The first is a tall sign, which disappeared from State Street a few weeks ago.
And the whole building could be turned into ruins?
I don’t believe it myself, but Merritt’s Family Restaurant, 6630 W. State St., has filed papers with the city of Boise planning to demolish the nearly 100-year-old building.
Then rebuild.
The work is “necessary,” according to the documents, due to “an expansion of ACHD’s (Ada County Highway District’s) State Street right-of-way.”
Good ol’ ACHD plan to widen the street – the government bulldozer plowed another State Street location, the Smoky Davis meat shop, out of existence in 2018. (Remember the criminal conviction?)
I emailed the applicant for Merritt’s project, Ryan Erstad of Erstad Architects. I called Merritt and left a message for the owners. He was not returned immediately.
Maybe they’re all speechless, too.
The proposal is for another rental building, which does not fit the city’s vision for a 21st century State Street. Erstad wrote that this would “reduce construction and property maintenance costs” for the Merritt family, an “operator and resident” of the restaurant.
If the city balks — instead requiring a more expensive building that adheres to Boise’s current code — it could create “the kind of hurdle that pushes this long-standing business to another town or just shuts them down,” he wrote. .
Known locally as the “House of Scones,” Merritt’s is a dark treasure. It has been in the same place for almost 50 years. Featured in the Idaho Statesman’s “150 Boise Icons.”
Merritt’s Country Cafe was an all-nighter on State Street in Boise for decades before reducing hours in 2017.
Back when it was open all night, many Boiseans enjoyed getting drunk — er, buzzed — after a bar meal there. (Nowadays, it is open 6 am to 3 pm daily.)
The threat of State Street expansion began to rear its head five years ago. That’s when Merritt wrote on Facebook that the plan would “put a new road and sidewalks right at our front door!” The problem is that most of Merritt’s parking lot would be eliminated. As part of the proposed restaurant plan, parking would be to the side and rear of the new building.
Back then, Merritt’s wrote that it was on the hunt for another location, but “no place will ever have the history and character of a truck stop.”
Merritt’s ‘hazy’ history
Merritt’s was opened in 1975 by Lester Merritt, according to the historic Statesman, “at the old Yatesville truck station, which has been in operation since 1928 and has a small cafe.” Using math based on Merritt’s social-media post 10 years ago, the building is 96 years old.
Like many longtime Boiseans, I only know my bad Merritt history.
Coming back to the fun all night felt reasonable, my friends and I made the occasional 2 am taxi trip there. (In other words, pre-Uber.) After the bars closed, it was hard to beat the billion-calorie Super Ranch scramble with cheese. Cigarette smoke wafted into the air, mingling with the smell of cheap coffee. The jukebox blasted Patsy Cline and AC/DC.
Between mouthfuls of buttered scones, we’d relive any riots we saw – or caused – in town that night.
But Boise has changed. A lot.
The city finally ended the no-smoking policy, for one thing. I can’t say I’m upset about it.
But is Merritt thinking about breaking up? That thought is incredibly distressing. Even the restaurant ended up being rebuilt into something… modern. Newfangled. (Only so that a thought that makes one shudder, doesn’t it?)
Maybe they could line the walls with Idaho nostalgia? Or close the toilets in Boise OG sticks?
You can’t go back, Boise. That’s what they say.
But in Merritt’s case, we have hope – maybe? – we can, if the old building disappears.