Cured and smoked here
The pastrami on the Reuben, the bacon on the BLT, the coppa on a catering crostini, the lox on a bagel platter. House cured, smoked and roasted meats are also sold by the pound at the counter.
A Sandpoint tradition since 1975
Our story
Home cooked comfort food, made with the techniques you'd find in a city restaurant, in a general store on Rapid Lightning Road.
The Jacobsons
Alex and Brittany
Alex and Brittany Jacobson took over the store in June 2018 from Alex's mother, Arlene, who ran it for eighteen years before them. Between the two families, this counter has been in the same hands a long time.
Alex graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in 2006 and spent eight years cooking around the East Bay before moving north to Sandpoint. He runs the kitchen, and he cures, smokes and roasts almost everything that goes into the case.
Brittany is a Sandpoint native with fifteen years in the industry. She runs the front of house and the catering division — which means if you've had Pack River food at a wedding around here, she built it.
How we cook
Formal technique, unfussy food
The point was never to bring fine dining to Rapid Lightning Road. It was to take the food people already wanted and make it properly.
Local when the season allows
We source from regional farms and purveyors wherever we can, including Woods Meats for our beef and Bluebird Bakery baguettes for catering crostini.
More than a kitchen
Deli salads, take & bake pastas, ribs, baked goods and desserts — plus groceries, fuel, propane and showers. It is still a general store, and it still does the general store's job.
Worth planning around
Prime rib and the tasting menu
The last Friday of every month is prime rib — herb, salt and garlic crusted, with au jus or horseradish. Once a month we also run a five-course tasting menu with limited seating and reservations required.
Both are the closest thing we have to a night out this far from town, and both fill up on word of mouth.
Come out and eat with us
Twelve miles from downtown Sandpoint, and worth every one of them.