East Idaho Eats: The Sandtrap keeps it ‘new and exciting’

POCATELLO — Along the Bannock Highway and near the Portneuf River is a bar and grill that many call the “Cheers” of Pocatello.

This restaurant with cream-colored walls, green roofing and stone siding is The Sandtrap, and its focus is to “keep it fresh and unique and make people happy with food,” owner Corey Wight said.

In the decade and a half that Wight has owned the Sandtrap, it’s changed significantly. The building where patrons now sit and eat and drink wasn’t there when he took control of the property.

The restaurant has an outdoor sports theme, with many decorations themed after mountain biking and fishing. Wight is an avid mountain biker and wanted the restaurant to reflect that.

But the place is friendly to all sports, with plenty of television sets above the bar for people to watch the latest game. If that doesn’t interest you, the conversation around the bar surely will.

The bar offers a dizzying array of options, with eight rotating taps of 14 craft beers, as well as bottled and canned beer and enough liquor and mixers to make any kind of old-school drink or what’s currently popular.

The restaurant has a wide selection, including seven burger variations and eight sandwiches. It also carries many types of bar food, the most popular of which are chicken wings.

Wight showcased the Trap Burger for EastIdahoNews.com, which has a half-pound, hand-seasoned and pressed patty with the restaurant’s signature wing sauce and bleu cheese crumbles. Every burger comes with hand-cut fries.

The Sandtrap carries 11 types of salads, including one that’s a twist on the Cobb salad called “Uncle Tom’s Cobb.” It has grilled chicken instead of turkey and comes with one of the hot sauces.

Wight also showcased the Asian chicken salad, a delicious salad base with sunflower seeds, cashews, baked ramen, teriyaki chicken, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers with house-made Asian vinaigrette dressing.

The restaurant also offers quesadillas, steak, salmon, pork chops, and gyros.

“We’ve got quite an array on our menu, so it seems like you can always find something you’re feeling that day,” Wight said.

Not only does the restaurant do dine-in, but it also caters events from 20 people to 2,000 people. It has a private banquet room that people can book for events.

Wight said he planned to keep the restaurant, “consistent, keep spreading the word and keep making people happy and smiling when they come in.”

The restaurant is in South Pocatello at 2720 Bannock Highway. Its website is at pokysandtrap.com.