When visiting a city for the first time, it’s all about finding a landmark, an easily recognizable building or avenue to help you get around. In Boise, I toyed with the idea of the regal Capitol Building, with its striking green swirled marble interior, but quickly chose 8th Street. Because on 8th Street, you not only find the city’s heart, you also find its stomach.

A concentration of the city’s dining and nightlife, 8th Street runs from the Boise River all the way out toward the Boise Foothills, but most of the action lies between West Bannock Street and West Myrtle Street. In the summer, outdoor patios line the sidewalks, and, in the winter, the glow of warm dining rooms ensures you never have to stay long out in the cold.

If there’s one thing you can say about dining in Boise, it’s that it’s fun. The chefs have a knack for revamping familiar dishes, from fried chicken to meatballs, with something that could be called Idaho cooking wizardry: a sort of mountain love of comfort food and Northwestern love of experimentation. Of course, having the bountiful, fresh, local ingredients of the Snake River Valley doesn’t hurt.