Asian Restaurants Are Multiplying Rapidly In Coeur D’Alene Market

If you crave Asian food, Coeur d’Alene can satisfy that need. The Lake City added two Thai restaurants in the past year, and will have a Mongolian restaurant and a new Chinese place this fall.

Mongolian Barbeque plans to sizzle its way into diners’ hearts and mouths with a choose-your-own stir fry menu in the addition under construction at Ironwood Square. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant will be around the corner and east of the new Staples office supply store (next to Payless Drugs) and facing Government Way.

The restaurant is planning to open in mid-October.

It will include a food bar offering choices of about a dozen different veggies, noodles, pork, chicken, beef and crab, along with about 10 sauces.

You choose the ingredients and a chef stir-fries it in front of you. The restaurant won’t serve beer or wine because neighboring Albertson’s evidently has a non-compete clause in its contract.

From 15 to 20 employees will serve 84 tables. Take-out service will be available. Lunches will sell for about $5, dinners a bit more.

Owners are sisters Angella Wigton and Alisa Jensen and their father, David Jensen of Sandpoint. His brother Mark has four Mongolian Barbeque restaurants in the Boise area. Angella, a University of Idaho business graduate now living in Hayden, and Alisa of Boise will manage the Coeur d’Alene store.

Golden Express Chinese Food will open Aug. 31 in the space now occupied by the Dim Sum Inn in the food court of Silver Lake Mall along U.S. Highway 95.

The cafeteria-style store will offer about 15 types of Asian food, including traditional dishes featuring sweet and sour chicken, almond chicken, teriyaki chicken and beef-rice bowls.

Owner is Kevin Saw, who came to the United States from Burma in 1980. He has been in North Idaho more than three years.

The grand opening of Life Care Center of Coeur d’Alene will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at 500 Aqua Ave., west off of U.S. Highway 95 and just past Silver Lake Mall.

The 56,000-square-foot facility includes 120 beds - 20 for Alzheimer’s patients, 20 for sub-acute care and 80 for skilled nursing care. The company offers day-care services and stresses rehabilitation and daily activities. Amenities include a library, ice cream parlor, day lounges, secured outdoor courtyards and private dining rooms.

Executive Director Michelle Stelzer will manage about 120 employees when the care center is fully staffed. The company also is breaking ground Friday for a facility in Lewiston and is planning another for Sandpoint.

The largest privately owned nursing home company in the nation, Life Care has 190 facilities in 28 states. The headquarters is in Cleveland, Tenn.

More than doubling in space and gaining an outside display area, parking space and traffic exposure, Auto Classics is moving to 1515 Northwest Boulevard, Coeur d’Alene. The “special interest” car sales business will move Sept. 1 after five years at 215 Lakeside Ave.

“Special interest” means noticeable vehicles that have a hard time fitting under the North Idaho classification of “rigs.” We’re talking Porsches, Mercedes, Ferraris, Corvettes, Jaguars, etc.

The 30 current cars include a 1988 Porsche 930-S, one of 148 made, and an ‘84 Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet, both priced at $49,900. The least expensive is a‘72 Saab Sonnet for $6,500.

Spokesman John McMurray said the new facility, formerly Roetter Window, will house 50 to 60 cars. Business owner is Terry Godbout, a native of Butte, Mont., who came to North Idaho from Walla Walla five years ago.

A few tidbits:

The rumor that Starbucks Coffee will replace Java on Sherman in downtown Coeur d’Alene is just a rumor.

Lake City Mayor Al Hassell points out that if Idaho’s Proposition One passes, money now generated by property taxes would have to be raised some other way, such as by increased sales taxes and license fees, and would not be tax-deductible.

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