Why Boise Is The Unexpected Capital Of Basque Cuisine

In the past decade or so, Boise, Idaho has attracted attention as one of the most livable cities in the country. The bustling downtown, once nearly dead, regularly shows up on best-of lists for its food and drink scene. What many people may not realize is that Idaho's capital is also the center of America's Basque immigrant population and, as such, has a thriving, homegrown Basque food scene. From historic boarding houses to elegant sit-down dining (and everything in between), Basque food has been an integral part of the Boise culinary identity for decades, delighting both locals and visitors.

Basques arrived in Idaho, California, and Nevada as part of a larger migration to North and South America in 19th and early 20th century. Drawn by familiar landscapes and the opportunity for ranching, they brought with them a rustic, yet complex cuisine. Today, 16,000 people of Basque descent call the greater Boise area their home, the largest concentration in the U.S. 

Thanks in part to the efforts of the city's Basque Center and museum, a walk along the Basque Block in downtown Boise is the easiest way for visitors to sample a cross section of traditional and modern dishes and learn about Basque history and culture. Get ready to discover delicacies like Basque sausages, stews, lamb dishes, talo, and specialty pintxos (tapas). Or make your own: "The Book of Pintxos" was a top cookbook for the holiday season last year.

The Basque homeland is a contested area that straddles Spain and France. While there are influences from both countries, the Basque people have a unique culture and isolated language called Euskara. They arrived in North and South America, escaping conflicts, in distinct waves from the 1830s to the 1930s. Many Basque men took up sheepherding, while other men and women set up boarding houses and businesses. Boarding houses offered family-style dining and mountains of food, distinguishing the Basque experience in the U.S.

"There were two key components that helped make Boise's Basque culture a culinary destination," says Toni Lawson, Vice President of Government Relations for the Idaho Hospital Association, and a former board member of the Basque Center and Museum. To her, "having the Basque Center and the boarding house downtown," sets Boise apart. Lawson (who lived for a decade in the Basque country) says those institutions served as safe cultural spaces for early immigrants. Eventually they acted as a catalyst for what's now called Basque Block.

By 1941, Boiseans of all stripes were dining at Benito and Asuncion Ysursa's Valencia Restaurant and Hotel on Idaho Street. In 1991, Bar Gernika — a now-iconic fixture of Old Boise — introduced the city to Basque wines, beef tongue sandwiches, and its crave-worthy croquetas: creamy, deep-fried nuggets filled with chicken, onion, and milk. Today there are three restaurants, a market, deli, and numerous events and festivals in Basque Square. Even more Basque restaurants are scattered throughout the metro area.

Boise's Basque culture and its cuisine are continually changing with the times. Because of the importance of sheepherding for Basques in the U.S., for example, lamb plays a bigger role on menus here than in Europe (the same way challah bread changed in America). These days, you'll find a blend of Idahoan and Basque ingredients and recipes, like Leku Ona's dish of Idaho trout with homemade Basque chorizo on the side. Of course you'll find Basque cheesecake, itself a relatively new addition to the culture's cuisine. Boise's contemporary Basque scene includes the boutique hotel and craft cocktail bar The Modern, opened by Elizabeth Tullis in 2007. Her grandmother opened the original Modern, a Basque boarding house, in the 1930s. The cuisine even has its own fusion food: a Basque-Vietnamese food truck called Basquenese.

"To me, that's one of the things that shows it's alive," says Toni Lawson of Boise's Basque scene. She notes traditional menus have shifted as dishes from various regions are incorporated. Lawson says most of the city's first-generation immigrants came from the Spanish part of the Basque country ("we call it The South"), but now you'll find French-influenced dishes and desserts too. Talo, an old country, hard-to-master flatbread, has recently appeared in Boise (Lawson says she's been informally dubbed the Talo Queen).

Dive deep into Boise's Basque culture by attending a festival. Each year the city hosts a multi-day San Inazio festival at the end of July. In 2025, however, catch Jaialdi July 29th to August 3. The massive Basque-centric event, attracting tens of thousands of visitors, takes place every five years.