Couple behind many of Boise’s hottest restaurants plans sixth — in ‘cool’ Garden City
No couple has made a bigger impact on Boise’s restaurant scene in recent years than David and Lizzy Rex.
After relocating from California in 2017, the native Arizonans quickly opened downtown pizzeria The Wylder, an instant smash. Next, their Wylder Hospitality Group launched Certified Kitchen + Bakery in Hyde Park. After that, the Rexes took over the Roosevelt Market with breakfast and lunch in Boise’s East End. In 2022, they unveiled Wyld Child, a burger hangout on the Boise Bench. Last year, they rolled out their largest restaurant yet: the 5,300-square-foot Percy, another downtown Boise buzz maker.
Now it’s Garden City’s turn.
A sixth Wylder Hospitality Group brand is in the works at 214 N. 34th St. near the Boise River. Taking over a former fabrication and welding shop, the restaurant will be in the same cinder-block building as popular neighborhood coffee destination Push & Pour.
“I’m really excited about this one,” David Rex says.
There’s no finalized name. But the menu?
“A really simple taco shop,” he says. “There’s going to be, like, four tacos. We’re not even sure if there’s going to be burritos yet. But if there is, it’ll be, like, two.”
The building belongs to Push & Pour. The idea of a restaurant in the back half was hatched during interactions on the Bench with Push & Pour co-owner Lucas Erlebach, Rex says. Wyld Child is next door to one of Push & Pour’s expansion coffee shops on Latah Street in Boise.
Slinging tacos would be a new direction for Wylder Hospitality. “We just think that’s the concept that would fit,” Rex says. “Being its proximity to the river and the river walk, we just think that would really work well. Some frozen margaritas, beer, wine. That’s really it. The simpler, the better.”
The tacos will be “inexpensive and fast,” he adds. “We’re going to hand-make the tortilla, we’re going to braise the meat, we’ll hand-make the salsa, and there’s going to be three or four ingredients. We’re just going to try to pay attention to every single component really intensely.”
With two large garage doors, the restaurant will feature indoor and outdoor dining. The Rexes plan to offer online ordering, the ability to make huge orders in advance, “and come pick up tacos for 30 or 40 people,” David Rex says. “We want to make it really easy.”
The taco shop probably will open next year, but there’s a slim chance it could materialize in 2024. “Stranger things have happened, but that would be surprising to me,” Rex says.
Until then, he and his wife will keep fine-tuning taco recipes — and dreaming of their first culinary adventure in Garden City.
“I think the building’s super cool. The location’s going to be cool,” Rex says. “We’ll open those garage doors. There will be this little patio. There’s going to be bright folding chairs and card tables that you can eat on. Run over there, grab a taco and a coffee, and go back to the river.”
