Farewell BoDo Cafe Ole

Cafe Ole in BoDo is saying goodbye after 32 years in the downtown market place.  According to The Idaho Statesman, the Casey family that founded Cafe Ole in 1981 will be closing the doors to the location when their lease is up on Friday. Current general manager Brad Casey says declining food traffic after the construction of the parking garage and the theaters leaving the BoDo building partially led to the decision.

I didn't get to eat at Cafe Ole as much as I would've liked, but it does leave behind a special memory in my heart.  After presenting my documentary at the 2010 National Conference for Undergraduate Research in Missoula, Montana, I split from the group of students I was traveling with to hop on a plane to Boise.  I didn't really know anyone here outside of talking to Keke, Lucky and Vader on the phone a couple of times, so to say I was nervous was an understatement.

My short trip was part job interview, part seeing what Live for 175 was about.  I got to be here for the last day of Keke's final day of staying awake for eight days straight.  That's right, the first time I actually met Keke he was hallucinating that the Britney Spears banner in the studio was actually alive.  In fact, he was so tired that Lucky had to make a big deal out of the fact that he'd stayed awake for eight days when 5 PM rolled around.  But did Keke want to go home and nap after that? No.

All he wanted to do was go grab Mexican food at the BoDo Cafe Ole.  So here I am sitting with him, a handful of our part-time techs and other people I don't really know.  It was totally awkward for me, but I do remember at one point we had to tell him to put down the fork and knife he was holding up since he started to nod off a bit during dinner.

That dinner at Cafe Ole after Live fore 175 was one of my earliest memories of 103.5 (well...at that time 103.3) KISS FM so I'm sad to see the restaurant go!

If you want to go grab one last meal, margarita or grab your name from the "eating the worm" plaque at the bar you have until this Friday, February 28th to do so!