After nearly four decades in business, this Blackfoot restaurant does it the ‘old-fashioned way’

BLACKFOOT — Across the street from several chain restaurants, there’s a long-established local restaurant that’s become a staple of the community.

Homestead Family Restaurant has been open at 1355 Parkway Drive and serving the Blackfoot community for 36 years running. Its secret to staying in business is consistency and their incredible staff, said owners Todd and Virginia Burke.

“(The secret is) putting out really good product day in and day out,” said Todd.

“We have longtime staff here and they do an amazing job with the customers,” said Virginia. “Everyone here does an awesome job.”

Close to four decades ago, Todd spotted what would become their future building and thought it would be the perfect place to open a restaurant.

This was at a time when Virginia’s father was retiring from farming. Deciding to use Virginia’s and her parent’s experience in food service, they all started Homestead Family Restaurant together.

“The first couple years were really touch-and-go, trying to figure out what to do, but it’s turned out very well,” Todd said.

One of the most popular breakfast items at Homestead is the French Toast.

This menu item can be served in a variety of ways to meet the different taste buds of customers. Homestead decided to serve EastIdahoNews.com three slices of french toast, topped with scattered strawberries and a dollop of cream. It was easy to see why this is one of the restaurant’s most ordered items.

A mainstay of the restaurant is its Country Chicken Fried Steak.

Rather then pull a breaded steak out of the freezer, they buy the steak from a local source and the restaurant staff does the breading themselves. They also mix the gravy in house. Virginia said this meal is made the “old-fashioned way.”

This work pays off when the customer takes a juicy bite and gets a taste of homestyle cooking.

Homestead Family Restaurant serves a variety of homemade desserts, such as a huge selection of pies as well as cinnamon rolls, which the owners decided EastIdahoNews.com would sample.

“They are a long process (to make),” Virginia said.

The whole process takes around four hours, with a staff member making the dough and balls in the morning. During the baking process, someone will also make the frosting. When the entire process is finished, they only have about 25 cinnamon rolls in a batch.

This was another item where the work and dedication that went into it was evident.

Virginia said all the work pays off when customers take a satisfying first bite.

For Virginia and Todd, using locally sourced ingredients is important to the integrity of Homestead Family Restaurant.

“We like to get as much local (ingredients) that we can,” Virginia said. “We try and offer as much fresh and unprocessed food as possible.”

For the owners, finding local ingredients is one way to to show how proud they are of their community.

“This community has been awesome. They’ve supported us very well and we’re grateful to everybody here. Without them, we couldn’t do this,” Todd said.

Homestead Family Restaurant is open everyday besides Sunday between the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. For anyone who hasn’t visited the restaurant, Virginia said that they offer the best of both worlds, quick wait times along with homestyle cooking.

“I hope everyone can come give us a try,” Virginia said.