DIG INTO WILD JUNEAU

By Ilona Kauremszky

Get a taste of how prominent chefs and local ingredients are making this Alaskan city a sumptuous destination for even the most evolved palate.

It’s lunch time in Juneau and Tracy’s King Crab Shack on the edge of the city’s cruise terminal is jam packed. In fact, the crowd spills onto the boardwalk before noon hits. But no one seems to mind. “It’s worth the wait,” chimes a local.

Here, most visitors arrive from Seattle after a two-hour flight or extend their vacation after a cruise to hang out in restaurants and bars frequented by locals, with the intent of discovering the essence of Juneau’s wild food scene.

“About seven years ago, there was a joke in town that if you wanted to go somewhere nice for dinner, you had to go to Seattle. This is no longer the case. Juneau’s local chefs and restaurateurs have raised the bar for dining in our little town,” says Midgi Moore, owner of Juneau Food Tours, a local company taking serious foodies on culinary walking tours rated among the best in North America. Guests are treated as “new friends” and shown all the top spots where locals hang out and eat.

It’s no surprise that the Last Frontier state capital, home to Alaska’s biggest cruise port, has morphed into a culinary destination. The wide-open waters as far as the Bering Sea are rife with seafood, while the remote wilderness that lies outside the city centre, by the Tongass National Forest, has turned into a forager’s paradise.

Locally sourced ingredients are exactly what’s on offer at Deckhand Dave’s. The action is hopping around this food truck, a taco shrine to the freshest catch in Southeast Alaska, as Dave jets past with an order of spicy rockfish tacos. This chemistry grad left behind ambitions in medicine to turn his attention to fishing and, later, to cooking fish. And he turns out to be quite the cook, as evidenced by my empty plate after I’m finished eating a delicious panko crusted wild salmon filet dunked in tartar sauce.

More local delicacies await at the wildly inconspicuous SALT, which has caught Master Chef Gordon Ramsay’s attention, so much so that he has included its chef, Lionel Uddipa, in his Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted TV show. The ambiance here can compete with a trendy resto in New York or California, but the food, however, is typically Alaskan. My fresh, wild halibut is served lightly seared and paired with a New Zealand white wine with tangy notes that match the homemade kimchi.

As I stroll through downtown Juneau later, I pass The Rookery Café, a bistro hub created by three-time James Beard nominee chef Beau Schooler. Prominent name on the Juneau food scene, Schooler is also at the helm of a few other local eateries, including In Bocca al Lupo, located within Silverbow Inn’s old bakery space inside an historic 1898 building. The inn is the city’s only urban boutique hotel. It caters to ecourbanists as a place as fierce and wild as Juneau’s gastronomy itself.

You’re planning an Alaska cruise and want to get a taste of Juneau for yourself? Many cruise lines offer shore excursions exploring the city’s food scene. For example, Holland America Line has a culinary walking tour in partnership with Food & Wine Magazine where you’ll discover a wealth of fresh seafood and other delicacies. Princess Cruises offers a Bon Appétit-recommended Juneau Foodie Walking Tour where you’ll get to sample everything from crab bisque to hog wing and Alaska game. Talk with your travel advisor to pre-book your excursion while there’s space.