Seattle surf-and-turf favorite targets Coeur d’Alene

Popular Puget Sound seafood and steakhouse chain Anthony’s Restaurants plans to build its first Idaho restaurant in Coeur d’Alene – only the second eatery that the Kirkland, Wash., company has opened outside Washington.

Anthony’s at Coeur d’Alene will join 18 other Anthony’s dinner houses, mostly in western Washington, but also in Spokane, Richland and Bend, Ore.

The Coeur d’Alene restaurant is only the second one the family-owned-and-operated chain has opened outside Washington in its 46 years. The Bend Anthony’s opened in 2004, the same year Anthony’s first broke out of western Washington with restaurants in Spokane and Richland.

“Budd Gould, the owner, has been looking at Coeur d’Alene for a long time,” said Lane Hoss, Anthony’s vice president of marketing. “His son lives in Idaho and his wife’s family comes from Spokane.”

The CdA restaurant will be in the Riverstone mixed-use development with Riverstone Pond and Boise favorite Bardenay Restaurant & Distillery. All but two of Anthony’s 29 establishments are on waterfronts or within easy reach of water. Anthony’s also has seven casual dining establishments and three fish and chip bars.

Construction of Anthony’s at Coeur d’Alene is expected to start in August with completion anticipated in June 2016.

“I think it’s huge,” said Monte Miller, senior at Miller Stauffer Architects, the Coeur d’Alene firm that designed the local Anthony’s. “People I’ve talked to say it’s exactly what a certain segment of the community wants.”

Coeur d’Alene, as a whole, may be less than enthusiastic about Anthony’s arrival.

“If you believe the local newspaper, Cracker Barrel and Golden Corral are the greatest restaurants in the world,” Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Wilson said. “It’s always good to have a choice. Certainly, Anthony’s has a reputation of being a very high quality seafood and steakhouse.”

Anthony’s is a seafood-and-steak house – and the beef all comes from Boise-based Agri Beef, among the largest beef producers in the Pacific Northwest. Agri Beef supplies Anthony’s with beef from its Double R Ranch in Loomis, Wash., near the Canadian border, and from Wagyu cattle bred at its Snake River Farms in American Falls. Beef from both ranches are processed at Agri Beef’s Washington Beef Co. packing plant in Toppenish, Wash., near Yakima.

“Anthony’s is our biggest restaurant customer,” said Seth Mortensen, marketing director at Agri Beef, which has $900 million in annual sales. Agri Beef primarily sells to distributors. “They are a pretty big customer for us. We don’t have a lot of large chains.”

Anthony’s sought a Coeur d’Alene architect for the local store. Anthony’s may be a regional chain, but all the properties have original design, Hoss said. Miller brought a sense of northern Idaho to the design.

“I’ve been to a lot of Anthony’s,” Miller said. “Anthony’s is a favorite of mine. They integrate wood in a lot of their facilities. The inspiration for the design includes a subtle response to the site’s sawmill history with extensive use of exposed structural wood systems.”

Miller incorporated hemlock, cedar and fir in the 6,125-square-foot design for Coeur d’Alene that also includes a 4,200-square-foot patio.

“This is very thrilling for us,” Miller said. “A lot of restaurants we do are canned, spec (designs). ‘This is the way they are. They are a brand. This is a fresh structure.”

The large patio essentially will be part of the building as the structural frame will extend beyond the structure to create a covered terrace. The wall will be composed of sliding, folding doors that connect the interior and exterior dining areas.

“In the warmer months, we can expand the seating to the patio and retreat back indoors in the winter months,” Hoss said.

The building contractor is Yost, Mooney and Pugh Contractors of Spokane, which also built Anthony’s Beach Café in Spokane.