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NEWPORT — Recipes passed down through generations. Ingredients sourced from diverse suppliers. Customers turned into a community.
This is what goes into the preparation of ethnic food, which is served at only a few local restaurants across Pend Oreille and West Bonner County. To those who work there and many of their customers, these restaurants don’t just serve food — they serve parts of their culture.
Here are the owners and managers of three, and the stories behind each of their establishments.
Thai Garden at the Ranch — Priest River
Jane Cooper wanted to feel closer to home.
Cooper, 41, moved to the U.S. from northern Thailand 20 years ago. At first, Cooper said she was excited to live here, but after one year that excitement turned into culture shock. From the climate to the food, the U.S. was nothing like her home country. So, she started looking for someplace that reminded her of it, getting a job as a server at a Pan-Asian restaurant.
“I loved to work there because I got to eat some Thai food, and I got to know Thai people,” said Cooper, whose Thai name is Somruedee.
Whenever Cooper moved, she got a job at the nearest Thai restaurant. Though she had never cooked Thai food while she lived in Thailand, Cooper soon learned from the chefs she called coworkers.
“I just love food. Especially here,” Cooper said. “We can hold on to our culture still and feel close to home.”
With family on both sides of the state line, Cooper moved to Priest River, where she opened her own Thai restaurant in March 2025: Thai Garden at the Ranch. For almost a year now, Cooper and her staff have served Thai food that is both authentic and accessible to those in the Pend Oreille, which is an hour away from other Thai restaurants in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.
While Thai Garden’s menu features popular staples like pad thai and Thai curry, the restaurant also specializes in northern Thai food, such as khao soy and beef noodle soup.
“The food in Thailand, not always the same. It’s different each part of Thailand,” Cooper said. “Real, authentic, original Thai food is just where you’re from.”
Part of Thai Garden’s staff are also Thai. Cooper’s dad, an experienced Thai chef, is the head chef, while Cooper’s mom prepares the kitchen and handcuts vegetables. The chefs make Thai food homestyle — the way they grew up with, Cooper said — blending traditional recipes with modern techniques.
Many ingredients are sourced from natural grocery stores and Asian markets in Spokane, some from as far as Seattle via special order. In the summer, certain menu items use crops from Cooper’s garden. (She named Thai Garden after her love for gardening.)
Whether it be Thai culture, food or language, Cooper invites customers to experience it all.
“You’ll feel like home when you come here,” Cooper said. “Because for me, I feel like home when I’m here.”
Mi Pueblo — Priest River, Newport, Bonners Ferry and Spirit Lake
Yoni Solis only knows restaurant work.
When he moved from El Salvador to the U.S., Solis got a job at a Mexican restaurant in Seattle. Though he was hired as a dishwasher, Solis soon learned how to cook, and worked as a chef instead.
Restaurant work was also what took him to Newport 30 years ago, where he worked alongside the owner of the previous Mexican restaurant at 311 N. Washington Ave. for nine years.
“That’s what I learned to do in Seattle, and I kind of liked it,” said Solis, 49. “Basically, that’s all I know — I learned how to work in the kitchen.”
Eventually, Solis opened his own Mexican restaurant: Mi Pueblo, one of the most popular restaurants in the area with locations in Priest River, Newport, Bonners Ferry and Spirit Lake.
The Priest River location opened first in April 2012, followed by Newport at 311 N. Washington Ave., which Solis took over with one of his brothers. Just four months later, Solis and his family opened Bonners Ferry in April 2015. Family is also behind Mi Pueblo’s newest location in Spirit Lake, opened in 2017 by another of Solis’ brothers and his wife.
“We do sacrifice our families a lot so we can be successful,” Solis said. His oldest son works at the Bonners Ferry location, his daughter at Priest River. “Because that’s how I guess the restaurant business is.”
Mi Pueblo’s menu is “pretty big,” Solis said. In addition to offering vegetarian and gluten-free options, Mi Pueblo accommodates any customer’s needs, and staff is always open to adding more menu items. Some of the most popular menu items are the burritos.
Like Thai Garden, Mi Pueblo sources most ingredients elsewhere. They have two rice suppliers in Spokane, and order tortillas weekly from a Mexican specialty factory in Seattle. The chips at Mi Pueblo are made inhouse out of these tortillas.
Despite difficulties sourcing certain ingredients like avocado, Mi Pueblo makes their Mexican food with authenticity. From traditional to modern, many recipes combine what Solis learned at the Mexican restaurants in Seattle and Newport.
“We have a little bit of everything for everybody,” Solis said. “We try to make the customer get what he wants.”
Above all, Solis thanks the community for their support of Mi Pueblo, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve always been part of the community,” Solis said. “But now we feel more bonded.”
Wetlands Restaurant — Cusick
There’s a Native principle the Kalispels always follow: feed your guests.
“You always make some type of meal, break some type of bread, whether you’re having visitors or it’s your own family,” said Samantha George, assistant general manager of Kalispel Casino in Cusick and a Tribal descendant.
That’s why the Kalispel Tribe attached Wetlands Restaurant, which specializes in both Native and non-Native food, to the casino. Both enterprises opened in April 2019.
With Northern Quest Resort and Casino in Spokane up to an hour and a half away, the Tribe established Kalispel Casino and Wetlands Restaurant to make dining and entertainment more accessible to those in the Cusick area.
“We wanted something right in the back door of where the tribe originates from,” George said. “And wanted something close to the community to be able to give back to the community.”
The fry bread at Wetlands comes from an original recipe by Tribal member Nanette “Netty” Bigsmoke, who’s credited on the menu. After she entered and won a fry bread competition hosted by the Tribe, Bigsmoke herself trained Wetlands’ chefs on how to make her fry bread. Since then, Wetlands has used Bigsmoke’s fry bread as a base for Indian tacos and as substitutes for buns in fry bread burgers. Fry bread can also be ordered as bread sticks or bites.
The patties in Wetlands’ bison burgers have been made with meat from the Tribe’s herd of buffalo, cared for by the Tribe’s Buffalo Boys and certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for the last two years. Previously, Wetlands used meat from wholesale vendors like Sysco and US Foods. The weekly to biweekly specials on Wetlands’ fresh sheets occasionally involve alternative cuts of bison meat as well.
“We have a lot of Tribal input, and they know we are Kalispel-owned,” George said. “And they know they have the right to give us all of their opinions and feelings about everything.”
All Native food on Wetlands’ menu is made old-school out of respect for the Tribal members and traditions that gave or inspired the recipes, George said. That means following traditional processes and using traditional ingredients despite supply and delivery difficulties due to Wetlands’ remoteness.
“Some of those things you just can’t change,” George said. “And you just have to keep them old school.”
Whether they’re Tribal members or not, George said Wetlands serves customers of all ages.
“We’re more community-driven and family- driven,” George said.
Golden China Restaurant in Newport and Indian Oven, soon to open in Newport, were both unavailable for comment.
