If you're visiting Boise, be sure to drop into the West End. Great local spots, some of the best parks (no parking meters ↓).
Janae and I have been in Boise since 1998. We run businesses and manage properties in the West End. And we love sharing this neighborhood with visitors. About Us ↓
The West End has some of Boise's best spots. Places we genuinely love and think you will too.
A newer spot that's become a favorite. Hand-rolled, wood-fired Montreal-style bagels. They use flour from farms outside Ketchum and bake everything in a custom wood-fired oven. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 7:30am to 2:30pm.
Our favorite weekend breakfast spot. Operating since 1943, they serve breakfast all day. Biscuits and gravy, pumpkin pancakes, homemade cinnamon rolls. The cowboy potatoes are what locals order. Everything's made to order. Open 6:30am to 2pm. Tip: Get here early on Saturday and Sunday. They fill up and you could be hanging out for a while for someone to clear out.
Been around since 1957. Good burgers, finger steaks, thick milkshakes. Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Classic drive-in spot after the parks.
Across the 36th Street Bridge. Menu limited to only a few delicious tacos and has margaritas. Janae and I get our taco fix here multiple times per month. Fast-casual spot from the Wylder Hospitality Group with simple, made-from-scratch ingredients.
Traditional Neapolitan style, thin crust pizza made by hand with high-quality ingredients. Named Best Pizza in Idaho by Food and Wine Magazine in 2021. Locally owned and operated. Open Monday-Thursday 11am-8pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-9pm. Closed Sunday.
The West End has some of Boise's most beautiful green spaces and unique outdoor experiences. Just west of the downtown core with easy parking.
55 acres with fishing ponds, swimming areas, walking trails, playgrounds. Named after Esther Simplot, who's been a huge supporter of arts in Boise. The Simplot family donated $1 million to help the city buy the land in 2003. Great for paddleboarding, fishing, or just hanging out by the water.
River surfing in Idaho. Yeah, it's a thing. The whitewater park has adjustable waves for kayaking and surfing. Wave settings change daily at noon. Quinn's Pond is connected to Esther Simplot Park by a stream, so you can paddle between them. Idaho River Sports does rentals on site.
200-foot pedestrian bridge over the Boise River. Good views of the whitewater park below. Connects to the Greenbelt on both sides. Built as a collaboration between Boise and Garden City.
25+ miles of paved pathway along the Boise River. The West End has good access points near all the parks. Great for walking, running, or biking.
Janae walks through the park regularly. It's a good route if you want to see the whole area.
Janae runs 3 short term rentals in the neighborhood. Each one's different, but they're all good places to stay while you explore Boise.
Close to the parks and Greenbelt. Good spot to base out of while exploring the West End.
We have appreciated the attention our properties have gotten and the phenomenal reviews from our guests. One thing we really appreciate about short term rentals is that we can visit, improve, and upgrade our properties frequently. Our guests and reviews help us do it.
We invite our network to reach out to us about the properties. We especially encourage and appreciate all the people that have helped us share our properties. Download our one-sheet (PDF) to learn more and share with others.
In 2022, I surprised Janae by bringing in a vintage caboose and building 40 feet of railroad tracks for it. The name is an ode to her Great Grandpa Jewell, who worked the railroads and brought his large family to Jerome, Idaho. Even though we just placed it a few years ago, people think it's been there forever.
Since then, we've done some pretty cool projects with it:
The restoration. The caboose was beige when we bought it. Its original color was Union Pacific yellow, but we chose the iconic red because it felt right. We covered up layers of graffiti, stripped and repainted the entire thing. It was a bigger job than we thought. Turns out old train cars have a lot of surface area.
The fence and logo. We designed and hand-painted a custom logo that plays on the Jewell family name and the railroad heritage. Then we built a fence around the property and painted the logo on it. The fence gives us space to host events without worrying about people wandering into the tracks.
The parties. We've thrown multiple epic events there. Live music, food trucks, the whole thing. There's something about a vintage caboose that makes people show up. The space works surprisingly well for gatherings, and the West End location means our guests can walk or bike over from the parks.
We're still figuring out what's next for it. If you're interested in seeing it or have ideas about what we should do with the space, we'd be happy to show you around. Always open to hearing thoughts from people who appreciate old trains and good parties.
If you live and work in the West End, you really have it made. The whole area is walkable. Coffee shops, restaurants, and parks are all within a few blocks. The neighborhoods are covered in mature trees that turn incredible colors in spring and fall. Beautiful, yes. Also a massive amount of leaves that the city spends serious effort cleaning up every autumn.
For workspace, there are a few good options. Coffee shops work if you don't need to take calls. And we converted our old Matraex office building into co-working space.
I ran Matraex out of this office building since 2016. As our needs changed, Janae and I converted it into co-working space. Open office areas, private offices, conference rooms. Fast internet, free parking. Matraex is still an anchor, and we're building a community of entrepreneurs and remote workers in the neighborhood.
The downtown core has parking meters everywhere, but as you head west into our neighborhood, those disappear. The West End has mostly free street parking with just a few residential zones near the popular parks.
I prefer parking here. You pull up, park, and walk to wherever you're going. No meter feeding, no app downloads, no wondering if you'll make it back before time runs out. Just park and go. That's it.
That said, street parking does fill up. Most neighborhoods have alleys behind the houses, but people still use the street parking, and it gets busy around the businesses. One of the West End's residential zones with parking time limitation is near Esther Simplot Park, which gets packed on summer days. If you stay at one of our short term rentals, we provide a parking pass for the street plus a gated driveway behind the house.
Once you're parked, everything is walkable. Coffee, restaurants, parks, the river. The whole neighborhood is designed for people, not cars. You park once and you're done with your car for the day.
Janae and I have been in Boise since 1998. Janae was born in Jerome, and grew up in Mountain Home. I moved to Bellevue Idaho in 1990 and graduated from Wood River a few years later. We met in Salt Lake, got married, and moved back to Idaho to raise our family.
Our kids grew up here. Sam was born before we moved back, and Sydney was born while we were living in Eagle. We both went to Boise State (I've got at least one degree from there, maybe more if you count the ones I started). Over the years, we've watched Boise grow from a quiet city to... well, not quite as quiet anymore.
The West End is where we've put down real roots. We own properties here, run businesses on West Main, and honestly just spend a lot of time in the neighborhood. I run Matraex and Boise Main Co-working Space at our building at 2210 W. Main st. Janae manages our three Airbnbs, all in the West End.
We just genuinely love this neighborhood and spend a lot of our time here and want to share it. The spots we recommend are places we actually go. The parks are where we walk. The restaurants are where we eat.
If you're visiting Boise and have questions about the West End, feel free to reach out. Happy to help.
If you want to talk with us about the West End, our properties, or anything else, click the button below.
