region
Idaho
One city block in Boise carries more Basque life than any other address in the United States — a museum in a boarding house, a bar, a market, a dining room, a club, and a festival that brings 30,000 people every five years.
Carl Burnett · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
The Basque Blockcited
Grove Street between Sixth and Capitol. A pub, a market, a dining room with a hotel over it, the Basque Center, and the museum — inside the boarding house the museum grew out of. Nowhere else in America concentrates the whole apparatus on one block.
The building the rest of this site is aboutcited
Cyrus Jacobs put up a brick house on Grove Street in 1864. It became a Basque boarding house; the Uberuaga family ran it from 1917, bought it in 1928, and kept taking boarders until 1969. Adelia Simplot bought it from them and opened the Basque Museum & Cultural Center in it in 1985 — the first museum in the country given to Basque history. Every long table in California and Nevada descends from a room like that one, and this is the room still standing.
Jaialdicited
Every five years Boise holds Jaialdi, six days, 30,000 to 50,000 people. The last one ran 29 July to 3 August 2025. The next is 2030.
And outside Boisecited
Meridian has a family restaurant founded in 1999 by the descendants of a woman born in Bizkaia in 1903. Sweet, population small, has an inn that opens Friday to Sunday. Idaho's Basque country is not only a city block.
Pictures
No machine-readable author provided. Terfili assumed (based on copyright claims) · Public domain · Commons
The rooms (7)
| Room | Town | Seating | Dinner | Picon | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ansots Basque Chorizos | Boise | counter | $9–$20 | not published | MTWTFSS |
| Bar Gernika | Boise | own table | not published | not published | MTWTFSS |
| Basquenese | Boise | counter | not published | not published | MTWTFSS |
| Leku Ona | Boise | own table | not published | not published | MTWTFSS |
| The Basque Market | Boise | counter | not published | not published | MTWTFSS |
| Epi's, a Basque Restaurant | Meridian | own table | not published | not published | MTWTFSS |
| The Triangle | Sweet | own table | not published | not published | MTWTFSS |
Kin
The Basque Blockstorythe long version of this page← the state page, with the shorter version
Basque Museum & Cultural Centerorganizationthe building the block is built around← the state it stands in
Jaialdieventwhat happens here every five years← the state that holds it
Nevadaregionthe state next door, with the same trade behind it
Californiaregionthe third state in this directoryNorth American Basque Organizationsorganization← the state with five member organizations in one city
Ansots Basque Chorizosroom← the state this counter sits inBar Gernikaroom← the state this room sits inBasqueneseroom← the state this counter sits inEpi's, a Basque Restaurantroom← the state this room sits in
Leku Onaroom← the state this room sits in
The Basque Marketroom← the state this counter sits inThe Triangleroom← the state this room sits in
Dantzaword← where American groups keep it
Pilotaword← where the American frontons areSources
- The Basque Block — The Neighborhood — The Basque Block, neighbourhood association · read 2026-09-16
- Cyrus Jacobs / Uberuaga House — Basque Museum & Cultural Center, museum · read 2026-09-16
- Boise's Jaialdi Festival set to return in 2025 — KTVB, news · read 2026-09-16
- Basque Restaurants — Idaho — Euskal Kazeta, directory · read 2026-09-16
- Basque — Visit Boise — Visit Boise, visitor bureau · read 2026-09-16
Record provenance: cited · confidence high · updated 2026-09-16