Ethnic Restaurants Carve Niche In Competitive North Idaho Market

Restaurants and fast food places continue to find and fill niches in the expanding North Idaho market.

A few years ago, finding a niche here simply meant something different such as “just a Chinese place” or “just a Mexican place.”

Now, however, our market has plenty of “Chinese” and “Mexican” places. I put these words in quotes because these terms have gotten to be generic when it comes to food. So, to carve out a niche ethnic restaurants have to specialize in foods from certain parts of Asia or certain states of Mexico.

Two new ethnic restaurants plan to find success with their special niches.

The Taco Dude Cafe uses its unlikely name to indicate that while it offers prices comparable to fast food Mexican places (the “Taco Dude” portion), it offers products with some class (the “Cafe” portion).

Hence, my 18-year-old daughter describes the 415 Sherman Ave. place as “affordable, like Senor Froggies, with glass plates.”

Owners LeAnne and Tom Blount describe their fare as “Mexican Southwest cuisine, not typical Mexican, not fast food. It’s served quickly, but not greasy,” LeAnne said. “All foods can be veggie style, and our meats are seasoned Southwest style. The spiciness of the salsa is up to you.”

Yes, Taco Dude Cafe uses glass plates, with candlelight at night. The Blounts hope to attract the North Idaho College crowd with music in the evenings, fruit smoothies and espressos. Located across from Crickets, the restaurant (in the space formerly occupied by the Flavor Factory) seats 50 customers inside and outside. It has five employees.

Originally from Maine and Arizona respectively, LeAnne and Tom came to Coeur d’Alene this year from Kauai, Hawaii, where they had a Taco Dude.

Deciding to leave Hawaii when they began their family, they gathered destination possibilities at a library by using their preferences, including “four seasons” and “low crime.” They visited North Idaho last November when the area had snow.

“But it wasn’t too cold,” LeAnne explained. “We loved it. We’re glad we came.”

Turning to Asian foods, Mark Jensen and his two brothers have three Mongolian BBQ restaurants in the Boise area and plan to open more in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.

Although they aren’t ready to publicize the locations, they plan to open in Post Falls before Christmas and in downtown Coeur d’Alene in 1996.

I enjoyed a Mongolian barbecue restaurant back east earlier this month, and spies tell me they really like the places in Boise.

Mark Jensen describes the fare as a “somewhat Americanized Oriental stir fry.

“Customers choose from three sizes of plates and go through a buffet where they can choose from 20 different fresh vegetables and noodles, four meats and 16 (!) sauces,” Jensen said. “A chef ‘rotates’ the food on a Mongolian grill and sweeps it onto a clean plate.”

The restaurants draw their name from the type of grill they use, a 4-foot circular grill over a gas flame. Jensen said it comes from the original fast food as Mongolian ruler Ghengis Khan needed a way to cook fast but tasty meals when he was rampaging Asia in the 13th century.

The North Idaho restaurants each should seat about 100 customers and should employ about 20 people.

A Coeur d’Alene Farmers’ Market has expanded to downtown from 4-7 p.m. Wednesdays (today) on Sixth Street between Sherman Avenue and Front Street (off the northeast corner of McEuen Park).

Vendors will offer fresh produce, plants, flowers, herbs, dried flowers and arrangements and arts and crafts through the growing season. Free parking is available in the city lot on Front Street and on surrounding streets.

Sponsors are the Kootenai County Farmers’ Market, which offers its wares Saturday mornings at Highway 95 and Prairie Avenue, and the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association.

Have you noticed the new clock in the classic-looking L-shaped mini mall in the northwest corner of Government Way and Ironwood Drive, Coeur d’Alene?

The tower above the second floor in the apex of the mall faces the intersection, and a clock is the perfect idea for a touch of practical class. Nice going to Parkwood Properties, which developed the facility.

Oh, the Mountain West Saving Bank that the mall borders will be completed at the end of September.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Nils Rosdahl The Spokesman-Review