, please share your thoughts in the comments below. Meanwhile, it's off to the K-Mart Cafeteria for this broke-ass bitch. The K-Mart Cafeteria is long gone you say? Rats, I guess it's cigarettes for lunch. Again.