From Dust to the Turf Club
One of the top five meals of my life
Nothing happens in Twin Falls, ID, except for a few BASE jumpers, suicide crashers, and the occasional new In ‘n Out.
Food-wise, it’s as dead as the surrounding desert.
If you like steak fingers, burgers and fries, and Chinese restaurants stuck in the ‘70s that still serve egg fu yung with their kung pao, you’ll love it here.
I do, but I also miss the diversity I found growing up in Hawaii and moving to Florida and then Seattle later on in my 20s-30s: real Asian food, like Din Tai Fung dumplings, Minute Chicken Cake Noodle (only in Honolulu), proper Japanese yakitori, and Korean jjigae.
Hell, I’d be fine if Popeye’s came back and brought Church’s with them.
Lately, I’ve been on a Turkish kick. I think I may have been a Turkish woman in another life, is that sacrilege to say? A good Turkish/Afghani bakery cafe, instead of another coffee kiosk, would be awesome, too.
Well, things are looking up. I saw the Turf Club reopening somewhere on my Instagram. Originally a Prohibition-era watering hole, the refurbished Turf Club recently reopened under new ownership (Robert and Mariann Griffith).
I would sometimes see the large martini sign over a dusty old building that looked completely lost somewhere between the 1940s and the 2020 pandemic. In fact, I thought it would never open.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
My son James and his friend Christian arrived the other Sunday to stay for a week. They relaxed, tooled around, caught up, and even spent two or three nights making us laugh while they mocked the people talking nonsense on TV.
We got to go to the Twin Falls County Fair for the first time (only $9 and the food is worth the drive to Filer), enjoyed barbecue cowboy beans and sushi at 2nd South Market, and on Thursday, a day before the Labor Day weekend rush, stepped into upscale history at the Turf Club.
What a swanky, yet comfy affair.
Everything is done up to the nines, but not overdone. Lots of exposed beams and laminated chandeliers for style and substance, in dark, leathery undertones. Same with the food.
We were blown away by the chef’s creativity with locally sourced meats and seafood: roasted trout and grits with aggressively seasoned blistered tomatoes and a dollop of salmon roe — for color and marine salt…deeply flavored, rich, tender ribeye steaks adorned in nothing but salt and pepper, accompanied by creamy, tart Béarnaise and sweet, grassy Chimichurri sauce amidst crispy cut beef fat frites (fries)…
Oh!
Definitely start with the French onion soup and lobster mac. I am not even a fan, but these converted me, especially the cheesy, gooey, seafoody lobster mac. They did not chintz on the lobster, either.
A great thing happened on the way to stiff drinks (Horseshoe Mule, Smoky Manhattan) and fine desserts (our first Basque cheesecake, crème brûlée, dark chocolate torte) … James smiled. No, he beamed, he loved his food so much.
He kept saying “damn”; meaning, the steaks got to him. Normally, he’s picky to ridiculous, Gordon-Ramsay levels. James will go to a fancy steakhouse and bitch about the lack of flavor in a $150 filet he could’ve gotten at the Keg.
Not this time.
Maybe he also loved the company… I’d like to think so.
I can’t wait to return for my birthday, wedding anniversary, and last meal.
The Turf Club isn’t cheap, but it sure does make me miss where I used to be just a little less.
Turf Club
734 Falls Ave., Twin Falls, ID
(208) 734-2000
