A Peek Inside The Yardarm, Garden City's New Riverside Bar
Garden City’s riverside imbibing options keep getting better. Now, in addition to snagging a chair on the idyllic patio at Sandbar or Telaya, you can saddle up to the reclaimed wood bar at The Yardarm: Idaho’s first shipping container establishment, according to Guy Midnight.
“We’re the first people to do this so nobody had any idea what to do,” said Midnight, who opened the seasonal bar at 314 E. 35th Street next to Corridor Paddle Surf Shop Aug. 12. “So they made us dot all our I’s and cross all our T’s because they know at some point this is going to happen again.”
The Yardarm has a surfy vibe—with sandy floors, misters and large triangle shades—which is fitting considering Midnight is an avid surfer who rides the nearby Boise River Park wave regularly.
“When I was surfing in the wave down here, I would see all the foot traffic on the Greenbelt and I’d be like, ‘Man there’s nothing down here that people can go to,’” Midnight said.
So he opened The Yardarm, which offers beer and wine starting at 2 p.m. In addition to a selection of $5 micro drafts—including Odell’s 90 Shilling, Payette’s Blood Orange IPA and Alaskan’s White Ale—Yardarm also offers $2 Modelo cans and $5 glasses of Flipflop Pinot Grigio or Cabernet. Next season, Midnight plans to carry Cinder wines on tap, as well.
Parked in the corner of The Yardarm’s sandy lot is Gem Street Kitchen, a food truck that offers snacks ranging from tacos to burgers. On a recent visit, the truck whipped up a mean seared brussels sprouts taco on a blue corn tortilla with red cabbage, chopped romaine, salsa cruda, chipotle crema and cotija. The fried fish taco was also awesome, particularly with a hearty glug of Tapatio.
Midnight says he plans to keep The Yardarm open through October—hoodie weather, but not parka weather—and that he’ll add a firepit to warm up the space. He'll reopen the bar April 1, 2017, as the Boise River Park springs to life again. For Midnight, opening The Yardarm in Garden City was a no-brainer.
“People are starting to see that there’s no more land on the Boise city side that’s usable and there’s a lot of it down here that is still close to the river,” said Midnight. “And it’s beautiful down here.”
