The first order of business for Bob Dempsey and Lisa Kugel was to return the Moon’s menu back to its roots as a “comfort food headquarters” for breakfast and lunch – and this menu would have to be based on “home scratch cooking”.
Derrick Meyer remembers going to Moon’s Gun and Tackle Shop as a boy, back in the days when local hunters would stock up on supplies before heading out in search of wild game. While his dad bought ammo down in the basement of the old Bannock Street location, Derrick would have breakfast in the back of the sporting goods store; or even better, one of the milkshakes that Martha Moon made famous. Decades later, Derrick still loves the food at Moon’s. But then, he should. He’s the head chef.
There have been only a handful of owners of the restaurant that since 1955 has served a cross section of downtown denizens ranging from sportsmen to legislators to skateboarders; but its most recent proprietors, Bob Dempsey and wife Lisa Kugel, are determined that even though their historic café has since changed its downtown address, its menu and place in the community will return to their former glory.
Originally, Moon’s just served breakfast to what was already a “captive audience” of hunters and fisher folk. It was Martha Moon-Nelson, the daughter of founders Bernie and Cecelia Moon, who first installed the breakfast counter at the sporting goods store as a way of bringing in a little extra income for her and her family. In time the café extended its hours to include lunch, and it soon became a favorite haunt of Idaho legislators, both because of its proximity to the Statehouse and the quality of its grub.
The current menu at Moon’s Café is a combination of breakfast and lunch traditions and “new stuff”. Breakfast classics include “manhole size” pancakes, homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy, and a wide variety of omelets – all of which redefine the term “large portions”.
The first order of business for Bob and Lisa was to return the Moon’s menu back to its roots as a “comfort food headquarters” for breakfast and lunch – and this menu would have to be based on “home scratch cooking”. “We go through sacks of flour in making our own pancake and biscuit batter,” says Bob. “We roast our own meats and chop our own vegetables – hardly anything is pre-made.”
The current menu at Moon’s Café is a combination of breakfast and lunch traditions and “new stuff”. Breakfast classics include “manhole size” pancakes, homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy, and a wide variety of omelets – all of which redefine the term “large portions”. Derrick Meyer takes particular pride in the quality of his hollandaise sauce, and recommends the spicy version that adorns his spicy chicken benedict (two strips of bacon, chicken breast, and a Siracha hot sauce-infused hollandaise).
And if you think you know from corned beef hash, think again. There’s a reason Bob calls the Moon’s version a “signature dish”. “It’s a steamy, cheesy, meaty, gooey pile of goodness – all natural and fresh. It’s great stuff.” Comfort food is also the order of the day on Moon’s lunch menu, which includes hot beef and hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy. Signature lunch dishes include the Colossal Rueben (imagine an extra layer of turkey breast) and a Mile High Club that Bob describes as “three sandwiches in one”. And of course, there is the Moon Burger and the “world famous milkshakes” from Derrick’s boyhood.
Moon’s culinary mission recently received an endorsement more meaningful than any four star review: the blessing of Martha Moon, who not long ago stopped by to take stock of the latest incarnation of the restaurant that still bears her name. Lisa was pleased to report, “she was really happy to see that we had taken over the place and were doing what we were with the menu, which was back to what she had originally done.” For a piece of Boise’s culinary history, that’s mighty high praise indeed.
