Every Monday, someone is coming into the office at Platinum Real Estate, talking about the good food they had over the weekend. 

As our little city of trees grows by population and economy, we're getting noticed. Curbed.com just recently named Boise one of the best cities to live in the U.S. It is the relocation destination of the past 10 years, with a hip culture meshed with a gorgeous landscape and cool history.

With all that comes a diversity … a diversity in faces, art, culture and food.

As recent as 2017, Vogue magazine said Boise is on the "brink of a culinary revolution." I say we are in a culinary evolution. We are constantly seeing change and new, different cuisine. 

So this month, we're taking a look at some of Boise's unique restaurants, the dining spots with the kind of menus that make you say, "Really? In Boise?"

Yep, in Boise.

TUPELO HONEY
150 N. 8 ST, SUITE 200
RESERVATIONS OR PICKUP: (208) 803-6721

Named for a high-grade, buttery-sweet honey out of northwestern Florida and southern Georgia, Tupelo Honey's menu is a tribute to Southern food and traditions rooted in the Carolina mountains. The made-from-scratch recipes are infused with the Southern spirit, whether it's breakfast, lunch or supper. 

The restaurant is open and green, very green, adorned with artificial plants to liven up the space. The patio is a standout area, appointed with blankets and heat lamps to take off the chill of early spring or late fall dining. 

And if you're looking for comfort food, this is where you find it. You can't get much more Southern comfort than friend green tomatoes or collard greens with bacon from the small plate menu. Or how about goat cheese grits? Or fried okra?

Once you get to the entrees, you find fried chicken and waffles, a sure classic. 

What's really cool about Tupelo Honey is how they play loosey-goosey with their menu. You can build your own perfect supper plate by choosing a protein and adding two farm-fresh sides, like crispy Brussels sprouts or … mmmmmm … baked mac n cheese.

You can also get dishes done family style, perfect for four people. Choose from sweet tea roasted chicken, honey dusted fried chicken or peppercorn glazed meatloaf.

PETITE 4
4 N. LATAH
RESERVATIONS: (208) 345-1055

Parlez-vous francais? Great, come to Petite 4 with me and help me order so I can sound cool. Petite 4 brings French bistro-inspired dishes to the Boise Bench but, thankfully, the menu is--mostly--in English. 

To fully engulf yourself in the French experience, you want to start with the croquettes, a little fried burst of flavor made with mashed potatoes. The flavor comes because Petite 4 adds chorizo and manchego cheese, along with a romesco sauce.

Add the beef tartare next. The Snake River Farms tenderloin stands perfectly on its own but Petite 4 elevates it even higher with capers, cornichons and Dijon mustard, all scooped up with the tastiest little toasts.

For your main, go for moules frites meunieres--mussels dredged in flour and cooked in shallots, butter, thyme and white wine … of course, wine. It wouldn't be French cuisine if wine wasn't involved. Or the steak frites, a Snake River Farms coulotte with a heaping pile of rosemary frites, or french fries. The steak comes with a perfect char and the chefs, I promise you, will nail your temperature of choice.

Petite 4 keeps some of my Platinum crew captivated with the Friday Oyster Cart, while I'm always inclined to hit the Saturday Donuts and Coffee special. Warm ricotta donuts and a French-press coffee on a sunny summer morning? Yes, please!

It's really a full French-inspired menu, complete with cheese, charcuterie and the classic French onion soup.

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CAMEL’S CROSSING
1304 W ALTURAS ST
RESERVATIONS: (208) 385-0250

Nestled in our beautiful, historic Hyde Park, Camel's Crossing is an upscale restaurant that lets you "choose your own adventure." The farm-to-table menu changes frequently and always features innovative, locally sourced cuisine.

Enter the restaurant and our cool, hip Boise vibe hits the rewind button to the swanky 1970s. Everything is orange and dark but oddly comfortable. It's almost like going back in time to my childhood and those rare nights our parents took us out for dinner.

Owners Scott and Caitlin McCoy initially thought to make Camel's Crossing a wine bar--and it offers an impressive wine list highlighting small-scale, sustainable and family-owned wineries, according to Abby--but it's become so much more than that. 

When you sit down, your menu, filled with dishes that are billed as New American cuisine with French cooking techniques, lets your build your own four-course dinner for $49. Now you can still order each item a la carte but the real deal is in the 4 Course Dinner. Pick one from each of the four categories: Salad & Soup, Small Plates, Entrees and Dessert.

On the current winter menu, I'm going for the Winter Greens salad, dressed with a fermented honey vinaigrette; the Crispy Pork Belly, served with kimchi and fermented plums; the Snake River Farms Wagyu Steak, topped with porcini dust and served with parsnip puree and roasted root vegetables; and the Flourless Chocolate Torte. I really am a sucker for chocolate anything.

This is the kind of place where you take a date and each person picks something different for their dinner … but you share!

WYLDER
501 WEST BROAD ST 

From upscale French and French-inspired cuisine to down-home all-American pizza. Yes, yes, I know pizza was invented in Italy but I like to think we perfected it here in the good ol' United States.

I've had the top-billed Chicago deep dish pizza and New York-style pizza. In Chicago and New York. And I've feasted on the best of the fast-food pizzas but no matter how you slice it (ahem … pun intended), Wylder has the most interesting, unique pizzas of them all. 

This isn't where you go to get pepperoni, mushrooms, green olives and mozzarella cheese. This is where you go to have on your pizza fennel, ricotta cheese, honey, basil and carmelized onions.

The atmosphere is rustic. It's almost like you're in a log cabin in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado or Montana. That makes sense since owner David Rex, who moved to Boise from California by way of Arizona, spent many summers of his youth at his grandparents' cabin in the Salmon River Mountains.

Wylder Pizza, baked in a gas-burning oven rather than wood-fired, has a crisp-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside crust, the kind that makes you want more crust. All the crust.  

The Honey Badger pizza is a cult favorite. The dough, smothered in a parmesan cream white sauce, is topped with Italian sausage, ricotta, caramelized onions and spicy honey. 

Don't miss out on all the other cool stuff on the menu. Wylder salads are equally as crafty as their pizzas, as are their desserts (Butterscotch Budino? Helloooooo), and I get good reports from Platinum staff about the cocktails and selection of craft beer.

Wylder also serves Nightly Suppers, your choice of lasagna and a fried chicken plate with an organic chicken breast, apple cider slaw, and a biscuit with honey butter.

HEAD OUT AND TELL US ABOUT IT

Have you found something unique to eat in Boise?

We'd love to hear about your dining experience, whether it's one of these or another one you've chosen to enjoy. Go out and explore,  then let us know on the Platinum Idaho Facebook page how your supper went.