AR C HIE’S PLAC E
DINING
Archie’s Place and Payette Brewing’s Sloppy Joe Eating contest How big is your appetite?
Best Reason to Wash Ground Beef From Your Moustache
Best Dive Bar Seafood in a Glass
Archie’s Place and Payette Brewing Company’s Sloppy Joe Eating Contest
The long-standing bar on Main Street admittedly isn’t the first place you think of when you’re craving seafood. In fact, the very idea may have you giving this paper an incredulous look, but trust us, it’s the real deal. On Fridays and Saturdays, Gil’s serves up a seafood extravaganza in a giant glass—picture piles of crab salad ringed by fresh shrimp with plenty of cocktail sauce for dipping. Not a crab salad fan? Try the bar prawns. Yes, we know Gil’s is a dive bar in a landlocked state, but we’re not telling fish tales here. 2506 Main St., Boise, 208-345-4420
Most wouldn’t call slurping up massive amounts of ground beef in red sauce a cause for celebration. But as eating competitions go, the Archie’s Place and Payette Brewing Company Sloppy Joe eating contest is the great equalizer. In 2011, Big Hungry took home the title for eating 19 sloppy joe sandwiches in four minutes. On Saturday, Oct. 6, Archie’s Place will welcome two heats—one pitting mere mortals against each other and the second challenging one brave joe-eater to take on Big Hungry. Archie’s Place, archies-place. com; Payette Brewing Company, 111 W. 33rd St., Garden City, 208-344-0011, payettebrewing.com
Best Sibling Cooperation
Sweet Valley Cookie Co. and Crooked Fence Brewing Booze-laden beverages and sweets are typically indulgences that are better for the soul than the body. And what could be better than those somewhat sinful concoctions? One that combines both. When Boise Weekly learned that Sweet Valley Cookie Company was using the spent grain from Crooked Fence Brewing Company’s Three Picket Porter and putting it in a peanut butter chocolate bar, puddles of drool pooled on our desks. How could such a fantastic combo come to be? Turns out, Sweet Valley’s Heidi Tilby and Crooked Fence’s Kelly Knopp are brother and sister. Thank goodness for good genes and good eats. 360 E. State St., Eagle, 208-440-7043, sweetvalleycookieco.com
WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
Gil’s K-9 Bar
Plan
b www.johnberryhillrestaurants.com 9th & idaho, downtown boise
Best Restaurant that Sounds like a Shaquille O’Neal Movie
Shanaz Home Kitchen Cuisine and Catering Shanaz is the name of the chef at Shanaz Home Kitchen and the homestyle soul food she concocts is downright shanazzy, a breath of batter-fried fresh air near downtown Meridian. Deep-fried mac-n-cheese balls FTW. 520 S. Main St., Ste. 96, Meridian, 208-922-6433, shanazhkc.com
Best Squirt in Your Mouth
Passion Fruit Mustard at North Shore Hot Dog Company If condiments have personality, mustard is obviously snooty. Even generic yellow French’s claims to be the mustard “hot dogs prefer.” But the passion fruit mustard at North Shore Hot Dog Company brings a sweet humility to the game with an unprecedented taste of the tropics. 904 Main St., Boise, 208-308-7907
BOISEweekly | SEPTEMBER 26 – OCTOBER 2, 2012 | 67