Copper Rill Restaurant opens in old Rutabaga's location

Jud Wilcox and Shandi Fujimoto, who opened Copper Rill Restaurant on Saturday night in the old Rutabaga's location.

Those of you who mourned the passing of Rutabaga's on River Parkway will be glad to know that a new restaurant, Copper Rill, has opened there and that the chef, Jud Wilcox, used to handle the dinner menu for Rutabaga's.

Wilcox and his partner, Shandi Fujimoto, opened the restaurant Saturday and are bringing it up to speed this week. While Wilcox worked for Rutabaga's in the days when it was owned by Wesley Beard, most recently he was at Whitewater Grill.

He received his culinary training at Johnson & Wales University near Providence, R.I., where he was also on the wrestling team ("It was the only college in the country with a culinary school and a wrestling team, so it's where I went," he said.) He spent four years as a chef tournade for the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., consulting in restaurants and kitchens for executive chef Ziggy Eisenberger.

The key to a successful restaurant is having the right people. "Staffing is huge," he said. "And just caring about what you do."

Although he learned the fundamentals of classic French cooking in college, the menu at Copper Rill is broader and more eclectic, ranging from mahi-mahi tacos ($11) to filet mignon ($28). The Web site is not active yet, but the menus will be posted as soon as it is, Fujimoto said.

To whet your curiosity (and perhaps your appetite), here is Copper Rill's lunch menu:

Stats show local economy chugging along

Surveyors from Primary Construction of Boise mark out the ground on Utah Avenue where the foundation for Panda Express will be dug and poured in the next week.

Maybe it's the conditioning we get from school, but I've always considered September the beginning of a new year. Summer's almost over, and in the 30-plus years I've lived in the Rocky Mountain states it's always seemed like the weather can be counted on to change the Saturday or Sunday after Labor Day.

There wasn't much at the Idaho Falls Building Department this morning, so my fallback position was to look at the numbers from our favorite sources to get a feel for the local economy. The real estate market has been cooking this year, according to Patrick Malone of High Desert Realty, whom I ran into at the City Hall annex. Following up on our conversation, I looked at the marketing statistics from the Snake River Multiple Listing Service and compiled this chart:

As you can see, sales are up significantly, as are prices and new listings.

I also found it interesting that unemployment seemed to have dropped significantly from last year. I'd be curious about any reports of underemployment -- people working at part-time rather than full-time jobs, or for less money than their training or experience would warrant in a robust economy.

Last of all, here are building statistics from the city of Idaho Falls, which show a lot of action on the new construction of single family dwellings:

Progress on Dad's at Hitt and Yellowstone

Construction this week at the new home of Dad's Truck Stop, at Hitt Road and U.S. 26

For those of you who haven't been out to this end of town, here's the latest progress from Hitt Road and U.S. 26, where Dad's Travel Center is moving into a new building.

Located on 47 acre, the 3,000-square-foot store is to be a smaller version of what they have south of Idaho Falls at Exit 113, said Kevin Bird, the company's general manager. Doug Andrus had planned to develop the site in 2007, but when the economy went into recession they decided to hold off. Push came to shove, however, as the 10-year lease on the store across the road neared expiration. That was when they decided this year was as good as any to build, Bird said.

The contractor on the project is Bateman-Hall, which just recently completed the new Stinker Station at First Street and Holmes Avenue.

The 11,000-square-foot Dad's south of Idaho Falls is home to Frontier Pies. Bird said they plan to have a food vendor in the new store.

Stinker manager shooting for Friday morning opening for new store

The new Stinker Station at First Street and Holmes is likely to be open Friday morning. At least that was what territory manager Erwin Estrada, above, was shooting for at lunchtime Thursday. Backhoes tore into the old store on July 23, and the parking lot has since been repaved. Company President Charley Jones said in July they were shooting for an opening shortly after Labor Day, but Estrada said they have really borne down on the task at hand. "Just working hard and having great people," he said.

Idaho Falls Rotary clubs host "Pitching for Polio" benefit at tonight's Chukars game

Tonight, the Idaho Falls Chukars will be “Pitching for Polio,” a Rotary International-sponsored event coming to Idaho Falls for the first time. For every ticket sold by a Rotary member, $2 will be donated to the cause of polio eradication. 

Rotary International has been in the forefront of the effort to rid the world of polio, once a scourge everywhere. Vaccines to prevent polio were invented in the 1950s and many Baby Boomers in the United States can remember the nurse giving them sugar cubes in elementary school. Today, polio is a threat in only a few underdeveloped countries.

Rotary has been on the front lines of making polio a memory everywhere, once and for all. The most prominent person in the effort is Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Click here to check out his video.

Guests at tonight's game include the Rotary’s governor and assistant governor of District 5400, which includes all clubs in the state of Idaho and a small portion of Nevada. Typically, this annual event is held in Boise. This is the first time ever that Idaho Falls has hosted it.